In the Studio

My wheel broke yesterday. The pedal only has one speed now (fast). My husband looked at it but couldn't fix it, so I will most likely need to order a new pedal.   It broke right after I threw the three pieces for this vase.  Thank goodness.  This is the first thrown large vase I have made in the last few years.  I was pretty happy with it.

Another piece I made this week was the coffee canister (below).  The spoon was made with a technique I saw on another potters blog (can't remember who) using a ping pong ball to press the shape into the scoop.   The other two pieces are a soap pump and cup for my spare bathroom.

I was very excited to be asked to make pieces for Our State Magazine.  The appetizer trays (shown below) and butter dishes are now available at the Our State Store online.  The catalog comes out this week and shows up in stores September 1st.

Today I unloaded the kiln with mostly pieces for 2 different wholesale orders.  I then scraped the bottoms and packed for shipping.  The rest of the pieces from this load and the last few loads were priced and packed up in crates for my next show Art in Autumn in Weaverville, September 19th.  I will most likely do one more glaze load before then but I didn't have any more room on my shelves to store them.

Also I would like to remind everyone that I am on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.  If you would like to join me there.

Vacation photos - Summer Clearance Sale - Other news.

I know it's been awhile since I've posted.  In mid July I went on a 2 1/2 week vacation (more at the bottom of this post) and since then I have been busy getting caught up.

Summer Clearance Sale going on now.  Once I got back I reduced prices on some of my older pieces in my Etsy shop.  Check out my Clearance section for great deals going on now.

Reminder that I will be teaching a handbuilding class at Ciel in September.  Sign up has started.

As soon as I got back I started on a few wholesale orders and I will be glazing them this week.    Then I will work some more on filling up my show inventory.  I was playing around with the stencil idea so much that all of a sudden I realized that I need more of my regular work ready for my shows starting mid September.

At the end of this week my youngest son goes off to Appalachian State University, starting his Sophmore year.  My oldest moved out a few weeks ago so I will be an empty nester all at once.  The plus is that I will be able to clean up and fix up my entire upstairs.  This will take alot of painting, replacing 3 doors and updating of fixtures.  Boys sure do wear a house out.

As I mentioned earlier, I went out west to visit my family.  I landed in Bozeman (where my Mom lives) I we headed directly to Island Park Idaho where my sister has a cabin.  We spent 4 days there with my sister, her husband and my niece and nephew.  We kayaked and played by the lake.  It was great fun.

Then my Mom and I headed on a journey.  We drove through southern Idaho stopping at waterfalls.  Then on to central Oregon shopping in small towns, stopping at the Lava Flows on our way to the Oregon Coast.

At the coast we shopped in glass shops, quilt shops and general tourist shops.  We saw the ocean, saw seals and lots of beautiful scenery.

Next we stopped in Portland where we visited my cousin Darcy and went to the International Rose Test garden.  It was gorgeous.

After Portland we drove along the Columbia River Gorge and stopped at a few waterfalls, saw Mt. Hood and Mt. Saint Helens (side note-I was a kid in Montana when it blew and remember the days school was canceled because of air quality.  Of course we lived on a farm and still had to go out and work.)

Last we stopped in Northern Idaho to visit my cousin Lisa, then back to Bozeman for a few days where I watched my sister and her husband race cars.   Altogether a great time.