Jen Mecca's Pottery Blog

Thought about Openings - (chime in if you have a view on the subject.)

2012-02-13T13:31:00.005-05:00

Yep, I had an opening last Thursday night.......
( awkward silence)
I've been trying to wrap my head around how I feel about Openings and really what to say about them. My children use to have this book in which you could change the events in the book depending on which way you held the book ( upside down, right side up). I sort of thought that I could approach my blog post about this opening that way. You know the upbeat side to the evening and the real feelings I have about these types of events.

So here I am, ready to post my thoughts on last Thursday evening along with really how I feel about these types of evenings I've attended over the last few years.....
Are you ready? This could get ugly......

(Jenni Brant tea bowls below, above photo is the hall wall in which some pieces were nicely displayed in glass blocks and on shelves. Here is Joey enjoying a free beer.)
I don't look forward to my own openings. I look forward to the making of my work, seeing it displayed and selling it but....I don't like attending places with folks I don't know and being expected to mingle. I was thinking last week that this same feeling would come up at High School dances. I'd go and than think ...why did I go? If I wasn't able to be like glue to one friend, I'd go hide for a few minutes in the bathroom so I didn't have to socialize. Its sort of comical in a way that I've had jobs in which I do have to talk to people - selling work, being a gallery manager, teaching. My husband and I are like two peas in a pod at an Opening. We are excited to have an adult night on our own but basically we are two introverts who freeze up once we are forced into a crowd of people.

I'm sure there are so many of you out there that will say how important it is to talk to people at these events and how much you love to go to them. Oh...if only I could relate.

( There are new Flower-balls. Basically vases with various openings to display a few flowers)

I'm also someone who would like for my friends to attend but I don't expect them to. I figure they have their own stuff to do and if they want to buy my work , they basically can just call me or come to a sale. I don't really expect other potters to come to my openings either. Being that I'm always so busy I barely have time to attend others folks openings so why should it be reciprocated. I do like going to other people openings because the pressure is off and you don't get that sinking feeling if crowds of folks are not talking to you about your work. I'm sure once our kids are grown and gone, we'll be sipping wine and enjoying these evenings like most artists do.

For me, being at a opening really doesn't give me the opportunity to push my work. Are people really there to buy or just look? When I'm at a show, standing in my booth, that is when I try and say "Hello, I'm Jen, if I can tell you about my work, just let me know". At an opening there is no way I'm walking up to a stranger to say " Hey! That's my work...want to know about it?!" I didn't even get a name tag Thursday evening so I was basically just another person off the street viewing art and sipping wine.

(flower vases by Jenni Brant)

To compound last Thursdays stressful feelings of being an introvert, we had a child who was sick. We also have one child who suffers from separation anxiety and it was a school night so those factors always play into any outside social event we plan. Sometimes it just easier to stay at home!! But...I had to go because it was my show and the other potter was from the Nebraska plus the gallery showing my work is heavily linked to the University I teach for. We had planned to have a fun-loving High School girl come watch the kids for us which everyone was excited about but instead with a sick child we recruited my Dad to help us out. What does this mean you ask? Well, it means we had to bath, feed, get homework done and find a GOOD movie for everyone to watch before Grandpa showed up. An exhausting effort! It also meant we needed to drive 40 minutes both ways , only stay 30 minutes to get back and put everyone to bed. OK folks..does this sound worth the effort to you? ( I kept upbeat during these obligation so my handsome date wouldn't bug out on me...)

I have to say we cleaned up pretty nice, dashed out the door and showed up to a pretty good crowd of folks and once again the two of us felt like deer in headlights. I went over and told the gallery owner I was there and just basically stood around, drank a beer, saw a few stickers and headed out the door with one final sentence for my husband......
(below...butter dish with new knobs on the top and a large pitcher)

" Sometimes you just got to do what you got to do"

Monkeys, demo's and shows

2012-02-08T12:34:00.008-05:00

So...I'm sure everyone is wondering why I have an image of a monkey above.

Well, once again I have felt the push and pull of either falling behind the pack or moving myself forward in the cyber age. Last week I attempted to put up my own email/newsletter mail out through a site called " Mail Chimp". Sadly I must report that I gave up! After thinking I could do it and than being interrupted to many times during the process or just not having the patience to really read the directions and figure it out....I gave up!

I even begged and pleaded with my husband to help me only to be lectured on why I should know how to do this sort of stuff by now OR why didn't I learn basis computer 101 back in college.

( Of course this lecture was followed by many eye rolls.)

But during the entire conversation of trying to defend my right brain mentality, I started to realize how much of a bias I have towards left brain people. ( Like my husband for example.....) Now I "say" this half joking so I hope no one sends me bitter responses about the ventures of being left brain. I just want to cleanse my thoughts and admit my prejudices towards this group of folks! When you are right brained, folks tend to put you in the category as " disorganized, flighty, ditsy, scattered brain.....ect." You know you've heard these before and I venture to go further and say that some of you have even USED these terms from time to time. Yep...I know you left brainers are out there reading this!

WELL can I just state for the record that those of us who hate overly organized people, are no good at math and rather have been in the art studio creating rather than sitting in a computer lab learning how to design a website have terms that describe you all as well! I just don't think we ever get a chance to use these terms because we are so busy trying to defend ourselves or change who we are by reading books on "how to be more organized" or " basic computer 101". Blah, Blah, Blah..and the list goes on. You never hear and real creative person criticize someone who's not as unique by saying" You need creativity 101" or " Why don't you take a class in relaxing and enjoying life instead of organizing stuff all the time!" Yep, I'm here as the spokes person for this group. Don't get me wrong, I spend a lot of time trying to keep my family on a schedule and my kids from not losing everything that comes home. But when I run into, lets just say Math teachers how expect everyone to color coat all assignments, dot every number and turn in everything on time,well...naturally I want to dump a can paint on them!

But enough about that, hopefully this month I'll either bribe my husband into getting my account up or I'll just put it off a bit more and continue to just create in my studio.

POTTERY NEWS THIS MONTH ( so far..)

Peter Beasecker was our visiting artist at Winthrop this week. He was great! He is now the head of the ceramic department at Syracuse and I'm sure the program is going to take off. What a nice day I had listening to him and watching him make pots.

Just look at these great porcelain cups below!!

I have my opening with Jenni Brant this week. Sadly the gallery that I'm showing my work for is closing after this show. They have been open for 7 years and I guess the town they are in just can not support this type of gallery. All in all I'm honored to have a show there and hope some folks will come out to see my new work. I have worked on a few new forms but as you read below....still have not been able to photograph them correctly. Maybe next month I'll jump on that horse again as well.

Peter Beasecker http://vpa.syr.edu/directory/peter-beasecker

Jenni Brant http://www.jennibrantceramics.com/

The discombobulation of it all.....

2012-01-30T12:21:00.005-05:00

I'm sure everyone is so proud of me for looking up that enormous word and getting it right!!

The word DISCOMBOBULATED is used so much in my house. It just fits so many scenario's that we deal with on a daily basis. Its fits so many of my studio situations that I think I may need to commission a sign to hang outside my new studio building with colorful letters to spell out the word! Maybe it should say.........

" Warning....Discombobulated Potter on board"

In my studio I'm still living out of boxes and bins. I was impressed that my studio was built so quickly that in the Fall I thought for sure I'd be moved in over Christmas break. This thought and optimism made me work with the bare-bones all Fall. I really don't use that many tools in my studio and now I've even scaled back more since I can't find everything anyways. This pen that is in the photo above was a real find a few weeks ago because I only like to use a certain sort of tip for cleaning up my lines and edges around the springs on my pots. I think my family even heard the giggly laughter from the garage when I found this.

These last few weeks I've been plugging along on various things. At the moment I'm getting ready to glaze another kiln load for my show at Gallery UP next week. My newest "Discombobulated" issue is my light box. I really need some photo's taken of work for various shows and galleries but my paper background is no where to be found! Each day I go out to my garage in search of it, with no luck. If only Kinko's or Office Max offered craftpeople a little pop-up light box area to run over and snap a few quick images! Yet again, only in my pretend world........

So, I'll continue to look today in my discombobulated garage and maybe fate will shine down on me and turn up the lost gradated photo paper. Until than, as they say I'm just plain out of luck!

Flora - Gallery UP

2012-01-13T22:39:00.003-05:00

FLORA

I got a nice email from the folks at Gallery Up the other day. They did a nice write about the show I'll be participating in with Jenni Brant. They even have an interactive blog where they asked up questions about our work and you can go in and read our responses. This gallery is right in the heart of downtown Rock Hill and although I travel there two days a week to teach at Winthrop, I sadly have to admit I don't get to any of their openings. I do however go on their site and "stalk" to see what shows they have coming up!

If you get a chance, click here click on the name above and take a tour around their site and check out a Gallery blog!

Hanging out ...just thinking.

2012-01-10T08:22:00.004-05:00

Guess I should not really admit it but I'm just sitting here near the fire with a cup of coffee this morning trying to get up and going. There is a space in the corner of my mind that keep telling me over and over again that if I do something 17 times in a row, it will become a new habit.

On Tuesday and Thursday this Fall my usual routine was getting up at 6:30, taking the kids to school and coming home and falling back into bed until 9 or so. If you use to read my blog you'd know that I work very late into the evening and last Fall, this was true again. I also teach every Tuesday and Thursdays and leave the house at 11am so .....as you see, I didn't have a whole lot of time to work during the day because I was sleeping.

So, my new routine this Spring is go to bed at 10 and not work in my studio in the evening. If I get a good cup of coffee these mornings, wake up and do some studio work before heading off to spend the afternoon with my pottery students, I'll feel pretty good about myself! Evening these days with a child in middle school has proved to be a bit nuts. My son has homework from the time he gets home until about 9pm and with the twins in toe, we are pretty busy in the evenings keeping everyone organized, on task and just getting things done . By the time I get out to work in my studio...my mind is pretty much shot.

Life is such a new journey ever year in the world of parenthood. Its always constantly changing and I've learned to be like Stretch Armstrong in the flexibility department. I also enjoy living in my own little reality of what I can and can't do the older I get. Push, push, push...but I've learned since our stresses of last year to slow it down a bit. Our move was such a good one and every day when I hop into our car and it only takes 4 minute to successfully get our kids school, I relies how incredibly lucky we were to sell our home. I can't believe I use to commute 1/2 each way every day with our children. I'm sure once my new studio is complete I'll be back to a few evenings and flopping back into bed for a 1/2 snooze. But for right now..I'll wake up with a nice cup on Joe in a variety of great pottery mugs and get myself out to work. ( This morning I have a Matt Jones cup in my hand!)

As always Calvin, one of my alter ego's, says it the best!

I have a couple of neat shows on the horizon!

2012-01-05T21:28:00.004-05:00

I enjoy booking shows years advance because it gives me something to kick my "you know what" in gear!

Honestly gallery shows make me want to come up with new items and ideas and hopefully in the next few weeks that is what I'll be doing.

Here are some folks I'll be showing with in the next few months.

Jenni Brant of Lincoln Nebraska will be showing with me at Gallery UP in Rock Hill, SC. Look at all that slip trailing she does!

I was not familiar with Jenni's work but I understand she was in Ceramics Month in 2008 for an Emerging Artist write up. Its always fun to see and learn of new potters - isn't it?!

This show is right around the corner in February so just today I finally got going on throwing again. GULP!

In April I'll have some new pieces at Lark and Key with a painter by the name of Honora Jacob. She is from Austin Texas and I just love her work.

Look at all those great oranges she does along with my signature colors of aqua and green and touch of red! I've just started adding some orange lines to my pieces so this is the perfect venue to do more with that new stain.

When you get a chance look over my show list for 2012. I'll slowly keep adding things as they come in for the year.

Happy first week of January to everyone!

ITS WORKING...First post of 2012 and its working!!

2012-01-01T12:59:00.007-05:00

Guess all my blog needed was a new calendar year!!

Imagine the shock today when I attempted to re-do my entire blog today!

Around September after our big move I attempted to get on my blog a number of times and could not post a thing. You'll see by my last entry ( which I just uploaded) that September was my last post. For some reason Blogger locked me out and no matter who I asked, how many emails I sent I could not post a thing. Low and behold today I sat down to work on my website and just logged into my blogger account and finally posted the September "news"! I'm so blown over I really don't know what to say or where to start with my blog since I've been gone for so long!

So much to say and not enough time to write so I'll just highlight the Fall thus far......

We love our new house and so happy we moved!

Clayton and I are here enjoying our new kitchen and all the great sunlight we get now. Old houses have alot of character but lets face it, a new house is easier to clean and not so dark. ( Of course Clayton misses all the mice we had at the old house!)

For Christmas I got insulation for my studio.

Work on my studio is slow but I know we'll keep plugging along on moving me in there. The electric is done and the kiln is hooked up but the floor coating, walls and added "stuff" will still take awhile to get done. Time and money is always an issue.

I've been in a few shows...

Since we moved to be closer to school for the kids, I took on another part-time teaching job. I am currently teaching at Winthrop to afternoons a week and still teaching my online art history courses as well. I also agreed to help out at the kids school teaching pre-school art two morning a week. It has been a nice challenge for me and the kids are so good! My children love having me at school and coming up with projects for "little minds" has been good for me. Of course with no studio and new adventures, my production has been cut down a bit and I didn't apply to as many shows. But...I did curate a show with Amy Sanders at Lark and Key gallery in Charlotte. It was a dinnerware show geared to pottery Mom's. Here is my set below!

Here is my booth at the Carolina Designer Craftsmen Guild show. Fellow blogger Tracey Broom got into the guild this year. I was on the jury and I'd like to think I helped out with that!

Helping Mom...

The older the kids get, the more they help out with with my pottery business. Here are the girls helping stamp what seems like a million postcards for the 4th Annual Hen House Show. I'm so thankful that we made the move to North Carolina and put the girls back into such a good school. They both repeated 2nd grade this year and Mckenna is getting extra help for her dyslexia and other issues. Big Brother started middle school this year and continues to work super hard to keep his grades up and stuff his brain full of facts and figures. What a change from last years adventures in schooling!

Still the multi-tasking Mom...

So while my new studio is still being built, I stay in flux working from our garage and toting pots down slippery steps, through the back yard to my kiln. The garage door stays open on warm days so I can watch the kids ride bikes and play with various children in our new neighborhood. Some days when the garage door is shut, the kitchen door remains cracked so I know whats going on in the house.

I have to admit, I do wonder what life with be like with my entire studio in one location and not attached to the house anymore. I have a few great windows for looking out into our wooded yard but in the back of mind I wonder if I might need an intercom system so I can be like "Big Brother" keeping in every now and then to see whats going on in the house. Seems like I'm creating a new chapter in my "Mud Mama" book!

Happy New Year Folks!

We are all looking forward to new year. Here's to all the hardworking craftsmen, parents and fellow friends out in Cyber Land. Hopefully I'll be able to get back into the blogging world in 2012!

The Flexibility of it all...

2011-09-19T14:00:00.010-04:00

...and right before my eye's, I have a studio!

We moved into our new home around the end of August and Joey and I quickly made the decision that I could not pot in the new garage. I didn't trust myself with the clean up or having the kiln in there so we quickly got into the car that weekend while the house was still overtaken with boxes, and we ordered a barn.

It only took a week to get the building permit and figure out how big it needed to be. ( This is 16X16 with a concrete pad off the back for my kilns.) The workman showed up yesterday at 8am, completed it a 8pm and constructed the entire building on site. It was pretty amazing to watch.

So now we have the electrical, water, dry all, caulking, paintings and all the other stuff that needs to be done but I still can not believe me eyes that it is there and its my own space. How did that happen???

ON to what else has been going on.......

Last weekend the girls and I went to the NC Potters show/sale at the Mint Museum of art. In all the years its been there, I have never had a chance to attend. There are alot of great potters that do that show and hopefully now the I live in NC, maybe one day I'll get asked to do it as well.

Here are the twins standing in this huge bamboo maze built near the Mint on the green. It was sort of hot day so I had to do the quick pottery tour and I also managed to buy and lovely Shino mug from Bruce Gholdson. Years ago when I worked at Cedar Creek I use to drull over his Shino pieces but never had the money to buy any. Fifteen years later, he's making some shino pieces again so I grab a mug!

Next weekend the Thrown Together Crew will have our annual Fall Sale. My boss, Jim Connell and his wife Paula Smith will be out quests along with a former college from Clayworks - Allyssa Woods. I won't have a lot of pots for sale but some. I'm allowing myself a little "slack" in that departments since I spent the summer packing and moving. For more information on the sale you can check out our page on Facebook.

I have thrown a few pieces in the garage. ( See how clean it is...!)

Last weekend I left the door open so I could keep on eye on the kids riding around the neighborhood. I think many of our new neighbors wondered what I was doing in here!Of course Joey had to come out with the camera and take some photo's of me "instructing" the kids on where they were going and typical Mom questions.. ( looks like I'm yelling something here...) giggle

You all have a great September and I'll try to post more photo's of my studio during the process of getting it up and going. Very exciting times here at the Jen Mecca studio!

Celebrations of life, work, new adventures and family

2011-08-01T17:25:00.008-04:00

Summer is almost done folks, can you believe it?! This is been my summer of re-grouping, enjoying family time and moving on to new adventures.

We just got back from our summer vacation up in Central NY. This year we had a special occasion to celebrate which was my parents 50th wedding anniversary ( aren't they cute below..) So for all of us married folks out there who are still counting the years, my parents give hope to the fact that you can make it work through the good and bad. We had a small celebration dinner for them in a town which is my families favorites on earth...Skaneateles NY. If you ever get near Syracuse , you have to go!

We got to spend an entire week up near Ithaca. How many of your bloggers out there know this guy? Yep, the one and only Gary Rith was on our " stopping" list this trip. He was great with the kids and he made some custom mugs for my girls. We fell in love with his animals needless to say....

We spent alot of time hiking several gorges and waterfalls. That is one of the things Central NewYork is known for. Here a shot from Watkins Glen State Park.

We bunked at a lake house where I spent most of my summer with a childhood friend. It was bitter sweet going back because her lake house is no longer in use by her family. The kids swam morning, noon and night while Joey and I enjoyed NY state wine, relaxation and the cool breeze that came off the lake. We also had a family of ducks that came to visit every morning.

We did sell our old house in York Sc and as they use to say on the show "The Jefferson's", we're moving on up! In the next few weeks we'll be moving into the yellow house in the photo below. We were very lucky with the housing market and found a house near the kids school that met all our "room" requirement. Who ever it was that was upset with the fact I was home schooling can rest assured that our children will be going back to good school , (that we will be paying for..) and Mckenna will be able to get all the reading help she needs. She has had an excellent summer and I don't regret for a minute taking her out of school and giving her all the encouragement and help I could. I think teachers these days just have to many kids and not enough time to really focus on a child who is crying out for help. Teaching them is only half of what teachers SHOULD be doing. Nurturing, encouraging and knowing each child is that other half... ( obviously its a topic that still "stings" a bit for me!)

