I took my camera for a walk

I must admit that having my camera with me has become much too infrequent of late.  The i-phone is just too easy to use sometimes and I have often neglected taking real photos.  Yesterday night we all went for a walk, the boys brought along a neighbour friend to play soccer with and I walked around taking pictures.  The kitty at the bottom belongs to a neighbour and made me miss our little Amber. Doesn't she look like little A? Hmm, almost time for another kitty.  Anyways, it felt really good to be creative with something other then ceramics!

It's been an extremely busy few months for me, filling a number of larger and diverse orders for shops and galleries.  I'm thankful to have shipped off the last order for spring, just as I head out to Winnipeg tomorrow to visit a dear friend, some family, and stop by the Woodlands Gallery for a meet & greet the artist.  I grew up in Winnipeg until I was 14 and went back to visit often until I spent 1 year going to college/Uni when I was 19.  It was a place I called 'home' throughout my teens because we had moved for reasons that weren't my own.  I wrote countless letters to friends, trying to keep in touch despite moving quite far away.  It's kind of amazing to still be in touch with many of my elementary school friends via Facebook these days.  I'm looking forward to doing some good catching up over the next few days, celebrating my bff's birthday and connecting with some family too.  It will be a much needed break from the studio and probably a good walk down memory lane too;)!

Spring in the Studio!

It's that time of year again where a few of us at the Mergatroid building get together and plan to open our studio doors for a sale!  It's the once a year, these prices can't be beat kind of sale, where I pull all my work out of the cupboard, some of it with slight glazing issues, or maybe a style or colour that I won't be making again, but otherwise looking for a good home to be used in!  I have a bit of new work that I will have available, but for the most part, it's your chance to find something at a deal that you can happily take home and enjoy, instead of having it take up space in my studio!

Here are all the details!

Saturday, May 4, 2013
11:00 am until 6:00 pm

965 & 975 Vernon Drive
Vancouver, BC
(MAP)

This one day event will feature the work of...

m.a. tateishi (suite 280) --- http://www.matart.ca/
bronsino (suite 225) --- http://www.bronsino.com/
kelly austin design (suite 225) --- http://www.kellyaustindesign.com/
su foster jewellery (suite 225) --- http://www.sufoster.com/
mimosa (suite 225) --- http://www.ilovemimosa.com/
dahlhaus (suite 8) --- http://www.dahlhausart.com/
heyday design (suite 210) --- http://www.heydaydesign.ca/

Check out our event on Facebook!

Come and say Hi in Winnipeg in May!

With the weeks feeling like they are flying by, I wanted to be sure to get the invite out for my artist meet & greet in Winnipeg next month! Woodlands Gallery has been carrying my work since last fall and it has been so nice to connect with the amazing gallery manager, Jennifer.  Since I was in town for a few days, I thought it would be nice to invite all my local friends and family to come by the gallery and see what I've been up to!  If you are interested, please do come by and say hi- it's not every day that I'm in the Peg!

I grew up in Winnipeg until I was 14 years old, and then went back as an adult to do a year of post-secondary, so my roots in this place run pretty deep.  I have heaps of family and lots of friends that I still keep in touch with, which is my main reason for visiting.  It's been about 6 years since I last visited my childhood bff and since then, she has had 2 beautiful little kids that I have been dying to meet.   

There's a facebook page with more details here!  Please pass around to anyone you know who might be interested in coming! Thanks!

As of late ...

Where, oh where, have I been, o blog?

At the studio:
I had been subletting part of my studio (hence the crowded busy mess) for the past few months to a former summer intern of mine while she prepared for an exhibition here in Vancouver, so things at the studio got pretty crazy crowded especially in the last month or so.  Lots of work was made in this 340 sq ft space.  So much work, so little space, but it all got made (more or less!) and fired and Kelly's show has been a near sell-out so I'm so pleased she was able to have a place to make. 

