it must be seasonal.

I find myself obsessed with chickens.  I love to watch my chickens, I'm drawing my chickens, I'm (gasp) ordering more chickens.  This will be my girls' third year, and to keep our egg production up and happy, I need to replenish the laying stock. 
I think this interest is seasonal, because as enamored as I am with chickens, I haven't been this crazy about them since I first started with this little flock.  It must be a craving for spring.
I turned this little sketch I did this morning into a pattern to use on my pots- the middle and lower hens, anyway.  The top is a little too cardinal-like. I'm looking at special underglaze paper that works like carbon paper to see about simple reproductions- or maybe I'll explore decals.


In non-chicken news, I am throwing like crazy.  Making things for spring, filling orders for individuals and shops, and trying to stay on task.  I'm finally putting in my seed order (for things like herbs, cucumbers, peppers, and beans and flowers- I've given up on starting tomatoes myself) and thinking about where I'm going to put my bee hive.  We haven't had much of a winter around here, but I'm hungry for spring.

Have a nice weekend, everyone.

tumblers

This morning (after spending an hour working on my taxes) I was pleased and surprised and so so flattered to see one of these cups on SouleMama.  Because of the response, I've listed ten of these cups on etsy, with a 3-4 week delivery time.  These pictured have homes already.   After I straightened away today's tax prep, I hustled upstairs and threw 12 tumblers.  Tomorrow I'll paint and etch them.

It is a beautiful blue-skied day here today in Memphis, feeling cool and almost wintry again (to clarify, winter here is low 50s most days, cool enough to need some heat, but not cold enough to freeze anything).  I'm happy with my morning's work and am ready to get my boy from school, do a little more pottery-painting and drawing, and am thinking about roasting some cod with my frozen stash of cherry tomatoes and olives and purple onions for supper.

Have a lovely week, friends, and thanks as always for your support.

Daily Drawings, January

Here's the other part of my January.  I made 27 sketches/drawings in 31 days.  Here are 25 of them- there are just two that I did. not. want. to. share. 
I really enjoyed the exercise- it's been a very long time since I sat down to draw on a regular basis.
I was really inspired by several different artists - not to copy them, but at how they see the world around them.  Renee Gardner of Wolfie and the Sneak makes the most lovely botanical art.  I treated myself to several of her pieces over the holidays and have them in the studio, over my drafting table.  I love strong line of Nikki McClure's papercuts.  There are lots of people who make wonderful drawings, and these are just two who have inspired me.
I'm looking forward to February's work.  The paper changes color to a creamy yellow.  I might pull out some colored pencils and watercolors for those. 

Happy February, y'all.

at the end

My little Jan term is almost over.  I feel like I've worked a lot and been really lazy.  Played with new ideas, produced quite a lot, drew quite a lot, and am ready to keep moving.

 

I am really quite pleased with my yarn bowls- I have a few other ideas that I'm working on and waiting to dry long enough to fire and glaze.  I'll admit that  I hesitated before making them because, well, I didn't see the point.  I keep my yarn in a project bag at my feet, so I didn't see the need for one.  But my knitting friends prevailed upon me and I made a few testers.  Now that I've used one, I get it.

After I broke my favorite cup earlier this fall, I had to make my own tall tumbler.  This photo seems to have led to a request for a virtual twitter tea party.  I need to get to work!

This fat little teapot is the first I've made in several years.  I got a wild hair this fall to make one (and the hex stamps are a direct result of my visit to Heath Ceramics) in October/November, and didn't glaze it until just last week.  I think I'll make more.

These bright blue mugs and saucers are for a customer who's ordered her dinnerware set in a piecemeal fashion- plates, then cups, then teacups, then bowls, another set of bowls, a set of dessert plates.  This last round has been what you see here, plus red egg cups, and a set of vases.  I'm ready to get the little niggly reglaze work done on these and send them out the door.

Finally, y'all have helped me raise well over $200 for my friend Angela through the sale of the Emily Dickinson hope pieces.  I am ever so grateful, because, friends, that's $200 in one single week.  As in, last Monday, January 23, to this Monday, January 30.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  I'll have more tumblers later this week (in the bisque kiln now), and some new colorways on the trays in another week.

I hope your week is a lovely one.  Thanks for being here with me.

a fundraiser

for my friend  Angela and her husband, Devin.  $32 for the 6" tray, flat $4 shipping.  In a variety of colors, in my shop now and in the coming weeks.  Thanks for helping me help my friends get back on their feet.

More soon.

progress

It has been a killer of a week over here.  We had a week and then a weekend in which I really felt my well had been replenished. Friday night date/movie night, several parties to go to on Saturday, and then Sunday was wonderful-we took a family trip to try to see bald eagles at Reelfoot Lake in Tiptonville, TN.  Monday was quiet, and Tuesday started a slump for me.  I was on the ball and started and finished my quarterly sales tax before 8:30 am (one of the benefits of having a 7:20 school day start).  I rewarded myself by checking  facebook to find out that a college friend was losing her 5 year battle with metastatic breast cancer.  My friend is still fighting, refusing hospice, but she is weak and tired.  Holding on for her two sons, her husband, to the life she loves.  It's been hard to see much past that.

I did manage to fire my kiln and the past 2 days I've been alternately keeping vigil for Mischa and working on the special "hope" pieces.  I have almost 20 little trays and the first four tumblers (the tumblers have all been reserved, but more are in the works).

 

These tumblers are lacking only a clear coat of glaze before they go back into the kiln this afternoon.  I'll put the trays up on etsy and my Facebook page, hopefully on Monday.

Thank you for your response to these.  You warm my heart.

Go and love on the people you love.

See you next week.

momentum

Even though I came into 2012 with a plan (for drawing, for finishing up a client's order), I felt like I lacked any sort of momentum to get myself up away from the cozy wood stove and into the chilly studio.  That is, until I found out about how much a friend is suffering with a debilitating, degenerative rheumatoid disease, that it's been going on for 16 years, that she and her husband are in the direst of straits.  So I started working, thinking about Angela and Devin as I worked, and this is what I came up with:

 

and also this: 

As many of you know, my husband was laid off and under-employed for almost 2 years.  I'm blessed, fortunate, lucky that we came out of that period with our savings largely intact, with out home, our health, our marriage.  We lived on hope and faith and scratching around to make do.  I know that lots of people aren't so lucky.  And it just hurts my heart that my friends are in such a bad bad spot.  I didn't think that I could do much for them- I'm so far away, and what really could I do?  Well, this: I'm dedicating half of the sales of this work, featuring the first line Emily Dickinson's poem, to help support Angela and Devin.  I hope to have the first batch of these pieces out by the end of next week.  They'll be for sale here (email me and I'll send you a paypal invoice), through Facebook (same deal, let me know and I'll send you a paypal), and my etsy shop.  The trays are roughly 6" long by 5" wide and are $32.  The tumblers are 4" tall and are $34.   Shipping is a flat $4.

I know this poem means a lot to so many people.  It meant a lot to me as we wandered through the darkness.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for helping me to help my friend.