Backyard Mudslingers Pottery Studio

Studio Sale

2011-12-01T18:25:00.004-07:00

It's that time of year again! I'd love to see you if you can stop by!

Hello again!

2011-10-24T12:56:00.004-06:00

Let's face it - I'm a terrible blogger. It's just not on my top 10 list of things to do. This past year has been great and challenging, busy and fun. I've spent tons of time playing with my family which is always good. I have been working a bit too. I have been awful at photographing what I've been working on so here are a few pics of what are on my shelves this second.

These bowls are about 4" in diameter and are lovely breakfast/salad bowls.

These little stacking bowls are small, 2.5" to 3.5 " in diameter, about 2 - 3 " tall.

Mixing/pouring bowls. I have to stay I was pretty excited with how these turned out. Maybe because I was imagining making pumpkin bars in them.

Plates and bowls. The plates are around 6-7" in diameter. Good dessert or salad size. The bowls are 3.5-4" in diameter. It's fun to hold the bowls and feel the contrast in glazes. The blue is glossy while the white is matte. Each texture is a little different.

Thank You!

2010-12-11T11:41:00.002-07:00

I'm a bit slow getting back to the blog after a few hectic weeks. I've been working some more, getting a few pots made for Christmas and realized I hadn't said thank you! Thanks much for coming to see me at the boutique and my open house! I really appreciate your support. I love making pots and I'm glad you love using them. It's fun to see who chooses what. As much as I want to I can't keep them all so I'm happy they can be put to good use by you. Know that each pot is made with love (is that too sappy?). Hopefully you all are enjoy this wonderful holiday season!

Butter!

2010-11-20T08:22:00.000-07:00

I saw a post about butter dishes by a potter named Keith Phillips. They were amazing. I thought I'd give them a try. I like how mine turned out but I don't think I'll make them on a regular basis. I also made a tray like the base of the butter dish. These are going to be fun to use.

The fun continues

2010-11-17T08:14:00.002-07:00

A few more bowls and vases that I'm pretty happy with. It has been so great to spend so much time in the studio this month. I've done my best to keep my days free so I could work. I don't anticipate having this much time each month but it sure has been nice!

Hello Fall!

2010-11-10T08:36:00.001-07:00

A few more flower platters to help me remember how much I love the warmth of summer!

Just can't get enough

2010-11-06T08:42:00.002-06:00

I know where all my spare time will be going during November. December is coming & with it the hustle and bustle that I so enjoy. But the hustle and bustle means less time in the studio so that means as much time in there now as possible. What a lucky gal I am!

Can you believe it?

2010-11-01T08:55:00.003-06:00

Happy day for me when I opened the kiln and took these out! Not only did my new glazes work but I also (and more importantly) like them. I'm loving the texture on the pots. I need to spend more time in the studio. So off I go.

It's finished!

2010-10-25T08:55:00.002-06:00

This post has nothing really to do with pottery and everything to do with the backyard. And since the backyard plays such a large role in my life I think I'm going to spend some time talking about it. At the beginning of the summer (actually it was still spring and felt a little like winter) we decided to embark on a new project. I have to admit there was a bit of reluctance on the part of the builders but I managed to beg, plead, cry and guilt them into working on this little piece of heaven.
Brian wanted to plant some grapes and grapes need support so naturally we needed to build an arbor with a swing and benches to support those grapes, right? Now when I say we I need to clarify that Brian did not want to be the builder - couldn't someone else do it? Of course and wouldn't the best person to hire be one of my talented brothers? Obviously the answer was yes! Kevin was the MAN! I had an idea of what we wanted and so we got started. The foundation was dug and cement poured in some choice spring weather - I can't remember ever being that wet and muddy. I have to state that I was very helpful digging holes and mixing cement. Then came the shopping (I was helpful there too) and the actual construction (I wasn't so helpful there).
Plans changed because wouldn't it be better if we did this instead of that? Poor Kevin, poor Brian. The redesign added a bit of stress but so worth it! Since we were kind of making it up as we went Brian ended up building more than he initially wanted but he sure looked like he enjoyed doing it so I didn't feel too bad. Kevin, perfectionist that he is, I think liked having someone else to share the stress with. Anyway they worked hard. Kevin put in a lot of hours and yeah! It was built in time for summer parties!
Summer, as you know, is hot and busy. Who wants to stain an arbor in the heat? Not any of us that's for sure. Besides it was time to play too. Finally school started, the weather cooled down and the pressure of fall/winter came. Kevin came again to stain. I finished the staining. Brian finished the last bit of securing the top slats and hallelujah it's finished! It looks beautiful! It's a fabulous addition to the backyard. Nice job Kevin and Brian!