As for the work that I make, I sent off about 5 early spring orders to shops and galleries, and am on another 3 that are estimated to be finished later this month and into May.  My online sales have tapered off after I scrambled to keep up with teapot sales when my teapot was featured in Bon Appetit magazine.  It's always a bit hard to predict how busy one will get with features.  It feels really hit and miss these days so I try to keep my expectations pretty low-key and feel really blessed when something does turn into a sale after being featured.  Anyone else feel the same way?

The website is getting an overhaul!  Still in the initial stages, but I met with my friend and graphic designer, Tyler Payne a week ago and we got the ball rolling.  It's hard to imagine that in 2007, we sat down to design my current site with my concept of what 'dahlhaus' would be, and 1 round of photography from work I made with the launch of dahlhaus in mind.  So much has changed online in the last 6 years- how people use websites, what devices they are using to look stuff up online, and also the function of websites has really changed over the last few years.  Initially we designed my website as a portfolio and now people have come to expect to be able to purchase the work from images that they see on a website, so it will have a shop focus, with a link to my portfolio.  I'm really looking forward to a fresh look so stay tuned!!

Work/life balance, anyone?  I think when you work for yourself, and you do something you truly do enjoy doing, a person can get really busy and wrapped up in making pretty much all the time.  Or instagramming, twittering,  facebooking, emailing, texting, pinteresting, and, oh, yeah, blogging.  It's gotten a bit much and I was really starting to crave some real face-time with other artists, makers, friends and family, instead of just slaving away in the studio or being online.  It's been really good to connect for real and there are still a few people I've been meaning to see.  On that front, it has also been somewhat comforting to know that I'm not alone in some of the struggles I face as a full-time maker.  There are a lot of us in the same boat, all trying to sort out a way to create viable and sustainable small businesses based on our creative endeavors and talents.  It's not as easy as it sounds.

So I probably won't be here much in the next month or so, just piping in to let you know about a few up-coming events that will be happening in May.  We are in open house mode at our house where our landlord is currently selling our place.  We've been here for the past 7 years, so it has felt very much like home to us.  It will be hard to leave, but we have had a good run of this house as renters.  Can't complain too much.

Canadian Clay Symposium 2013 re-cap

The Canadian Clay Symposium happens every 3 years at the Shadbolt Center for the Arts in Burnaby, BC, which is conveniently close to where I live.  The Symposium isn't huge- there are usually around 8 or 9 presenters, with the venue only holding about 350 people.  With the event selling out this year it felt like a good crowd of people, although I think in reality, most of the people coming to the conference hail from somewhere in BC (which makes me wonder why it's name includes all of Canada). This was my 3rd Symposium attendance so I was used to the fast pace of trying to see as much as possible in a day kind of feeling. 

This year I got the volunteer job of photographer for the day and spent most of my time trying to capture the best of the presentations and workshops.  I didn't really sit in for a whole entire workshop as I wanted to be sure I was able to take enough photos of all the workshops, so I won't be posting on each participant as I have in the past.  I was really glad to have something to do, as I'm not as interested in how other people make their work, while I am much more interested in how they make their living today and why they make the work that they do.  I think for many of the presenters, their work in clay has spanned 20-50 years, which is pretty incredible!  Each of the ceramic artists that were presenting had work that stood out as being their own, with really specific ways of making work, so it was lovely to see them at work.

For a 1 day conference, this event is pretty good bang for your buck.  The presenter line-up was quite good, although they ended up having to change in 3 of the original presenters.  I would have really enjoyed seeing Linda Arbuckle at work...that being said, the sub-ins did a really amazing job of bringing a wealth of knowledge and entertainment to the mix.  There was a dinner after the event this year that was hosted by the BC Potter's Guild that gave me the opportunity to chat with Robbie Lobell and Lorna Meaden, which was really great.  Sometimes these types of conferences are more about connecting with people in your field and this was one of those years for me.