Incidentally, that garage on the side of the house will be my new studio. It has windows and a cooling system believe it out not so until we can scrimp and save to build me something...this will be my new pottery home. My salt kiln will also be getting a new home in Concord NC. "She" will be rebuilt at Allison McGowen's house and we plan on giving workshops together out at her place so....that was a big relief for me! Joey and I looked and looked for a house out in the country but just could not find what we needed so you make do with what you can!

The kids enjoyed a lot of creative camps this year. Here the girls learned to make fashions out of recycled material.....it was a hoot!

And finally, yes....pots have been made in my studio. I just updated my show listings so far for the year so when you get a chance, go to my side bar and see where I will be this Fall. In two weeks, I'm back up to Blowing Rock and looking forward to it!

Take care everyone! Jen

Stuck In Reverse......

2011-06-24T23:06:00.013-04:00

I was out taking one of my power walks this evening; one of the best ways I know to clear my head, get some energy, enlighten the endorphins and just breath. The headphones go on to drown out all the noise in the world but seeing what the rest of the world is up to while my brain is focused on my own little world is comforting.

While walking this evening the song called " FIX YOU" by Coldplay came on and my brain quickly focused in on the lyrics and one little person in my life popped into my head. Weeks go by and things come up in my studio or life and I think to myself " I need to go blog about this".

Some of us use our blogs to share information, some of of us use it to purge our thoughts and of course I've talked about this before going back and forth with what I myself use this forum for. The moment passes by once the thought enters my head and I switch gears to something else and the thoughts and words that I want to get down are lost. Many times when I walk. I'm writing in my head. Some days this even happens while I'm throwing on my wheel and I think to myself how great it would be if I had one of those little hand-held tape recorders you to see detectives use in spy films. So in my mind, my blog has been going on. I just haven't shared it with anyone. But tonight, this evening after everyone is fast asleep and I have finished up some mugs, I decided to sit down and share.

Last time I left off with my blog I talked alittle bit about giving up writing for other more important things - like my family. Slowly, every since last year, 2010, I've had little person in the house that needed a lot of attention and some "Fixing" I guess we could say. I've often talked about all my reading issues as a kid and this year, after watching one of daughters slowly melt down while attending a new school we found out that she too has some pretty complicated learning issues and was really in need of more of my attention. I'll say it once again, I have learned so much about myself from my children and this experience has paralleled my own experiences at her age. The one who tends to push my buttons the most turns out to be the most like me and everything in my world has just flip flopped. Priorities that use to be high on my list are at the bottom.

I ended up taking both our girls out of school and decided to home school them for the remainder of the school year. I felt like I owed my twins a little "re-wind" so to speak for all the times I had left at night to teach a class or relied on Dad to take care of things. Dads are great but sometimes, if there is a Mom in the picture...kids just need Mom. When I started to just have the girls with me 247 at home, I saw myself at that age and what I had gone through and just decided to slow down with studio work and enjoy "fixing" my little person who has just needed someone to understand why her brain doesn't work like the rest of her classmates, siblings and friends.

I've gone through so many phases of how to deal with being Dyslexic and having ADHD all my life. All the feelings of being dumb as a kid, which my daughter is going through at the moment, insecurity through out High School, to trying to explain my special needs in college to professors and even laughing it off when boyfriends or friends teased me about my spelling and disorganization. I recently read a great article by Trudi Styler ( Stings wife) about living with ADHD and how hard it is on adult relationships. I've joined an organization for Dyslexics in which I get publication via the web with all sorts of information that I never knew before. Now that I am raising a child who reminds me of all the struggles, tutors and tests I endured as a child, it brings up so many feelings. All a mother wants to do is protect her young. A mother will drop everything to "Fix" her child that is hurting. Back in my head the anger of years of my own struggles and insecurities about succeeding just come to the surface ever time I try to teach my 8 year old how to write, spell the simplest of words, and make her feel good about herself. I get angry now sometimes at people who don't understand what it like to have dyslexia and I realise my child will go through the same teasing as I did and still do. People don't understand that most children with dylexsia and ADHD have very high IQ in the gifted range. They understand that they don't learn like everyone else and its frustrating.

Like myself, this child of ours can draw and create and sing like none of our other children can. She'll be fine, with extra help and will have to work as hard as I do to get ahead. My work ethic does not come from a strong moral background. It comes from years of being told I could not do something and this experience as a parent of a child with the same struggles as myself, has been my "Ah-ha" moment. (As Oprah would say.)

Shows, orders and huge blocks of time have come and gone this year in my studio. The blog and the website have cobwebs.

I've managed to keep up with the sales/shows that really matter to me and I would hate to loose. The group of potters that support me keep me going. My shelves remain bare after a sales because I never have time for extra inventory, but that's Ok with me.

At the moment all the rushing to keep up doesn't matter as much to me. All I want to do is "Fix" my little mini-me and help her feel better about herself and when I start seeing some confidence and acceptance for who she is and how she'll have to work that much harder than the other children, than I'll feel Ok. At that time, whenever that is, I'll get back to me and really pushing my clay career.

On a side note, our kids will all be back attending the private school they went to before this year and Joey and I will go back to trying to figure out how to pay for it. Nothing is more important these days than having your kids get a good education and being in a safe and supportive enviroment. I've taken on yet another teaching job at this school, along with my other two. I'll be working with the 3 and 4 year old in the pre-school program teaching art. I'm looking forward to teaching the little folks in the morning and than rushing over to teach my 20 year old at Winthrop in the afternoon. Once again, we sacrifice for our kids. Teaching at the kids school helps with tuition and also will be a great way for my little girls to see me and for my "mini-me" to feel secure knowing I'm around the corner 2 days a week.

Joey and I also put our house on the market to move closer to our kids school. I'm happy to report our house sold in one week and now we are feverishly looking for a house, over the boarder in North Carolina that also has a studio space for me. I think I deserve to get off the back porch and have my own building to work in. If we can swing North Carolina taxes, I will finally be a North Carolina potter, which has more opportunities than being a South Carolina potter.
So, that's where I have been. The struggles and my own "ah-ha" moment this year. I am still making pots but instead of rushing around to try and make deadlines, I'm rushing to go take a walk with the girls, or help with reading and writing or just being there one on one to listen to worries, joys and fears from some very deserving little people that mean the world to me.

Here's a little Coldplay for your enjoyment. I love this video because its just the lyrics...which of course I think are great. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY9b6jgbNyc

Mother day is a good time to tell my story.

2011-03-16T10:13:00.011-04:00

"Missing in Action Can be a Hard Thing"

I have alot of folks tell me they read my blog and lately ask what's going on with my blog. I've wondered this alot lately myself but rather put if off in the back of that place we all call " I'll get to it soon".

The beginning of September when my shelves were bare and people asked me " So, what are you working on"? Or "Do you have any...." I'm sure the look of my eye's turned up towards the right side of brain, the wrinkled brow of my forehead and the " Welllllllllll"......that came out of my mouth was an indication that I was at a stand still. People tend to loose interests after awhile and move on to other, more exciting blogs and pots and this is understandable. I tend to sit back and think about categories people fall into and at times wish to join the pack or envy some groups. Potters fall into these group as well even though we all strive to be individualists. Lessons we thought we learned in High School about popularity contests don't stop in adulthood like we think they should, they carry on I think well into old age.

As you know today is Mothers day so I thought it was a good day to get back on board and do a little post. It actually may not be that little now that I think about and may take a few instalments or maybe I can make it a series like the Harry Potter books my son was obsessed with last year. ( Get it...Harry POTTER?!) Ok, bad joke..

So my blog adventure in 2010 took me from posting at least once a week to signing off in October. Once Christmas rolled around I thought I could take it back on and perhaps give it a new look - less Mud Mama stuff and more just pottery talk. A real serious pottery blog like many of my fellow bloggers male and female alike tend to have. I sort of was feeling like I had a whine about every single obstacle I had run across with trying to be a Mom and potter at the same time. I even think some other potter had a rant on the web about how potters were talking far to much about personal matters and less about the meaty topics like - glaze calculation, clay mixing, studio practices, pricing ect. After the North Carolina Clay conference in March of 2010, I sat in a discussion given by Ayumi Horie about good pottery blogging and felt myself sort of slink down in my chair because I realised my blog was less about potting and more about trying to juggle a lot of things. Like all working parents/professionals, I wanted to be taken seriously, so I had in my head that I would only blog about pots and the making of pots. Silly me!

"Hiding Out in my Studio"

So many things over the years that I've talked about wanting to make in my studio. Some get done, others do not due to time or sheer frustration. Truth be told I think I tried more new things back when Quaid was a baby because honestly I had more time. As the twins grew, my time seemed compressed and the wheels didn't turn as much. Alot got said about wanting to "try" stuff but as shows grew near and the twins went through developmental stages, well...lets face it, it was easy for me to crank out a pie plate rather than a new teapots design for an upcoming Spring show. When I think back over the last 10 years of making pots and trying to establish some sort of following, the priorities were always changing. You have the "Just trying to get started", "Finding your own voice", " Money matters", "Outdoor shows/Indoor shows"," Teaching", "Dealing with special orders", "Marketing and Networking". Through it all I've either been with child, having babies, dealing with nannies and trying to raise what seems like a herd of elephants some days. The oldest child got more attention at the beginning of this journey, the younger two got feed, bathed, loved and disciplined. Notice I did not say attention. At this point I could branch off and have a whole other blog about raising twins but that really is a whole other story so I'll just focus on my career and the twins. Here is where everything took a turn in the priority department and the start of my tale.

Next post - "Genetics - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"

Reminder of what a great community we are!

2011-02-21T11:49:00.004-05:00

This Saturday I was reminded of what a great , given folks potters are.

I spent all day Saturday watching and listening to Sandi Pierontozzi and Neil Patterson. The Carolina Claymatters Guild brought them both to Charlotte and I was lucky enough to get a seat. Neil kept commenting how huge the guild was in Charlotte - 80 folks attended this workshop and from what I heard there was a waiting list. I was so glad I signed up for it because I needed a little reminder at what great folks there are in the clay world as well as honing my slab skills for teaching my beginning clay folks. Both Neil and Sandy where just so offering of their skills and knowledge and spent the entire time just teaching and working non stop! Great folks to watch if you ever get a chance and so calming and happy. I really enjoyed myself, plus I got to see old students of mine, pottery folks I had not seen in awhile and be silly with my pottery pals Ron and Amy! By the way, the Thrown Together crew will be sending out information soon about our upcoming Spring Sale so stay tuned!

When I got home that night there was a little white box waiting for me from Vicki Hartman . I was so thrilled when I opened the box and found a new mug waiting for me! Vicki and I had traded way back last summer and a few months ago I mentioned to her via an email that the mug I had gotten from her met a horrible death one morning when my husband knocked it off the counter. I thought it was so sweet of her to remember this and send me a replacement! God, what a great community we are and its such a small world......

I've met so many great pottery Mom just from having this blog and I'm thankful for that!

( Silly me but I always appreciate the bottom of other potters mugs. Yes..go ahead laugh at that comment! I struggle with keeping crud off the bottom of my pots so I admire this!)

Hats off to all of us for keeping clay in the world and working together. Just this weekend events will pop into my head the next time I teach or give away a pot to someone in need of a little treat!

In the studio this month I'm working on just building some inventory for all the various sales I have coming up. I even got the hang of my etsy site this week. If you get a chance check out what is new on there. Slow and steady I always tell my girls when they have trouble with school work. I've learned to tell myself the same things these days since I don't get as much time in the studio as I use to.

Quaid is home with today because he has President's day off while the girls are in school. Quaid is back in private school and the girls are finishing out their public charter school experience this year. More big changes for our little family as we try to put our house on the market and move over the boarder to NC.

Do you think I could do one of those great advertisements in Ceramics Monthly for "Studio and Home for Sale". HA! I never did talk about the Studio visit article that Ceramics Monthly did on my in January but my little humble space did get me some fame so I guess I shouldn't knock it!

Peace everyone! Jen

Stylish Blogger..here I go!

2011-02-12T21:20:00.006-05:00

Connie Norman sent me an email the other day about being one of her "Stylish Blogger" picks. I thought that was sweet of her since I haven't been as much of a blogger these days as I use to but....I still do get on here from time to time. Connie has such a great blog and these days when I go "peeking" around to see what everyone is blogging about, I am in awe of what great website/blogs everyone has.

So, the rules of the "Stylish Blog" are as follows.......
1. Thanks the person who gave you the award being by providing a link to their site.

2. Share 7 things about yourself that other blogger might not know.
3. Give the Award to 15 newly discovered or interesting blog.

4. Notify each of those blogger to present the Award.

*************************************************************************************
Here are 7 things about me that have not been on my blog.

1. I was a cocktail waitress all through college. When I got my first job at a college bar I really

had no idea what I was getting into. I lived in Richmond Virginia so the college bar scene was very busy and delivering beers, cheese sticks and shooters from 6 to 1am three nights a week can be good money to a tuff job. I started waiting tables at a sleepy Days Inn hotel in downtown Richmond delivering room service. Soon I heard the real money was at the college bars and I quickly got a job working at a bar in Shockoe Bottom called the Bird in Hand. It was so busy and I was so out of my league with keeping up with all the drink orders, that the first month I started, I would sleep walk at home and deliver glasses of water to my roommates during the night!

2. I once was held up at gun point! For anyone who has ever worked at the bar, you know you don't get home until the wee hours of the morning. When I graduated from Design School I was working two jobs. During the day I worked at a retail store and on the weekends, I kept my cock tailing job. Some weekend I'd get home from the bar at 3am and have to go to work at 9am the next morning. One night when I came home from working at 3am, while going up the stairs to my apartment I found a guy standing in front of me with his arms raised saying "Don't shoot!" and one of my neighbors holding a rifle pointed straight at the two of us. In my head all I was thinking was " Oh man...I've got to get to bed because I have to get to work tomorrow and now I've got to deal with this?!!" Soooooo...I calmly, with my arms raised said to my very agitated neighbor.."Hey...can you put the gun down?" He yelled back at me that this man was trying to break in to his apartment and he was going to " Blow his ---------------head off!" I once again thinking to myself " God....I've got to get to bed!!", calmly said "Just put the gun down so I can get on by and I'll go call 911 for you.....Ok?" After a few back and fourths, he finally waved me by with the gun and I went into my apartment, called 911 and went to bed and happily made it to my day job the next morning.

3. I love to sleep. Nothing is better to me than getting in my bed and going to sleep. My comforter has always been my most favorite article in the house. And I equally hate being woken up if I don't have to be up. I am not a morning person! ( But I married a morning person who doesn't like to sleep, so we balance out.)

4. Of course everyone who reads my blog knows that I am the mother to 3 children and I do love them dearly. I've even given up blogging to spend more time with them. What you all did not know about my children is that although I am thankful for each of them, I'm not sure I'd jump at the chance to go through pregnancy and the birth process again. The reason I say this is because I tend to have the world biggest babies. Quaid was 10lbs and the twins each weighed 7lbs. ( Yes, if you do the math, I carried nearly 14lbs of baby with my twins!) When Quaid was born I had nerve damage and had something called "foot drag" for about a month because he was so big. In other words..no more babies for me or I may end up in the Genus book of world records because I'm only 5'-4".

5. While studying abroad in the Baltics with the East Carolina Ceramics department, my instructor neglected to count heads while leaving a public rest stop in Finland and ended up telling the bus driving to leave while I was still in the bathroom. When I came out and noticed the the tour bus had left some Finish speaking man grabbed my arm, pulled me into his car and raced down the highway going 100 miles and hour to flag down the bus. Needless to say, he did not speak English and I did not speak Finish and I felt like I was in a James Bond movie during the entire 20 minute ordeal. We did finally stop the bus and I was not to happy when with my instructor when I finally got back on the bus.....

6. I love Donuts. I love donuts so much I don't allow myself to get in 50 feet of a donut shop! As all brides do, I starved myself before my wedding and once Joey and I left for the honeymoon, my first food purchase was a donut. After my birth ordeal with Quaid, I made Joey go out and buy me donuts. ( See I couldn't even put a photo of real donuts on here because I love them so much!)

7. I've had a lot of dental work done. The worst I think was having 6 wisdom teeth removed from my mouth at the age of 17. Yep...I had an extra set on the bottom of my mouth all 6 were impacted. At the time my parents did not know I was allergic to codeine either so needless to say, I went through the entire recovery process sick and finally with no pain medication. Believe it or not, I kept all the six wisdom teeth the dentist took out and still have them in a little porch just as proof of my ordeal. ( If there was number 8 I would state how fearful I am of dentists!)

Today is Valentine's day and I got to spend it at school watching Bonnie Seaman create her fabulous masterpieces out of clay. The conversation was great talking pots, potters and funny stories about our craft. I could not have asked for a better gift to myself than to feed of the energy of another potter and inspire me to keep working away on my own creations.

Reconnecting with things...

2011-01-31T10:05:00.001-05:00

Some afternoons while I'm helping my children with their homework, I sit next to them and grade things for my online courses or try to keep up with what seems like the endless amount of paper work that goes along with owning your own business. Always multi-tasking, which lately I've heard studies have shown is not the best thing to do. Oh well....I think for some of us who's brains tend to move in various directions at once, being able to multi task is just something that comes naturally. But once again....I've gotten off what the subject was about here. Old idea's I come back to.

The other day, when I was helping Aydan with her homework she got tickled because I got out my sketchbook and started thumbing through it. I found these sketches I had done awhile back. They actually came off a screen saver and I thought I could modify some of these. I love to revisit old idea's or interesting thoughts I just haven't had the opportunity to use. I was working on some cupcake plates a few weeks back and decided that some owls would look good on them. I have two waiting to be glazed today.....perhapse some of these sketches will show up on those small plates or even some pillow tiles. Also in the last two weeks, some consignment galleries have called to say they are either closing shop or I have decided that my pots are just sitting collection dust. This doesn't bother me because some old friends have come home. Some of these pots below are pretty old but I really enjoy visiting with my old work because already I can see the progression in what I'm doing. The possibilities of bringing back some old surface decoration and incorporating that somehow in my new work may be a good thing.

Life and work seem to be one in the same. The longer you are around and doing something, the less you realize you know and the more you want to learn! I'm always re-inventing things. This year it is how I sell my work. I've been thinking alot about retail, wholesale and consignment and what works the best for me and the things I create.

Please check my show schedule and gallery list. I've added some things and some others have gone away. Each year brings new adventures!

...Ok, I'm off to glaze. Have a great week! Jen

Resolutions and happiness...

