who's got time to blog???

i'm soooo busy! who isn't, right? xmas shopping, wrapping presents & jumping to hide everything when the kids come sneaking up the stairs lol. lots of baking, shopping (way too much of that) decorating, yadda yadda yadda... not to mention drooling over a bull mastiff puppy i want really, really bad... i will get back to business after the holidays, got some stuff to show you but no time now. hope you have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

pretty good day

pretty good day today. got alot done on my website. still needs work, lots of empty pages but i'm getting there. signed up for an etsy seller account. didn't list anything yet, have to figure out what to put up there. don't expect i'll move a whole lot but it'll be something. need to get some of this stuff out of here. have lots i need to introduce to the sledge hammer, but it's hard to do. but i have to face it, nobody will want the stuff, including me lol...

i did manage to get my ha-ha 'studio' cleaned a bit. being the amateur blogger that i am i forgot to take a before picture, or even have my camera on me for that matter. but this is the cleaned part, picture taken w/ my cell phone.

of course this is where i stacked everything, it's all still there... (and no, this isn't all i have, just what was sitting around that i can't figure otu what to do with.)

and this is what my 1yo helper contributed to the effort. thanks Kylie!

(my current favorite picture of the little scamp!)

hey i got a follower!

what do you know. Hi fetishghost guy! love your cups, gotta get me one sometime, maybe some jewelry too ;)

computer time

i'm giving myself this week to get my online stuff taken care of - website, etsy, etc...so today i'm working on my website, fun fun fun... i've been putting this off for awhile, but i got lots of pictures on friday so there's no excuse anymore. have to get them all uploaded and get the links working properly, it'll probably take all darn day but gotta get it done.

and after the dismal sales on saturday (weather horrible and nobody i saw did that great) i've decided to take a step back and approach what i'm doing from a different angle. i've been in the go-go-go mode trying to get as much work done as fast as possible. making things before i really think about how they can be used. for example- its really cold here and there are alot of fire places and whatnot. so i made a few fire place match holders, tall ones and short ones, planning on getting some strike anywhere matches to put inside to sell. short ones worked out great, no problem finding the matches, but the tall ones are useless. can't find anything but saftey matches, even checked online. don't think they even make them. plus i just have too much variety. too many colors. too many styles. trying to please everybody. for now on i'm just going to try to please myself first. not worry about anybody else. there will be less stuff to haul around, less stuff to pack up.

i'm finding that the work from other people that i like best is stuff that you can look at and say 'looks like so&so made that'. there's a continunity across most of their work. not sure if that makes sense, but that's what i want. my own voice if you will. so that's what i'm going to find.

here's a picture of some mugs i made that i'm really liking. hard to get pictures though, and this wasn't my favorite color combo of the bunch. i think the handle needs a little more tweaking, i want to attach it a little differently and thin it out in spots. probably make it a little shorter too. it's a left/right handed mug and it's very comfy to hold, at least to me. happend by accident actually, i threw the mug bodies and they just screamed for a non-typical handle. we'll see how it all turns out.

but first thing i have to call the septic guy. should have gotten the setpic system inspected before buying this house. been here 2+ yrs and have had it pumped 3 times already. couple hundred bucks a pop, but it's better than the thousands it'd cost to have the leaching field repaired/replaced. it keeps overflowing into the downstairs (basement) shower and flooding a couple rooms. luckily so far it's just been teh water from the washing maching and not the other stuff that goes into a septic system. i've been pretty careful about getting clay in there thank goodness...

Home stretch

that's what today feels like anyway.  fired kiln load #4 last night, i felt like the puzzle master trying to fit it all in there.  it took 2x as long to load. unload. reload. switch this piece for that one. you get the idea. but when i put the final tray in the top and closed the lid i felt like i'd scored a home run. for about 2 seconds. till i remembered the large covered caserole and the plate I left sitting on the dining room table that i forgot to go back upstairs to get.  crap.  no way it'd fit in there anyway so i just turned it on and walked away. plus it was about 3*F in the garage and my nose was just about frozen solid.  so... i really want to go out there and take the plugs out to start cooling the stuff quicker, maybe i could fire it again tonight and take the literally hot pots to the show tomorrow.  probably could but the pots would suffer for it i think.  plus i'm over it.  i need a break.  actually what i need is to get myself organized so i don't do this mad dash at the end next time.  my studio (aka spare bedroom/dining room/kitchen) is a literal disaster area. i need more space & more shelving.  got to get to work on the wall in the garage.

