Lovin' the babies and the dogs

I make these (baby dishes and dog bowls).



So that I can make these.

Well to be honest, I guess I love making the dog and baby dishes as well because I can cover them with stickers and all of the cutsy things that I like.

big bowls

She made big bowls, big as pumpkins, yes sir



even bigger...

last class

the glazing tools all laid out



samples of the glazes (I much prefer little test pots to tiles)



fixing the marks left by the glaze tongs



unrelated to ceramics but i have been having a lot of fun decorating my 25 cent chandelier

one week left

Student work drying before it goes in the kiln on Sunday night. It has been a fast two months, one more class for glazing and then we are done until January.



Matt putting up my sign. We only have one more week to get all the little bits done before the opening. In August it all seemed so far away and now we are rushing to get the last bits done.



Taz and I in front of the shop with the new sign. The snow made it very beautiful.

SUCCESS for real this time

Tumblers



Sushi platters

My website is running (mostly) as I want it to now. My friend Bill at Legacy of Light Gallery pointed out what the problems were. So I had to change my fonts. A best case scenario for my webpage would be if everyone would download the fonts I like. However the easier solution was to change to Century as everyone has that font. I will be connecting the email link to email tonight. Thanks again Bill for the web help and Karen for the coffee.

arggggg

My webpage looks great on my laptop, all messed up on our desktop. I am downloading the latest web browser in the hopes that this fixes it. Any other suggestions?

SUCCESS!!!!

www.dragonflyclay.ca

Snoopy happy dance at my house right now.

The ski hill mugs are thrown and handled

Oh so pretty and uniform! The rest are drying, 64 in total, need 50 to fill the order. It feels great to have this finished.

I also uploaded my website today. Creating my own website was by far one of the most difficult things that I have ever done. None of the free programs I could find were simple. I ended up using Trellian Web Page as it seemed to be the most like a word document. I am a cut and paste kind of girl. So after 1 and 1/2 hours with tech support yesterday and 45 minutes today I am happy to announce that my web is up. Not running properly, just up. Well, the home page is up anyway. The links all make that lovely clicking sound but don't take you to where you are supposed to be going. On a plus note, I did learn how to export my pages to a file and use filezilla to upload to my web host. So when I finally figure out how to connect the pages (something about anchors?) I will have a proper site. So for now, check out my home page. By far the most boring page of my site.

www.dragonflyclay.ca

still really busy

I took some jewelry photos and have put them at my Etsy site. Check it out.
http://www.dragonflyclay.etsy.com/
Here are some teaser photos. The pieces look great!



I have this habit of recounting my day and life in the most intimate detail to all who ask me "how was your day?" "What did you do today?" I think I must have been the dream child for my parents. When I used to ask my girls what they did at school, I was always told, "nothing". That has changed as grade 7 and the workload involved is kicking our butts. I now know very well exactly what they did at school because I help them finish it at home every night. You know, after music practice and chores and driving to lessons and picking them up from volleyball. They are very involved kids. Back to me though, I really had no idea that I did this until one of my friends in high school recounted jokingly how torturous it was for everyone when they called me to have to listen to all the little details of my day to day. I was horrified but now at 38 I can take it all in stride. I have decided that I am just like my mother, which I think is great! Her letters (now emails) are filled with the little details of her day. I find that when I read blogs, the ones I really enjoy (posie gets cosy) are completely about the mundane details of everyday life. So here at this blog, you get mundane details of my life. Perhaps it will keep those who phone me safe as I will no longer have this need to relate every second of my day.
I am going to try to post each day about what I have done, if for no other reason that to review down the road what the 1st year of business was really like.
Today I made coffee mugs. This is the ski hill order that was placed a few weeks ago and has taken a very back seat to the Craft Faire. Now that the Faire is over and the opening is organized I can concentrate on the mugs. They should be ready by Dec 5th or so. I want to dry them very slowly as I have had a lot of handles popping off in my new space. Tonight, more lessons, next week is the last week and my students will be glazing. They are VERY EXCITED!




close up of coffee mugs



Many mugs in my portable greenhouse turned into damp cupboard (I am nothing if not inventive).

