It is no secret that i am completely addicted to texture. I look at EVERYTHING around me and think about how i can capture its texture to incorporate into something pottery related. So, i collect antique (and other) buttons, funky cabochons, quirky miniatures and toys, sea shells and fruit pits.... I make silicone molds of them-- as well as the bottoms of shoes, wood-carvings, cookies,fruits and vegetables, baskets, clothing, thrift store finds... I carve stamps and texture sheets out of linoleum and soft cut, from clay and plaster, i make stamps from bubble wrap, perforated steel, hardware cloth, nuts and bolts and screws.... So, i hoard all of these things and then i use them to make ceramic pieces which i hoard as well. All fine and good. i use many of these things to make earrings and pendants, rings, magnets, embellishments for my own art and pieces for mosaic. The thing is, i make way more than i can ever really use. They pile up and take up space in the studio. You would think i would stop making them- stop collecting them.... but i really can't! So, once again i will be listing more of these items in my etsy shop-- so that others who love and appreciate them can use them in their creations too! When i first opened my shop, i had more pendants and tile type things for sale, and for some reason i stopped making them available... i guess it seemed like too much of a bother to list such small items.... But now, spring is here, and i am eager to get the studio in working order again- eager to clean and organize and systematize-- and also excited to share some of my finds with you!! So, please check in soon and often as i will be creating a flurry of listings comprised of materials for others to use.

Speaking of which, i need to get in there and make some more stamps because the last batch has been picked over as well....

Here is a shot through the front window at night (the patio furniture inside obscures some of the view)

This is a shot of a little retail "island" in the center of the store- it has not been merchandised yet but we have just been playing with its placement.

Here is a view of the "tea wall"-- canisters full of loose leaf tea, european bakery case waiting to be filled with amazing confections and pastries, chalkboards ready to be filled with menu items; the grid wall is a place for hanging some retail items, clocks, mirrors, etc...

Panning around to the right a bit... showing more of the retail area... this picture was taken more than a week ago- before the other furniture was placed....

Equilibrium?

That is a word in the English language, right? i am pretty sure i have heard of it before, though its meaning certainly eludes me right now. I tell you what folks, i think i am trying to wear a few too many hats. I am in need of some serious balance, and i am not sure when/ if / where i am going to find it.

As you may or may not know, i am in the midst of opening a tea house here in Atlanta. We closed on the property where it is located on New Year's Eve and have been working on getting the doors open since then. I will not bore you by carrying on and on about what that entails or HOW MUCH THAT COSTS... suffice it to say- a LOT--- on both counts. I don't mean to sound like i am surprised by this information- i knew it would be a hard row to how and that it would cost us a lot of money.... but as time goes on, and things keep getting checked off the list.... new, expensive, complicated items continue to be added. Everyone asks us, "When is the big day?".... "When are you opening?" and i am so tired of having to say things like, "as soon as possible"... "as soon as we can get and pass our health inspection".... I don't mean to sound like a martyr here- or like i am in the midst of something that has been forced upon me-- and honestly, it is my amazing business partner who is doing the lion's share of the work- the organizing and ordering, the meeting with the $&%*# county, writing up the menues etc etc etc (hundreds of thousands of things). But i have been pretty obsessed and busy with the whole project too (as have our husbands- who have been amazing and who i could write a whole other post about) and have been so caught up doing this and that for the shop for the last few months that the other parts of my life have totally fallen by the wayside.

