Thinking Upside Down

 These are new little plates and dishes that I designed last week. I have this wonderful Dover Coloring Book of traditional Japanese designs. I like looking through it and pulling out different elements from the drawings and rearranging them for pieces made in clay. Sometimes I make stamps, sometimes I create texture plates. This one was a little different because I wanted raised flowers. Hence the thinking upside down.

 I made a texture plate that I use to get the design onto a slab of clay that is then formed into a plate or dish. So the whole thing gets carved into a slab of clay. But while I'm doing this I have to think upside down. The parts that are carved in become raised in the final design and everything on the left becomes right when I pull the slab of clay off the pattern. It's a little tedious and I never know just exactly how it will turn out.

My thoughts go something like this. Will those flowers be too high? Too low? Will the leaves look like they are behind the flowers in the background. How will I glaze this? Is this a waste of time? Why am I designing new plates right now when I have a mountain of work to do? What shall we have for dinner? It's really quite a meditative process to go through. Full of deep thought and revelation.

 I am particularly pleased with how the glaze came out on this. It was a pleasant surprise because I used some glazes that look down right ugly on my porcelain. These plates are made out of stoneware and the darker clay muted the colours into nice earthy blends. I'm already thinking about pulling some of the pieces of this design into a series of pendants and beads. I think I might just bend my self imposed porcelain rule and make them out of stoneware. A leap for me. I like my porcelain. I like my routine. This is a little like living on the edge. Only without the risk.

Alice insisted that I show you a photo of her thinking upside down. She spends quite a lot of time in this position. But just between you and me, Alice isn't really thinking. She's not a very bright dog and doesn't spend a lot of time thinking. She gets by in life completely on her looks and sweet disposition.

Just for my own amusement

I know, I know, perching birds on the edge of a bowl is not particularly original. I can think of half a dozen potters who do this. But I made these just to amuse myself. These are tiny little pinch pots. I think it has been something like 15 years since I made a pinch pot. Sometimes it feels good to just go back to the beginning. Pinch pots are the first thing most people learn how to make in a pottery class. It's a great way to get the feel for how clay works. Besides, they are rather fun. I'm thinking these would make great little Easter baskets for one Cadbury creme egg. Not the minis. The biggies. If I'm going to have one I am going whole piggy with mine, thanks very much.

If you were thinking that background looks strangely like the stem of wine glass on a sideboard, you would be right. It has been cold again. It snowed 2 inches yesterday. Too cold for working in the studio. So my dining room table is covered with glaze jars and other non-dining stuff. I know you Northerners are smirking and saying to yourself 2 inches of snow is nothing. Get a grip. But you know, one of the perks of living with 100F summers is that our winters are mild. I want my perk!

Dirty Little Secret, Shhhhh

All potters have a foot fetish. It’s true. Some may not admit it. But this is a universal truth. Just go to any event with pottery and play spot the potter. The potter will be the one who looks furtively from side to side and just when she thinks no one is looking, she’ll lift that pot ever so slightly and have a look at the bottom. Oh, and just do not get me started on bottoms…..

So at this point you might well ask “what exactly does this have to do with the price of tea in China?” Well, over the past couple of days I have been consumed with making pots. And those feet have been an ever present concern of mine. See those pots up there in the top left? Just not quite right. There is no lift to them. They end abruptly. The list of deficiencies goes on and on.

So finally I have come up with a solution to this dilemma. (The life of a potter is a never ending search for the perfect foot.) I cut out little squares of clay with holes in the center. I cut them apart bevel the edges and glue them on with my super glue toilet paper clay paste. And that could be enough but I really wanted the feeling that these feet grew out of the body of the pot. So I added moist clay sculpted those feet into the bottom of the pot. After 16 of them I’ve gotten quite good at this exercise.

Much better don’t you think? You see the foot of the pot is like putting on the finishing touch for an evening out. After all you wouldn’t go to dinner in your very finest but in your bedroom slippers, would you? Maybe the grocery store, but certainly not to dinner. Not even I would do that. I have actually accidentally gone to the grocerey store in my slippers. It's OK. They know me at the local and no longer roll their eyes.

So what about that flat bottom pot I lured you into this blog post with? Well she’s gone off to the corner for unloved pots until I decide what to do with her. It’s a kind of purgatory for pots and she has a lot of company.

New batik patterns and glaze

I recently aquired a new batik stamp that is Persian in origin. It's got a much finer line detail than the Indian stamp I've been using and I wasn't sure how well the detail would get picked up when glazed. But, I just have to say I am pleased and this is a glaze combination that I could just use over and over again, and probably wouldn't get bored with for a while.