 

so today in stead of throwing I'm taking pictures. who was i kidding anyway, i'd have go on a cleaning spree just to get to the wheel it's so bad in there. well... almost.  so it's time to break out that new ez cube thingie i bought and the graduated background what-u-ma-call-it and see what i can come up w/.  if nothing it's a sunshiny day outside, i can bundle up and take my stuff out there.  we'll see.  first i have to get off my butt, get off this computer and get out of my pjs.  so i'm off... stay tuned for pictures (hopefully lol)  ;)

busy busy busy...

man the last couple weeks have been nuts!  family in from out of town for thanksgiving, always a good time but LOUD with all the younguns lol... and this week i've been a glazing, firing fool.  i've got a booth at the local christmas stroll on saturday and i've been trying to get as much stuff ready as i can.  so far this week i'm on glaze load #3! i have time for one more and hopefully i'll be able to fit the rest of my stuff in the last load.  keep those fingers crossed!  can't take too much more glazing right now anyway, my shoulder feels like it's about ready to fall off and i'm glazing pots in my dreams!  

 

With any luck i'll be able to spend friday at my wheel, it's been a couple weeks since i've worked w/ actual wet clay and i'm getting itchy.  I do have to take pictures of all my stuff though so in all likelyhood that's what i'll be doing on friday.  so i should have some pictures to post soon.  i need to get to work on my website too, but that'll have to wait till next week at the soonest.  i'll get it all done one day, but for now i'm just doing the best that i can.

 

I've been working w/ a manual kiln and it's just cooling off too fast to get the results i want from my glazes.  i'd love to be able to catch it at the end of the firing cycle and add in a bit of a soak at least, but w/o fail i always miss it.  i'm lucky it i make sure the kiln sitter did it's job.  the grumpy baby's crying, my son is into somethign he shouldn't be which happens ALOT, my daughter needs help w/ her homework, i just plain forgot about it... the list of distractions goes on and on.  not least is the fact that it's about 3*F and falling outside right now and my kiln is in our unheated, uninsulated garage.  BURRRrrr.... we have a 3 bay garage and it's supposedly all mine, but the bikes, toys, boxes, and tools have taken over at least 1/2 the space.  so on the honey-do list is putting in a wall up and insulating 1 bay for my studio. and install a kiln controller and envirovent on my kiln.  can't wait...  right now i'm set up in teh spare bedroom but it's tiny and just not cutting it and i'm spilling out into the dining room and kitchen.  not to mention the kiln is down 1 1/2 flights of stairs from the house.  i really need my studio... 

 

so much for a quick break and getting back to work.  i can barely keep my eyes open.  guess working till 1am all week is catching up w/ me.  i'm off to bed!

I Love Fridays!

Friday's are great days for me! My 6yo is in school, and my husband takes the baby and my son to town for his OT/PT therapys, so I have a few hours all to myself!

Today I threw a few boards of large mugs, handles to be added soon.

some good sized batter bowls and a lone medium sized bowl.


a large soup tureen that hopefully be the centerpiece of a show i'm doing on Dec 5th. I have a lid for this one too and will be putting a base on it when it dries a bit. If all goes as planned it'll be sold as a set w/ some soup bowls. Now that I think about it maybe I should make a ladle too...

now i'm off to make up some glazes, hopefully i'll have some test tiles to show off in a few days...

much more productive today!

well the house is a disaster, but i managed to get 3 boxes of clay portioned out for throwing, made some candle holders, and some kiddie dinner sets.


candle holders, going to stamp around the rims tomorrow. i have some new stamps i want to try out!





these are my child sized dinner sets. planning on adding flowers to one set, bears to another, and not sure about set #3. i know my 6yo daughter will go nuts over these when she sees them. i can envision several in our cubboards in the near future lol... esp if i use pink!



still need to trim up the plates from yesterday then i'm done for the night. tired though, maybe i'll just wrap them up and do it tomorrow...