2011-01-19T12:15:00.004-05:00

I've been pretty good about keeping my resolution this year about not going to out to work in my studio at night and staying off the computer during the day. Well..pretty good. I made that resolution because who wants to hear me complain about the cold anymore! My evil twin keeps saying in the back of my head " well then..keep your butt indoors in the evening Silly!" So, that what I told myself I would do. I would keep all my email from students and folks ( and silly facebook messages) until the evening. Boy..that is a hard thing to achieve let me tell you! And thought going on a diet in January was bad!

Well today, its almost 12:30 and I've been here all morning putting out fires with my new online students and answering emails. One in particular last night ( from someone who tends to keep me on my toes when it comes to working..he shell remain nameless..) mentioned that I didn't have any contact info. on my blog. You all know that my husband puts all that stuff together for me and he use to "police" things on it as well. Well my " Tech Guy" has sort of taken a leave of absence and I've just ...well let it all go for awhile I guess. Website, resume' and little things like that in my mind are ALWAYS shoved way back on my list of things to do. So, this morning a took the time to clean-up my resume', post my upcoming shows and at least put my email on my blog. Guess I still have cleaning to do on my website ( its sort of mess..I admit). That's for another evening and hopefully not day. The weather here isn't to cold so I'm heading out for the rest of the afternoon and yes, I'll be out there this evening but alt east I won't have to wear 12 shirts and 5 pairs of pants to stay warm!

A box and some mugs...does anyone need anything else?

You all have a great week! Jen

A little tour of our town

2011-01-11T16:58:00.005-05:00

So we are on our third day of having no school. My mom was just telling me that Atlanta has no snow plows and here in Charlotte I'm not sure how many we have...but I know they do have some. DOT has been salting the roads but snow with ice on top of a bunch of folks who don't know how to drive in it, is not a good mix. Of course, out here in York, we have no salt or snow plows so basically everyone with a huge, mega truck is trying to drive on the roads. I think this part of the country has one of the largest amounts of folks with heavy duty trucks and SUV's so that's about all I've seen going up and down the road in front of our house. ( No way I'm getting in my Volvo station wagon even with the four wheel drive and going anywhere...)!

I told myself that this time when I started writing my blog I was going to stick to posts about pots but here I am with time on my hands and not much free time to work in my studio this week. Snow days involve kids running in and out and no concentration on my part. Ignoring all the excitement and activity just is hard to do when your have attention issues, like I do. My online classes this week also started and it seems with all the colleges closed that my students have nothing better to do than get a jump on my class so I've been inundated with questions that I normally get about a week after the class starts. So, I'm busy, just not with making pots. ( I do have mugs and tiles thrown....)

(Here is our home, in the snow)
The first day it snowed all the kids got invited to go sledding at various location near our home so I decided to enjoy the snow and take a little walk with my camera around the town. You never know if we'll get snow anymore and our big news is that we are going to try and sell our house this Spring and move over the border to NC for various reasons. This may be the last snow I see in york and boy is this a charming town with snow on it.
( Looking down our street)

I thought I'd take some photo's of places in town that I either love or interest me. I'm going to link the photo's to the Yorkville Historic Society's website so you can read about the history. What I thought I'd do is tell you what I've learned about about these houses through out the years we have been here. One great thing about living is a small town is all the gossip and funny stories that go along with the folks who live here. (I'm sure Joey and I are one of them....I can hear someone saying " You know, those hippies that live over on Wright avenue. He's always doing all the cooking, has long hair and use to push those babies all around town while that wife of his spent all her time back in that shed cookin' those pottery things!"

To start off with below, here is a photo of what's called The Meeting place for Sons of Confederate Soldiers. We have lived here for 10 years and I pass this building all the time wonder if "The Sons" really meet here or not? Its kind of cool looking building, sort of like an old jail....just for the record York County had the most KKK dens and we are mentioned alot in the book by D.W. Griffith "Birth of a Nation". York is so full of history, I love when anyone has an old story to tell. I belong to a bookclub in which many ladies who grew up in this little town love to tell tales! So many interesting conversation come up when we read book like "THE HELP" or "The Secret Life of Bee's".

This is the Latta House built in 1824. It was also the York Funeral Home for many years. Now its been converted into a little wedding place for folks. Joey and I attended a wedding here a few years back when they first opened and since she knew the folks who owned it, I got a private tour of the upstairs where the funeral home held all the bodies for years. That section had not been "restored" yet for the wedding facility so needless to say it was pretty creepy and neat at the same time. Rumor has it that back during the civil war the daughter of the man who built this house waited from her fiancee' to return from war and when he didn't, she never left the 2nd floor of this building until her death and only came out on the porch for fresh air.

This house has always interested me because someone does live here but I have never laid eyes on her and I pretty much walk or run everyday buy this home. This house is called the Herndon/Sutton home and I always wish someone would take care of it because it has all sorts of cool little buildings behind it. Like many old home in York, families fight over who's going to sell them or live in them and than the poor places end up falling apart.

This is the Marion/Goins house. If you click on the link to this house, you'll see that when the photo of it was taken just about 2 years ago, it was sort of in dis-repair. Just this year someone bought and restored it and it is now on the market for a 1/2million. I was peeking around it the day I went walking and boy did they do a great job. My dream home, if it had a studio and was in a better school district....oh and if we could afford it!This is Buz Smith's home. He's a nicest old man and works at Lowes..of all places. His wife taught my kids to swim at the local YMCA and they use to have this old dog "Oreo" that they'd walked around our block and my kids loved to see. This house is so big for only two people. Once again, Buz inherited this home from his folks and he drives around in a old ford that I think is from the 1950's. All these homes on this street are behind our house so in the summer time my kids like to be adventurous and wonder through the backyard of some of these places. They come back with all sorts of stories of what they have found. In Buz's backyard he has all these over grown boxwood paths that someone put in years ago for garden parties I guess. Boy if I could go back in time to see how some of these families lived...

This blue home is the McCorkle/Moore home. Its is directly behind our home and whoever lives here does NOT like my kids exploring her backyard. Very few folks are like this in our town but there is always one person....My kids ran home this summer saying out of the blue someone had put KEEP OUT in the way backyard so I said " Well, you better stay away from that yard than". The neat thing about this house is that our home was a wedding present to Mr. Moore's daughter back in 1902. Of course our house doesn't look at all like this one but we are only the 4th owner of our home and that's pretty neat considering its over 100 years old!

This isn't a very good shot of the downtown but I think its funny that they still have not taken down the Christmas decorations and its January 10th!

So, that's just a little history about York and some places I'm going to miss if we do ever sell our house.

Tomorrow the kids go back to school and I finally start my clay class at Winthrop. Today I got out to my studio for about an hour or so. Not much time but alittle. Hopefully my next post will be more pottery related!

Football and Plastic

2011-01-09T09:38:00.002-05:00

Well, as most of your know the South East ( and most of the East Coast) is pretty cold. I thought last year was a cold winter but obviously I was wrong because this December was just how I like it. COLD! Of course I like it cold because its Christmas and I shut down my studio for most part, but now that we are in January and I need to get back working.....its to cold once again to make pots!

We put two layers of plastic up in November but with the cold snap and maybe my age ( haha) it was just not "Cutting the mustard" as the saying goes sooooooo.................. Yesterday I was like... " Honey, you need to help me put more plastic up in my studio"!

Now, I have a very patient husband who helps me ALOT but during football season I know that basically I'm on my own. Well yesterday was the NFL play-offs and putting up plastic once again for the second time this year was not something that was high on the list of fun things to do on a Saturday.

The process of doing this means the everything has to be pulled away from the walls, pots need to be taken off the shelves, its cold and it seems like the plastic roll, after pulling it out and measuring it, takes over the whole space. ( There is Joey above with no coat on in 30 degree weather measuring the outside wall.)

Basically in a nut shell, its a pain in the neck and many expletives are spoken during the process.

So the moral of this story is...don't interrupt your husband during the weekend of the NFL play-offs to put more plastic up in your studio. It could be detrimental to your marriage!

Quotes that haunt us....

2010-12-30T22:19:00.003-05:00

“Less is more.” Ludwig Mies van der Rohe quotes (German born American Architect. 1886-1969). This quotes pops in and out of my head on a non-stop basis. It haunts me really, which I know is a funny thing to say. I first heard it from a design professor I had back at Virginia Commonwealth University. At that time I was in school for commercial interior design and Mies van der Rohe was his favorite architect of all time. "Less is More" he'd tell us over and over again. I of course really didn't understand this. All I knew is that everything I looked at by this architect was very modern and not really to my taste but since it was design..I was suppose to like it.

"Less is More".

Than when I went back to school to become a potter and all I wanted to do was glaze all my pots in everything single color combination I could find, my critiques would come back with quotes like....

" The surface doesn't match the form"

" The glaze application competes with the handle and the foot"

" The form is good but the surface is to busy"

Out in my studio on my own..... thinking thoughts about my work and looking and looking some more.......

Once again the Quote comes to mind "Less is More".

I than answer my own thoughts " Is less REALLY more? Or can more be exciting, fun, playful, beauty, a visual cornucopia? "

Well, more is me, its what I love to look at. Its what draws me into something. Color, chaos, jazzy, layered surface and whimsy!

Who's knows where 2011 will take me and my work but I think its taken 10 years to get here, where every HERE is. I feel like I've had two years sliced into one. The beginning of 2010 was me still trying to compete with myself and feeling like I was leaving the one's I loved behind in my path to do more, more, more. The second part of 2010 was me being ok with what I was doing and wanting to put my drive on hold and give back my time to the one's I loved. So I guess really LESS IS MORE for me in some sense. I think I succeeded. I feel like I'm in a good place at the moment.

What a wonderful Christmas gift of have my little studio between the pages of Ceramics Monthly as well as be in a new book called "Introducting Pottery". I had great ceramic students this year and good sales. What else could a potter ask for!

Happy 2011 everyone-hope its another thought-provoking New Year.

Happy Holidays to one and All!

2010-12-18T21:40:00.002-05:00

A Christmas post is a good of time as any to get back into blogging. So, hello to all my blogging friends and wishing you guys a very Happy Holiday and Wonderful, productive New Year!

In my view over the last 3 months that I've been away, I sort of took care of my New Years resolution and few months early. Taking time away from blogging and writing was a good thing for me and my family. From October to December I've had more time to focus on my kids, my responsibilities as a instructor and studio artists as well as not feeling the pressure to have one more thing on my plate. The time that I have been away from my blog has allowed me to think about a new format ( lack of a better word) for this great outlet we use to connect and educate folks about what we do in the ceramic world. While I've been away I've spent alot of time on my Facebook Fan page. It has worked well for me in connecting with other potters and selling my work and keeping everyone up to date on what I'm working on in the studio. It is amazing to me what a powerful tool the Internet is these days for folks like myself who are self employed and trying to market their project to a wide audience.

So...for those folks who are familiar with my blog, in the new year I plan on taking a more professional approach to my blogging and perhaps not posting as much. I have missed my blog but have really enjoyed the time away to just think about how I've used my blog in the past to purge my thoughts and how I would like to use it to inform the public more about what I am working on and not so much what my family is up to. I'm sure I'll still post a few shots of the kids and there will be an occasional moan and groan about how busy I am but hopefully you'll find a more "refined" blog of my thoughts and weekly or monthly posts about my pots.

Its nice to be back. Hope Everyone is enjoying some rest this week. I look forward to chatching up a bit with everyone!
Jen

Mud Mama Signing off

2010-10-04T21:33:00.003-04:00

I've decided to take a bit of a vacation from blogging for a while. I think being a part of the Blogging Show last weekend was a good send off for me after posting stuff about my life and journeys with pottery and family over the last , I think, 4 years or so. ( I know someone going to correct me on that!)

Its only fitting that this Mom of three feels the need to down size my own obligations a bit more and give up some things. I do love blogging but think I could possibly post less often on my new website that my tech guy put together for me last year. I know I talked about it a bit but I never formally announced its completion because I felt like I had more to do on it. ( Which I still do!)

Below I have put the link to the site and hopefully without the destruction of my blog, I can focus on my website a bit more and also spend less time on the computer and more time with my kids and my pots.

To all my blogging buddies, don't give up on me! I still plan on checking in to see what everyone is up to. Who knows, I may be back on here at some point!

To all the Mud Mama's out there, please feel free to email me or drop me a note on facebook at any time. I'll still be making pots and multi-tasking homework,ballet and boy scouts along with firing kilns. Someone said to me the other day that as your kids grow up it doesn't really get easier, it just gets different. So true, so true! jenmecca@hotmail.com

If you'd like to see new images of my work from time to time along with posts about shows and events I'll be participating in, you can visit my website!

http://jennifermeccapottery.squarespace.com/

Happy Blogging everyone!

One day away from all sorts of exciting stuff!

2010-10-01T00:18:00.004-04:00

Saturday is the big day!

I feel like my kiln shed had wall to wall pots the other day. He's just a snap shot of those bisque pots we all really don't find to interesting but its proof I am making pots!

So many exciting events going on this weekend!

The blogger show.....

October, 2010 Exhibit:

CLAY ‘N BLOGS: TELLING A STORY
Featuring work by 50 potters from all over the world and an online gallery.
Opening reception: Friday, October 1, 6-8 p.m.Exhibition Dates: October 1-29, 2010Exhibition Hours: Monday-

Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The grand opening of the new and improved Mint......

Grand Opening at The Mint! - You can click on that link and see everything that will be going on for this 24 hour event!

And of course once again, lots of pots, friends and laughter at the 1st annual THROWN TOGETHER Sale!

Hope to see you there...!

Its hump day...

2010-09-29T12:30:00.002-04:00

These where a few batter bowls, olive trays and large serving dish waiting to go into the kiln the other day. I love it when I get a moment to shot a fast photo in the morning day light. New little salt shakers- I haven't made these in ages...

Anyone got a free ticket to get down to the Mall in Washington so I can hang out with all the folks waiting to see John Stewart. We don't have cable and if we did I'd have to Tee-vo all the Daily Show's episodes because of the time of day it is on and the kids being right there for bedtime. Everything in my parents house-hold stops at 7:00 when John comes on. I swear some days he is so on the money about everything going on I just want to jump through the screen and shake his hand. ( I usually watch clips of his show late at night on the computer).

The week keeps trucking along and Saturday will soon be here. Always so much going on before a big sale....

Have a good middle of the week everyone out in Cyber land!

The Great Wall

2010-09-28T17:48:00.002-04:00

As I was letting my students finish up a project today I was thinking how great the walls are around the Clay Studio at Winthrop. Jim Connell has been running this department for a very long time and what a collection of invitations and cards he has! Every wall outside of the clay studio doors is covered from one end to the other with all sorts of pots! I love during teaching breaks to just come out here and see how various potters have evolved over the years.

I think I even found an old group show card that had one of my old pots on it!

In the Studio

I have been slowly taking quick photo's of items that have been drying. Most of these leather hard pots are now in the kiln or waxed to be glazed. I think we can all agree that bisque pots are not at the prettiest stage for taking photo's so I've left a good bit off the camera roll.

Saturday is the big day of the THROWN TOGETHER sale! 10-4pm......can't wait! I'll get some directions posted on here in a day or so.

Happy Tuesday folks!

Cup show

2010-09-27T10:01:00.003-04:00

Sometimes it takes me a while to actually check out shows that I've sent off work too. If you look REALLY closely at that middle pedestal in this photo you'll see my aqua mug. ( Time for a magnifying glass..right?!) You can get on Barrett Clay Works website and view all the cups in this show. Once again, there are some pretty cool ones and I'm always amazed at the things folks come up with. I love cup and teapot shows! Busy glazing and finishing up stuff, working right along.

I enjoyed listening to The Smiths this weekend, some books on tape and hearing the kids play Spy in the backyard. Today its raining, which is much needed here in good old York. Our grass is crackly and brown and I know fall is soon on its way.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

2010-09-25T13:35:00.003-04:00

I had an eventful week filled with lots a good things, some bad and some reaction to things I'd rather soon forget about.....

On the good side of life I got a nice email from Dan Rhode, who use to teach here in the states and now lives in the UK. He contacted me about a year ago asking if I was interested in being part of a book called INTRODUCING POTTERY the complete guide. I guess its finally available for ordering so I guess I should hop on the ball and get a copy!

I got the invitation to the upcoming Kiln Opening at Cedar Creek where I'll be demoing the second weekend of October. I'm excited to be on the other end of things for a kiln opening. When I worked at Cedar Creek I was the one putting the whole sales floor together, making sure inventory came in on time and dealing with all the customers. Now I get to be making pots and gabbing with everyone-sound like great fun to me!

On the bad side...yes, you know some days it just has to be put out there...my car got hit this week in what I refer to as the most ridiculous car pool line I have ever been involved in. ( Which of course, this has only really been my third...)! Lets just say the start of our new school year and new school has been a bumpy one and I have not been the parent that sits on the sidelines to see how it all comes out. Things this tend to consume me when I'm not happy with someone, I feel the need to get it resolves and fast. When I don't see anyone standing up to fix anything, I'm the first there to say " well some one's got to say something". So having voiced my thoughts about the car pool situation and traffic on a number of occasions and getting no real response from anyone...having my car hit was not when of my better moments.

But, its the weekend and I'm grateful for that. I'm glazing and still finishing up pots for the upcoming Thrown Together sale next weekend. The weather is good, the kids are happy, Joey is resting and hopefully the start of a new week won't sneak up on me to soon.

Just a peek

2010-09-23T08:47:00.003-04:00

Just a quick post to say hello. I had some white stoneware that was given to me a while ago so I thought I might try some different pillow forms with it. I'm curious to see how different the stain and colored clay looks with it.

We have been up so early lately with this new school adventure that my time clock is changing a bit and I'm not staying up so late. This morning after getting my kids to their car-pool stop, I got back home at 7 and took these early morning shots of some pots drying. The color of the morning light is so strange..isn't it?

Those are my twin vases up above that will be fused together in the kiln. I haven't made these in a while so its nice to get back to familiar forms.

Today I plan on loading a bisque. Its teaching day for me and my students are busy on their next coil pot form. They did a great job on they last project. I can tell that maturity, since I have Jr. and Seniors this session, really does make a different.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thursday !

Photo box question...

2010-09-22T00:05:00.004-04:00

Awhile back someone asked me to post a photo of where my photo box was and how it was set up. It just so happened that this weekend I was taking photo's of the inside of my kiln shed so I had a great shot to share with everyone.
Below I've listed a few key points about this set-up that may help some of you who would like to set one up in your home or studio.

*If you look closely you should be able to see the lamp pointed down on the top of the box and there are also one of either side of the box. I use white, heavy plastic lids in front of these lights to defuse it when taking photo's. Yes, the lights do get hot so once I'm done with a set of pots I turn the lamps off so I don't melt anything!