These are 4 of the little trays I fired yesterday. They are somewhere around 4 inches square. I love the orientation of the top right one. If you squint your eyes just right, it looks a little like a row of minarettes. I know some of you have wondered if I'll list any of these and I'm thinking that I've just about got figured out how to reasonably ship these in a safe way.

So here's the new glaze that I tweaked and tested yesterday. It's called ocean green and as far as I can see there is no ocean at all about it. It has also been described as a putrid brown and I find that a little harsh. On my white stoneware (left) I think it has a lovely autumnal feel to it. On porcelain (right), well, nothing to write home about, bit boring, bland.... but not putrid. Maybe putrid is an 'in the eye of the beholder' sort of judgement.

But that glaze overlays really nicely with the brown glaze I've been using on pots. The leaf on the right is just the brown glaze, which is OK but the one on the left, I am in love with. The detail shows the incredible crystal pattern that happened when I put the 'ocean green' over the brown. In the potter's world, this kind of crystal development is a whole science of it's own. Can I repeat it? Don't know, but I've got the small kiln going right now and we'll find out tomorrow.

Thanks everyone for stopping by my little corner!

A blaze of glaze

Ah, my neck and back ache. I've spent the day hoping to get this same glaze effect a second time on the new stoneware clay. But I've thrown a little twist into it by introducing a new pattern, a detailed pattern that needs to be glazed differently.

There are lots of ways to apply glaze to pottery. You can dip it in a big bucket, spray it, air brush, paint it on. Recently I've been painting it on to pots (jewelry components too) because it's really the only way to get the detail right. But painting it on has been a real trial and error and royal pain in the backside development process for me. I make all my own glazes and they don't formulate naturally to the techniques I want to use. But at last I think I've found the right combination of ingredients to make most of my glazes flow like paint, sort of.

The new batik pattern I'm using is pretty detailed and requires a fair bit of attention to what I'm doing. Attention to detail is not always my strong suit. And this isn't really like painting. It's more like coaxing the glaze to go where I want it to go rather than an actual brush stroke. Oh, and I have to do it twice for each piece in each colour, so by the end of the day....well let's just say that my natural tendancy for colourful language is enhanced.

A few trays and dishes have been committed to trial by fire and I've got my fingers crossed. And there are a couple of new glazes in there. I'm having a bit of a problem thinking about the acorns in other than natural acorn colours. Really, can you envision a purple acorn?

I've got another glaze experiement going on for an 'ocean green' that has been described by others as 'putrid' brown. This of course intrigued me and away I go experimenting without even testing the original formula. My tweek may indeed be putrid as well. But I'll let you know tomorrow. I am always optimistic, ....until I open the kiln.

And I do not necessarily have fate on my side this week. Alice (miss wiggle bottom) and I collided in the studio last week and the kiln god went arse over appetite. Many pieces are there waiting to be reassembled. But for now, just his earless head is left to gaurd my work. I sure hope this isn't a bad bad omen.

Copper Pieces

But first....where did the time go? It's been cool here, finally, and I've spent a lot of time in the studio. It seems like only yesterday that I showed you all photos of the new pots. I'd love to respond to each and every comment but you have once again just stunned and amazed me with all of your support and truly generous words. Thank you one and all!

A couple of things though. A few of you wondered about my kiln and it's size for large work. Well the shameful truth is I am a kiln hoarder. I have 4 kilns, ranging in size from teeny tiny to one I can fire things up to 26 inches tall. The big one only gets used a few times a year and is mostly likely a waste of space. But it was my first kiln so I hang onto it for nostagic reasons. Yes, you can fall in love with a kiln, a big ugly kiln.

Several of you commented on the Arts & Crafts feel of some of the pots. Well, I just could not be more pleased with that. I hadn't actually thought of those pots that way. But the Arts & Crafts period, both British and American is my favourite design period. Hands down, top favourite. In fact I live in a bungalow of sorts, built in 1928. I just sort of gravitate to all things Arts & Crafts and it tickles me pink that some of that feel is coming through my pottery without even trying.
I made these pieces out of copper clay a few weeks ago and forgot about them. It's that where did the time go thing I have going on right now. I think I buried them in my other things because I wasn't too sure of the patina on them. There's no bright copper feel to them but now that I get them back out again, I like the old coin feel they have. And speaking of copper clay. This stuff is fantastic to work with. It is like butter compared to the crunchy toast feel and working of the bronze clay.