I do laundrey at least once a week - and by that i mean that i wash a number of loads of clothing- most of the dirty laundrey being made by the children and my DH. fine. normal. but the the clean clothes get piled and piled higher on the couch and on the childrens' dressers and left in laundrey baskets, and noone can find anything to wear, and when it is time for soccer, we can't locate shin guards and there are dirty dishes in the sink, and the dishwasher needs to be unloaded and there are ants on the kitchen counter and so much dust and dirt and pet hair on the floors that the dust bunnies can't even be called dust "bunnies" anymore and really resemble something more like "dust buffalo". ( I almost got trampled by one this morning)... The puppy is chewing on and ruining the childrens shoes that are left here and there, they eat too much maccaroni and cheese lately, I can't seem to return phonecalls for the life of me, the family room looks like it was the setting of a small tropical storm.... and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. I miss my kids and have not spent nearly enough time with them lately-- i can see it especially in the little one and it is breaking my heart. and finally, (well, not finally- the list is so long- but this is where i will end this rant) i have not been in the studio making or glazing anything for almost two months- with the exception of stamps and a few pendants and buttons. If you know me at all or have seen one of my overflowing sketchbooks, or had the "priviledge" to hear me carry on about any of the 207 ideas that come into my head all day- you would understand that this is just not ACCEPTABLE. i NEED to make things. When i don't make this, i am a crazy, grumpy person. I have not even been able to take and edit the photographs of all of the pieces that i had made up to two months ago and that is making me crazy too.... finished work, just sitting, not selling-- getting dusty for crying out loud!

so, i am really carrying on here... and i don't think anyone will want to read this... and i am not looking for sympathy .... i just need to put some of this out there so that maybe i will stop feeling so nudgy. I know that it will not always be like this and i know there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and that one day- hopefully in the very near future- our doors will be open for business and there will be people serving tea to lots of customers and i can be back in my studio making mugs and bowls and buttons and paintings and mosaics and jewelry and magnets and clocks and garden markers.... that i will play with my kids again and have time to read them more stories and take them to the park and have picnics on the play structure out back....

alrighty then. that is all for now. i apologize for the rant. but i DO feel a little better. and now it is time to change out of my pajamas and get over the the aforementioned shop before my partner thinks that i have run away.

hmm.... where COULD i run away to?.................................

egad.

despite my best efforts.... okay. scratch that. in spite of my best INTENTIONS... once again it has been more than a month since i have been here. truly it is for good reason. this is my busy show season and between trying (though not so much) to list pieces on etsy (i have hundreds- literally hundreds - of photos of pieces- especially jewelry pieces... taken and edited and waiting patiently to be listed... and it is like pulling teeth to get myself to list the darn things.... that and the fact that they sell so well for me from the studio and at shows that i sometimes don't feel like bothering with the listing of them....) and art shows and drop-off appointments at gelleries and preparing for my studio sale in two weeks and my brother's wedding (which is, incidentally, here at my home) in less than a month.... NOT TO MENTION (not screaming, just emphasizing) the fact that i have two little ones who i adore beyond measure and who keep me hopping all day long.... i have not been able to give this blog the attention that it needs and deserves.

so, i am here now... and what to say..... except that i am soon heading to bed because i promised myself not to stay up late tonight because i have been working into the evening almost every night for weeks and it is making it hard for me to get up and get the children ready for the day. and that i don't want to show up at Ben's school with bags under my eyes and clay in my hair (which is what will happen if i don't sign off and take a shower and go to bed).... but here i will include a few photos of some of the things that keep me up at night. i have so many ideas in my head and my sketchbooks and shopping list margins and collections of this and that.... coupled with how easy etsy has made it for me to add to my already huge collection of beads and buttons and cabochons to make more yummy molds and stamps from.... that i could stay up all night every night making new things and never run out of inspiration or the desire to have my hands in the mud!

These buttons are such fun to make and glaze and i have only recently been selling the on etsy. My jewelry and button pieces move so quickly at shows that i don't list them online as often as i would like... but these cuties are in my etsy shop right now http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=16886257

a sweet little faux bois tray that is glazed in a textural blue that i love

one of many little dipping bowls featuring designs from my collection of handcarved (by me) stamps inspired by the patterns and motifs of art from around the globe.

a detail of some wall flowers. i love them all grouped together in a "bouquet". i would like to make enough at one time to hold a bunch out for myself and decorate a large wall area in my little girl's room with them.... a big sculptural garden mural!

falling back in

This year was the 40th annual Yellow Daisy Festival at Stone Mountain Park in Stone Mountain, Georgia. For those of you who have never been to or heard of the festival, it is rated by Sunshine Artist as the number 1 art and craft show in the country. This was my 7th year participating in the show, and it was another banner year. There weren't as many shoppers as usual, but i was very fortunate to keep my booth pretty busy throughout the 4 day show. The weather was gorgeous, and as usual, i enjoyed having my booth right next to my folks who were also having a good show -- http://lean-on-me.com/ (check out their website for their online catalog-- canes, hiking, walking and ceremonial sticks all handmade by my dad!)