Plates! Yeah!

I managed to get some plates thrown tonight! got a few more on another shelf.  didn't get any glazes mixed up, i'm tired and my eyes are trying to close on me.  the last time i made glazes in this state the glaze turned pretty funky, and not in a good way.  it's still sitting there waiting for me to figure out what when wrong.

a simple casserole, but i like it.  all dry and about ready to go in the kiln.  I still need to work on my lids I think, this'll due for my kitchen though. maybe it'll be ready for thanksgiving! 

 

more tomorrow hopefully!

 

 

 

 

 

not a totally useless day

well I got lots of slabs rolled today, that's something i guess.  I layered them in a large rubbermaid bin so they'll be ready to go when i need them.  have i mentioned that i really want to get a slab roller lol...  I'll be putting the kids to bed shortly and will get to work throwing a few things and then maybe mix up a batch or two of glazes.  so not a completely useless day i suppose, even though i would like to have gotten done a little more. 

 

i would have gotten more done, but the little collection bag for my daughter's urine sample kept falling off and i wasn't able to get a sample at all.  ended up having to drive out to helena to pick some more bags up from the hospital there.  i'll be glad when this is all over and done with. 

 

didn't get a darn thing done yesterday.  well, i threw 3 plates and cleaned my work space a little, but that's it.  the problem? my daughter has 4 teeth coming in at once and she was a little monster yesterday.  that and she's got some on going medical issues and i had to run a couple errands to get some stuff for a urine test they're going to do today.  poor thing turned 1yo over the weekend and has already been through so much, so many blood tests, so many drs, now it's come down to a urine test.  i do not want the dx they're leaning towards, but it would at least end the questions of what the heck is wrong w/ her.  we won't find out for a couple months, guess it takes awhile for the test, but if it comes back positive this will be the 2nd rare disease/syndrome the the girl has had. ok, enough of the personal stuff.  i don't plan on putting alot of this stuff in here, but occasionally i suppose i just need to get it out of my head. 

 

on the agend for today - the urine test stuff of course, lots of slabs (did i say i really want a slab roller??), portion clay, need to throw and personalize some soup bowls and plates.  also want to make some kids dinner sets.  will post some pictures of what i get done.

 

kids are up, got to get busy...

Man it's been a busy weekend.  Kids birthday parties, family dinners, worrying about my 1yo (unknown medical issues) and still working on cutting up that elk, my goodness that thing's huge - 60lbs of meat so far and still haven't started on the haunches...  So it's time to get back to work tomorrow and I really need to get my hands dirty.  It's fascinating to me how the dirtier I get the better I feel about things in general.  On the agenda - unload my kiln, finally! Portion out some clay and roll some slabs in the AM (what I wouldn't give for a slab roller). And hopefully if I can get the baby down for a nap while my 3yo is in preschool I'll throw some mugs, soup bowls, candle holders, and plates. Then when the kids are in bed I need to mix up some glazes. we'll see if I can get it all done... my hope is that by writing all this down for the world to see I'll have a goal to focus on and not get distracted on a spur of the moment project like I tend to do sometimes.  Of course those projects often turn out pretty good, but not always.  Tune in tomorrow to see what I actually accomplish...

bisque fire yesterday

well got my kiln loaded and bisque fired yesterdayI've been so busy today i didn't even have time to crack the lid open.  now I have to get to work on some orders - total of 16 soup bowls, some lg mugs, a business card holder, and a set of dishes for a family of 9.  won't have time to start tomorrow - going to town for a kids birthday party, grocery shopping, etc... sunday, cutting up an elk my husband brought home from hunting - yikes!  it's HUGE!! more on monday...

boy this was easier than i thought

where do i start? hadn't planned on creating a blog. i was just looking around and curious how these things were created. viola, here i am! i really should get off my butt and load my kiln for a bisque fire but i'm feeling lazy. my ware rack is full, i'm quickly running out of room, the kids are all asleep and i'm on my laptop. go figure. should be working. but it's almost midnight so maybe i'll just go to bed and load it up in the morning. that sounds like a plan. and maybe if i keep up this spur of the moment blogging thing you'll hear more from me lol... (maybe i'll even post a few pictures)