Greedy

2010-10-15T12:15:00.002-06:00

This red crock is one of the few things that I've made specifically for myself. I made a few crocks and glazed them all different colors. When the small red crock came out of the kiln I knew that I would be keeping two, not one like I had planned. The bowl I'm not keeping but I sure do love that color!

Progress

2010-10-08T17:31:00.003-06:00

There are so many different styles of pottery it's hard for me to figure out what I like looking at and what I like making. I have a few pottery blogs that I look at regularly along with a bunch I stalk occasionally. It's astounding to see how talented so many people are. When I find some work that I especially enjoy I copy it a bit to see how it fits in with what I want to do. The past 2 days I've been working on some bowls & a vase that are my first experiments with another artists' work. I'm pretty excited with how they look so far.

Glazing will be a bit tricky for me since I seem to run out of interest when it's time to glaze. However I'm going to do my best to take my time and enjoy glazing these. I'll post the finished product in a few weeks!

Summer's End

2010-10-02T09:13:00.002-06:00

So my good intentions the other day got thrown out the window. My friend called and wanted to go on a bike ride. How could I say no when it was such a beautiful warm sunny day and who knows how many opportunities like that am I going to get over the next 8 months. I must admit one of my big distractions with throwing this summer has been my outdoor activities. There is only so much time in a day and only so many days in the summer. It's best to be out as much as possible. But I have not been a complete pottery slacker. I have been doing a little work. Not much but more than nothing.

Cereal bowls and cups. Now that my warm sunny days are numbered, soon to be replaced by chilly winter days it's time to start stocking up on containers that hold body warming goodies - hot oatmeal, hot soups, hot beverages. Next week will be fallish and rainy. I think I'll start filling my containers with all those hot yummies now.

Remember Me?

2010-09-29T10:41:00.003-06:00

Hi all. No I haven't disappeared from off the face of the earth. I've been busy, just like you. But now that the girls are back in school and my vacations are over I should have a couple uninterrupted hours a week to spend in the studio. Doesn't that sound divine? I thought I'd real quick show you my new business cards and then go get to work. Of course since it's been so long since I've posted anything my real quick has turned into awhile and cut in to my studio time. Good thing I have a lot of patience. (That should have made a couple of you laugh, maybe just Brian). Enjoy your day!

Red, Blue, Brown & Multitasking

2010-04-26T12:02:00.002-06:00

I finished my mugs awhile ago & did not get around to showing them to you. Sorry. It turns out that I'm not a very good blogger. My mind is usually going in a thousand different directions and I forget what I was planning on doing while I do 20 other things.

I used to think I was a good multitasker but I guess that is only true for some of my tasks. Other tasks require my complete attention.

You can tell by the glazing which mugs had my full attention and which ones were being multitasked.

In the process of multitasking and forgetting about the blog I sold a third of my mugs before taking after pictures. Maybe I'll be better with my next assignment.

Work in Progress

2010-03-30T14:48:00.002-06:00

One of the pottery blogs I read gave out an assignment which I was anxious to try. It's nice to have a little push every now and again to try new things. The assignment was to make 12-50 of the same pot (mug, bowl, vase, etc.) but have each one of them different than the others.

I loved doing this! So fun to try. I found that I need to do this again. Now these mugs are not finished, they're not even all the way dry. Some mugs I love, others I like and some I'd be happy to throw away - but I'm not going to. I'm going to fire all of these and then experiment with glazes. I almost don't want to do anything with them, I love having them on the counter looking at me. They feel so hopeful to me.