Image out-takes in order (all the really good photos will go to the organizers so they can promote the event)!
Takeshi Yasuda
Robbie Lobell
Mariko Paterson
Judy Weeden
Bob Kingsmill
Lorna Meaden
and Takeshi Yasuda's tools

Last time I went to the Symposium I wrote about a few of the presenters that really caught my eye including my ceramic professor Joan Bruneau, the remarkable Alwyn O'Brien, and Gailan Ngan who graduated at the same time as me.   

In that moment when everything changes

I often think about the moments when life as you know it changes in an instant.  An accident, a medical exam, you lose a loved one suddenly: the unexpected happens, and suddenly, everything has changed.  On a global scale these types of life-changing moments seem to happen every few months, whether it's a natural disaster, or a gunman on the loose, a terrorist strike, or the Pope stepping down.  I know that these events are life-changing for the people closely affected and that they will always remember the moment when they heard the news. 

Maybe it's just that for me, last week was full of news of tragic and sudden deaths of young people, not close to me, but connected in some way.   Then news of a cousin through marriage losing his fight with cancer.  And seeing a friend struggle with a dark depression.  These stories are closer to home, they hit me in the heart and I can't help but feel as though life is so fragile, so very vulnerable.

None of these things compares with our only vehicle dying just as Dean left for the weekend, while I was supposed to be shipping off orders and then picking up the kids at school.  But it reminded me that things can change so fast.  The car was fine, and then, it all of a sudden, it wasn't.  It could have happened anywhere- on the bridge, with the kids, or worse, caused an accident.  It didn't take much for me to feel kind of helpless- in the moment I seemed to forget how to phone for a tow, or contact the mechanic to book the car in, or figure out how it could all happen in time for me to get back over the bridge to pick up my kids from school.  And then a friend stepped in, and walked me through it, looking up numbers on his phone.  Later when I was back home, another friend stopped by when I was home to make sure I had some groceries for the weekend as it would have been quite the walk up the hill with milk and groceries in the pouring rain with 2 kids in tow.  It all worked out and I'm so grateful.

We had a quiet weekend, the boys and I, sticking close to home, not leaving the house on Saturday due to horrid rain all day.  Sunday was lovely and bright, Dean got home, the car is still in the shop until late tomorrow, and my orders still aren't shipped but that's life.

**These photos were taken on the same day just outside my studio with my phone.  It was so strange to see a storm move through in a few short hours as the weather here doesn't often change that fast. 

DYI and Inspired projects

If you are on the dahlhaus art facebook page, you will notice that I occasionally post links to artwork or dyi projects that have been inspired by my designs! I've been finding these images on pinterest when I look up my work or my designs (you can click on the images to find their sources).

I am a big dyi fan* and really am blown away that people are becoming inspired by my work**.  It shows me that this is a design that will stick for a while and could become a total 'classic'- and to me, that's amazing! Really, I think what most makers and designers can hope for in this over-saturated, image-based, everything's been done kind of world is to be able to come up with a recognizable and identifiable mark. 

This week has been good- although I kept getting steered off course.  This seems to happen a lot these days where I have a plan for the week and a wack of things that are very promising come up and push my plan off course.  The one thing I did manage to do was to meet up with this was have lunch with  Jessica Bell who is a Vancouver artist I've been wanting to meet for some time.  Her work caught my eye when I was part of the Cheaper Show in Vancouver, and ever since, I felt she would be someone I'd want to meet (but it took 3 years to happen).  I seriously can not wait to visit her studio in the coming weeks - we have a little trade in the works that I totally thrilled about. 

Tonight is our Studio building post-holiday party that our saint of a landlord is putting on for all the artists.  Have I told you how great our landlord is?  It really is not often you meet a guy who buys a building in the city, converts the building into artist studios, charges fair rent, helps people out with moving in, building and up-dating their studio, buys kilns for a ceramic co-op, maintains the kilns so they keep working good, and then puts together a building-wide holiday party every year or 2 to get everyone together.  Seriously, this man is a saint and needs to be nominated for an award. 