I'm off to work on some more of the metal clay pieces. I've got a couple of new designs in the works and tonight seems like the night to just dive into it.

Cheers, LeAnn

Hold me back, please

I just pulled these pots from the kiln this morning and now all I want to do is glaze every pot in exactly this same way. But that would be boring in the end. There's a little work to be done on the brown glaze, applying it in a way that gets the richness I want but doesn't run all over the kiln shelves. I hate grinding glaze off kiln shelves. But overall, I am happy with these. Two firings in a row and I am happy. I am pretty sure I am due for a firing disaster soon.

Here's a closer look at the blue green glaze. It's the same one I use on porcelain and the same one that goes a yuck colour on another clay that I use. This is a new stoneware clay for me and much whiter and so far, pretty good working qualities. You might well ask why I've switched clays when I've deadlines looming. And that is a very good question, one others have in fact posed. Well, the short answer is I took a punt with one of my suppliers and had shipped their in house white stoneware. The other supplier is 8 hours away in Wichita and does not ship. I buy there because I love a great excuse to see my daughter. But neither of us has time right now. So necessity is the mother, right? And it worked out. And I can't tell you how relieved I am!

I've been making these small dragonfly dishes for years. I love dragonflies and I've always loved this stamp that I carved. It was one of my first ever and it's gone through many renditions. But this is the first time I've gotten the glaze the way I really wanted it. There are actually two from this kiln that came out virtually the same. OOPs, shush, I may be tempting fate here.

And this is Alice. She would like me to think that she's been keeping me safe from thunder storms today. She spent most of the afternoon out in the studio just about as close to my chair as possible. We've been having a lot of thunder and lightning and some pretty torrential rain and high winds. So in fact , I think sweet Alice is actually just hiding out with me. Meanwhile her big brother Bob knows that the safest place is in the closet.

Have a great tomorrow all, LeAnn

Flat Out Like a Lizard Drinking

I did spend a major chunk of my adult years in Australia. And flat out like a lizard drinking is Australian for really busy. Think about the visual on that and it starts to make sense. And really busy is what I've been. I looked at the calendar and saw I have 8 weeks to get ready for the local studio tour. Which on the face of it seems a fair ways away. But....given all of the larger pots I make take up to a week, sometimes two, to dry, that deadline is creeping up.

I unloaded my small kiln this morning with 3 more of the barnacle pots in it. And mark your calendars, I've certainly put a star on September 2, 2009. This is the very first time ever that I've unloaded a kiln and been happy with what's in there. Sure, usually there are things I like and often most of the kiln load is OK. But usually it takes a few days. It is not love at first sight.

I am over the moon happy with how these three barnacle pots came out. An absolute, non-trivial first for me!

And here's a little sampler of beady type things. Horrendous exposure on the photo. But there were beads in there and you know what? I liked them too. For the most part.

Cheers, LeAnn

Three down, three to go

A couple more barnacle pots all fired and ready to go to a local exhibition in November. This makes 3 finished of the ridiculous goal that I've set for myself. Expectations are meant to be revised as the deadline nears, right?


And here's 3 more, glazed and ready to fire tomorrow night. They are resting nicely in the kiln right now. Those pinkish rims will be white by Wednesday morning and the gray green centers will be blue just like the pots above. Actually the larger platter is an unknown as it's layered with an untested combination. Sometimes it gets confusing when I glaze because what I see on the piece going in often has no resemblence at all to what comes out. But it is always a surprise when I open a kiln, hopefully a good one, sometimes not, but always a departure point for a new idea. This is what keeps me drawn to working in clay. There's something new each time I see the fired results. Usually exciting, occasionally disappointing, but never boring.

And before I go for the evening, there is still time to leave a comment to have a chance at this bronze pendant. I'll be using ye olde random generator tomorrow evening to find out just who this piece will be winging it's way to. So if you haven't done so already, head on over to this post.

Night All,

LeAnn

Genius of the Fire Blast

Genius of the Fire Blast, photo by Martie Geiger-Ho

When I showed you all a photo last week of my kiln ‘god,’ I kept wondering where this notion of a kiln god came from. It’s a pretty common potter thing to set a little sculpture on the kiln while firing. It’s like a talisman, or charm. It’s a bit of tradition.

