31 different items in 31 days challenge - day 1

Today starts my 31 different items in 31 days challenge.   Ciel gallery put out a challenge for members to paint a different painting every day.  Since I don't paint and I can make 31 items in 2 days, I decided to make 31 different items in January.  Today I decided to make a wine bucket. This is a new item.   I am posting photos of my process.

First I smooth my slab and cut out my shape using a newspaper template.  Next using stamps I made, I texturize my slabs.

Then I let the fan dry the slab out a bit so that it can stand up without flopping.  I score and slip the overlay, press the pieces together and put the bottom on the bucket.

That was all I planned but then I thought it needed more so I added a dragonfly at the top, curved the top back and added cutouts for handles,

This is a new item and I can't wait to see it completely finished.

 Check back often to how the challenge is going.  I will post the daily item to my Facebook page.

I had taken most of December away from the studio to recharge and so I was glad to not have any new wholesale orders come in during that time, but funny thing is that today I started back to work and I come back inside to check my mail and there is a new order for a gift shop in New Hampshire.  This is great because it gives me I reason to go out in a cold studio every morning.

Also I have a few custom orders from Etsy that came in during December to work on as well.

A recap for the month of December:

My mom came to visit.  We went to Charleston for a few days, went to the festival of lights and a Holiday dinner Cruise.  Then we came back to Charlotte for a few days, then headed to our cabin near Bat Cave, NC for Christmas.  Watched the Hunger Games movie and now I have started reading the whole series just so that I can know the end of the story and not have to wait for the last movie.  My husband, my mom and I all got the flu for about a week.  Luckily my kids did not get sick.  I had a New Years Eve party with 20 of my friends.  We played a card game called Nerts.  Today I back at work and ready for 2015.