Summer or Fall Flowers

2010-03-19T14:19:00.000-06:00

When I choose glazes I tend to gravitate towards darker colors. These platters are largish (12" diameter). I enjoy the textures on them and the variety of colors. Again, they don't feel springy to me, only fall/winter. I'm going to have to do something about that. Well not about these platters in particular but about brightening up my glaze choices. Sounds like it's time to do a little shopping.

Cloudy Bowls

2010-03-12T14:06:00.001-07:00

Now these bowls really aren't cloudy at all. They just feel cloudy to me. I like the grey/blue color but it reminds me of winter not spring. Have I mentioned that I am ready for spring? Soon I'll be outside digging in the dirt, bemoaning the fact that I didn't properly care for my flower beds last fall. I look out my front door at my pretty little purple crocus trying their very best to outshine the bountiful green weeds all around them and think of sun and heat. Soon, very soon it will be sunny all the time and I bet then when my eyes are tired to the brightness I'll really appreciate my cloudy bowls.

Iron Lustre

2010-03-05T14:10:00.001-07:00

Continuing with my food thoughts from last post, I want bright red apples in this bowl.

Faceted Bowls

2010-03-01T14:00:00.000-07:00

I made some bowls to match my faceted mugs. I think these would be great for soup. Again, I'm feeling cold so hot soup is on my mind. I can't tell you how often I look at my pots and wonder what would taste good in them. I promise I'm not hungry each time I write a post but I do love to think about what would taste and look yummy in each pot. I'm thinking the orange of potato cheese soup or the dark red of chili would look nice next to the blue/green of these bowls. What do you think?

Where does the time go?

2010-02-22T13:39:00.003-07:00

A new blog post was on my list of things that I was definitely going to accomplish today. I don't know about you but I always have a few lists going on. A new blog post has been on many of those lists but never the definitely going to do list. It's hung out on my "if I have time today" list and the "it would be nice to do this" list and even on the "oh my word it's been a long time since that has been done" list. Eventually most things make it to the "definitely going to accomplish today" list, even if those things haven't been taking up space on my other lists for very long. For example, when I thought about my definitely going to do things today, I threw in clean some windows even though that was not on any of my lists, just a mild disturbance in my head when I tried to look out said windows. So yeah for me and my lists! And especially yeah for these cups!

It's a bit chillier than I'd like right now so having some hot chocolate in a cup that feels so nice in my hands has made it on my definitely going to accomplish today list. Hot choc just might be on that list every day this week!

Red

2010-01-15T16:40:00.004-07:00

I have a new red glaze that I LOVE! I've only tried it out on handbuilt pieces. I'll see what I think of it on some wheelthrown work later. My new year's resolution for the studio is to photograph my work in more favorable conditions. It's difficult for you to see what I see because of bad lighting and background. So there it is - a goal published in a public forum. I'll surely keep it now!

Here comes the Sun(flower)

2010-01-09T16:24:00.003-07:00

Winter is just barely here and I'm thinking about sunflowers. Great big bright sunflowers. Brian planted a bunch 2 years ago and they wanted to take over the garden this summer. It was so fun to have them popping up all over the place. The birds and bees loved them. The kids loved them. I loved them. When I'm freezing cold - which I am often these days - I like to think warm thoughts. So here's a little reminder that even though winter has just gotten started, summer will make an appearance again.

Appetizers or Desserts

2009-12-20T11:08:00.000-07:00

My mom and I were discussing pottery and she suggested I make some relish trays with separate compartments. I thought about it and then saw a video clip of a potter making an appetizer tray and decided to try doing some myself. They were so fun to do!

The glaze turned out awesome. It is gratifying to have something work how you want it to. Many times what you want is not what you get. A lot of those times you get something better.

I am ready to start filling these up with all kinds of Christmas goodies!

Flower Girls

2009-12-15T11:00:00.003-07:00

This hand built flower shaped bowl is a quick and easy project for anyone, especially for those who have not played with clay before. A group of 15 12-13 year old girls and their 2 leaders came over for a night of fun.

They did a great job and left with some pretty nice bowls. It was fun to see how different the bowls turned out.

Come see me!

2009-12-10T10:55:00.000-07:00

Pasta anyone?