* If you are short on space, as I am, you don't want dirt getting into the photo box even if it is sealed up with a zipper. Every time I'm done using the box, I cover it up with a sheet. Sometimes this sheet is also good for defusing the light on the top of the photo box.

*I do have gradated paper in my box that I had to cut down quit a bit. In order to photograph my pieces without getting the front part of the box in the frame, I have put a little wooden riser under the gradated paper so it lifts the pieces up a bit.

Besides doing alot of fooling with your camera, that is about it to the light box! I really like mine and would recommend one to anyone who wants to try and photograph their own work.

Below are just a few more pitchers and little milk creamers. I never can make enough pitchers!

Visitors and stuff

2010-09-19T23:19:00.003-04:00

Once again the weekend went by the quick, ( I think that is a line in a song....) and Monday will be here in about 7 hours ( at least for me that is)! Lots of working in my studio this weekend but I could always use one more day of not having any other responsibilities at hand besides enjoying the morning paper with my husband, sleeping until 8 or so, enjoying watching my kids play with their friends and just working in the studio.
This week I do plan on having alot of studio time to get ready for the THROWN TOGETHER show but I also have papers to grade, kids to run here and there, pottery classes to teach and the endless homework that has been following us home from school.

Thrown Together Sale
Our cards came in the other day and if your on our mailing list, you will be getting yours in the next day or two. We also have an email blast that will be going out tomorrow morning. The day of our sale is OCTOBER 2nd , which a day after the "Blogging Show" that will be opening on Friday evening. If ANY of your blogging folks who are coming to Seagrove for the show want to hop, skip and jump down to Charlotte to visit, Ron and I would love to meet you! We both hate that we can't be there for the opening but putting on a sale like this does take a good bit of prep the day before. So while I was working away in my studio this weekend and Joey was enjoying endless hours of football, Aydan decided to take our old socks and make some puppets! I thought they where the funniest looking creatures and had to take a photo of them. I think we have a mouse, a skunk and a snake there...

And true to form which never fails for me, there is always something going on with my studio that tries to keep me away from working. Last night it was this little opossum that ventured into my studio. I had no food in here so I don't know why it was looking around my shop but I sort of know Clayton my cat had something to do it. I thought for sure after a few knocks on the window pain it would run away but it didn't. The girls and I sat there for a while just watching it and I kept thinking "Man...I need to get out in my studio..go away Mr. Opossum!" Joey and Quaid where away at a friends house so the girls and I had to deal with this guy. He did finally leave and the girls got back in bed after the excitement.
Do you think I could send my stories into a reality show and someone would take pity on me and build me a nice, warm secure studio?

Tid bits

2010-09-18T14:17:00.002-04:00

Just a little weekend check in with some images. Here are a few tall cups someone asked me to make. I always like for folks to give me suggests. I like to make so many different things and you never know what a request can spark an idea. Here are some new tumblers. I always look at making tumblers the same way I do mugs. I like a good variety and usually change the shape from kiln load to kiln load and then go back to old styles. There a butter dish sitting in front as well...

Here are some covered jars in the first phase of getting lids.

Off to do more work. The weather is so great here this weekend. I can feel that Fall is around the corner!

Dinner ware show

2010-09-16T08:48:00.002-04:00

I'm happy to be a part of what looks like a pretty neat show going on up in Worcester Mass. the end of September. Wish I lived closer because nothing is better than alittle wine tasting to go along with buying pottery! Here is the set I packed up yesterday. I'm trying out a new sunshine yellow. Tell me what you think! I do still love my amber but I have issues when it gets to thin turning a really horrible shade of brown that just is not at all appealing on my pots. Always something with glazes..isn't it?

I'm forging on with all sorts of things to do today. Mailing lists, packing more pots, stopping by the kids school before my class for lunch ( and to snoop) on the girls than off to ballet and tap class with the girls. Quaid is a real trooper sitting in a room with a bunch of Mom's and little ballerina's for an 1 1/2. As long as I bring him a good snack and a book, he's good to go! The evening will be spent in my studio and hopefully my right hand guy will get home from work at a reasonable time so we can tag team getting everyone in bed.

Hope everyone is having a good week!

Interesting Read

2010-09-15T09:37:00.002-04:00

I just saw that a friend of mine Chuck Young posted this article on facebook. Give it a read and tell me what you think?
Its titled "The Case Against Art Show Entire Fees".
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-grant/the-case-against-art-show_b_708624.html

I'm headed out to throw like a mad-women today. Wednesdays are turning out to be great days to work because I can put the kids on the bus both ways to and from school. They have to get the bus and 6:30 and don't get home until 4:30 which tugs at a mothers heart string but its the only day I do this. I also tend to shower them with some sort of homemade treat because I feel so guilty! Cookies and milk for everyone!!

What to send..what to send

2010-09-14T21:13:00.002-04:00

I have to send pots out to the blogger show this week. I think I must have spent a 1/2 hour trying to decide what pieces worked together, what price point I needed to have for a good selection, did I have to much of one color and not enough of the other. I have never spent so much mind energy on this before but I find myself these days going back and forth on what to send to shows that just have an open door invitation for pots! So anyways...I just finished up grading some tests and I'm headed back out to the studio to do some packing on a special order. Maybe when I look back over at the group, it will all make sense! ( Meredith..you can chime in on anything you see..! HA)

I love Sunday Evenings

2010-09-12T22:35:00.006-04:00

Something about Sunday evenings always puts me at ease. Guess I know that I've enjoyed alittle relaxation from the weekend but Monday brings back my routine and some alone time for Mom.

We had a wonderful time at the beach for a few days and got home today early afternoon. Joey was able to sit down and watch the Panthers and Giants play, Quaid got to spend time with his best buddy and the girls played outside. I got right back in my shop and glazed an order of cupcake plates and mixed up my glaze so the dinnerware I had on hold last week also got in the kiln ready to hopefully come out and be boxed up to Massachusetts mid week. A little R&R is just so good for the soul!

Plates and Cups

2010-09-09T08:22:00.003-04:00

Started to glaze these plates yesturday to send off to Mass. but found I was out of silica.....I needed to mix up some glaze. One bad thing about living out in the country is that fact that I don't live just 15 minutes away from the nearest clay supply shop. ( But..who does right? ) I ended up making clay yesturday instead.....
We are headed to the beach for a few days. We enjoy going later in the season when the crowds die down. Next week I'll be throwing, throwing, throwing ....getting ready for the THROWN TOGETHER show/sale. Stay tuned!

Revisiting the Artists Statement...minus the hype!

2010-09-06T13:25:00.004-04:00

Fellow friend and potter Jennifer Stas, who had a studio at Cedar Creek Gallery sent me her latest artist statement the other day. Jennifer was not at Cedar Creek when I was there but I've gotten to know her in the last few years since I stay in touch with all my old buddies there. Its nice to know the she fits right in with carrying on the traditions of not taking yourself to seriously or what she does for a living. This was a common thread among the potters when I was just working in the gallery at Cedar Creek. They would come in during lunch time, sit around the fireplace and talk about that latest Ceramics Monthly or this potter and that potter. These professional discussions always ended with some sort of joking about who took themselves a tad bit to seriously and was a good memory for me to look back on while I was sitting in critiques getting drilled up one side and down the other about why it was I did what I did....
So for those of you who read my post a few weeks back about the comment made is Ceramics Monthly about how up and coming ceramic artists seem to over state what they are trying to say in their artists statements....this one is for you! Thanks to Jennifer Stas for sharing this with me. I have no idea what her background is in ceramics, but I like her work and I know she's a hard worker.

my newest Artist Statement by Jennifer Stas.....

Through my work I attempt to examine the phenomenon of Hong Kong Fooey as a metaphorically interpretation of both Henri Matisse and itching.What... began as a personal journey of damnation has translated into images of macaroni & cheese and elbows that resonate with Inuit people to question their own plaidness. My mixed media jukeboxes embody an idiosyncratic view of Jim Jones, yet the familiar imagery allows for a connection between Dean Martin ,mittens and burritos.My work is in the private collection of Gavin Mac Cloed who said 'Eureka!, that's some real clumsy Art.' I am a recipient of a grant from Folsom Prison where I served time for stealing mugs and tie clips from the gift shop of The MOMA. I have exhibited in group shows at Chic Fil A and Cedar Creek Gallery, though not at the same time. I currently spend my time between my attic and Berlin.

I've also put my artists statements up on here....with some changes below that I really would like folks to know about me but when your trying to be professional, I guess you got to stick to the boring stuff.

Artist Statement

I am a utilitarian potter. I create pots that are visually pleasing and unique in character, but also useful in everyday life. I was born in upstate New York and moved to the Piedmont of South Carolina in my late teens. I earned a BFA in Interior Design from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1989, and returned to school at East Carolina University in 1995 to complete a BFA and MFA in Ceramics in 1999. I am currently a full-time studio potter and adjunct professor at Winthrop University. I enjoy making serving pieces and tableware that bring delight to the daily activity of eating, setting a table and enjoying a meal. While growing up, I spent many weekends observing and participating in the traditions and rituals of my paternal Italian-American extended family. Among the most prevalent of these traditions were the preparation and presentation of elaborate meals. As a child, I observed how the tableware was as important as the planning, preparation and enjoyment. This served as the foundation for my interest in utilitarian pottery and love of creating elaborate surfaces and forms.

The pots I create reflect the enjoyment I have for throwing, embellishing, creating and using. I enjoy creating each piece with its own unique character and personality, whether I change a spout, foot, rim, glaze color or decorative element. All of my pieces are wheel thrown and altered in some way. Because of the rich color I get from the glazes I use, I enjoy working with porcelain. I embellish my pots with handmade stamps, colored clay sprigs and have recently started incising drawings with black slip into my pieces. The forms I make are usually organic in nature, which stems from my love of the material I use, and my personal preference for a fluid line. My inspirations for surfaces come from patterns in fabric, paintings, nature and historic dishware pottery.

I currently work from my home studio in York South Carolina, where I live with my husband Joey, our son Quaid and twin daughters Aydan
and McKenna.

.............I spend most of my days thinking in cartoon and sit come language. If I had my way the world would be animated like Roger Rabbit and I'd look like Jessica of course only in overalls and Birkenstock. I'm a NPR junky and sometimes my pots reflect this because when I get upset or frustrated with the state of our nation, I screw up what ever it is I'm working on. My pots can be rushed at times because I'm a mother of three and also teach so although making pots is near and dear to my heart, I have other mouths to feed and people that depend on me. I would like to say that I've gotten accepted to almost every juried show I've applied to but that would be a lie. I am a go- getter so I have no idea how much money I have thrown away applying for all sorts of things. I have been published here and there but like everyone else would like to be published more. I love to eat so why would I want to make anything other than items I can eat out of? I make what I do, choose the colors and clay body that I love and I don't think its rocket science that we all have differant tastes in things. Having a few degree's in art taught me alot, but it didn't change that fact that I do enjoy the color blue here and there on a pot! Most people also think art school is easy..well its not, its hard and emotionally draining at times. My studio is on the back porch of our house with no running water or heat/air. Its not the best place to make pots, but it works for me and hopefully if I ever hit the big time, I'll have one of those grand studio's every one's sees on the covers of Ceramics Monthly. ( Which as we all know is like being on the cover of the Rolling Stone so maybe my theme song should be song by Doctor Hook!)
Yours truly - Jen

End of the week update

2010-09-02T20:37:00.005-04:00

Thanks to everyone who voted on a new name for our group. The winner was THROWN TOGETHER.

Joey and I have the task of making the card this time for our Fall show. Coming up with new a creative idea for promoting yourself can be a task in itself we concluded this time around. When you have four creative minds working together and a short time frame to get things done, you realize that planning ahead is a good thing! Be on the look out soon for alot more information about our first fall sale as the group THROWN TOGETHER.

On the home front...

So here it is Friday and I'm wondering where the week went. I guess Monday, a day I don't teach, I spent doing something clay related since Julie and I set up a show together. Tuesday I was back at Winthrop and spent the morning packing up pots to send to a few shows in the North East. You never figure how long it takes to pack up boxes until you relies about 3 or 4 pretty much can suck up a morning! Wednesday I had a meeting at the kids new school, which was followed by a bunch of errands and being the single parent that evening, which wore me out to I couldn't muster any time in the studio that evening. Thursday I woke up with sinus infection ( every September I get one!) so I was slow getting going in the morning but got a few tumblers made - teaching again the afternoon and Joey and I spent the evening finishing up the postcard for the Fall Thrown Together sale. And here it finally at Friday again. I'm going to go out for a little run and than put on my blinders as I walk back through the house and head straight for my porch to throw on mugs and more tumblers! Can't wait for this weekend...!

Setting up a show in Asheboro

2010-08-31T08:31:00.005-04:00

( KEEP VOTING FOLKS - We need our final count on a name by Wednesday the 1st of September! Post is below for voting or you can go to my Fanpage on Facebook!)
Julie Wiggins and I set out yesterday morning for a little trip to Asheboro NC. We spent the day setting up a group show called "From Within to the Surface". This show will take place at the Sara Smith Self Gallery and its being sponsored by the Randolph Arts Guild. Theses are the same folks who put on the NC Potters Conference.

Pretty big space to display pots and the folks where super nice to work with. The reception will be Tuesday evening the 7th of September. On September 28th from 12-1, Amy Sanders and Ron Philbeck will be giving a talk during a "Lunch and Learn" session. If your in the area, please stop by and view the show.

I took some REALLY quick shots yesterday with my Iphone so I apologize for some blurry images.

Ron's pieces up above and Julie's down below.

Down this row you can see Amy Sanders work and Adrienne Dellinger.

So, on to some sad truths..............

I spent part of my weekend fooling with this on off button you see below. I swear, does anyone else have more equipment issues than myself?

The button over time has been sticking and low and behold a few weeks ago the darn thing fired right through a bisque.

Yes, I am the proud owner of what seems like a 100 white pots!

I didn't feel like blogging about it a few weeks ago because I was just so darn aggravated! I know we all get that way at times. Best thing to do is just walk away and breath until you can deal with it.

As for the button, its seems to be bent and I can't get it right in the center of the hole so when I push it in, it doesn't lean to one side.

Solution?? Well, I guess I'll just check it every time I fire and keep my pyrometer in at all times to check the temperature.

If anyone has ever had this happen, let me know what you did to fix the issue and yes, I've taken the whole thing apart and re-assembled it.

What's In a Name

2010-08-29T11:57:00.004-04:00

We are down to the final week with choosing a name for our up coming group sale. For those people who are just visiting my blog for the first time here's a little background information about the four of us and why we enjoying having shows together and why it is so important to us all to have a support system.

For those of you who have been following my blog for a while, you know that Amy, Ron, Julie and I enjoy what we do, enjoy the support and encouragement we give each other in are ceramic pursuits and are serious about being part of a clay community.

We would be so happy if you'd give us your vote on which of the following names you like and feel best represent us.

Clay Dept
Thrown Together
Kudzu and Kaolin
Kaolin and Klay
Kaolin Krew
Clay Crew
Dirt Merchants
Ring of Fire
Cups and Dishes

Back round about the four of us:
I think we are all going on about 10 years of being clay friends. Julie and I have alittle longer history together since we both attended East Carolina University. I was in grad school at the time and Julie was just getting started in clay as a sophomore.

All of us taught clay classes together at Clayworks in Charlotte North Carolina and though-out this time we enjoyed just talking about current trends, potters and our work together.

We all tend to be a bit silly at times and enjoys each others company as well as keeping track of what's going on in each other personal life. I've enjoyed having another mom to understand my time frame issues and Julie and Ron have always been great about having kids around in some form or another while we have meetings.

All of our work has changed in some way or the last 5 years. We all enjoy drawing or embellishing our surfaces in some form or another. We also all enjoy making functions vessels and forms the people can use and enjoy in their homes.

Please click on our various names above to view our personal profiles and images of our work.
Thanks for your helping in our quest to find the right name for our group. We are looking forward to our first Fall Sale together with quest potters Allison McGowen and Kyle Carpenter.
The sale will be in Charlotte on October 2nd.

Oh it is so fresh!

2010-08-25T22:13:00.003-04:00

How many have you all listened to a demonstrator say " The clay looks the best right after it is thrown" or " I want to emulate how wet clay looks" or " The best part of being a potter is throwing". I think these comments use to go right over my head and I'd be anxious just to learn and watch every new trick I paid my money to learn about.

Well today, which I'm happy to report was a full, uninterrupted day of throwing........I finally got the "WET CLAY" thing. I threw a bunch of pitchers and I guess I must have been in the zone with my freshly pugged recycled clay because it was such a joy to throw and looked so awesome at this stage of ..wetness!

I was sort of chuckling to myself that if these phases have finally hit me, does this mean the next time I'm doing a demo for someone I'm going to be spurring off the same lingo? Will I be that old broad that some youngin' is going to be thinking..."yeah, yeah..I get it, she likes to throw. Now show me how you make those sprigs!"

Once again I'm just having a cartoon character "bubble" thought that I had to share.
Happy hump day everyone!

Back In The Saddle

2010-08-24T08:56:00.004-04:00

( If only I did have a horse..how fun would that be!)

I'm back in the studio which feels great!

The kids have had sort of a bumpy start to the new school transition but hopefully that will get better and better. The twins are in the same class so we are keeping our fingers crossed that it works out!

I'm pretty excited about some juried shows that I have gotten into for the Fall line up! A few are up in Massachusetts, one is in Paughkeepsie, NY and of course my pots are on display at the moment in New Jersey. Not to mention all the stuff going on here in North Carolina. I have to admit, living in ( well near) a state that is so rich in ceramics really helps to keep my career moving along.

Today I meet a whole new group of ceramic students so I'm gearing up for that and my online art history classes are back under way. Things feel a bit back to normal for me. I enjoy a routine.

Hope everyone had a great start to the work week as well!
Jen

You all Rock!

2010-08-21T19:35:00.003-04:00

It was great to read every one's comments about parenthood and pottery. Some great suggestions and ideas for those us who may need some new advice and also to those people just starting out on this double journey!

To sum it all up ( this came from Meredith Heywood from Why Not Pottery)

Parenting is like making pots,you build layers.

We started at our new school this week, which had some real bumpy roads each day to maneuver. I spent the entire week worrying about them and doing anything extra special for the kids just to soften the blow. Lots of tears, fears and anxiety for everyone and not much sleep. But we did get through it, and I managed to slowly get back to the studio and I got my online classes up and going. Next week will be better and each day the kids and I will be back to a set routine.

I did something else this week that professionally I have never done before, I declined two gallery orders. I politely called the galleries saying I just could not commit to any other accounts for awhile due to motherhood and over committing myself last year. Thank goodness both owners where wonderful and understood my situation and said they would be happy to have pots when I was ready. What a wonderful relief and a huge weight off my shoulder. As much as getting orders is great and having folks call wanting your work feels really good, I'm just have thought twice about the quality of life I would like to have.

