the shelves are filling up with pretty things

One of the large bowls with my new floral decals. I love the sepia and turquoise together.


The fun fish now have homes on mugs with handles. They come in orange, wisteria, yellow and lime. Fishes are whatever I most enjoyed looking at when the time came.


Here we have the deep sea creepies and a school of salmon.


These are the mugs that I prefer the shape of. They are the perfect combination of control and wobblyness. I wish I had hundreds and not just two.


A close-up of the vases. Orange says beautiful flowers and lime says I love pretty flowers.

I have mistakently created italics. What fun!

talk nerdy to me

I have had another busy few days in the studio. These are some jug forms that are setting up a bit and waiting for handles and spouts.


Fresh work out of the kiln. Which is a good thing as the tourists still seem to be around and my shelves were getting pretty bare.


Oh and I do, I do.


Mugs with the turquoise glaze that worked. Thank goodness because the bride to be comes to pick them up in about 30 minutes. I am busy with custom orders, but they all seem to be fun so far. I guess I have just been saying no to the orders that I don't want to make (large dinnerware sets, goblets).


Bright coloured vases in the sunny display window. I am very happy with the new loose and wobbly forms for the tall mugs. They are also in the window, but you can't really see their fabulousness. I will take more photos and post them later.

beauty in the everyday

This is my father in law, hard at work filling a very large, very expensive hole in my backyard. The hole will be home to a future concrete slab which preceeds the building of Matt's new workshop. Shops eat time and money whilst being built.


I have been busy with classes. These are going very well as you can see from the very happy student who has just thrown the biggest pot she ever imagined she could throw.


This is what happens when you rush to get a load glazed and you neglect to test the glaze first. You get crappy, super-ugly mugs that you can't do anything to fix. These were for an order that thankfully isn't being picked up until Friday afternoon. I have another load in the bisque now and it will be glazed and out by Friday (although still a bit hot...).


These were in the same glaze load and they are perfect. I really love the combination of the matte clear and matte turquoise. They look soft and luscious.


I worked on neclaces and Christmas ornaments today. I have students coming this afternoon, so I needed a task that didn't involve the time, mess and dedication of throwing. These can be whipped off quickly and clean up is easy.

I found a beautiful quote from Frank Lloyd Wright the other day. It was on a blog that I read, but I can't remember which one (sorry!).

"The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes. If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life."

I am going to try and live this philosophy. Find the beauty in the everyday. Celebrate beauty.

it's been a while

I have been a busy, busy woman lately. This weekend was the Fall Faire and the entire town came out. We saw giant vegetables, giant flowers, we experienced some face painting and bobbing for apples. We listened to some wonderful local music, watched some amazing skateboarding and bmxing and we sold some pots.


I have been furiously squirreling away coffee mugs. I have set myself a schedule and each item gets set days. I am overflowing with mugs right now and they have move on through the process because next week I start on pitchers and jugs.


My lessons are progressing nicely and I have been sharing all kinds of fun tips (like the one above). I really enjoy teaching.


We have an election coming up here in Canada. We are speedier in process than our neighbors to the south. The election was called last week and we will be voting in October to elect (hopefully) a new prime minister. I am all about democracy and voting. So get your vote on everybody!


My sweetie was tired of listening to my incessant whining about lack of storage space and he kindly took time out from his shop construction to build me a new storage rack. I am happy and feel like I have a little more elbow room. Thank you Matt! I will try to be more on top of posting. New work is coming but you probably have to wait about two weeks to see it.

running out of pots

Mug bodies thrown today and bowls from another day. Pots have been flying off the shelves and I really don't have a lot left. The tourists seem to be still travelling the roads and I have the Fall Faire market coming up this weekend. Only a few fish cups and bowls left. I am excited and feel my potting enthusiasm returning.

high school, pottery classes and the last farmers market

Here they are, 13 years old and in grade 8 now. High school used to seem so far away.


I started teaching again this week. I have spread my classes out over the course of the week rather than trying to cram them all in one day. It seems to be easier so far.


Here is my display from the last farmers market of the year. I put my new fish plates out and they were very well received. I like it when what I like, others like as well.


A closer view of the new ware on display.


My one and only squid bowl. I love it, I took it off the table about 5 minutes after this photo was taken. I can't sell it.

groovin' to Barry White whilst unloading a kiln

This photo is for all of my friends and family who have seen my hideous fireplace. This is the new and improved fireplace. Add a little paint and plants and art and it improves so much. Now I just need to get rid of that nasty gas insert...


Fresh out of the kiln and I am loving them!


Little fishies everywhere.


My favorite, looks like he is going for the drip.


Little goldfishes leaping out of the yellow hole.

a weekend of work

The Tattoo show was fabulous. Lots of great ideas for next year. The food however, left a lot to be desired. This is what we had for dinner.


This is the greatest baby toy ever that was HANDMADE and given to the greatest baby ever. I am thinking that these should be sold on etsy (toys, not babies).


This is my turquoise matte glaze on some new tumblers. I have thinned it down to try to solve the running problems and have encountered new pinholing problems.


Decals applied, these are now in the kiln. Detailed photos tomorrow after they have cooled down.