It appears that the kiln god concept is quite ancient, originating in China. In fact there is more than one kiln god as many pottery villages in China had their own deity or guardian. I like Feng Ho Hsien, “Genius of the Fire Blast,” described by Martie Geiger-Ho. Cool name, eh? He was a potter who died when the Imperial kiln he was helping to fire collapsed. The Emperor then made him into a god to quiet the unrest of the repressed potters who produced the porcelain in Jingdezhen. Given I work mainly in porcelain, I think this is the kiln god for me. He even comes with 8 gaurdians and his own temple.

Potters Temple, Jingdezhen, photo by Martie Geiger-Ho

What is interesting to me is how this ancient tradition has been Westernized. Here, we make all sorts of little more or less impromptu sculptures that we call kiln gods. We even have a national kiln god competition. But I think there is a little something in many of us that wants an insurance policy. No matter how well you know how things work, no matter how many times we’ve done the same thing over and again, there is always a little error or even a disaster that can creep in when that kiln goes on.

Little Great Mother Kiln Goddess, Marti Geiger-Ho

Me, I think I’m going to head off to build a little temple for my kiln guardian. Well actually, mine's more like a kiln gargoyle. I might even make 8 gaurdians. I can use all the help I can get. I’m certainly going to dust him off to show just a bit more respect. And maybe even reunite him with the ear that’s gotten knocked off. He is after all the rabbit’s foot of my kiln. And speaking of lore….where does that one come from?

Have a fantabulous weekend everyone!

My love hate relationship with chemistry

Knowing a little glaze chemistry when you make all your own glazes is a necessary evil. On the one hand I love tweeking things a bit to get different effects. It appeals to my inner mad scientist. On the other hand there is that sense of loss, and the mourning that comes with it, when you've sacrificed another piece to the kiln god.

This glaze on these beads is my favourite. I could quite happily use it on just about every porcelain piece I make. But then that would be just plain boring. This is the colour I want on the insides of some of the barnacle pots. It would be just about perfect.


This is what happens when you put that same glaze on the stoneware the barnacle pots are made from. Bleck, yuck, .... expletives, profanity. It is just not anywhere close. I've tried all sorts of things to correct this problem and get that beautiful glaze that is on the porcelain pieces.

And voila! The light bulb in my head brightened momentarily. That's the light bulb that is mostly on the lowest dimmer setting. Months of fiddling and it was just a matter of layering one glaze over another. Now I just want to put this on everything. I'm thinking I need a glaze intervention.

This pot was in my last kiln firing. It has taken me a few days to decide that this will do. Well it sort of has to given that I've got a lot to do before studio tour. Now I just have to fix up the white breaking rust glaze on the rim of the pot. But I actually have an idea and a plan. Crisis mode makes my mind sharper. Or maybe I just am willing to compromise more.

Oh and have I told you about my love hate relationship with white backgrounds? Another time perhaps.

On another note entirely, I am absolutely overwhelmed with all of your very warm and kind comments on my last blog post. You are indeed a generous lot and I truly value your company here in blogland.

Hugs to all!

It's not like riding a bike!

Nope, not at all. Throwing pots after being away from the wheel for nearly a year is not at all like getting back on a bike. In fact, it is much more like getting back on the horse that threw you. And there is a reason why when you are first learning to throw, you start with 1 pound lumps of clay...not 5 pound. I might add, trimming pots at 4 am in your nighty is not really all that much fun either.

You might well ask, just exactly why is LeAnn doing this? Just before I left for Portland I got notification that I'd been juried into the Fall Studio Tour. I was pretty much over the moon. That is until I got back and realized that I had a scant 3 months to get ready. You see I only have 2 finished barnacle pots for the show. I reckon I need about 40 pots. But not all barnacle pots. These babies can take 4 weeks to make from start to finish. So 4 am is about the coolest time of day in my studio and everyone in my house is asleep then. No need to wake everyone up by turning on lights to get dressed. Besides, that nighty is pretty darned comfy. Spent the whole day in it. OK, enough of the personal details.

Once those pots are trimmed, I get to start on the part that I truly enjoy ....applying about a zillion little pads of clay, stamping them, and poking their centers to make a little crater. The pot gets scored all over then the bottom gets filled in with barnacles. It gets turned right side up and the rim gets embellished with very thin strips of very moist clay. The top barnacles then get filled in.

And voila! Several hours later (I don't keep track of time, the pot is finished. I do really love the embellishment part. It sets up its own rythm and becomes something like a meditation. The work just sort of flows and the pattern emerges.