Today I enjoyed some time with my son and his friend. ( I have found the nine year old boys are very funny to hang out with!) I also got out in my studio for a few hours and enjoyed a good book on tape. As soon as everyone is tucked into bed, I'll head out again to make some sprigs and perhaps watch alittle movie.

************FUN, FUN, FUN**************

My fellow partner in "blogging crime", Ron Philbeck has put a little contest on his blog. Our little group of pottery pals are looking for a good name for our group. Julie Wiggins, Amy Sanders, Ron and I will be doing some sales together and also some gallery shows. We have been trying to come up with an inventive name and thought we'd open it up for any and all suggestions! If your interested in winning some mugs from Ron ( and possible a little something from me as well...) you can click below to Ron's blog and add your own suggestions.
http://ronphilbeckpottery.com/2010/08/20/contest-whats-in-a-name/comment-page-1/#comment-6036

Howdy clay People! I've Got Some Questions for Ya'!

2010-08-19T23:10:00.003-04:00

I checked in with my pottery pal Ron Philbeck the other day on his way back from doing a workshop. For all of you who follow the blogs I know people click back and forth between ours at times so I'm sure some of your read his post with apologies for some comments he made on Sawdust and Dirt.

I did not read Micheal Klines post that day so I had to ask Ron what that was all about! He explained to me that someone had commented about blogs and what people write about...weather those of us who purge our thoughts, feelings and day to day studio work was really what needed to be written about on a pottery blog. I have to admit and I know I've said a few times that I am amazed that folks enjoy some of my on going moans and groans about family life and studio time. I of course really appreciate all the parents that leave me messages about things I write about and I love reading stories of there on going pottery lives.

So, I thought I'd throw a few questions out for those folks that parent and also try to be productive and pro active with their career.

Please join in with comments about any of the following questions.

*Do you have a set time you work in your studio or do you enjoy having your kids play while you work along side them? Do you find you can get what you need to done?

* Do you feel that you miss out on important residency's and workshop/teaching opportunities because you have another full time job? How do you fill in these voids?

*Do you have a significant other who supports you financially so you don't have to rely on your income? If not, how stressful is it for you to parent and juggle all the rolls you have to take on being a potter. IE - photo's, paperwork, repairs, shipping and selling your work?

* If you have older children, have they ever resented the amount of hours you put into your studio work while they where younger? Do they appreciate the fact you where home with them but still worked?

Just a few thoughts I had that I thought would make for some good conversation. I've thought about these things or listened to other craftspeople talk about these struggles.

We all can use a little advise here and there so offer up yours!

Sayings

2010-08-17T23:23:00.003-04:00

I've been a big fan of saying for the last few years. I even tried putting some on my work but it just didn't take or I couldn't seem to work it out....

Yesterday I ran across a plaque in a magazine that said this below and I thought it was great!

Be bold be thankful
be quiet be original
Be spontaneous be
punctual be a
star be young be
loving be crazy
be loud be random
be aborable be
unique be daring
be obnoxious
be Yourself!

I thought it was pretty neat.

I'm still not able to get back in my studio yet. I may try tomarrow evening. More soon!

Getting off a Merry-go-Round

2010-08-14T22:18:00.003-04:00

Its Sunday evening and if this had been the weekend that I had planned right at this moment Joey and I would be playing catch up today with chores, spending time with the kids and sleeping late.

If this had been the Saturday I had planned, we would have been coming back from Blowing Rock right after the show with about a 2 hour drive, grabbing a fast food meal, exhausted and feeling drained only to pick up our kids from my parents at about 9:00pm. My parents would be concerned that we were both to tired and did we make enough money to warrant all the effort. I'd re-assure them that it was a good day and that we are fine. The kids would be wired up and hard to get to sleep and even though all we would want to do is basically collapse into our bed, we'd still need to read to everyone, get them settled down and to bed later than usual. Sunday would be followed with a similar feeling one gets after drinking a tad to much. Ours brain are hazy, ( mine tends to be a bit worse then Joey since I worry a whole week before a show) and all we want to do is lay around all day and do nothing because our bodies sort of hurt from all the hauling of gear. Well at least mine always does. We'd be sort of grumpy with the kids and try our best to get everyone to bed early so we could crash early Sunday evening ourselves. Not a very restful weekend to say the least, but at least I would have once again sold some pots!

Well, this was not the way we spent our weekend. Joey and I slept in on Saturday morning, enjoyed the paper together and a good cup of coffee. We did some chores around the house, went to the gym and welcomed our kids back around mid-afternoon and spent the evening with friends cooking out and watching all our kids play together while enjoying some good conversation, laughter and a few good beers. The previous night we even got to enjoy just one on one time with dinner and a movie - something we only do an occasion. Today we did clean the house, Joey and the kids spent some time outdoors and got some ice cream at a local produce stand while I finished up the kids school shopping list.

The reason my weekend was different was because for the first time ever I called an canceled my spot at a show. I've never done this before ever and I have to admit, although it felt good the over-achiever in me and work horse ethic felt ashamed for bugging out.

On Thursday evening after a week of trying to do to many things at once I just gave up and said to myself that I just couldn't do it. I was to tired and needed a break from this merry-go-round I've been on for awhile. Truth be told I just felt like I didn't have enough work to make my booth fill up and I couldn't see one more day of running around. The thought of what I had to do Friday morning just loomed over my head thinking about trying to re-fire and salvage the few left over pots, packing up the truck that night, getting up at the crack of dawn on Saturday and all the energy it takes to set-up, sell your work and than break it all down again. On top of it all, I have the kids to consider and school starting next week. So....I just told Joey I didn't have it in me and he agreed and Friday morning after waking up with migraine I called and canceled. I than called my folks who in turn told me to bring the kids over anyways so we could have some free time and by 6 o'clock Friday evening my migraine was gone and I felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulder.

Its really hard sometimes to say NO and realize you just can not do it all. I am finding this out slowly the hard way which is a hard lesson for me to learn. When your a working parent and you want to still be part of the crowd ( the pottery crowd that is) you just can not do it all. You can try but you have to be so wise about your work time and family time.

I learned some good lessons this summer about working and trying to make the summertime enjoyable for the kids. Guess I found I can't do both! Next summer I won't be doing so many shows. The Fall I won't be doing so many shows either. Sometimes you just need to look at the reality of things and except them.

Next week my priority is getting everyone settled into their new environment and than I'll get back to focusing on what I love to do and see, once again how to re-invent being a studio potter/teacher, parent and partner all at once.

The List- and Thank you!

2010-08-11T23:40:00.003-04:00

Thanks to all the comments on my last post about weather or not I am STILL a blogger. I appreciate all the thought, nice words and comments so I guess...I'll keep trucking along whenever I can get a chance to post. Alittle time here and there...

This weekend I am heading back to Blowing Rock. Once again, I'm taking a small group of pots but I think my display will still look pretty good , I hope!

Below is my To-Do list when my new week starts minus kids since school will be under way next week. All those folks that have asked for pots, special orders and those shows I need to get stuff too are high on my list!! On top of Blowing Rock this weekend I've been getting toys and cloths together for the annual Twin consignment sale I do twice a year. Its so much work to save money sometimes!! Lots of ironing, tagging and convincing the kids that they need to get rid of some toys....

.....our house and the studio look like a bomb has gone off!!

What a mess.......!

Wondering if I'm still considered a blogger??

2010-08-09T17:54:00.003-04:00

Some days when I'm on here all morning answering emails from students or grading...its sort of hard to sit down and really collect my thoughts to blog. I don't think I was teaching online classes when I started this blog and its seems to have really cut into my blogging thoughts and time I've noticed. Its been two days since I checked my messages from my last post! Of course all the excitement of the summer time and wanting to spend time with the kids has also made it sort of a lack-luster few months for blogging.

School starts next week for our children and I'm ready for the change and routine to start. Some folks hate routine and some of us, who have an mind that is easily distracted.....love routines.

I just took a few shots of some pots that are getting ready to go into the kiln for Blowing Rock this week. I hardly had a chance to even make a full batch for the kiln but I think I've squeaked out a pretty good amount to replenish what was sold at the last show. Once school starts and I can devote more time on my porch and more pots will be made. I have less drive time to the new school and we even have access to a bus this year! Yippee!

Jersey "show" ( of pots that is...)

2010-08-07T13:32:00.005-04:00

I sent some pieces off last week for The Jersey Shore National 2010 show. One of my friends asked me if "Snookie" would be there......ha! I looked around M.T. Burton's facebook page for some images of other work in the show. I'm always interested to see who else I'm showing with. Below are a few pots that caught my eye. When I get more time this weekend, I'm going to go back and look at more of the work up on his Facebook Fan page.

http://www.mtburtongallery.com/southjerseyshoreclaytour.aspx

Below is a nice shot of work by Ronan Peterson and myself at Lark and Key. Sandy is always so good at promoting artists in her show via the web and I'm since I haven't been down for a visit in a while, it was nice to see what inventory I still have left!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend. I'm busy trying to finish up some stuff for Blowing Rock again next weekend. I'm so excited because I'm dragging Joey along with me! Even though its not always fun for him because he has to do all the lugging....I LOVE having him along!

We all get together.

2010-08-04T23:23:00.003-04:00

Its late on Wednesday evening and I've just come in from making some bottles and trimming some big bowls. I'm playing "single Mom" again this evening so I've learned from my own experience in this department over the summer that I need to make the day a full time event and not stress about the little things I usually do like giving the kids a good meal and making sure everyone is bathed..ect.

This morning started off with golf for Quaid ( in which I needed to be there for), having a playmate over for Quaid, laundry, grading all the finals for the courses I teach, ordering pizza for the gang, a trip to the pool to wear everyone out, dinner, book time with the kids, getting them to bed and finally...out to the studio.

While all this was going on today I was reflecting on an event yesterday with my clay pals - Ron, Amy and Julie. We had one of our monthly meetings and this time it was Amy's house. It use to be that when we met it was always for dinner and we would plan a late weekend afternoon or evening and it was always hard for me to find the time or a date I could squeeze it in because of the children. These days we are all so informal since Amy is in the same boat as myself trying to play full time Mother and pottery deva at the same time. Julie and Ron are good about accommodating our "kids" needs when we need to meet.

Below is a photo of the girls playing with Guthrie while Quaid reads on the couch. The kids where so good while we talked on and on about pottery related stuff. Our last meeting was here at my house and the same was true. I was thinking how nice it is to be casual and comfortable around friends and have my children surrounded by such creative adults.

( Ron and Julie looking at the calendar of events we have planned together.)

It takes alot of effort by us all to keep planning and coordinating shows and events together. Like everything else with promoting yourself, its all the leg work and paper trail you have to keep up with and also contribute to if you want to succeed and get ahead. Poor Ron has had to listen to a lot of "girl talk" since Guthrie and Sammy have arrived on the scene for Amy. But... mainly our topic of conversation is clay.

While we were hashing out some date Sammy crawled under the table to chew on my flip-flops a bit!

More to come from the four of us so stay tuned!

I'm going to call it a night and get ready for yet another day. The count down is on for the start of school!

I'm still on Sunday!

2010-08-03T23:38:00.003-04:00

This Sunday we celebrated my Dad's 72'nd birthday.

For anyone who has parents over the age of 68 I think you'll agree that they have about everything they could want or need so buying gifts is just a challenge....at least MY dad is a challenge. If he wants a new book, he goes and gets it, good wine, he's right there paying for it, cloths, shoes, after-shave, tools....the list goes on and on.

So, what is near and dear to my Dad is traditional Italian meals that his Mom made for years so this birthday I had the whole family join in for an old fashion Mecca family meal! Of course it consisted of sauce, meatballs a great cake and homemade pasta. When I little my grandmother, as I have said before, would spend an entire day in her kitchen making pasta and this machine above was a huge part of that process. The funny thing about this piece of equipment, like most of the items I have from her is that besides the box looking old and worn, the machine looks brand new! If you can read the words on the inside sleeve of the box, you'll know why! I believe she got this machine when I was a baby and she had some cousins of hers bring it straight back from Italy so it was like her most prized toy.

Once my grandmother found out that my husband liked to cook and was really good at it, my name went on the box and that meant that when she finally passed away...the item was mine! As some of you know my grandmother passed away last year at the age of 98 and even at 97, she was in the kitchen one weekend running the show while Joey tried to make sauce and pasta for us. I can still see her with her walker barking orders at him while she stirred the sauce.

When we got it out this weekend Joey and had a good chuckle about the fact that even from the grave my grandmother is still running the show. Here is note she tucked into the box way back in the 70's/80's we think telling "who ever" got this machine....that they needed to take good care of it.

While I made the sauce, Joey was busy with the kids cranking out the pasta and meatballs. We even followed her recipes.

The final item was the cake, which I allowed the girls to decorate. What do you think? Could this make on "Cake Boss"?

We had a great time with my parents and the food was awesome. Of course the whole thing took all day to make and once again I had a greater appreciation for the women of my grandmothers generation who took such pride and care with food, house keeping and taking care of something for a lifetime.

And on that note...I was happy to see my cleaning lady today!

Interesting cups

2010-08-01T12:51:00.002-04:00

I spent yesterday playing around with some photo's because I needed some better images than the last batch I took. I got some better lights and I think these are a bit better. I always enjoy receiving postcards from other potters with interesting shots of their work. Of course all the images in the various magazines catch my attention.

Of course the majority of images I took yesterday where pretty straight forward for entering shows and putting stuff up on my etsy site but the light bulb in my head turned on and I think that I needed some new interested images for postcards and my website.

There are unless things you can do with cups if they all stack well. I have a little "stage" under my back drop to raise up my images so I can only fit so many cups in a row on that. I keep telling myself that I really need to save up more pots and go visit the professional photographer so some higher quality photo's and cool close-ups.

Its good to spend a day just experimenting. I tend to do these things when really I have a ton of other pressing thing to do...like make pots for the next Blowing Rock show. Such is the mind of someone who tends to be all over the place some days and constantly has to remind myself to focus and priorities.
My art history students are ending the semester and school will be starting soon so even though having a vacation was nice, I sort of feel a tad bit behind myself. Next week I'm planning on getting some of my teenage helper to come over and play with my crew so hopefully I can knock a bunch of stuff out.

Today is my Dad's birthday so we are all pitching in to cook him a spectacular meal. Images to follow soon!

Letters

2010-07-29T23:30:00.003-04:00

As I was saying in my last post, while I was on vacation a ton of things ran through my head that I felt I needed to get off my chest on my blog.

I know I've comments on Ceramics Monthly in the past and I even think a few years ago I was on a roll with some sort of commentary each month about weather I liked that months issue or not. Well, I was excited to see Victoria Christen's pots on the cover. I love her work and I enjoyed seeing her a few years ago at Arrowmont as well. This edition, as most of you have already seen has alot of studio visits in it. I do enjoy reading these because I can tell just by the interview weather or not I think I would like to meet that potter or not regardless of their work. I'm sort of getting off track of why I was posting this evening so here below I did a quick scan of what really caught my eye this month.

......LETTERS!

I do find this section of the magazine at times pretty interesting especially when someone has such a beef about something that they feel the need to vent in writing. If a letter starts off with " In all due respect to last month article...blah, blah, blah" or "After reading blah, blah, blah, I found that I was upset by....." I sit their in my chair and think "Oh yeah, this one going to be good!"

Most of the time I don't agree with what ever they are ranting about but I find their view interesting. So...this month a letter about Emerging Artists caught my attention. As soon as I read a sentence saying that they found it hard to read through "their ramblings", I started feeling really sorry for those emerging artists. I was thinking about how hard it is to come up with an artist statement and if your in the academic world, its even harder because you feel like you have to say something REALLY deep about your work!

I guess truthfully I, like most people I think, skim through the artist statement unless I find something interesting and I mostly look at the photo's and at times think " Wow, wish I had been an Emerging Artist"!

So, nothing against the person who wrote this letter. Everyone has a right to say what they feel and I respect that in people just as long as they don't pull me down their path. I just thought I point out how entertaining the Letter section is and how the written word can really make or break the way you feel about someone.

(Boy, I think I just ended this post with a deep thought!)

Pottery Related Trip Adventures

2010-07-28T11:08:00.004-04:00

( Boy that was some introduction!)

We'll we did have a good time on our trip to Gatlinburg. Maybe in my next post I'll do the Mom thing, and put up some photo's of our family adventures. Today I thought I'd keep it pottery related and because lets face-it, even when your on most vacations, and your a potter, your still sort of seek out art or pots of some sort. Arrowmont School of Craft is right in the heart of Gatlinburg and I've enjoyed many trips there for classes and Conferences. But my most favorite part of visiting Arrowmont is seeing my old friend from East Carolina, Amy Evans and Chuck McMahon. Amy and I where in Grad School School together and at times seemed like the only females in the department making girly pots so naturally, we stuck together and had many, many silly adventures. Chuck also was in the pottery department and graduated before the two of left and went onto to work for Highwater clay in Asheville/Florida and than moved onto Arrowmont and was studio coordinator for the ceramic department.( I think that was the right title for what he did..correct me if I mis-spoke!) Somewhere in all this Amy and Chuck met up again and got married and we've kept in touch.

I did also stop by the school to see a former student of mine but while I was all the lights went off so I didn't get any good photo's of the work that was in the gallery. I did see some pretty great pots because the summer instructors show was going on.

Here I am with a very cool mug. One of the best things about visiting with Chuck and Amy is that they have a pretty great pottery collection. Wish I had asked who's mug this is or even who's bowl it was that Joey made this great salad in. ( Looks like the shot is right out of Gourmet magazine!)

Amy and Chuck have two little boys Eli and Finley. In fact, Finley is just about 3 months old so we is pretty new to this world and it was nice meeting these two little guys. Eli just turned 4 and didn't really know what to make of our three taking over his little world that evening.

Here's Chuck with Finley.

I couldn't pass up sharing this little photo!

So funny to think back on the times we were just students running around the pottery building or out getting a beer or even being eager new potters without any obligations other than trying to make a bunch of pots. Thirteen or so years later, Amy is teaching full time at Walter State and hasn't had much time to make pots ( which is a shame because she makes wonderful pots!) and Chuck is going back to school full time for computer programming and also has no time to make any great pots as well. Babies and four year olds can do that to ya'! And of course there is myself, my little crew and Joey doing what we do. I have Blowing Rock again in 3 weeks, a bunch of special order and even though my pugmill is back working and I'm eager to get started, I'm sure what spurts of time I'll have between now and than. Guess I better stop typing and get going!

Organizing my thoughts and photo's

2010-07-28T00:26:00.002-04:00

I spent all day...well most of it, in front of this box. I downloaded photo's, organized files, graded tests, worked on my calendar for the year and answered a 1,000 emails I think! Wow..

