Sanford Pottery Festival

I came back from the mountains to find a nice surprise. I had three sales from Etsy over the weekend.  Mothers Day is in just a few weeks, so I imagine that they might be gifts for that special mom in their life.

Tomorrow I will be unloading the last glaze load before the Sanford Pottery Festival.  After photographing any great pots that might come out of the last load, I will sand the bottoms, price, inventory and pack everything up.  My hope is that I can finish it all tomorrow so that I can start throwing again on Tuesday.

Today I finished my Spring Newsletter.  Check it out here.

My Studio

This is the mess I call my studio.  Lately I feel like it never ends. Pick pieces to glaze, wax resist, wait to dry, mix glaze, dip, pour, spray one color, spray another, load kiln, repeat.  I just finished loading the kiln and wax resisting for tomorrows batch.  I should be done by the end of the week with the pieces for the Sanford Pottery Festival.  Then I need to get back to throwing pieces next week.

Dragonfly glaze load

This weekend I unloaded the kiln and here are a few items from that glaze load.  The sugar and creamer set was inspired by the example shown at the Potters Conference by Jake Johnson.  Remember, you can see more photos on the New Day Pottery Facebook page. 

Yesterday I threw a number of items that are really needed and I will continue for a few more days.  Then I will do a few more glaze loads to get ready for the Sanford Pottery Festival on May 5th & 6th.  I also have the Claymatters Pottery Festival the following Saturday, so I need to get stocked up. 

I am glazing a little early for these shows so that I can get some good photos.  Once I have the last load done, I will put up the graduated background and take shots of the best pieces.  The photos I have been taking lately are just samples of my work but I am not worrying about the lighting so much.  The background I have been using works well for Etsy, but not so much for applying for future shows.

Friday I was featured on the Top Treasury Team's Blog.  See here for info you may not know about me.

Yesterday I glazed and Today we see the results

Yesterday I glazed and today we see the results.  These are the vases and pitchers that came out.  The sunrise vase was glazed clear back in December and finally fit into a good spot in the kiln.  I am fazing out the sunrise line.  Right now it can be purchased on Etsy, in my showroom, or at a few gift shops.  It is all part of my plan to make my Art show booths look more professional.  The three other items will be part of the new line. 

Tomorrow I will be glazing the multi-dragonfly design.  I will be working on Thursday at Ruby's Gift when they cool down, but should have some photos by Friday.

Well my firing disaster from the last post seemed to be an over reaction.  I glazed these mugs and they turned out fine.  I probably should have added a little more green but otherwise the glaze stuck.  Yipee.  I sprayed the glazed on in thin layers, letting it dry in the sun in between.

Yesterday my shop was picked as the Treasury shop of the week on Etsy's Advertising and Promotion Teams Blog.  Check out the winning treasury.  This means that my shop is featured in other members treasuries this week.  More exposure is great.

Disaster

Can you see it?  Can you guess what happened in this bisque load? Hint:  The pots are grey instead of pink.  I fired the bisque to cone 5 instead of 05.  In the past 4 years of firing in my own kiln this has never happenend to me.  I am not sure what will happen if I glaze these pieces so I will try a few tomorrow along with good pieces.  There were two weeks worth of work and I am just sick about it.  The punch bowl set was in there along with mugs (which as stated before, not my favorite to do), plus the top rectangular sushi tray I have had for a few years waiting until I had an idea how to glaze the top.  Well guess I better work extra hard this week to catch up.

Has anyone noticed my new header on the site?  Since I have been changing my glazing, I thought that I needed to revamp my logo.  What do you think?

New Glaze Load

Today I unloaded the kiln and here are a few of my favorites.  The plate (left) was the technique learned from Bill Van Gilder.  The brie bakers I have been making for a few years but I started doing double rims on some of them for variation.

I love making candy dishes so they are always changing.  The dish below has a double rim plus the new hollow feet I have been working on.  This is a miniture of the punch bowl I made this week.

If you have been following my work the last few years you will notice that this is a new glaze.  It's actually lighter in person.  The photos make it look very dark.  It actually has a very light mist of blue/grey.  Next week I will glaze the light green on white.

Today I also worked on a few new items.(below)  Yesterday I looked thru a Raku picture book for shape ideas and made some sketches. These are some of my favorites.

History of pottery

On another blog I follow there was a post today on the history of pottery. Check it out here.  It is amazing how long humans have been making pots out of clay.

Today I made cracker trays, yesterday bowls and brie bakers, boring stuff really.  Tomorrow I plan on glazing as long as the weather is good.  Be sure to check back here and on the Facebook page for photos of new work possibly Friday.  Next week will be a bigger push to glaze so many more photos of finished pots to come soon. I'm getting ready for two shows coming up soon.  May 5-6 is the Sanford Pottery Festival and May 12th is the Carolina Claymatters Pottery Festival.  Because of my decision to change my look, I need to glaze alot more pieces than usual.  A bunch of the pots from last fall that were left after my last show in December are now on Etsy for sale.