hello again!

Hi everyone!  I'm back at home with the boys, looking over my photos from the last month and marveling how many wonderful people and places were part of our holiday time.  I'm looking forward to sharing some highlights on the blog with little snippets of some of the sweet spots we found, but with the long weekend coming up I'll save it for when the boys are back in school (ack- tuesday already??).

See you next week with some exciting news on the dahlhaus front too! And if you are needing to kick-start your inspiration this fall, don't forget to check out Stephanie Levy's Creative Courage course- the bios of her 'Soul Sister's' are up here!
Have a great last injection of summer!

dahlhaus wedding registry new shop and feed-back

I just finished a wedding registry from this past year (there was the wedding and then the after-wedding a number of months later, so the registry took a little longer then most) and have another registry on the go so I thought I would  create a special shop that can be exclusively for a registry.  It's always special to work with people who really understand all the time and effort that goes into my work, but also it's a real privilege to be able to create work with them and their life in mind.  Recently I received some really wonderful feed-back and thought I would share it here on my blog- just the names were changed  (to... for privacy) otherwise, this is coming straight from them and it means so much!

"We love, love, LOVE our Dahlhaus collection. It has been such a great pleasure and privilege working with you over the past year to collect the pieces we wanted all together, and we have been blessed with lovely friends and family who wanted to help us to do that. We now have a unique and lifelong reminder of our wedding, the love of our family and friends, and a daily representation of our life together, all channeled through your artistry and talent.

When we embarked on the planning for our wedding and celebrations, I didn't really 'get' the whole wedding registry thing, or see why people often signed up for a dinner service or glassware etc. Perhaps most of the time, I just found their choices a bit too fancy or staid or conservative for my taste. But in any case, I didn't 'get' that it could mean a lot to have this special set of ceramic ware that every time you looked at it, took it out, used it, enjoyed it, that it would actually symbolize something greater than it's intrinsic loveliness.

Thank you so much for being an important part of creating ... memories of a truly wonderful year. We will raise a teacup or two to you on our 1st anniversary in October, and every anniversary after that, not to mention all the occasions in between, when your work will be pressed into service in our home and shared with our friends and family."

Creative Courage course by Stephanie Levy

Stephanie Levy is an illustrator, artist, blogger, and mom to 2 beautiful girls living in Berlin who I've been able to connect with online over the last couple of years!  She has been offering an online course called 'Creative Courage' which is meant to inspire you on your creative journey in life!  The early-bird registration for her latest course is online here, where you will notice a new line-up of artists and makers that she'll be interviewing as part of the course.  I'm honoured to be included, alongside some of my favourite designers, makers and bloggers like Heather Moore, Arounna Khounnoraj, Victoria Smith and Alicia Paulson, just to name a few.  Along with these exclusive interviews, Stephanie will be generously sharing from her own wealth of experience, encouraging you on your own creative endeavors while connecting you to a broader creative community! It's an amazing opportunity to grow and pursue your own creative dreams- I know I'm looking forward to it!

Heading out on the open road & Forage

Just popping in to let you know that I'll be heading out on a road-trip Boler-style with the family for a last hurray to Summer! On our way we'll be traveling in the mountains past Whistler all the way down into the Okanagan, heading south and then west again over to Vancouver Island.  It's beautiful country and you can follow along on my instagram if you like, otherwise, come on back in September for some highlights!

While on the Island I'll be heading to Gabriola for a conference called Forage where I'm looking forward to meet some amazing ceramic people along with other makers, designers and artists from Western Canada.  It's a great group and we'll be pounding the pavement on so many issues and topics concerning creating sustainable practices as makers.  It should be a really great time!

See you in a couple of weeks! Have a great last few weeks of summer!

As summer slips along...

Sometimes it feels easier just to take my phone out and snap a quick shot of something that is inspiring me or to save a moment- instagram is just the thing, heh?  So the studio is slowly coming together- I hope to show some more photos soon, in the meantime, I've added a few things to make it feel more at home while I try to finish up my orders for the summer!  I have been on my own with the kids for a few weeks now- during the week Dean has had to work or been away at his camp, so my days have been busy with keeping the boys happy.  Not always an easy task, but an ice cream cone, a hike to Bridal Falls goes a long way!  And the Turquoise Boler- just my colour!  We haven't had time to take our family Boler out on the road this summer yet- hopefully in the next couple of weeks we will take it out with us on the road!  It's too bad our Boler really only sleeps 3, but oh well- we do have a tent and the boys are still keen to sleep in tents;)!  

Hope your summer is going swimmingly!

Making time to make

 I'm a bit of a goal-setting kind of girl.  Nothing official, just a good little mental list of things I'd like to do.  This year being my 5th year of being a full-time maker, I figured I would include a few new goals to the list.  One of these goals included taking a workshop just for fun.  You know- some kind of making workshop that didn't break the bank, wasn't going to take up a ton of time, but something that just gave me a reason to make something different for a change. 
Last weekend was the Gather Pop-Up Shop and they offered a bunch of workshops by some really talented people- one of them being the brains behind the blog: The Jealous Curator- which is a really amazing blog to find great artists.  Danielle Krysa, aka the jealous curator, is a graphic designer, a collage artist, a mom, and a blogger.  Sometimes its just so great to connect a face to a blog you've admired!
So anyways I had some fun making something I don't usually make, with materials I don't often think about using, painting with colours I don't often choose.  We did a little drilling, a little embroidering, a little painting, a little cutting, glueing, and some photo transferring- super fun!  It wasn't about the out-come and that was kind of refreshing. 

Farewell Aunt Nettie

We received the news this past weekend that my great-aunt Nettie passed away. My great-aunt was a potter for many years who inspired me to keep at it in the ceramics department when I was in college.  She lived in Ontario and wasn't able to visit too often, but when she did, she was such fun, had such energy and her passion for clay was huge.  She would phone me to talk about pottery and she found a way to ship a wheel, books, and supplies to me before my final year at Art school.   Her passion for pottery was contagious as I began to think about how I could make a career out of clay.

After caring for her husband who died of cancer, my aunt fell very ill.  Uncharacteristically, she couldn't get out of bed and was unable to move and speak without her speech being slurred.  It was as though she had had a stroke, although doctors were saying that it was a type of Parkinsons disease that had come on suddenly.  After many years it became apparent that she wasn't going to recover so she was put in the care of a very good home.  My dad's cousin and wife (she never had children, but 'adopted' her nephew's family as her kids) cared for her, visited her, helped her write and publish part of her life story, connected her with her potter's guild friends, and even helped make plans for me to visit her last year.  We knew she was getting close to the end of her life- she was 89 turning 90 next week, so her passing wasn't a surprise.  Her life will be remembered on Friday but her legacy in clay will remain and live on -hopefully in a way through me, but also through the many people she mentored and encouraged at the Waterloo Potter's Workshop, where she had many friends and colleagues in clay. 

I spent a few hours co-ordinating flights for my Aunt Tina and my grandma (Nettie's sisters) who will be going with my dad to the memorial.  With Dean away this week I wasn't able to attend- but I'm sure it will be a meaningful time.