2009-10-30T15:33:00.000-06:00

Harvest is over. I have some yummy spaghetti sauce in the pantry, complements of my heirloom brandywines, silvery furs and romas.
When draining all that water off my pasta in preparation for saucing it up these colanders/strainers come in quite handy. One day when I feel particularly ambitious I'm going to make homemade egg noodles, drain them in my homemade colander and serve them with my homemade sauce. Right now I feel that 2 out of 3 is ambitious enough. I guess if I'm looking for bonus super mom points I'll serve the pasta in some homemade bowls.

Edgey Mugs

2009-10-23T15:22:00.002-06:00

I tried out a new technique I read about in Pottery Making Illustrated. The potter who wrote about it has some pretty incredible looking work. I've a long way to go for that but I do like these mugs with edges. They remind me of the Mad Hatter.

I've mentioned before that my handles have been needing some attention. I'm happy with the attention these have received. Handles are starting to make sense to me. Happy day!

Hungry?

2009-09-18T08:06:00.002-06:00

It seems that we are hungry here. We are in desperate need of chips and salsa.

Brian has discovered the joys of tomatoes. Well, not really. He is not too fond of the red fruit and was very supportive of me when I planted 20 tomato plants this spring. He even figured out and put together a watering system for all those plants.

Now that we've had many tomatoes ripen and I've made spaghetti sauce, Brian has become a salsa maker. He's made a few batches and bottled some for later.

Now it's chips and salsa around here all the time.

Good thing we have something to put it in!

It's muggy inside

2009-09-10T12:52:00.002-06:00

More mugs. Can you believe it? I don't know what has possessed me but I just want to make mugs. I think it's that I'm starting to feel more comfortable with handles. Handles are tricky for me. I know it's my lack of experience with them - so I am doing my best to remedy that.

Who knows. Maybe by Christmas I'll have so many mugs that I'll have to think of a cutesy saying and give them out as neighbor gifts. Or better yet, you could do that! I've packaged up a few with canisters of cocoa to sell at a boutique. We'll see how they go over. Right now though I need to run out to the studio and make some more.

My New Favorites

2009-08-13T16:24:00.000-06:00

I saved the best for last! In this last firing I had some mugs that just sang to me. They won't sing to everyone and that's just fine. That is one of the great things about pottery and life in general I guess. We all have different likes and dislikes. These mugs are one of my new favorite things. Let me list some of the things I like about them: the glaze - such a great variation of colors from top to bottom, the stamps along the bottom edge and on the handles, the weight of the mugs in my hand and especially how they feel. I think I'll just go hold them again.

Or not?

2009-08-10T16:20:00.001-06:00

Or would the salsa look better in here? Because it'll taste just as good. Maybe I should mention that I'm the bowl maker and Brian is the salsa maker. It's good to have well defined jobs.

Salsa?

2009-08-08T16:15:00.000-06:00

Harvest has begun. The first batch of salsa, fresh from the garden, was made. It was a hit! I think the salsa deserves a new dish. How about this one?

Restful Spoons

2009-08-05T16:03:00.000-06:00

Isn't that what we all need? Spoons at rest? Spoons, spatulas, ladles, all useful cooking implements for that matter, resting in a lovely piece of pottery while you're busy taking care of the business of food. Not only resting, but keeping your counters and stovetops clean in the process. And when the rest is over and the drips are all that's left at rest, throw it in the dishwasher with the cooking implements and take a rest yourself. You've earned it!

Mugs of Oatmeal

2009-08-01T15:49:00.002-06:00

Practice, practice, practice. That's what it takes to make a great pot. I'm not quite there, but I'm sure enjoying the process. This glaze is called oatmeal. It's a creamy white with little brown specks. Sometime those specks accumulate into one big glob and they aren't little specks anymore. And sometimes that is just fine!

I've been playing with stamps lately. Boy, do I love stamps!

Lots of decoration is not for me. I tend to get carried away but most of the time less really is more.

Where does the time go?