This pot is all wrapped up for the night so the moisture can equalize. Then it will dry very slowly for the next few days. I finished 3 pots today, so only 37 more to go!

The big barnacle pot

Finally, after months of sitting in my studio just waiting for me to commit to a finish, the first in a series of work with a marine fossil theme is done. Complete, finished, no going back and it actually feels good. Rarely do I pull a piece like this out of the kiln and feel good. Usually I have to live with it for a while. And sometimes I just take a hammer to it after a while. But this time it feels right. It's not that there aren't things I'd do differently. It's more that I can see my way forward. For me that's always a nice thing. And tomorrow I'll work again with some larger forms.

Commitment Issues

I fell in love with the unglazed, unfired pot and have had such a hard time commiting to a finish on this one. So finally I dipped into my sorceror's cupboard of abandoned glazes and said it is time. Four hours later and the glazing on this one is finally done. Each little barnacle is glazed individually. I have this never ending fascination with the transformation of glazes from a dry powdery state to a glassy surface in the magic of the kiln. And the colour change is often quite dramatic as well. For example, this pot is not really going to be pink. It should come out with quite a lot of white on the barnacle part. The rim will go to a deep glossy brown. Pure magic. I'm just hoping the magic will work the way I anticipate. Monday. It will come out of the kiln Monday.

Now I'm off to perform a little magic on the front garden. I do wish I could just wave a wand or snap my fingers at those weeds.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Barnacle Vase

Parts of it I like and parts I don't. One of the problems with working with the larger stoneware work is that I am used to the bright clarity of my glazes over porcelain. The barnacle section of this vase has been covered with a thin layer of porecelain slip but it is not enough to keep some of the rust colours coming through from the iron in the clay. So it is back to testing to getting the glaze effects I want. Oh well, that is in fact part of what keeps me moving forward. I like the challenge.


I like the form of it though. And it has given some ideas where to go with this work. It's not headed for the scrap pile.

This pendant has been glazed in one of 3 new tests I had put into my last firing. I feel a small obsession coming on. I love how the raised portions of the pattern are greenish and the deeper parts are a mottled blue. It would be perfect for the barnacle pot. Unfortunatly it doesn't do the same thing on that clay.

I've been feeling prop challenged lately. Or maybe just bored with photographing my work in a consistent way. The pile of shells in the last photo were gathered on many beach walking expeditions. I found them back on another of my rumaging expeditions in what should have been a clean up exercise.

The little bit of shell in the first photo is from my Gramma. It was part of my inheritance when she died many years ago. She did not have much but she did have this wonderful memento of her only visit to California to spend time with my Auntie. I don't quite know how I ended up with it. We are more than two dozen grandchildren and I feel like I got the best thing of all. Some day I'll show you a photo of the whole shell. It is very beautiful.

Warm regards, LeAnn

Fossils and Sea Things

Last week I was working with some wall tiles that had flower buttons "planted" on them. It struck me then how much like fossil coral they looked. This bowl is what came out of that.

I moved on from there to this large vase form. It was handbuilt over a 2 liter soda bottle. This photo is the naked start of the vase. It's only got its rim in place, thin 3 mm thick strips of most clay.

The next day I started the process of applying sprigs of clay to build up surface pattern of the vase.

And two days later and many hours and many hundreds of tiny little balls of clay, the vase is wrapped up and drying in my living room. Luckily no one in my house really minds having incomplete pottery 'decorating' our home.

The idea of working with fossil imagery has been with me for a while. I've always loved fossils and the idea that beneath us is this huge hidden sea from long ago. When I was a little girl I dreamed of being a paleontologist. Yes, I was a strange child. I've got a little box of fossils from my childhood camping holidays. There are brachipods and ammonites and coral in there. Just tiny little specimens. I think this new work must be what is resurfacing of my childhood dream.

I don't know where this new work is going. But that's OK. I do know that this is not the production work I need to get done by the end of the month. So for now, the next pieces will be slowly forming in my mind and I'll go back to making some things that will help me meet my deadlines. At least for a day or two.

Have a lovely week,

LeAnn

Into the Studio

Yesterday was one of those glorious spring days where the sun is bright, the temperature is perfect, birds are singing, the dogs are behaving, and all is right with the world. What that means for me is I get to spend time in my real studio. The one that is outside and looks a lot like a garage with kilns and big studio stuff.

I’ve had in mind a few things that I’ve wanted to do with my functional work for a while. And with a show coming up at the end of April, well it was just time to get moving. Nothing like a few deadlines to spark a bit of creativity.

