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?

Before and After

So, i will never stop being amazed at the dramatic difference between a piece of pottery in the bisque state, covered with glaze waiting to be fired a second time... The chalky colors, dull surface etc... transform so completely in the glaze firing, that every time i open up the kiln, i almost gasp aloud! I am so familiar with the colors i use, and do many designs with frequency, you would think that i might not still be so blown away by the change, but i always am-- and i love it!! Of course, i am often working with underglaze colors under a clear glaze, and so when i am working at least i am seeing a shade of what i will end up with. What is more stunning (and nerve wracking frankly!) is when i am working with stoneware clay and using mid to high fire glazes. You would never be able to tell by looking at a bucket or other container full of glaze what the finished glaze color will be (well, once you are more familiar with glazes, you might recognize a certain glaze and then have some idea... but to the untrained eye-- no way). There is a rutile blue glaze that i love, for instance, and whenever i use it i can barely believe that it will turn out to be blue as i am applying it... in its wet form it is dark terracotta... so unlike its finished state! i'll show a before and after look at that another day....

but TODAY i want to show you a "before and after" of an earhenware piece that i am excited about... it is my entry for this months Etsy Mud Team challenge-- "the Critter Challenge". (Check out the Etsy Mud Team website for more information and some of the other critters as they are being uploaded and entered into the challenge http://etsymudteam.craft-sense.com/). So here he is, my little critter in his bisqued and painted with underglaze state, and then in his finished, shiny and bright glazed state. I hope you enjoy seeing the difference!

The first two photos are of my little clay friend

painted in underglazes before the glaze firing.

These next three pictures are of my little turtle

in his terrifically colorful and bright finished glaze state.

This piece measures 10.5" long from head to tail,

8.5" wide from fin to fin,

and the shell is 7.5" long and 5.5" wide.

here are a few of the "springly" things that are coming out of the studio right now;

these earrings are some of my faves.
i really love this new pendant; the contrasting glaze colors

and the beautiful pool of melted blue glass in the middle .
this fun little mug shares the same colors of the pieces above

and has attitude to boot!

let's give this another whirl

after a few attempts at blogging in the past, i am giving this another go. i have another blog in which i posted a few times here and there, mostly about the children (babies at the time) but decided that it was time to jump on the blogging bandwagon and put up a little bloggity-blog about my work. i am also interested to see how many times i can use the word blog, and derivatives thereof in this one paragraph….
really though, i am anxious to connect with the world again in this way, and hopefully use this forum as a way to explore and watch my work evolving, share news about what it going on in the studio, my triumphs and failures… and explore the relationship and balance between mothering and making art– particularly pottery , as this has always been my main obsession. In recent years, it has taken up more of my time and resources than the other mediums in which i involve myself. In the past six months or so i have become active on Etsy, and it is there where i have connected with a larger community of “mudders” in the Etsy Mud Team. It has been terrific to be a part of this group and i have learned a lot from many experienced potters and clay artists there. More than that, i have really found a wonderful group of supportive friends who work together to promote each others work, share glaze recipes and clay tricks, and talk about everything clay-related, and not clay related! As a stay at home mom of two little ones, i can say that the mud team has been invaluable over the last few months in helping me to connect to another part of the world, outside the four walls of my happy house. because, as happy as it is…. it does sometimes feel lonely in here, and it is darn good to feel relevant in other areas and arenas of life! so, a shout out and big thank you to the Etsy Mud Team for helping me reach outside of this studio and house in a completely different way! Thanks for all the help, and suggestions and support– and especially for the laughs!
Since joining Esty last May, and beginning to list items in July, i have sold 90 items to date. I am pleased with this number, but hope that as time goes on and i can begin to really promote the shop, and create more work, that the numbers will continue to grow. I have been doing art and craft shows for about 8 years now, and dabbled with consignment and wholesale accounts. These have all been rewarding and i am eager to give my Etsy shop - chARiTyelise.etsy.com more attention and hopefully grow it into another successful avenue for sales. I also plan to continue to develop my personal website charityelise.com and become more and more organized so that everything can be current and up to date! please check out these sites if you get a minute.
well, motherhood calls, so i need to wrap this up for now. more again soon- there are many things i need to figure out on here, so bear with me as i navigate around and discover how to do what i want to do with this blog. thanks for reading!