2009-07-28T12:10:00.002-06:00

No, I have not dropped off the face of the earth. Yes, I am enjoying my crazy summer. Crazy meaning so much going on, not meaning insane. I am finding a little time to work in the studio but it's harder to carve out that time than I thought it would be. My kiln is cooling down from a bisque firing right now. I should be able to start glazing some things on Thursday. Who knows, I may even have some things I want to show you by next week!

I do have to say I ran up to the Capitol Gift shop for a minute yesterday and it was a bit surreal to see my pottery hanging out on the shelves and in the window. I didn't have my camera with me so I've no pics to offer of proof, but believe me, my pots are there. So exciting! Thanks much to Allyson Gamble for taking a chance with me. It's good to have friends!

Bee Back

2009-06-20T07:07:00.001-06:00

So maybe our once in a lifetime experience was really a once a month occurance.
This time our neighbor came over to let us know that one of his hives divided and swarmed to one of our trees. Instead of cutting the branch off the tree, this time he brushed the bees into a cardboard box and put the box on top of a new hive box. He did this a few times until the queen was in the box. Again those bees had no interest in anything other than there queen. It was fun to watch this again. Now there are 3 hives behind our back fence. I have been assured this won't happen again but I bet it will! I'll let you know how much our garden produces this year.

Guess What - More Blue Pots!

2009-06-15T06:59:00.000-06:00

These bowls are shallow and nest together. Yea for storage and stacking.

Cups. I have loved drinking out of these cups. I'm more of a cup gal than a mug gal. I love to hold the cup and feel a lot of the surface instead of holding a handle on a mug. I am going to make some more of these cups and put handles on them, just in case others feel differently about handles. I guess really hot beverages need a handle.

The Blue Period Continues

2009-06-09T06:51:00.003-06:00

More blue pots. Can you believe it? I can't get enough of this glaze. I'm sure I'll feel differently after another firing or two so be patient. More colors will eventually make it on to my pots. Ruffle bowls and mugs. The bowls have been so fun for salads at the beginning of the backyard barbeque season. They have also been lovely for strawberries. The blue and red look great together.

Bee Gone

2009-05-24T13:14:00.005-06:00

Our beekeeping neighbor called his beekeeping friend and they rushed over
to see if they could keep some more bees.

They sprayed them with some sugar water and then cut a branch.
Some of the bees fell to the ground, stunned.

They woke up quickly and took to the sky.

A few branches were cut and the bees were put in a box/hive where they
can live in peace (and away from my garage door) and make lots of honey.

I have no idea how many bees live in a hive. I'm guessing thousands.

Now our beekeeping neighbor has two hives and we will enjoy a beautiful yard and plentiful harvest as those hard working honeybees do their pollinating job.
What an extraordinary day for us!

What does this have to do with pottery? Good question. Studio users will be able to walk to the studio door without fear of being stung as they go past the tree in the driveway. How about that?

Bees in Trees

2009-05-21T14:52:00.002-06:00

These bees have taken up residence in my tree! I don't know how long they will be there before the queen decides to move on. It was a bit nerve wracking to see them all buzzing around the tree but they seem to be totally intent on sticking to the tree area and not interested in stinging anyone. Hopefully we'll be able to find a beekeeper to come get them before they fly away!

More and more birds

2009-05-09T21:54:00.003-06:00

I just had to show you these ducks and quails. I believe the ducks think they are ostriches.

These two guys were having a bit of an argument. The blue head won. The other two were much too smart to join in the fray.

Look at that fat bird! You should see her waddle. The funny thing is that she could fly just as well as the guy. I thought she'd have a tough time leaving the roof. Strong wings on that one.

I should mention that my back door neighbor has chickens that I can only hear. They stay in their own yard so I won't be taking pictures of them. I'm wondering if we should charge admission to visit the Hyer aviary.

The Girl Group

2009-05-05T09:49:00.000-06:00

A group of 10 year old girls came over for a little handbuilding class. They rolled out clay, textured it and formed it around cylinders. After the bisque firing they came back and brushed on some glaze. I think they did a great job!

Plates - Bird and more

2009-05-02T09:40:00.000-06:00

3 of the birds survived the glaze firing. The 4th was a casualty of too much glaze. This past kiln load I glazed almost everything in blue rutile which is why the last I don't know how many posts are filled with blue pots. I'm a bit partial to the blue and white plate. Which one do you like best?