I was thinking today at lunch that I had so much to blog about this week and sadly, like most days this year, little time to blog. But..there is always hope I'll catch some time here and there to get my thoughts down. Seems a shame not to blog when I think I actually have something to share! I'm sure all my fellow bloggers out there have weeks that go by when you feel like you really have nothing to post. I know I get in that rut at times and I wonder weather to just post something..anything at all or leave my slate dry for a bit.

So, with that said I will try my best in the morning to get a good post up. I have some final exam for my students I need to re-do a bit in the morning as well as post some study questions but hopefully if all my little people are playing nicely and content, I'll be able to blog a bit also!

Finished work

2010-07-20T23:15:00.003-04:00

I took some quick photo's this evening before calling it a day.
I've only ventured out to my studio to unpack pots and pick-up a bit. Its still alittle disheveled from my last glaze marathon. I managed to finally get my pug-mill back today. When I showed up to get it the motor wasn't attached and the guy who fixed it was trying to explain to me what I needed to do when I got home to put the motor back on. One blank look from me was all he needed to remember that he had the other part and needed to find it and put it back together for me!! The whole ordeal only cost me $48 bucks ( where that number came from I have no idea). If I could have this evening I would have started pugging clay but I was to busy with my Domestic Goddess duties to be a potter so I guess it will have to wait until I'm back from vacation.
Its been some time since I took photo's. Its funny how when your viewing them they seem brighter than when I post them on here! I find that pretty frustrating......

I updated my show information today. I was thrilled to be invited to a dinnerware show at the Worcester Center for Crafts, in Worcester MA. I can't wait to get back to start on this project.

I'm hoping to still post some idea's and thoughts while I'm away enjoying a bit of a break with my family. We are heading up to Gatlinburg so maybe I'll be able to sneak off and visit Arrowmount one day!

Rain was OK

2010-07-19T10:16:00.004-04:00

I had a wonderful mini-vacation while also working a bit - if you call it work! I headed up to Blowing Rock on Friday and met two friends of mine from back in the day when I first was learning how to throw a pot. One of my friends Laurel was room-mate and co-worker of mine when I worked at Cedar Creek Gallery and Amy managed another gallery in Raleigh around the same time. We were all single back than and no matter when we get together, it is nothing but laughter and none stop talk! I think our friendship is going on about 20 years now! It funny as time goes by how many changes we have all gone through and can find humor in every drama we have each experienced.
Amy's family happens to have a little house/stable near Blowing Rock so this is where I spent my weekend. Here is photo of one of the horses Froggy and although the photo does not show it, we slept in a little loft above three very quiet horses! Its nice to have a free place to stay in such a beautiful settings.

Amy and Laurel where real troopers with helping me get this whole thing set up. This is the second year they have helped me out. Hopefully we can make this an annual event since we all live up and down the East Coast now. These friends of mine have alot of funny memories about that first Blowing Rock they experienced with me when I was on a incline and was not a happy camper! The whole set up was held together with Bungee-cords and they managed to calm me down every time my racks looked like they where about the tumble over. No one actually knows what its like to haul tents, deal with bad weather and packing and unpacking a truck and they love to tell anyone who walks into my booth how hard it is to be a potter! ( In a joking manner that is....)

I think this is about the only serious photograph I have of these two gals. In fact, I think our whole row of craft men came by and remarked at how much the three of laughed that whole day. I'm sure of the conversations our next door neighbors heard where quit entertaining!

We did get a little rain that day but nothing too bad and the crowds still came out and bought pots so of course, it was all worth the journey there.

Above is a photo's of those tooth-brush cups I posted a few weeks ago. They where gone by the end of the day. All the butter dishes got sold and I think I have one tall vase left.

Its time for a little R&R for me. Joey and I will be heading up to Tenn. for a family vacation. This summer, once again, I've learned alot about my time at home with the kids and really how much I can get done. Next year I think I may change my show schedule a bit in the summer. I do have another Blowing Rock when a few weeks after I take a little break with the family. More on that soon.....

Why is Paws on the top of the car?

2010-07-16T18:05:00.003-04:00

Well Gary Rith has Penny and I have....Paws and Clayton. Paws decided she wanted to go along with me today to Blowing Rock. I'm sure she wanted to hunt a bit and than walk into my booth with a Grey Wolf or Mountain Lion, drop it at my feet and than demand that I feed her the usual dry food. This week Clayton delivered a squirrel underneath my wheel the very night and I was in and out turning up the kiln. Anyways...Aydan came out and said "Mom, why is Paws on the car?" She just blends right in with my tent - see if you can find her.

For some reason this go around, getting pots ready for Blowing Rock was a real challenge for me. I'm not sure I'll do this next summer but never say never. Many factors and yes...my pug mill is still not done. The clay I had to substitute with just turned out really bad! When I got it out of the bisque kiln it just felt grainy and not at all like porcelain. It didn't like my glaze much either but what could I do? I needed to make pots and had none of my porcelain to use. I did finally get some this week but of course it was to late. Once again, just par for the course when your a slave to your material. Here is the best thing that came out of the first kiln. I think I'll keep this one for some photo's next week.

And...........I'm off!

Odds and Ends of the weekend..

2010-07-11T12:05:00.003-04:00

I'm not sure if I posted this or not but our twins did finally get back into the school we applied for the end of this year so this weekend we had a little event at the new school that we attended. Big "YEH-HA" for that obstacle out of the way...

Yesterday I began the glazing process. Here is one of the twins joining me just after the kiln got unloaded. I didn't realize how many pots I had packed in that kiln over the last few weeks. I have another bisque kiln to load in a day or so, so I hope I'll be well stocked for my Blowing Rock show. ( Mckenna got a new beany baby this weekend so "Pinky" as she named her had to join in for a photo opp!)

Meredith from Why Not Pottery emailed me this morning to say that one of my boxes was featured in a blog by Tom Starland called Carolina Arts Unleashed. That was a treat!

http://carolinaarts.com/wordpress/

And my pal Amy Sanders sent me a interested article about Etsy that some of you may want to check out. As you know I do have a etsy site now. Its pretty small and I really haven't had any nibbles on anything but in all truth, I haven't done that much with it besides getting it up and going. That was a long awaited event in itself so maybe this Fall I'll put more time and energy into that.

http://sn111w.snt111.mail.live.com/default.aspx?n=1152215472

Until than, its Sunday and since the girls are playing nicely together and Quaid is at a friends house, I think I'll head back out to the shed for a bit more glazing!

TGIF

2010-07-08T23:37:00.005-04:00

I'm immersed in motherhood this summer. We have hit the age of siblings bickering, rivalry and trying to gain a little bit of Independence from mother. I heard a great interview the other day on NPA about "Free Range Kids". This interview was all about how we live in an age of the "helicopter parent" and we don't let our kids explore and just be a kid. I am all the time saying how I wish I could let Quaid and the girls just ride their bike all over town but instead, I make them stay close to home. By society and all those cop shows and the media has really done a number on us over the last 20 years! I'm still sort of digesting what the author of Free Range Kids was saying to see if I could cut that umbilical cord just a bit more.......

In the mean time, I found a few blogs searching around the net for motherly advise. I just like Eric Carle and a friend of mine had this one on her blog list as well.

http://ericcarleblog.blogspot.com/

http://unplugyourkids.com/

http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/

In the studio I'm still finding snip-its of time to work. Here are a few teapots from the other day. I finally got a bisque loaded last night and this weekend I'll do some glazing. Next weekend is Arts in the Park. Such a fun show to do!!

Finally found some creativity!

2010-07-06T23:14:00.003-04:00

Lots of photo's here today folks so get ready!

So, I think I sort am getting out of my pottery funk. I enjoyed playing with the libs to some butter dishes this weekend. Here are a few new "chicken's" or just long legged birds I came up with. Sort of fun but I'll know more once they get out of the glaze kiln.

Today Amy Sanders and I had a little Mud Mama's day out. Our pal Allison was suppose to meet us as well but had some car trouble so it was just us to talk shop and motherhood. We decided to meet up at the Daniel Stowe Botanical gardens, which is located outside of Charlotte. Great place to go with kids and parents! They usually have some pretty cool art once a year as well and this summer they have some wonderful chairs that the kids enjoyed trying out.

Here are my three along with Amy and Guthrie on a really nice modern bench. ( Sammy and I are taking the photo!)

Dirt couch complete with table!I love going to see all the wonderful shaped flowers they have. The colors are beautiful but the different shapes always give me new idea's for my pots.

Quaid is a boy who likes to lounge around alot..this hammock made out of tree trucks and steel is perfect for him!

The gardens have lots of fountains and the kids did get totally soaked today. We have had wonderful weather but today we were back up into the 90's and tomorrow I heard that we should expect high 90's. ( I'm not to happy about that!)

This chair was our favorite because it was made out of garden hose.

A sleigh..
And finally here are my toads....

In the afternoon I got back to work. Called the machine shop again only to be told that one of the repair men is on vacation and it may be three weeks before I get my pug mill back. Needless to say......now I'm in a sort of pickle since I have a show only two weekends away and only one bag of clay left. Guess I'll figure something out.....always do!

Whitewater fireworks

2010-07-04T12:47:00.004-04:00

We plan on a low-key July 4th here at the house on Sunday, but last night we had a blast at the US White Water center here in Charlotte!
This place is alot of fun and every time we go, I feel like I've been transformed to another town, like Ashville or Ithaca because there are lots of folks in hiking gear, ty-die and facial hair galore. We couldn't get over how crowded it was for a fireworks event on Saturday evening instead of actual date of July 4th. (I tend to forget that we live next to a major city because York is so little.)

The reason we chose to come on Saturday night was to avoid the crowds. This was not my doing...crowds really don't bother me mainly because my parents where big "crowd avoiders" when I was a child. Of course I felt like I missed out on lots of fun, even though I really didn't.

I think its funny how I married someone who hates crowds as well. I always like to tell my kids about what it was like when I was little seeing fireworks.

Below is Schoellkopf Field, at Cornell University. Here is where I spent my July 4th. This was my favorite event growing up because the whole family would go early in the evening to get a good seat, we'd wait and wait and wait ..than the Ithaca firemen would come hose down the field and they'd put on this elaborate ground show and than the big "boomers" would start around 9 or so. The only catch to this wonderful childhood memory was the my father, mid-way through the end of the fireworks would whisper that we had to go to beat the crowds leaving the stadium. I"d always say " but we'll miss the finally!" and he would say" you can watch them from the car". So I'd sit, backwards going out of the parking lot in wondering what I may be missing not staying that final 5 minutes of the show. Needless to say, since we've had kids, I've never allowed Joey to leave any firework celebration early no matter how big the crowds where. I also usually end up driving on the way home....

Getting there

2010-07-02T13:22:00.003-04:00

I'm slowly pulling out of my pottery funk. So funny how I think we all go through that. Atleast I know my pottery " pals" here do and its nice to have folks to talk to about it. I've been meaning to try some simple molds that don't need plaster so I played with these a bit yesterday while also making some lillie vases and butter dishes. We'll see if these pop out today. My pal Amy Sander was talking about how to do these awhile back so I thought I'd give them a shot. Pretty easy, just put some cooking spray in the mold, do some coils and they are suppose to pop out! If they don't, I'll be visiting with Amy on Tuesday so if I have any issues at least I can get right back to this idea next week.

Looking forward to July 4th weekend and the fact that it is Friday.

Feeling set in my ways...

2010-06-30T23:16:00.002-04:00

...have to admit I've been feeling a bit stagnant in my work cycle for a while. I've gotten sort of use to the production way of getting ready for a show. I sort of know what sells and I'm constantly just filling in the gaps. I can't really remember the last challenging form I've made even though I know I've tried stuff on a whim that has not come out pretty frequently this year. Still in all, I haven't gone for the gusto because I've been OK with bottles, mugs, tea bowls and large bowls. These items pay the bills and fill up my shelves.

So...what's the problem your wondering? Well, that old green eyed monster is back at it with me and I'm itching to get in the game and make some really cool pieces. Guilty as charged..I admit it...I like being in those shows you have to pay for and also cushion my resume'. The last thing I entered was the 500 vase book and after that I think I have been laying low - not really having the drive to really work for something awesome. I work to pay the bills and although this is not a bad thing and actually its a must in our house hold...its not why I make pots. I make pots for the challenge. At the moment I'm get bored and I need a change. I also need a little fire to get me going and nothing does that more than good old fashion competition. Once again...I admit it! I get out on a tennis court and enjoy the game, but I also want to look like I'm a worthy opponent. At the moment in my studio and pottery "life", I'm feeling sort of like the ref. who's on the side lines observing what all the other players are doing.

So, I guess this weekend, if my pug mill is home and working, I guess I'll turn the tunes up, ask Joey for a little time away from motherhood and than try to step up my game. We all need a little push at times. I'm so exciting we have a long weekend to do just this!

Fading fast.....

2010-06-28T23:15:00.003-04:00

I was commenting to someone this evening that I have a free week on the web to look for clay "stuff". My online courses are on hold due to summer break so I feel like I have some free time on the web to just play and see what I can find.

I had a pretty productive day in the studio because I hired one of my good friends teenage daughters to come over and play while I concentrated on my studio duties. I couldn't believe how much paper work I had gotten behind on! I had to pack up pots, send in some images for shows and do a good bit of trimming today. I wanted to take a photo of Harvey playing with the kids because she does such a good job but I couldn't really explain to her about my blog and I didn't want to look silly to a 15 year old. Today was one of those days I actually felt pretty thankful for living in a small town where I've really gotten to know my neighbors and can trust a handful of teenagers to come help me out when I need it. Last week one of my friends teenage boys baby sat the girls and did an amazing job. I was thinking how I hope one day Quaid may like to earn some extra money doing the same thing and I would hope since he's the brother of two girls, would be good at this. Most of the kids that help me out have parents who are either creative or have spent a bunch of time doing a variety of activities with them. It really shows in the games and activities they do with my children. Lots of made up games that require some good imaginations and I love this!

Here are some sauce pots that I'm waiting to stain in the morning. I thought alot about that spout and how the sauce ( like chocolate or syrup) needed a narrow spout rather than a large one to help get it from point A to point B. I figure that if the spout is really large, the sticky sauce may go everywhere and "plop" out. Once again, we'll have to do a trial run before putting these out for sale. I've learned some pretty hard lessons about functional pots and people who use them. Always test!

Back to the train of thought about surfing the web for cool pots............
Well, after doing my blog and playing on facebook a bit, I think I'll just go to bed. To tired to surf this evening!

The mole population..

2010-06-26T11:18:00.003-04:00

Last week was sort of like working when you have an infant. Only a few hours here and there while they sleep. I was in and out of my studio whenever I could get a break and little people where happy and entertained. I'm thinking I may have to go back to the days and getting a regular teenage "helper" on set days so I can get more done for my shows coming up. Guess I should find one that can drive since I have three people going to different camps on different weeks. Some days I think " what was I thinking!" But, we'll make it work somehow and I'll get my pots done and hopefully they will look good. ( And my kiln won't die at the last minute!)

I have lots of folks ask me for toothbrush holders. Now this is something I don't think I ever thought of making when I was dreaming up crazy serving dishes and anything that would make other potters go "cool idea"! But, everyone needs a place to keep their toothbrush and I needed some small items to fit around some big bowls that are going in the kiln. We'll see how they go over! The new clay I've been trying seems to take the black stain really well. I haven't attempted handles with this clay yet just because I'm afraid of lots of popping and I don't have time to spare for those sort of set backs.

Our cats have been extremely supportive of me this summer. I believe this is the 25th mole I've taken out of my studio since school has ended. Boy they love me! Only two bats so far this summer this because I've had alittle talk to them about that! You would think the mole population in our yard would ban together and move next door. I guess moles are not very smart......

When Joey is out of town he always tells Quaid that he is "the man of the house". What this means is he's responsible for removing all dead creatures that are brought to the house. He usually gets on a pair of rubber gloves, a shovel and wrinkles up his nose while I watch from the kitchen window!

Feels good to work

2010-06-24T09:51:00.003-04:00

I've been able to carve out some time in my studio most mornings and evening this week. It feels really good to get back to work.

Here's just one board of pots from last night. A little lightning bug decided to come in a sit on one of those mugs below. In the summer time I have all sorts of interesting bugs that visit me and thank goodness all the rotten floor boards in my shop got fixed about four years ago so the raccoons finally went away! The bugs don't bother me and the cats, for the most part keep themselves entertained with the bugs between naps and meowing to go in while my wheel spins around and around. The bags of recycled clay are mounding up. Here are just a few I haven't taken back to my shed yet. I have about 8 more out there! Today I'm hauling the pugmill to Rock Hill to see if a machine shop there can help me out. Fingers crossed!

I appreciate all the nice words and encouragement with my etsy site. I know its a little ruff but we are off to a good start. Like everything else there are all sorts of in's and out's to etsy that I'm not yet familiar with yet. I just wanted to finally get it up and running and after the next kiln load, I'll put more photo's up. Hopefully if work slows down for my tech guy, he'll be awake at night to keep things listed and check for all sorts of activity going on with all those etsy folks! I've been able to cut my computer time down with my online course and I'd like my computer time to stay that way so I can make more pots.

10am..time to make some beds and get out to work while everyone short and small is busy playing and reading! It seems we need Mom to come up with activities in the afternoon so I better get going!

Etsy up

2010-06-22T10:10:00.003-04:00

Last night Joey and I got my etsy site up and going. It still needs a little tweaking but I didn't have time to get all those wonderful, flowery description of my work written down yet. Soon, soon..I needed to run out and make some pots so my tech guy did the best he could.

At any rate, I am up and going with a few pots listed. In time we'll get the hang of it.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/jenmecca?ga_search_query=jenmecca&ga_search_type=seller_usernames

The pug mill is still not going....such a bummer. I called around town, no luck on finding someone who can help me out. Today I'll search around the phone book in the next town. So sad being without my pug mill!

You all have a good Tuesday!

Its all in pieces...

2010-06-20T10:39:00.004-04:00

I think that must be a lyric to a song of even the name of a pop classic. At any rate, it seemed fitting for my pug mill this weekend. I spent all day yesterday trying to get this thing fixed.

I did get out alot of aggression and I think I must have used some pretty good arm muscles in the process but the rusted barring won't move. DRATS! That barring, as you can see, is so stuck on there! I may try and wack it again some more today after it sat all night in some more WD40. I think on Monday I may have to call around town and see if anyone here can fix motors. What will do if I can't get this things fixed! POTTERY NIGHMARE!!I threw a few things with one of the new Standard clay bodies that I wanted to try. Its a very grey looking clay and pretty stiff. I think it may crack even more than the Helios I use but I"m not 100% sure about that yet. It may not even like the sprigs!

