News
It was nice to see so many people, including some who follow this page that I have never met before! The did not cooperate with the festival on Saturday but Sunday sure made up for it. A LOT of my pieces when home and to places as far away as Italy, Spain and the UK!
Now I look toward Fall and HALLOWEEN! Look at the gallery to see some new spooky things in the works!
Well,it has been a LONG and VERY hot and humid summer here in Chicagoland. I've been building up inventory for the Glenwood Arts Festival, which takes place right outside our art studio building. There are 150 artists booths and 2 bandstands. The great thing about this festival, besides the fact that its one of the cities largest arts festivals, is that its smack in the middle of where are studio building is so we open up the entire building and instead of having to be in a booth and cart all my pottery to it, I just open up the studio and people come in and tour my studio and can buy right off the shelves. Its a win win! Those of you that are local, I hope to see you this weekend! Sat and Sun, 11 to 9 at the intersection or Morse & Glenwood, right at the Morse red line stop1
After taking most of March away from the studio to charge up the batteries I've been back at it. We are doing a studio opening next month so I am working away at making new mugs, espresso cups, platters, vases and my new sets of 3 nexting mixing/serving bowls. I'll also have terracotta available as well! I'll post pics on the site here of whats done so far. Hope everyone is enjoying Spring!
I've got the first terracotta pieces fired for Spring. They came out great! 2 platters for the kitchen and the rest are for your favorite plants/herbs. I'll post pics in the pics section of the site.
I got a lot of things accomplished this weekend. The new glaze shelving unit is done, in place and filled. The new art show folding shelving units will be done this week and ready for Spring art shows. YAY! I got a lot of things made this weekend as I build up inventory for the shows that are right around the corner. Also, after doing a lot of research and talking with fellow potters, I have decided to raise my wheel up so I can start using it standing up instead of sitting down. I was surprised to find that most of the potters I asked are standing and not sitting. Thats very interesting, since all art schools seem to have the wheels in the sitting position. Raising my wheel will help the old back big time and I hear you have much better control over the clay when standing. Since my wheel is 26 years old, I will need to build something to set it on because she is a big old girl and there are no extension legs for her. I'm hoping the new woodworking guys in the studio next door can come to the rescue!
Yesterday was a productive day but the necessity type of productive. I went out and got a new air compressor for the studio and went out to the burbs to get some supplies for the studio. I got the studio all cleaned up and some pieces that were drying all cleaned up. Today was a great productive day with getting a lot made. I've got a new "wavy bowl" design that I have fallen in love with. Its center is much deeper than my other pieces and I think that they will be a hit. They will be great for candy or potpourri or just as an art piece on the coffee table. I've got 2 done this weekend as well as 4 new design mugs and 4 of the new design plates. These are close in size to my other mugs but they are smooth instead of the throw lines in them. I also started on some new hand built trays. I've got 3 of them done. 1 has handles and 2 do not. I'll have to decide after they are glazed which I like better. I HATE doing handles. LOL You can't get away from it though because as a potter you will sell more mugs than anything else and those all need a handle. :) I got the kiln loaded with the stuff I made from last weekend and thats firing tonight. Check out the "My Pottery" page to see all the pics. Now its time to relax for the rest of the night because tomorrow is a whole new day!
I tried some new glaze combo's that I am sorry to say were not to my liking so much, but that is why we experiment. Some people will love them though and thats always great. I'll continue experimenting with the glazes and see what I come up with. :)
I have a new serving/mixing bowl design I did this past week and I love how it came out. I did a second one yesterday that is drying under plastic. I also have a new plate set design I am working on and made 4 plates yesterday. Those are drying and I will need to think about some glaze designs for them by next week. As always, thanks for visiting my site!
Friday is here which means I will be back in the studio tonight and Sat and Sun. We are supposed to get very cold this weekend with wind chills into the -10 to -20 degree range, so it will be a great time to chill in my studio with my pug and work on my projects! The pieces I made last week can come out from under the plastic tonight and hopefully will be dry enough on Sunday to run the kiln Sunday night. I've finished a commissioned piece that needs to be fired then glazed and will be making some more serving items. I'm also hoping to get my new template I made last week finished so I can use it and see how that goes!
I've been working on a lot of low fire recently and this week I have been finishing that up so I can transition back into the mid fire range for this weekend. I sold all of the espresso cups and serving bowls/platters during the studio opening on December 12th. I've got more espresso cups made and on the etsy store for sale and this weekend I will be back on the wheel and slab roller making new serving bowls, platters and some decorative plate/bowls for that special place in your home that needs some new art! We are supposed to have a couple of rainy days here in Chicago and that always gets me going in the studio! I'll be trying some new mid range glaze combinations on these pieces. I'll also be coming up with a new plate design soon!
I finally got some new things completed and up on the Etsy site. I ran out of the espresso and coffee mugs after my studio opening on December 12, but I have some done now and the espresso cups are up on Etsy and the mugs are going up today. You can click on the shop button on this site and it will bring you directly to the Etsy store. Thanks!