*although if you say to me at a craft show: 'I can make that!' I might challenge you to try! My work is harder to make then it looks ;)!
**Of course, I'm not keen on people copying my work for profit or sale, and would really appreciate a credit link on Pinterest or blogs. This seems to be happening less and less- with linking to the original source, which is a shame.  Artists and makers work really hard to create their work, and a little nod in their direction is a great way to say 'thanks'.

Have a great day!

Sewing Inspiration

I have been at home with sick boys after a 4 day weekend where we went to Vancouver Island to visit friends and family, so things at the studio have been put on hold for a few days here.  Fingers crossed, between the laundry, hand-washing, tea-making and constant cleaning, I'll be able to avoid this bug they picked up...

In the meantime, work on the website is resuming and tax prep needs to get back to speed, so maybe it's not too bad.  As long as I have patient customers and shops, I'll get through this little set-back and be back to speed before too long. 

Our local fabric store is closing down so I have been picking up thread, notion, and fabric for a quilt I've been wanting to make.  I found this amazing old measuring tape at a thrift store on the weekend and couldn't help picking it up for the sewing box.  Somehow working with old tools and pretty thread makes me want to dive into the quilt project, even though I'm a little hesitant considering all the work I have going on in the studio, not to mention the prospect of having to move in the next few months.

On that front, our place still isn't listed for sale yet, so we are sitting tight while the boys try to finish up the school year.  We aren't sure where we will find our next home and neighbourhood but are pretty open to moving a little closer to my studio in East Vancouver.   Crossing a bridge to get into Vancouver can at times be problematic (traffic!!) and bus fare costs more between North Vancouver and the city, so those are a couple more reasons to think about moving back to Vancouver.  We will, however, dearly miss our neighbours, the walking trails at the end of each road, the quiet street, and of course, the school and community that that has brought us.   We have had some really great years and times in this place- for which I am so grateful!

Hope you have a great week! Stay well!

Glaze inlay and up-coming workshop thoughts

Wow! I so appreciated the comments from yesterday's post giving feed-back on some of my new work!  I was recently reading this blog post about 'what's up with blogs' and feedback being so much quicker to receive on facebook or instagram, where as the process for blogs is taking a lot of time these days (passwords/security codes etc).  I did think about whether I had been commenting as much on blogs as I used to - probably no, I might like something or want to say how much a post connected with me, but don't always have the proper time to spend.  So when I get more then 2 comments here, it feels like a big deal- so thank you! It means a lot!

While we are on the new work front, I posted a couple of photos on instagram from my first firing of the year.  I thought I would try a glaze inlay method- which is kind of like a mishima method but using glaze instead of on the bare clay.  I was pretty happy with the results as one-offs, especially the first mug, which kind of has a water-colour/japanese floral design look to it.  At least that's what I thought when I saw it.  The first mug combines my sticker/stencils with then the glaze inlay lines for the stems and leaves. The second is just the glaze inlay idea with a super simple pattern.  If you want to try this method yourself, basically you glaze your piece and then apply a wax resist and let that dry a bit.  Using a sharp tool you draw/carve into the glaze and then sponge off the extra wax/glaze from inside the lines.  At that point you would fill in the lines with a different glaze.   Obviously this method probably works best for simple drawings- not super detailed drawings, but it's worth testing out.  I think the biggest drawback to this method would be that there is no going back, only going forward.  In other words if you make a mistake- I guess you could try to fill the line with the original glaze and hope it covers it up?  Something to think about. 

On another front, the Canadian Clay Symposium is coming up (as well as NCECA).  I generally really like going to workshops and conferences on ceramics as they can be inspiring.  My biggest complaint that I walk away with, however, is that all too often, the presenters spend most of their time just talking about how they construct their pieces and not enough time talking about decoration.   I realize that the time crunch of presenting work and limited materials often means that presenters aren't glazing their work during the demo, but that is what I would like to see in a demo. 