Happy fathers day to all the Dad's out there. We are planning on a little bit of shopping and some lunch today. I hope to get back in the studio tonight because Blowing Rock is right around the corner!

This week with my pug mill..

2010-06-18T23:01:00.004-04:00

So here is my barring issue with the pug mill. Doesn't it look like a bear to get off? Joey and I will be back on the case in the morning to see if we can get this thing totally apart and put back together with a new ball barring. This evening we had to go out and get ourselves some new tools for the task. Wish us luck! We are sort of like Laurel and Hardy whenever we have to repair something.... I did start throwing a few pots the other day. I got some new clay to try which is a Standard Mix ( 130) porcelain. Its firing range is cone 6 -9 so we'll see if it works for me at cone 7. As Mike at Carolina Clay said to me the other day when we were discussing my clay issues " Jen, your sort of in a special little category...."! He gave me a few other bags of stuff to try also so maybe I'll report back on those as well.

Below is a photo Joey found of a sea of eager parents at the new Charter school we are hoping to get back into. You can play " Find Waldo" and see if you can spot Joey and I. I'll give you a hint..we are the two with extremely concerned faces in the crowd!

This week I volunteered on and off at Quaid's Boy Scout camp. There he is, my little scout! I had to teach the "Art Badge" to a bunch of little boys his age. Raising a little boy has been such a treat and he's a lot of fun to have around and watch grow. Mothers and little boys are just a unique mix. Especially if they are your first born!

Things that consume my life....

2010-06-15T22:46:00.004-04:00

Naturally this blog has not been consuming my life, in fact, these days as I'm sure you all have noticed, its been sort of an after thought!
Yesterday I took a bunch of photo's and my goal today was to post them here on the blog. I'm actually sort of enjoying taking images these days. Its sort of challenge and I'm ready for a bigger and more complicated camera with more bells and whistles so I can really get this photo thing down to a science! ( Of course all with a manual.....)

My pug mill is in a million pieces this evening. The ball barrings needed replacing and if you've ever done that before..well, you know you have to take the entire thing apart. Little did Joey and I know that after about 2 hours of taking off bolts, getting clay out of it and trying to pry it loose that we still could not figure out what was holding it together. Once again...I think I may have to beg my Fix-it man in Shelby to help me out. ( I'm in the process of sweet talking him with some dinner via Facebook!) I guess until I can get my pug-mill back up and working, I'll have buy a few boxes of clay because I have lots to make for the month of July. The pots in these latest photo's where from pots I held back from my last kiln before the Larkspur show. Most of these images are being entered in various shows. There are other images that I'm saving for my etsy page. Yes, yes....its coming. Between my Tech man working more than 60 hours a week and myself consumed in mother hood and my children's education, the new website has taken a back set to even the blog these days. I do enjoy Facebook I have to admit and I keep up with my fan page. Some days that is all I can manage!I'm finding myself slowly falling into that pottery category of women who make pots but don't get as overly excited about new trends and famous potters anymore. I remember these same sort of "Part-time-Mother-Potters" that I use to meet at workshops when I was in grad school. You'd mention some great up and coming potter and they would just say "oh, yeah", like it was no big deal. In my mind I'd think "how could they be so calm about such awesome work". I know now that they where most likely thinking about how they were going to pay for dance lessons for their daughter or maybe the fact they couldn't apply for two shows in one month because they just wouldn't be able to find that amount of time to make enough pots for two shows. Yes, these are the things that now consume my life. Dance lessons, play dates, manners and school.

Joey and I skimped and saved to send our three to a wonderful private school for four years. It was great! Our only worry was the money aspect of it. Every year we'd wonder how we could keep it up. This year we got an opportunity, as I've said before, to send out kids to a new charter school in our area. They all three got picked in the lottery back in February. We weathered the storm of telling them they would change schools which caused lots of drama that was consuming for a few weeks. This weekend we learned that the charter school we were all set to send the kids too had to cut back from 1200 students to 600. Quaid made the cut but our twins are waited listed again......

Once again, my mind is consumed with what to do now that is best for our kids. Hard to think about pots in times like this. When your a female, I think you want to talk and gather as much information as you can on any tuff situation....I've been on the phone, checking website, emailing and just being a general stress ball about the whole thing. Night and day its all I think about.This saga will continue and in the mean time I need to tell myself that I have obligations to shows and folks waiting for work so I have to get back to work.

Maybe picking up some clay and turning on the tunes in my studio is just what this Pottery Mom needs!

Weekend....

2010-06-13T11:32:00.002-04:00

My mystery plants finally bloomed last week. I'll have to look them up and see what it was I actually planted! I've unpacked from last weekend, took a little break from work and am now waiting on some parts for my pugmill, which is in need of yet another repair.....
I'm also dividing pots up for photo's, shows and orders.

Our girls turned 7 on Friday. We took them and another set of twins to the Columbia zoo for the day. It was a fun adventure and they had a blast. Next week it back to business for me I hope. A weeks break from clay is long enough and I'm sort of antsy to get back in the swing of things. Many camps to drive people back and forth too but the children are pretty good at entertaining themselves for longer stretches than when they where 3 and 5 so hopefully I won't need to hire a babysitter while I try to get some work done during the afternoon and morning hours. We'll see how it goes! I know the summer break is a short one but mine is also packed with two other big shows so I can only enjoy part of the relaxation of having no kids in school for 3 months.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Barns with Platters

2010-06-10T10:02:00.003-04:00

My friend Blaine Avery has a wonderful post card with a shot of his studio, which looks like a big barn and he has all these platters hanging up on the side of this building. Its a great shot! I was chuckling to myself this weekend when I picked up his card at Larkspur and saw this image because I was thinking of my little kiln shed out back and the few platters I have hanging up on the outside. ( Maybe Blaine will send a photo of his shed so you all can see his photo...)

Last week I once again had platter woes with the small cracks in between the scalloped edges. I swore I let these platters dry slowly but the clay I guess just did not like the cuts on the side. Here is the amber platter in my wheel barrow. Yesterday I did some gardening and was transporting the platter from the shed to the house. Just thought I'd share.

Today I'm ordering a part for my pug mill and taking some photo. This evening Joey and I are going to see the play Wicked. I can not wait for another fun outing with my hubby!

...more from Larkspur

2010-06-08T21:19:00.003-04:00

Since I've done Larkspur for the last ...oh I think 11 or so years, I've always marveled, as does everyone else, how at 10 o'clock on Saturday the folks just run to any and all of the garden art that is for sale. The first few years I would just stick to bringing my pots to the show than I caught on that maybe some planters would be a good idea. These sold alright but it wasn't until 2 years ago that I finally just told myself that I needed some sort of item on a "stick".

The first year I did this, I made fish that looked like birds. I only made 6 of them and with in the first 15 minutes...they where gone. The most comical part to this story is the fact that since we all like to sit around and laugh at each other, that year I became the brunt of many jokes about putting anything I could find on a stick and selling it!

This year since I knew I had many great potters to compete with I once again came up with something on a stick for the garden art folks and boy did they fly out of there super quick.

Once again I was the brunt of alot of jokes....especially from my pal Brad Tucker so.......

Here you go Brad, one last gab about my houses on a stick!

Larkspur Stories and Photo's

2010-06-07T22:30:00.004-04:00

Larkspur once again was a ball! It was also really hot and full of people! No big deal about the weather because all that meant was that we drink a lot of water, get a little delirious and had a lot of good laughs together while we where selling our work. I think this year France had the most craftspeople than any other year. It was wall to wall tents everywhere around her wonderful gardens. Above is a photo of my tent and next to me is Tim Turners pots and paintings. Below is just a sneak peek at one of the my shelves.

The photo below sort of depicts what we do every year...basically sit under the shade and play musical chairs depending on which of us has a prospective customer in our booth that needs some attention. Other than that, we just sit under a big tree and talk shop and cut jokes back and forth at each other all day long. If you look closely you can see that Ron Philbeck made an appearance and looks like he fit right in on the banter back and forth!

Many of my friends where here but I only got a few booth shots that actually warranted some viewing up on my blog. Sorry goes out to Laura, Blaine, Betty, George,Jen, Brad and Lisa and so many more wonderful craftspeople.

My little helper that came with me ended up not wanting to tag along with Mommy for once. One evening of waiting around while Mommy put up the tent and hauled boxes back and forth from the truck was about all she could take. She ended up swimming, visiting with Grandma and some cousins and having all the attention one 6 year old twin could possibly want.

It was a great weekend! This week I plan on catching up on house stuff, yard work, some quiet time with my children and getting into the swing of the summer. Next week I think I'll start potting again...but you never know!

Heading out!

2010-06-04T11:41:00.002-04:00

Aydan and I have the truck all packed up and are heading out to Larkspur. I'll be coming home with some photo's of the weekend. If your in the Raleigh area please come by and say HI! Pots packed!

Peek in the kiln yesterday evening!

A few plates!

Hey...my mystery plant has blooms! Hope they are still around when I get back...
Aydan is very excited about her weekend with me. Her Zhu-Zhu pet is excited too!

From the kiln...

2010-06-01T23:29:00.002-04:00

Just a few quick images from the kiln. These bottles below where my favorites from this last firing. I think I'll keep these and enter them in a show. Guess its time to look through all those prospectives I sent away for last month! This is one of the cream and sugar sets I was working on. I still hate tray. Guess I need to find some great potter who loves making trays and take a workshop with them.
If your wondering what the little dish in the middle is for..well, everyone needs a tooth-pick.

Nice set a tumblers here. Someone asked for some smaller ones for their bathroom so I scaled these down a bit.

Last but not least is a teapot that I've grown found of. Well the shape is really what I like. Its hard to find a teapot shape that you like and works well. I think this one might be it for a while. I'll have to make some more next month.

I"m off to bed. I'm looking forward to getting on the other side of next Monday.

Memorial day weekend.....

2010-05-31T12:58:00.002-04:00

So Friday was my birthday and right when I was ready to start the day in my studio finishing up all these pots below....my husband showed up at the door and told me he took the day off of work so we could go visit the new Modern Art Museum in Charlotte called the Bechtler.

It was a wonderful museum and had a great collection of works I had never seen before and a few painters I was not familiar with. I can't wait to tell my Art 101 students about it because one of their final projects is to go visit a museum and do a compare and contrast paper about two different works of art. I have to admit at times I said I don't care for Charlotte but I have to admit that downtown Charlotte is very clean and we do have some wonderful museums and restaurants so I guess I shouldn't complain anymore!

After a wonderful lunch we both headed home and than Joey took over with the children while I worked more on finishing up things ( well...not quit finished..) for my up coming sale in Raleigh next weekend.

Between my birthday, a recital that our daughter had a little solo in and the fact that Joey has a three day weekend has been just the ticket for a great Memorial day weekend. Today I have a glaze kiln going and tomorrow another bisque will go in. On Friday, Aydan and I will head to Raleigh for The Larkspur party. Can't wait!!

Garden ideas

2010-05-28T08:31:00.003-04:00

For Larkspur the last few years I've always tried to come up with at least one garden item ( since it is a garden show...)This year I'm trying these little houses that will sit on re bar ( hope this is what or how your spell it!)

Little fun projects like this always keep me going. I think items for your garden are really cool and have endless possibilities.

Today a good friend of mine will be coming by for some tea and "chitter-chatter" while I work. Its my birthday and Debi has been really nice that last few years to always show up on my special day with a cake or just company. I'm always running around Memorial day weekend trying to get things made for this show and this weekend will be about the same.

We have two little dancers in the family so on Saturday my birthday treat from Aydan will be to watch her have a little solo in her dance recital. Mckenna will have her little proformance on Tuesday evening. Every Mom loves to see things like this and I get the extra special treat of have two little people perform!

Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day!

Craziness....

2010-05-26T09:34:00.003-04:00

Look at this crew. What a bunch...
I wasn't able to be at our opening last Friday but here are Ron, Julie and Amy in front of some of our work. They reported back that the opening was really great with wonderful food, live music and a good group of people. Hate that I missed it but I was home with three silly little girls having a sleep over. At any rate, once again, I love these guys....pottery friendships run deep and we've had some heartfelt times together and I look forward to alot more "silliness" and good talks about my favorite subject, POTS.
I"m really trying to hard to get a bunch of stuff made for my upcoming sale in Raleigh. My classes started back up again at York Tech and Joey's been super busy at work so I'm trying to hold it all together. I'll need a BIG glass of wine I think around the 7th of June!
Below are a few finished items and some in "process". Today I'm loading a kiln and heading out for a dance rehearsal. Aydan and Mckenna both have recitals coming up and last night was a choral concert. Can we all sing a round of "On the Road Again"?

......or perhaps one of Willy's tunes that talks about whiskey and wild, wild women because I think that may be more fitting in the days to come.

Sunday afternoon...

2010-05-23T17:13:00.002-04:00

Spent some time thinking alot of cream and sugar trays this weekend. Trays get me! I never know weather to make really fancy ones or a more simple version. It always seemed to me that if someone was going to actually use a cream and sugar set they would like a tray that is straight forward. The flip side to this is a really cool cream and sugar sets makes us want it that much more because its such a conversation piece.
So, that was where my head was this weekend and below are some things I came up with to suit both sides of my "brain".

Just an added bonus is this platter. I just can't give up on platters no matter how many issues I have with them.......

We had an eventful Friday and Saturday and today was spent just being at home. ( Which I tend to love doing!) The kids got to visit a new school that they will be attending next year. This has and will be an on going transition for our 3 children. Lots of drama for the next months coming up. Hopefully it won't last a year...but you never know with children.

Friday night Joey and I planned time together to watch Mad Men while I worked in my studio. I do have a TV and every now and again I can talk him into sitting in a lawn chair with a beer and enjoying a movie with me while I work. This Friday I didn't get much done because my "counseling" services where needed while one of my girls had a heart to heart about some feeling she was having. I was thinking today how when your a parents, working at home you have to stop everything and be flexible at that moment to help out your child. Much different to be "working" and in that thought process as opposed to doing house work and dropping that....

Just a parental observation from my perspective as a crafts person working at home.

( I still have not finished Mad Men but I did get lots done today while everyone was happy and occupied!)

Plates,bottles, Larkspur and "Cousins"..oh my

2010-05-21T09:41:00.004-04:00

I'm gearing up for my annual trip to Raleigh the first weekend in June. Once again I'm all excited about the 15th Annual Larkspur Party. I use to think it was sort off funny that Frances, the women who hosts this wonderful event called it a "party" and not a sale. But we have such a great time together its almost not even work!Look at this great cast of characters this year who will be selling wonderful things. An added bonus to this weekend is that Cousins in Clay is only about an hour and 1/2 down the road from us in Seagrove NC. If your a pottery addicted you can come to Larkspur on Saturday and than hop down the road to Cousins in Clay on Sunday! ( I was hoping cousins was on another weekend so I could go and get some pots from some of these folks!) My good friend Allison McGowen will be a guest along with Val Cushing. What a line up! Allison, along with Kyle Carpenter will also be showing with Ron, Julie, Amy and myself in the fall. More information to come about that sale.

All very exciting stuff going on in our next of the world here in North Carolina.Just a few photo's of stuff stuff in process. Dinner plates and bottles....Here is just a nice little grouping that came out of the kiln the other day.

So, I had no takers on those plants...guess I'll just have to wait and see what they do when they bloom.

I'm off to work a bit more in my studio. My online courses start back up on Monday ( sigh) I have to admit its been so nice just working away and being a potter. Back to the job of education! I hope everyone has a good weekend and if your in the Salisbury area, please stop by the show at Pottery 101.

Colored clay

2010-05-19T13:46:00.003-04:00

I mixed up some new ( and I guess old) colors of my colored clays today. I'm still deciding which hues work best with my glazes or glaze colors I should say since I'm looking for a new glaze body. I decided that I really like the orange, chartreuse and a deep blue/green. The verdict is still out on which pink I think works best and I thought about adding an old gold, which I'm trying in this next batch. If your curious about what % of mason stain I put into my clay body..well, I'm still figuring that out but I am keeping notes. Someone suggested I try a paper clay with my sprigs but I actually found it to be much more brittle than before. Perhaps I didn't have the correct amounts working together. If anyone out there has ever mixed up paper clay..I'd love some input!

On a domestic note, I'm dieing to work more in my gardens around the house. I've been taking about 1/2 hour each day just to weed a bit or plant a few more things. This has been a great spring for plants and I don't want to miss out on doing all I can to make the yard look great. If not for anyone, just myself else...

I remember planting these two "no name" plants last year but for the life of me, I can't figure out what they are. If any of you who garden can give me a hint, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I've had such a few great days just working and a bit less hectic existence. School is almost over for the children and boy are they ready, as well as Mom. They are squeezing out ever last once of energy to get down with stuff..especially Quaid. Education is so much differant than when I was little. Some good some not so good. I'm sure every can chime in on this subject.

On my facebook fan page this week I hit 500 fans, which was a goal I had for this spring. I have an opening Friday night, which I will not be attending but will send all my good vibes up that way while my pottery pals represent our new journey together. The kiln is going today so hopefully my glazes will be kind to me and I'll have some good images for you all to see!

Things are good!

Teasets

2010-05-18T23:09:00.003-04:00

Just a few things that I've been working on.
The Cleveland County Arts Guild, which is in Shelby, is hosting a juried show called "Made for Each Other". Here are a few sets I thought maybe I would enter. Today I worked on these plates and platters. I also made a few more test glazes so I hope they come out of the kiln with some good results. ( MUST GET NEW GLAZES!)

I'm stocking up on my normal inventory for Larkspur. I'm sort of stuck on what to make that is new and fresh or maybe I should say, old but impressive to go along with the normal mugs, bowls, tiles and bottles that sell the most.

Decisions, decisions......

Pottery 101-set up

2010-05-17T09:14:00.002-04:00

Ron and I headed up to Salisbury yesterday to set up a show at Pottery 101 called "Form and Surface - Four Perspectives". The show is at a great little gallery in the downtown and I was really happy with the space we got to transform and display our work in.

It really does take more than one eye when your combining four differant bodies of work!

Here are just a few shots of all the work combined on pedestals and the wall area. I think we spent the most time on the wall. Its hard to figure out vertical space when you dealing with plates, tiles and shelves!

This week I'm happy to report that I'm pretty free to work in my studio-which is always greatly needed. Last weekend was packed with all sort of events so I'm looking forward to a little down time.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend!

Interview and "Press"

2010-05-14T12:11:00.005-04:00

I've had a good week with other folks promoting my work. What a treat to not have to do all the leg work myself!Connie Norman, who's pot I'm sure you have seen on the cover of Ceramics Monthly, asked me a few weeks ago, if I'd like to do an interview . It fell around the time of my "bagel accident" but I finally did get some answers typed out last week. ( From all I wrote, I think it was clear my finger was feeling much better!) So, here it is! http://connienorman.com/blog/

I like Connie's pots alot and before I even put the "Pot with the Person", I saw the cutest photo of her and her little son Vander on my facebook fan page and happened to comment about it one day. She looks like a happy Mom! Her website is also pretty great if haven't checked it out yet. I love that her blog is called "Talking to Myself". ( I do that alot.....)

