All Hands on Deck

I have the little elf working overtime to get ready for the Holiday Sale.  Here is my assistant Jocelyn smoothing the edges of new tiles that I have made… and yes that is a cast on her thumb!

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Getting Carried Away

Ok so last week I got a little carried away making salt cellars.  I made 40… that means 40 bottoms, 45 tops… always make extra tops.  So that is 85 pieces in one day.  I figured they’re small, so no problem… but it’s the following days that I wish I didn’t make that many!  The next couple of days was spent trimming all of them, and throwing a little knob on each top.  Whew, next time I’m on a roll and really in the groove of throwing I’m going to think twice about making that many at once!

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Tall Pitchers in Process

Terri and I spent our Sunday in Northampton at the Smith College greenhouses smelling all the beautiful flowers while standing among the palms and banana trees in the 80 degree sunny shelter.  The three feet of snow melted away for just a little while. 

I’m dreaming of a hot summer day, and a pitcher of lemonade.  I guess that’s where these are coming from…  some tall pitchers in the works… these weigh 3.5 or 4 lbs, and measure 11 to 12″, they will end up being about 10 or 11″ after the glaze fire. 

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Becoming a Teapot: Kiln Opening

Wooo-hooo!  … a nice kiln firing with teapots.  Here are the teapots glazed, and ready for the firing… and 32 hours later, barely cool enough to take out of the kiln!

Yes, these will be available at this weekend’s Holiday Open Studio Sale!

 

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Becoming a Teapot: Part 2

Another little slideshow… this week it’s glazing . 

 After the bisque firing, the teapots are ready for decorating and glazing.  Here is a little taste of the studio on a glazing day.  

Can’t imagine why a potter’s hands are so tired! 

Coming soon… some finished teapots, ready for the Holiday Sale this weekend, Dec, 3rd, 4th, and 5th!

 

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Becoming a Teapot

You really do have to put your heart and soul into the making of a teapot.  It is only when you become a student of pottery that you understand all the time, effort, experience, artistry, and love of clay that it takes to make a teapot.

This past week in the studio was teapot making time!  Here is a little slide show to give you an idea about teapot parts.  The last photo includes a finished mug along side a teapot drying, showing what glaze the teapot will have.

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Handles

I’m making a new little baking dish with handles… it would make a great brie baker.  Also making an old favorite… long serving trays with handles, and of course mugs!  Here are some pics of them drying.  I’ll hopefully have them glazed in two weeks.

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Making and Marketing… Etsy to Urns

So my etsy shop is open, with just eight things so far, hopefully more to come this week.  I’m overwhelmed.  You start one new thing and your focus goes totally there…  everything else drops off.  It happened when I started blogging, then facebook, now etsy.  Etsy is a good thing, but takes so much time to photograph everything well, and to network well.  And it’s only going to be a good thing if you do all these things well.  I’m finding it to be like all other marketing… it all takes time… time that I never seem to have enough of!

On top of trying to get the etsy shop started last week, the making of pottery couldn’t stop.  I shipped out four cremation urns in two days, that rarely happens, and it made me realize how low my stock of urns is.  So I made quite a few urns last week, some are quite large… it is physically very tiring.  Then there is the whole emotional aspect of making urns, I will have another whole post on that soon.

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Tall Forms

I have been working on some of my tallest forms the past week.  I usually use my stand up potters wheel for all my work, but as I was throwing I was having a difficult time pulling the clay up.  So I tried the same amount of clay (9 lbs)at the sit down wheel and voila… it was so much easier!

These forms are my most detailed urn that I make…there are just so many stages to completion.  Here they are drying, waiting for the next step where I apply the shellac or wax resist for the pattern.  The large forms are 9 lbs and the little cute ones are 3/4 lb.  I will post  more photo’s as they progress.

 

Looks like they had babies!

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Making a Lid for a Cheese Dish… a Slideshow

It’s the teacher in me… just thought you might like to see how a lid for a cheese dish is trimmed and finshed, with a knob.

 

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The finished piece.

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