Mugs

2009-04-29T09:33:00.001-06:00

Spring is here, the heat of summer is coming and I'm thinking a mug of hot cocoa would taste great sipped out of one of these blue lovelies. Care to join me?

Success!

2009-04-26T09:26:00.002-06:00

Look at that! 2, count 'em, 2 successful colanders. This thrills me to no end. I'm sure in time this will seem like no big deal to me because I will have made so dang many. But until then, I'm all smiles!

More birds

2009-04-25T09:21:00.001-06:00

A couple more feathered friends have been taking advantage of our hospitality. I just had to share them with you. I don't know how long they'll hang out until moving on to another locale.

Baby Birds

2009-04-15T19:04:00.007-06:00

Long time no post! I just checked to see and it's been over 2 months since I've put anything out here. Well, not to worry, I haven't disappeared I've just been taking care of other things. Not to say I haven't been in the studio just not as much. Learning how to manage my personal time is my biggest challenge.

I have fallen in love with the birds by my house. Right now there are quite a few fat quail running around my yard. My neighbor's peacocks spend a good deal of their time checking out what my yard has to offer. And I don't know how many different kinds of birds love my birdbath right outside my kitchen window. Brian put a couple of tomato cages with giant sunflower heads in them outside my studio windows so I could watch the birds all winter. The cages are gone now but the birds are still pecking at the grass where the sunflowers used to be. I don't love these birds enough to figure out what kind they are but I do want to incorporate them into what I'm making. I'm taking some baby steps and we'll see what happens from there. I put some on four plates. They will be bisque fired hopefully on Sunday and then we'll see what they look like glazed.

Swirl

2009-01-26T14:40:00.002-07:00

I love a good swirl in a dish. I love how the glaze breaks on the edge of the swirl to show the clay underneath. I also love the color of this dish. The top pic is a little dark. The bottom picture is a better example. Can you see my kiln and windows reflected inside the bowl?

Working

2009-01-16T17:10:00.002-07:00

I've been working on getting my etsy shop up and running. I'm almost there. Hopefully I'll have a couple things listed by next week. It's just so much easier to work in the studio than to work on the computer!

Break time

2008-12-20T16:29:00.002-07:00

The trolley square show was extended one weekend. Yea for more exposure! I'm pretty happy with how things have gone. I don't think I'll be in the studio much over Christmas. Unless, of course, the kids drive me crazy and I have to get away.

2008-12-08T10:06:00.000-07:00

This is where I'll be this weekend. How about you?

Results!

2008-12-07T20:17:00.003-07:00

So I'm finally posting some results that I'm happy with. I can tell you what's wrong with each piece and what's right with each piece. Usually the wrongs outnumber the rights. I have to say that on a few pieces from this last firing the rights won!

The two chips and salsa bowls are glazed with blue rutile and turqouise. The mugs - one is in a matte stoney white with blue rutile and the other is in a glaze called old copper. The bowl is turqouise on the outside with a glaze called stormy sun on the inside with the tuqouise layered over the yellow. The casserole is in the matte stoney white. These are a few of the items that will be for sale at the boutique show at Trolley Square this weekend. Yipee!

Or is it brown?

2008-12-03T15:16:00.003-07:00

So this is what came out of the kiln. Some pieces came out completely blue. Others were a good mix of blue and brown. While others were mainly brown with a little bit of blue. I have not learned how to control that. Maybe I will figure that out in the next few years.

This is blue

2008-12-01T19:53:00.002-07:00

These pots are blue, maybe, I hope anyway. They may look red now but by Wednesday afternoon they should be blue. We'll see what happens.

2 chip bowls...

2008-11-26T14:31:00.005-07:00

2 chip bowls, 2 salsa bowls, 6 mugs, 6 spoon rests, 2 large rings for handles all thrown and waiting to be trimmed. 2 casseroles with handles attached, and 10 mugs with handles attached, trimmed and drying. Happy day for me!