So, thanks again Connie for asking me some great questions that I haven't considered in a long time.

I also got a nice email from Amy Cook. She is a graphic designer who happened to write a entry on her blog about Potters who blog. If you are a blogger, you may like to look your name up. I think I saw a lot of familiar names listed.

http://graphicdesigndegrees.org/50-inspiring-pottery-blogs/

Its been a good pottery week. I've got a kiln going today and this evening ( get this) I'm spending the night at my kids school with 47 first graders. Two of which are mine. The first graders had to read over 1,000 hours this year and if they did, their teachers promised them a pizza/sleep over party at the end of the year. Guess who was one of the room Mom's for this end of the year party!?!?! Should be an interesting night.

.....for the record I couldn't talk Joey into taking my place.

Teapots

2010-05-12T20:16:00.003-04:00

Styrofoam is good something besides packing....

I haven't made teapots in a while so they where on my list of items to make this week. I may add some nice teacups to go along!

I'm enjoying just my studio time this week. Its been wonderful not having the responsibility of students this week.

I'm gearing up for the Larkspur show I do every year. I'll be posting lots of pots in the next few weeks...( I hope!)

Getting the new website together..

2010-05-11T13:40:00.004-04:00

Joey has been working really hard on putting my new website together. It will have an etsy page, mailing list, lots of photo's, a flicker ( flicka..whatever) account and my blog. He's also trying to get me to do a few video's. I sort of just wanted one with me throwing to music but he'd like me to come up with a how-to video. I'm not really sure what to demo in sections but if any of you have any suggestions please feel free to let me know.
(I think a few words of crazy wisdom about motherhood could be added as well. Maybe my daily back and forth with my children in and out of my studio door. I think my advise would be more like that of the Erma Bonbeck of the craft world...but Joey won't go for that. )

We where playing around with photo's this weekend and Joey took some cool shots looking through my finished pots. Here is Quaid getting some input on a cartoon he was drawing. For anyone who has purchased my work in that last two years you know that I write on the bottom of my pieces about what is going on in my world. I thought it would be a cool idea for my new website to have a photo of me drinking from a cup that said "Read my Blog" on the bottom of it.

We had a few technical problems with that...mainly the style of my mug and my nose! Joey and I have a lot of jokes about my nose..all in fun. I'm half Italian and look just like my Dad so nothing else needs to be said about that really...

Maybe next week we'll try again at a different angle.

I'm trying to get some good work made for an upcoming show in Salisbury NC, called Pottery 101. The teapots are taking a LONG time!

Monday and the weekend...

2010-05-10T13:07:00.002-04:00

Today I got on the ball and printed out some applications for juried shows. I haven't applied to anything like this in over a year due to my "photo" situation I guess. The other day I decided I needed to get back into the game, spend some money and get into some shows around the country. It was a busy weekend for us with my Mom's party on Friday, Joey having some co-workers over for dinner on Saturday night and mothers day on Sunday. My only request for mothers day was to have no responsibilities for anything but myself and for the most part, I got my wish. Breakfast in bed, the paper, lots of hugs, handmade cards, a walk with my son and alone time in my studio. It was bliss!

We had a wonderful party for my Mom on Friday night and I managed to surprise her with all her co-workers and my sister family who showed up from Raleigh for the occasion. This was also sort of send off for us. Our children go to the same school my mother teacher for and next year we will be transferring to a new charter school near by. We have loved, loved, loved Gaston Day School but for many reason, none of which the wonderful education nor environment this school offers...well, we needed to move on. Nothing is better than a huge birthday cake!

Just a few shots in the studio......

Back to work some more this afternoon.

Why I blog...

2010-05-08T22:57:00.004-04:00

I felt the need to sit down and blog this evening. I guess I really haven't felt like I've had much to share in the way of pottery these last few days because I've only had very small amounts of time to run out to my studio. I feel guilty or a bit silly I suppose just taking photo's of the few mugs I've finally gotten handles on or spoon jars I've finished. Today I did get a few teapots thrown but spent most of the time moping my studio floor because my husband was having some fellow employees over for dinner and didn't want my studio to look a total wreck.

A few months ago I was asked to be part of a show coming up in October called "Clay and Blogs: Telling a Story". Meredith Heywood of, " Why Not Pottery" put together this wonderful show and I was so thrilled to be asked to join in with ( I believe) 50 other blogging potters. Meredith asked each of us if we could at some point write about why we blogged and since I've sort of had one of those weeks when I didn't feel like I had much to say or really any time to think about blogging, I thought "well, why do I keep up my blog?"
This photo of me above and that little boy in the background is the best reminder to me why I started blogging.

Being A New Mom:
Back when Quaid was born and I had just finished grad school I didn't really know any other Mom's who where craftspeople and I sort of felt a bit like a minority in a sea of fresh faced potters trying to make their mark in the ceramic world. As we all know, it takes a lot of effort and time to get your name out there and produce good work. I know when I was in school being able to work non-stop on one piece from 9am to 5pm was sometimes what I needed to really think about what I was trying to accomplish. For the last 9 years I can count on my hand maybe 5 days I've felt like I've even come close to a day like that in my studio. This really is not a complaint, it is just an observation on my part and one that back in 2000, when Quaid was born, never crossed my mind as being an obstacle in keeping up a career in ceramics.

The first year of Quaids life and trying to keep up with my studio work was a challenge. I basically had to figure out on my own how to keep him on an exact schedule and work in spurts around his eating and napping time. There where some days he'd sit and bounce around on the dryer for 1/2 hour while I trimmed bowls or finished up some mugs. ( My first studio was in our laundry room on the back porch).

I did have a support system with other mothers in the area where I could talk about baby issues and things like that but it was difficult for me to try and explain to these same women why I had to keep my pottery business going. Its hard to explain to someone who is not a creative person why you need that time to "make stuff" and create. I think most of us who are parents can feel a bit guilty about not spending as much time as possible with our children. We have a little voice in our heads pulling us in another direction at those times when little people just want us all to themselves. I am the first to raise my hand as a person who suffers from this quite often.

Starting my blog:
Joey was really the first one in our family to start blogging. He wrote about our family,had great photo's of the kids and somewhat strange observations about life. Most of his friends read the blog and whenever I added something to it, he'd sort of edit what I'd say and we'd go back and forth at what "our blog" was really about. About the same time Joey started our blog, my friend Ron Philbeck started his pottery blog and Joey decided this would be a good marketing tool for my work. After about a month of bloggin, I knew it was a great way to purge my thoughts about making pots and being a Mom at the same time. This way I'd connect with other women, or parents out there who where trying to juggle the same sort of issues I was.

What I've found...
Not only does this blog connect me to other Mom's/parents but I've also learned so much from readers comments and I've met so many nice people. It has been a super networking outlet for someone, like myself, who tends to be a wall flower at conferences and workshops. Talking to people on the Internet and not face to face is a whole lot easier for the socially awkward at heart!

In a way I dive off a cliff with no bungee cord when I put my thoughts and feelings out for people to read. Being someone who is so extremely dyslexic and allowing the world to see my lack for catching typo's and mis-spelled words is just extremely brave...( or at least it is to me!) I use to keep a diary until my sophomore year of college when I found my roommate reading it aloud to some of her friends one evening. I pretty much stopped writing for quit awhile after that. Strange things about being an young adult and not wanting anyone to know your vulnerabilities and than being a mother and wife and wanting to share your faults and fears!

Final thoughts...
So, I do really enjoy writing on my blog. I may not always have the greatest photo's on here and my posts at time can ramble on about many trips to school or my lack at getting anything done in my studio for a number of days. But if keeps me motivated to connect to other folks who make pots, have children or just like ceramics, well I than I guess this whole blogging adventure was a side road adventure in place of spending a 9-5 hour workday in my studio.

PS. Don't worry, the girl who read my dairy out loud...well, Karma does have a way of sneaking in!

Cinco De Mayo to you!

2010-05-05T12:28:00.004-04:00

Happy Cinco De Mayo folks!

I'm getting ready to head to my twins classroom this afternoon with a huge plate of fruit screws. I'm one of the Mom's hosting a Cinco De Mayo party for the 1st graders. Don't these look good!Its also my Mom's 70th birthday today so I've been planning a huge surprise party for her. My Mom is great and has been a super role model for me. I could not have asked for more support/guidance through out my life so spending some of my time putting together a celebration for her is the least I could do. She is also finally retiring from over 45 years of teaching. If it wasn't for her sticking up for me and my dyslexia issues I probably wouldn't have ever gone to college. So..I guess since Mothers Day is around the corner. Here, Here for my mom!

Just a few shots of things from this week. Batter bowls and plates.

I have mugs and tiles drying as well. Its nice to almost have my finger back in work order!

On the mend...

2010-05-03T10:32:00.002-04:00

Saturday afternoon I tried my hand at throwing somethings. It was little awkward but I managed to make a few cups and some batter bowls. Typing is still pretty hard. You never understand how much you use your the pointer finger on your left hand....the letters "T,R E, Y and G" do come up a lot. ( Try it today if you have nothing better to do...)

Below is a bowl with the new glaze I've been trying to switch over too. I think I've talked before about my glaze recipe and how it has some "properties" about it that I'm starting to get a bit weary of. I've been playing around with a few recipes lately. I like this one but the crazing is a bit worrisome. My normal glaze does craze but in an all over pattern, which is alot like a true celadon so I've come to like that. This glaze below has a random craze pattern that I don't care for so much and worries me. I'm reading up on how to help this issue, so we'll see what I find. I unloaded a kiln this weekend so here are a few quick shots. I'll be taking some photo's in my trusty "photo cube" later this week.

Hope everyone is staying dry. Its a gloomy day here which is Ok for a Monday in my book!

Friday..

2010-04-30T11:40:00.002-04:00

Just wanted to say hello.

This week has been my catch-up week for my Mom/Family stuff. I'm slowly making some clay, glaze tests and odds and ends before getting back in the swing of things. Today I took the huge bandage off my finger but typing is still sort of awkward.

My tech guy has been very busy working on my new website, blog, flicker and yes etsy account this week. Guess I need to make more pots if I want to sell some on etsy..right? Anyways, he's doing a great job and maybe by next week we'll be making the big switch to the new format. Very exciting!

Off to do a bit more work before heading to school to get the kids and take them a little run around the park. The weather is awesome here!

Images

2010-04-28T14:00:00.003-04:00

Since I can not type a whole lot or throw, I spent today taking photo's of a few things. Here are a few I liked the best. I think my eye's are sort of going cross trying to find the right shot in a series of about 10 different views, color choices and background hues as well. I'm just trying to get it just right. ( Maybe I should put on my glasses...)

Below is a close up of a box you'll see below Amber bottle with pink floral sprigs.

I played around with some of my flowers from the garden.

I love this little guy!

The finger is all taped up. Not sure if I should have gotten stitches or not. ( I"m such a chicken when it comes to any sort of pain). I once crushed my middle finger on my right hand in a garage door right before Fall semester my last year in grad school and I was up to be a grad instructor for throwing that year. I did learn how to throw with my middle finger sticking up the whole time. Needless to say I was the brunt of many jokes that semester.

Yikes!

2010-04-26T22:18:00.002-04:00

Years ago in design school I sliced this very same finger with an exacto knife...today it was with a kitchen knife while cutting a bagel. Not to much typing or pottery making this week I fear! I remembered how painful the last set of stitches where so I opted out of them this go around. Good thing I had others plans this week.

Aydan gets her frogs..

2010-04-25T22:55:00.004-04:00

For those of you who followed my pollywog's drama, here is her tank. She is sharing it with her sister and brother. We have five baby frogs and they all have names! ( I'll have to find those out again....in fact I think they may change on a daily basis! This drives brother crazy!!)

Last night and today was so great just hanging out with my gang. Last night we watched The Fabulous Mr. Fox and today we went to play at the kids school. Good times.

Tomorrow I'm going to take some photo's of my recent pots. Can't wait to see if I remember all the steps from last week.

Got a rejection letter from 500 vases yesturday. Boy that hurt! And those where professional images so as we all know, its all so subjective. Back to the drawing board. I would really love to get more photo's in some how-to books or something along those lines. If anyone out there knows of any publisher looking for entries, I would love to know!

Good night all...

"Trunk" out come...

2010-04-24T22:25:00.003-04:00

I had a great week with my kiln!Strange statement I guess but some weeks my glazes and kiln just work the way they are intended to, all uniform, not to much running and an even temp. all the way around. Other times...well not so well and I need to re-fire stuff. ( This is why I'm still looking for that magic glaze that will do it all for me!) Until than, I'll just keep working with what I have. I know I'm THIS close to getting the glaze recipe I want. So I packed up Friday and headed to Charlotte with a nice selection of work. I had a great weekend hanging out with my old friend Lisa Oakley and her brother and sister-in-law that hosted this event for us.

I have to admit we did not have the traffic as in previous years but we had a such wonderful time drinking wine, chatting and eating that even if we were not brimming over with visitors, it was OK.

Here are just a few shots of Lisa's glass and some of my pots mixed in. We pretty much took over the whole living space besides the bedrooms. I couldn't get photo's of all the spaces that had either glass or pottery displayed on them but I did manage to snap a few.

I really think these small intimate shows work well in this sort of economic climate. Someone invites you to set up in their home, they invite friends along with your customers and in return you give them a piece of work or maybe a discount of some sort for all their effort and generosity for letting you use their home.

As I said, we didn't have a banner sale but I did manage to sell some work and Lisa took some pieces back to Cedar Creek so it was a win, win situation for a really busy month of getting everything fired and thrown. Its onto my next two shows in May..can't wait!

Trunk Show

2010-04-23T09:28:00.003-04:00

I will be in Charlotte this evening and tomorrow for a Trunk Show hosted by Claire Oakley. If you in the area please come by and say Hello!

April 23-24 Friday Night , 6-9 Saturday, 10-2

Claire Oakley 4918 Crooked oak Lane Charlotte NC 28226

704 365-4735

I'm heading out to pack the truck and unload a kiln! I finished teaching at Winthrop yesterday and I am looking forward to visiting with friends this weekend. Sometimes show don't seem like work when you are sounded by old friends and a little glass of wine!

You all have a wonderful weekend out there in cyber world!

A Day In the Life

2010-04-21T10:12:00.006-04:00

Most morning when I get up the song "Another Day" runs through my head..you know the one by the Beatles?

Ev'ry day she takes a morning bath she wets her hair

Wraps a towel around her as she's heading for the bedroom chair
It's just another day
Slipping into stockings, stepping into shoes
Dipping in the pocket of her raincoat
It's just another day

At the office where the papers grow she takes a break
Drinks another coffe and she finds it hard to stay awake
It's just another dayDu du du du du du, it's just another day

Du du du du du du, it's just another day

I"m sure I could change the words around a bit to fit my life but some days, the words just ring in my ears.

A day in my life goes something like this....( or it did yesturday..)

Up with kids at 6:30 getting ready for school. Late getting out the door and the twins remember the Pollywog's that their Dad got for them. Aydan already has pollywog's in her classroom and her teacher very nicely declines having more. Mckenna does not have pollywog's and her classroom and at the last minutes insists we bring a jar of them to school. Aydan is upset, mom is tying to find a jar, pollywog's can't be caught.....we get to school a TAD bit late and unload the car with one little girl with a long face.

Mom drives home with a heavy heart...Time to open and peek in the glaze kiln. Looks pretty good...one bowl ran...Many morning chores to get done.....The laundry for five people never ends and takes over our entire hallway... ( this is where I start humming the song again..."Its just another day...humm humm, humm, humm..)Time to grade and check in on my art history student. Something was in the air this semester because I had to put out alot of fires which required alot of my free time. I have to say all my experience from being the mother of three little people has been the best training for handling 20 year olds this year. Who would have thought the same techniques in discipline and guidance would apply?!?After a quick lunch I'm off to my clay class at Winthrop. I brought in some pots to illustrate good handles, rims and spouts. Off I go for 3 hours to put out a few more fires and wrap up things for the end of the semester. We have a good group of students at Winthrop and I'm happy to be there. Run back to Gastonia to pick up my kids -here's my "polliwog girl" at a happier time. All turns out fine by the end of the school day and we are back in York doing homework, chores, bath and dinner and bedtime. ( Somewhere in the mix my husband does come home and is a huge help!)In the evening I'm back to glazing some pots and working on getting the next batch to go into the bisque kiln.

Dah, Dah, Dah, Dah, Dah, Dah...its just another DAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!

Stuff coming up..

2010-04-19T09:28:00.002-04:00

I have a few sale's and shows coming up soon.
Below is some information about the Truck show I will be participating in this weekend. Lisa Oakley is an old friend of mine and every year her sister-in-law is kind enough to host a wonderful sale/show at her house. Please check out Lisa's website. She is a glass artists and makes some really nice vessels and jewelry. In May my pottery partners in crime have a great little show in Salisbury NC. I love the title of the show because I think it fits the four of us just perfectly!

....just a little snap-shot of new tumblers going into the kiln today. I'm heading out to work! Hope you all had a great weekend.

Pots cooked ...pots ready to go

2010-04-17T18:01:00.002-04:00

I've quickly snapped a few photo's recently...just haven't gotten a chance to get one here to post them. But here are a few pots out of the bisque kiln. These are a few more covered pots with those fancy colored clay knobs.

Here a few small versions of my Lillie vases. I thought it would be a good idea to make a few small versions of these.

Its getting to be the end of the school year for my children and my classes. What these means for me is lots of end of the year assembly, lots of homework for that final push and trying to keep the spring fever at bay. For my college students...well this semester it means many folks worried about their grade after the fact and final exams to work out. I'm not really sure which set of "kids" take up more of my studio time to be honest!

Next weekend I have a show with my good pal Lisa Oakley. More on that in a few days.

Just had a great bike ride with Quaid and the girls are outside catching bugs while my wonderful husband whips up some dinner. I'm trying to talk him into a little wine and relaxing on the swing this evening because lately we both have been going full force. Days just spent at home can be the best days I've decided!

Here's a happy little drawing by Aydan below. I wish I could walk around some days with glitter in my hair!

Wow!

2010-04-15T09:58:00.002-04:00

Thanks everyone for your comments on the my photo adventure. I did send images in for an upscale show near by so we'll see if they make the cut.
I'm busy getting ready for the Trunk Show next weekend here in Charlotte. Today is my teaching day so I'm sort of pressed for time.
Thanks again, and I'll be checking in again soon about my show next weekend. I'll be posting some images soon of "pots in process".
Later!
Jen