I think that carpet of flowers in front of our cabin inspired me to create my own little version. Among other things I made a tray and little serving dishes that have got a flower pattern stamped into it. If you think it looks a little like the zinnia buttons you would be right. I made stamps a from the button molds and finally was inspired to use them. These are all ready to go into the kiln.

But what I am really excited about is this tile. It was bound to happen. The buttons would make their way onto the surface of something else. I see bright colours on this one!

This tile is made from lots of very thin, very moist, slabs of clay, a little less than 1/8” (3mm) thick. These are a bit tricky to work with. They are delicate coming off the slab roller and I did find out pretty early on that one does not pick up a large sheet of clay by the edge and try to carry it over to the work table. Harsh words were used when one particularly large slab of clay dropped onto the icky dirty floor.

But I’m pleased with the results. I like the plumpness of it and the sense of the inner void that it has. Making it was a lot like sewing. Each piece is cut, shaped, rolled up, and pinched together. Then I put on a back with a keyhole opening for hanging it. Now it is drying slowly. Too much drying too fast and it will crack apart into a zillion pieces. OK maybe that is an exaggeration.

Wishing you all a great spring day!

LeAnn

The Kiln is Firing

The kiln is firing and the kiln god sits watching the magik. Well maybe it is not magik, maybe it is just chemistry. And maybe it is not really a kiln god so much as a kiln gargoyle. He used to have 2 ears. In fact he still has 2 ears but one fell off on our move back to the United States from Australia. Someday the ear will be attached again. I did not make the kiln god/gargoyle. My son made him for me when he was about 15 years old. Sometimes, I think he should be the one doing ceramics. Clever boy!

The kiln god always sits on my kiln in gaurd of the works inside. Pure superstition.

So in this kiln is a whole lot of new things. New glazes, new combinations of glazes. Lots of blues, greens, and blue greens (I think). I never know what will come out. I sometimes wonder why I do all these new things on an entire kiln load. I've got new things in there. Not just buttons, some pendants and linky things in new designs.

So stay tuned...the kiln will open tomorrow...I'll post....But I may or may not post the failures. My ego you know.

Cheers, LeAnn

What is that?

Up at 5 am, unable to sleep.....did I pull it off? You see I've got a guild member show going up this weekend at the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts and I yet again I am pushing the limit for getting my piece done. How long have I known about this? Ummm, a year. Did I have sketches, ideas, things I've been working on? Ummm, yeah. Did I do anything in a safe, predictable, even timely way? Ummm, no. Do you ever do this to yourself?

This little pile of tiles is totally new work in everyway. Only the images and textures are the same as used in my other work. They are made in clay I've never used before, they were constructed in way I've never done before, they are glazed in a method I've never used before. Oh my this was a recipe for disaster. BUT, yipee, they came out all right. Not perfect, but OK. Relief, but now I have to figure out how to arrange them. Being modular, with 12 tiles in 2 sizes there are lots of possibilities. So I'm just gonna push that one to the limit again. And decide at the last minute, like tomorrow nite, when I deliver them. Living on the edge, once again.

And what about those buttons? Soon, I promise.

Why Blog?

I’ve been struggling with this for a while. I follow a few blogs and enjoy the experience but often feel like I’m lurking in the shadows. I make a few comments, when I feel moved to do so. I offer my goods for sale on Etsy and follow the forums about using blogging to market your goods but it all just feels so empty and, well, just commercial. Why not just take out an ad here and there?

But then I read Lorelei’s post this morning on friendship and it all just clicked. She talks about the community of ‘us’ out there and the challenges of making meaningful friendships as adults who’ve moved beyond our childhood and college year social circles. And, yeah the older you get, the harder it is to forge those new relationships. And she is grateful to those of us who read her blog. As if it weren’t a true pleasure just to get up in the morning and see what she’s been up to!

Blogging has become one of those wonderful ways that we can reach out to kindred spirits. Thanks Lorelei. You’ve inspired me to share just a wee bit of myself!

Oh and Lorelei makes just the most wonderful jewelry! Here’s one of my current fav pieces. You should hop on over to her Etsy shop and buy at least one piece of her beautiful work.

OK, so assuming I’m not just talking to myself, here’s just a little teaser of what I’m going to post about next (sometime soon?) This blog is intended to be a bit about my studio life, which tends to spill over onto my dining room table and other things personal. So as I get to know you better I’ll share more and more secrets, and we'll chat like old friends.




Cheers and see you later!