Busy day

2008-11-21T08:14:00.003-07:00

I'm happy to say I was able to spend the whole day (meaning 10 to 3) in the studio. The kiln was cooling from a bisque fire so it was nice and toasty warm. The weather was beautiful so every time I looked up from my wheel I could see the sun shining in. I was able to throw a few things and by the time I tucked the girls in to bed at night I was able to go back and trim them. I had a few minutes after the girls got home from school to unload the cooled kiln. My two casserole dishes exploded. I have no idea why. The rest of the things were ok. Today's couple hours in the studio will be spent glazing.

It's always a mystery

2008-11-12T13:12:00.002-07:00

My daughter's reflections project was in the kiln. She glazed it with the albany slip glaze. It came out looking like the shino glaze. I've made a few pieces and glazed them with shino and they came out looking like albany slip. I convinced myself that I had glazed them wrong. Now I know what is going on. I'm guessing in a few years I'll have more of an idea of what I'm going to get when I open the kiln. I know there will always be surprises (that's the great thing about pottery) but maybe I'll be able to make an educated guess by then.

1945 degrees

2008-11-08T17:48:00.003-07:00

Things have been busy around here. Halloween, family, church, teaching, etc. have all taken priority over pottery. I have made a few things. The kiln is firing right now. You can see the temp I took the picture of. I'm waiting for it to hit 1945 degrees and then it will cool for 8-13 hours and I can open it up. This is a bisque firing, the first firing. This firing gets rid of the moisture in the clay and hardens it. After the pots are cooled I can glaze them and fire them again. I have one more bisque load to do before glazing. By next weekend I should have some more finished work!

The Show(s)

2008-10-30T17:22:00.002-06:00

I realize I didn't address very well how the show(s) went. I don't know how to answer that. In terms of selling, I sold enough to cover my costs - show fees, display supplies and had (or hope to have as soon as I get a check) a bit left over to go buy more clay with. In terms of having my work out there for the public to see, it went great because that was way out of my comfort zone. I was able to have my work displayed and I didn't have to be there to hear the good and bad reactions from people. There will be another show in December. That one kind of scares the pants off me because I'll have to be there for the whole thing. Now the pressure is on to produce some pots that I'm really happy with and feel as if they are good enough to sell.

Time to work

2008-10-29T09:02:00.006-06:00

The shows are over. It was fun to see things I made and hear some good comments about them. I have a lot of work to do to get my pots where I want them to be. I have many pictures in my head that need to come out in clay. With an unlimited amount of time I will be able to make all those pictures a reality. Who has unlimited amounts of time? Not me. So it comes back to being patient again. Patience is a lesson I have to learn and relearn every single day. This pot/casserole has been thrown and is drying a bit. I'll trim it later today and fire it in a week or so, then I'll glaze it and fire it again. It's going to be 2 weeks before I can see the finished product. Good thing I'm working on being patient. (FYI this dish is 10" wide and 2 1/2" tall.)

Sneak Peek

2008-10-16T20:06:00.003-06:00

Here's a little sample of my display at the Simply Bliss Boutique. I'm pretty excited about how it turned out.

Anticipation

2008-10-14T15:48:00.003-06:00

My kiln is almost done cooling. I can take my work out in a couple hours. This waiting time is so nerve wracking! I'm always so excited! How will it look? Have I blown anything up? Did the glazes turn out ok? How many pieces am I going to love and how many are going in the trash? In anxious anticipation of opening the kiln and seeing how this firing went I need to post the reason for my anxiety. I'm going to show some work at the Simply Bliss Boutique (see above). That's almost worse than opening the kiln. How is it going to go? Is anyone going to like what I'm showing? Will anyone buy anything? Will anyone be a bigger critic than I am? It's been a long time since I've had to put myself out there. I'm not sure my skin is as thick as it once was.

First Things First

2008-10-12T14:28:00.000-06:00

How to begin? It's much easier to do than to explain. So let's just skip the years of planning and waiting and jump right to the end product - Backyard Mudslingers Pottery Studio. I expect to have great works to post about later. For now I have the beginnings of things; some good, some awful and lots in the middle. Small bowls and spoon rests are what I've started with. It's going to take a while to figure out what clays and glazes I like best. I guess that means I'll need to spend a lot of time in the studio - lucky me!