Here are a couple of shots of the booth this year.... having a lamp lit and some cheerful twinkle lights overhead really has helped to brighten up the inside of the tent. I keep meaning to make or order a sign for the booth, but for some reason can't seem to get around to it. Not that there isn't too much to look at in here already!

These are some of my popular "inspiration tags"; people seemed to gravitate towards these more than ever this year.... i guess many folks need a little extra inspiration right now....

I am always looking for different ways to display all of my jewelry in this busy little booth. The earrings looked fun this year hanging here and there from the tags that i made using a very funny stamp from an etsy seller i buy from sometimes- http://terbearco.etsy.com/

i stumbled on this today

this is a segment from a show that i was on for the DIY network a few years ago. They did a subsequent piece with me a year or so later which was actually a ten minute (or so) segment on one of their programs. The piece that they are showing here was a little interstitial segment. Sort of funny. i definitely didn't call myself an expert on this subject, but they wanted to make it sound like i was! hehe. enjoy!

http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/cr_diy_people/article/0,2025,DIY_13752_2276943,00.html


here are a few pictures that show some of these eggs in better resolution. I don't make them too often these days as they are quite a production.... and it seems that i am moving more and more things out of the way so that i can play in the mud. But i do still enjoy the process and have spent many hours making thousands of these little eggey jewels. A few years ago i even got a commission for a dozen of them to be made into ornaments for one of my favorite designers- Rebecca Cole. (remind me to tell you a story about THAT tv show sometime! good times.)

blah blah blog

dang. best intentions to keep up with this blog have left me with only a few entries to date. I guess i can be comforted partly by the fact that i don't spend too much time writing about my work because i spend most of the time making it? It is true that i have been spending more hours working in the studio and less in the office-- aside from the time that i am on etsy and trying to list more items these days. I have definitely begun to find a correlation between listing more pieces more often and selling more. I guess that that should really be a no brainer, but i seem to just be figuring that out. What can i say? Etsy has really been my first online selling experience to date and i really feel like i am just starting to get the hang of what i am doing here.-- not that i have sold gangbusters on etsy yet... but things are picking up. The world of selling online is loads different than selling at shows and i learn more and more every day about what i am doing. thank goodness!

I have also been working a lot more on the wheel these days... primarily bowl and plate forms, vases and other vessels, and particularly mugs. i really want to arrive at some mug and cup forms that i feel comfortable producing in quantities. I will never (well, never say never) become a production potter, but i would like to develop the skills to be able to make more things more quickly, better and make them the same -- or very similar- if i want to.... so my journey towards that goal continues.... i have also been working on new stamps- clay stamps, carved linoleum, soft-cut and staedler erasers... also making more press molds, both out of clay and silicone, in my never-ending search for new pendant and button designs. Yesterday and today were mostly spent making porcelain buttons and pendants.... it is a never ending job to keep my supply of these little goodies up, and it seems that no matter how many i make, there are never enough.

One other item that i have been giving greater attention is my product photography. Due to some consultation with my mud team friends and in part from their wonderful suggestions, i have been taking more photgraphs of my pieces with more colorful and interesting backgrounds. The gray to white background just ceased to do it for me-- with my pieces. I think it looks quite professional and very striking with many peoples' work, but with mine it has often felt somewhat incongruous. Combining different colors and textures in the backgrounds of the photos feels like a much better fit, and i think that the resulting pictures are a testimony to this. what do you think?