Tomorrow I am going to this event.  I'm curious to see what it's about.  Sometimes it's nice to connect with new people and to try new things, don't you think?  You never know where it will lead!

Now for something completely different

There are times when I kick myself for making work that's so much work to make.   When I started
the dahlhaus collection, I wanted the work to stand out, to be recognized without having to turn over the bottom to see the stamp.  Using a complex glaze method (that I thought no one would be crazy enough to copy), I developed patterns and a glaze style that was uniquely my own.  All that to say that on the 3rd-4th day of glazing a kiln-load of work, my hands are tired and I wish I hadn't made it so complicated and hard on myself.  And then I pull out a glaze full of lovely patterns and I'm back to seeing why my work has stood out and is in demand and I love what I do.  I truly believe that work that is hard to make is worth making and really forges new ground within the history of a craft. 

All this to say, however, that there are times when I long for 'simple' and when I wish that that mere form and colour could inform the work.  Also the busyness of all the patterns all together can get a little overwhelming for me, and there are times when I think it would be nice to have a hit of simple colour in the midst of the patterns when they are all grouped together. 

So here it is, my slowly evolving colour-fade line of ceramics.  It's a small collection of work that I've been mulling over, occasionally deciding to glaze one or 2 pieces in a kiln load, just to see what I think.  This year I decided to be a bit more deliberate with this work.  I am in the process of thinking about a Rothco-inspired vase series with some taller cylinder vases, just trying to sort out how the lines and edges will over-lap to best create this work. With the images above, the bottom bowls are the first 'dipped' edges that I worked on back in 2010, and then last year for the blue and white show, I made the mugs, then before my last photoshoot, I worked on the vases and large bowl.  There are slight variations to how the white glaze meets the colour glaze that I was testing out.  Please don't hesitate to let me know what you think!

*Thank you to all those who have purchased teapots from my shop over the past couple of weeks that the Bon Appetit article has been out! I am glazing more teapots this week (and making more) and I very much appreciate the support of my work!

Pretty in Pink

Pink isn't a colour I'm naturally drawn to- I always find it interesting that everyone's eyes are different and that some colours that are pleasing to some, aren't as pleasing to others.  If I was to get into pink in a bigger way, it would be the mostly pale shade of pink, bordering on blush pink, in geometric, minimal designs.  Perhaps a flowery poppy pink would be fun at times, but for this post, I stuck with the simple and sublime, just in time to shower you loved one in petals of pink for Valentines day.  Click on the images to click through to the Etsy shop listings!

Triangle Party

I'm getting back to a few images from the last photo shoot, which I'm still trying to get onto the website in the near future.  It feels like I'm opening my Christmas presents before Christmas here, showing you all the good photos before the website gets it's yearly over-haul, but that's the way it goes sometimes.  These things all take time (and money)!

Since last year, I have continued with my triangle themed work but was trying to simplify the pattern.  I love the quilted pattern, but felt totally bogged down in the re-creation of the design for shops or to sell on my own.  If you know anything about how my designs come about, you'll know that this pattern is still a ton of tape, but that the triangles are a little bigger.  I simplified the colours, limiting it to the lighter shades of glaze that I have available.  We all know that glaze in the kiln likes to run vertically, this being a pattern that needs to be more precise and less 'painterly'.   Where the white glaze meets the coloured glaze is still a little fuzzy (which I like because it looks less like underglaze or decals and more like glaze), but less obvious then with the darker shades of glaze. 

Anyways, I'm still having fun with this design and am making a bunch of it to send off to The Flock in New Zealand! I have a few wholesale orders I'm currently working on and a huge project that I was doing a cost estimate for this past week.  We'll see if I get it in the end, but if not, it was one of those crazy opportunities that came across my desk that blows me away with the possibilities. 

I hope you are having a great week!