The Christmas Craft Faire

The display which was stacked and looked great!

Quick post as I am exhausted from smiling and talking for two straight days. The faire was VERY good this year. I met my goals and then some. We handed out a million invites to the studio and gallery opening and I have mostly filled my classes for the Jan/Feb session with people on the list for the April/May. Now all I have to do is get making mugs for the ski hill and replenish my shelves because December is looking good! All that after I go to my favorite restaurant and have a drink with my friends. Next year I am making a folding screen for behind my table so that the customers don't have to look at all the junk behind all us crafters...

3 hour power outage and nothing to do

I am sooooo cute, I can entertain my people for hours and hours.



My lovely new laptop which I used to work on my website today. I am using Trillium web design and it seems to be going well. When I have more photos taken I will upload the site.



We are best friends and when the puppy slows down for a rest I take that opportunity to groom him as he isn't very tidy on his own.



Little known fact - We have fairies living in our orchids.



Close-up of fairies created by two lovely little girls. I'm partial to the redhead.

always, always, always test decals before consigning an entire kiln load to it's fate!

Really there is nothing more to say. Said cone 017, I think they meant cone 018. Melted puddles of crap on all of my pieces. I don't have the heart to take a photo.

On a plus note, I have tons of beautiful stuff for the Christmas Craft Faire which is tomorrow and Saturday. I will be posting photos of the faire and listing some stuff on Etsy on Sunday.

Now I am going to have a hot bath, drink a cup of tea and read crafting blogs. Today is good.

a very, very adequate weekend

I do tie this into clay don't worry.
The beaded purses had a very good time at the Raw Bar at the Hotel Arts in Calgary.



Tracy and I stared fiercely into each others eyes.



Sue, Kirsten and Shannon looked fabulous!



The purses organized themselves at the outset of the evening, aren't they talented?



Sue is the official first purchaser of one of my porcelain pendants. Truly a good friend, and it looks spectacular.

where did i leave my hammer?

This piece (one of 8) is called 'Lava' otherwise known as 'wasteoftimemoneyandkilnspace'

I think as I age I find the ability to be calm in situations that irk me to be much easier. Really, you just get to this place where you remain philisophical about it all. I could rant and rave, I could cry, I could smash things with a hammer (which I will be doing gleefully when I finish posting this), I could panic as the craft faire is next weekend. However, other than the smashing part I am doing none of those things. I am going to sand the bottom of the pots that worked, wedge some clay up and make some more cups. Really, what else can you do?



pretty and turquoise



temoku and celedon



more pretty and turquoise



blue and white for the blue and white type people (you know, they always ask - do you have any in blue?)

kiln gods please be kind

So I wonder if you can have a kiln god when you use an electric kiln? Given the randomness of effects that have recently emerged from my kiln I am going to say yes to kiln gods and I am going to be very, very nice to them. Glazes which have worked for years are now doing very weird things, you know, that horrid ping, ping sound you hear as you sit in your studio throwing. Your freshly fired ware laid out on the table crazing for all it is worth. So, modifications made, here is the next load going in tonight. Two-weeks prior to the craft faire is not the time for things to go all to hell. Cross your fingers for me. Then cross your toes for the bisque load that goes in next, then cross something else (your choice) for the decal load after that...



Another freshly glazed load waiting to dry.



Above mentioned bisque load drying happily without a care in the world. Little aware of it's future involvement in the randomness and chaos that is glazing...

it's the first snow of the year

The view from the front door to the left.



The view from straight ahead (ski hill).



The view to the right.
Snow as far as the eye can see. The puppy loved it, the kids loved it, heck even I loved it a little bit (at least until February...).