New Items listed in my Etsy shop

It's that time of year again.  Time to start picking out gifts for your friends and family.  I have started adding many more items to my online shop.

Some of the more popular items are yarn bowls.  I have added a few and today I glazed some more that will be added in a few days.  They are all different so if you see what you like, be sure to grab it before it's gone.

Some other great gifts are berry bowls, gravy boats, olive oil bottles and brie bakers.  Be sure to check out my Etsy shop to see over 100 items available now and shipped all over the USA.

Coming soon - I will have a bunch of items with a beautiful purple glaze and a lovely dark blue that will be coming out of the kiln this week.  Be sure to check out my facebook page for updates.  Also, be sure to turn on all notifications so that you receive all my posts.

I am also on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.

Etsy Sale announcement and Carolina Pottery Festival

The last few months have been busy with shows and orders for galleries but now I have a breather.  Unless I get an order this week I may be done starting new pieces.  I will most likely do another glaze load for Etsy from the many bisqued pieces sitting in my studio.

My last show is Saturday in Shelby, NC at the Legrand Center.  The Carolina Pottery Festival will be there from 10-4.  This is a great show to find handmade gifts for friends and family.

,After the show, any smaller pieces left will then be added to my online store just in time for the holidays.

Right now I have an Early bird special going.  Use coupon Code Earlybird2015 for 20% off until November 21st.  I will also honor this special at the Carolina Pottery Festival if you mention this post.

Have a great day.

New Space

Recently my sons moved out and I have my house back.  We have been working the last few months painting, putting in carpet, decorating bathrooms, and throwing away 10 years of crap.

The most exciting move is that my photography room/ shipping room /etsy pottery overflow room has been moved closer to the stairs and is much more organized, even though it's a bit smaller.

You can see in the photos three views of the room.  The top view shows my light box with props

The photo to the right shows some of the overflow pieces (many pieces are in my dining room showroom).  The pieces sitting on the table have either expired on Etsy and need to be relisted or for some reason were overlooked at some point and need to be added.

The last photo shows my desk with the weighing machine, computer and more overflow shelving. What you can't see are the many boxes and paper in the closet hidden away. (yipee)  Also, the bubble wrap is stored under the desk.  The shelves are partly empty right now but in the next few weeks I will start adding more pieces to my shop right up until Christmas.

I expect that this room may end up just as messy as the previous room but I actually hope not.

Someday maybe this will all be in my studio so that I do not have to travel from garage through house to the upstairs in order to photograph new pieces, especially those that go to shows or galleries and are not Etsy pieces stored until sold.  I also have to carry boxes and shipping materials down to the garage when I have gallery orders with many pieces.

Gallery orders, Pain, and new shipping space

Lately I haven't had much to say because mostly I have been filling orders for galleries.  In the last month 9 more galleries have started to carry my pottery.  That's a good thing.

I am not sure if it's related but I have had severe headaches, neck tension and shoulder pain.  I have been going to physical therapy and hope the exercises can help.

On November 7th I will go to my last show this year.  The Carolina Pottery Festival is a great place to pick up some great North Carolina pottery.

In August my two sons moved out.  One across town and the other to college.  Next week I will finally get the upstairs new carpet.  We painted a few weeks ago.  I am most excited about moving and rearranging my Etsy shipping and photo studio.  Maybe there will be photos once it's finished.

I have been making mixing bowl sets lately.  They are fun because they have to be made exactly right to fit into each other.  There is satisfaction it having them turn out.

I will be back in the studio in the morning and working through the weekend. I am working on three orders this week that want their pieces ASAP.  My husband is having a guys golf weekend at our cabin so I am at home and don't have anything better to do.  Next week I will be dealing with the carpet installers and putting everything in it's place, while the pieces dry for bisque firing.

Vacation photos

Well, I just got back from vacation and while this is a pottery blog, I thought that you would like to see a few photos.  Of course, you can probably tell that we went to Niagara Falls.  We spent 1 1/2 days there, then we went to the Blue Mountain Ski Resort in Canada.  There we hiked up the ski hill, rode the gondola down, swam and kayaked in the Georgian Bay on the Great Lakes and golfed two days.  Doesn't sound like much but the main goal of these vacations is to get my husband to relax, so we laid around in our hammocks alot.

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.

Busy in a hot studio

I haven't been very good about keeping up with my blog but I have been busy in a very hot studio.  Temps this month have been in the 90's.

Last week I finished an order for appetizer trays and mugs for a ladies golf tournament.  They will be given as gifts instead of the usual golf related merchandise.  I think this  was a great idea.

I also have been working on the order for Our State Store.  The ordered 30 custom appetizer trays and 30 butter dishes.  The order is not due until August but I am going on vacation back home to Montana for two weeks in July and in early August my son goes to App State with hopes of becoming a History Professor some day.  I will finish the order tomorrow morning when I glaze the third and last batch for the order.

A few weeks ago I taught the pitcher class at Ciel.  Today I unloaded the kiln and you can see the masterpieces shown above.  Upon request I will be teaching a butter dish class in September.  The date and time hasn't been determined yet but should be on the Ciel website soon.

This week I also got this vase out of the kiln.  I was pleased with how it turned out.

Southern Arts Society hosts the Earth and Fire Festival starting tomorrow night.  I have put some really nice items in the show which lasts until July 24th.

On July 9th - 30th five of my cups will be shown at the Drink Up Show sponsored by the Cleveland Arts Council.

Next Friday is the reception for the Collaboratus show at Ciel.  The piece Tina and I worked on (see last post) has come out of the kiln and looks great.  We decided to call it Midnight Flight.  I am really excited to see what collaborations the other artists have been working on.

Lastly I thought I would share a photo of my booth at the Brookgreen Garden Art show from earlier this month.

Ciel Collaboration and Pottery Classes

Today I had a great day.  I have really enjoyed my relationship with Ciel Gallery and today was another great moment.  The July show at Ciel is a collaboration show and I asked Tina Alberni to collaborate on a piece.  She is a phenomenal artist and she came over to my studio this morning and we designed and painted the piece.  The colors will be vibrant once they are fired with the clear glaze.  I can't wait to see it finished.  The reception is July 3rd.

The last few weeks I have been working on a new style of work using slips and stencils.  After going back to Michaels and getting more stencils and adding some colors to my selection I am so excited to see the pieces fired but I just couldn't wait to show them off.



The beer steins below were made for two reasons.  The first was for the Drink Up competition in July.  I will pick my favorite for that one.  The others would make great Father's Day gifts.

The two pitchers below were made using new stencils.  The one on the left will be bright periwinkle blue and turquoise.  The one on the right is tan with the pattern sponged with dark blue, light blue and purple, and two black birds.

If you would like to learn about using slips and stencils you can sign up for the wall vase or pitcher class coming up in June.   We will have a fun time creating and you will walk away with a piece of art.

I frequently show what I am doing in the studio on Facebook or Instagram @newdaypottery.  So please follow me there if you can.

Last week I sent these pieces to Our State Magazine for review and it sounds like they will be getting pieces for their Fall catalog.  I haven't heard how many but it sound like they will need them by August 10th.  I will give updates and let everyone know when they can be ordered.