I have a lot on my plate

Just to let you know that the last of this small plate series I made last year is available on Etsy here.  It's my favourite of the bunch and hopefully I'll have more time to sort through some of these designs soon again. 

On my plate these days:

-upload the new images from this past November's photoshoot up on my Website

-finish up filming for the small 'how my work gets made' video (almost done!)

-finish up a line sheet for 2012 so I can respond to shop inquiries properly

-finish up tax stuff for 2011

-finish up shop orders for the Gardiner Museum Gift Shop, the Gallery of BC Ceramics, Coal Harbour Florist, and the UBC Botanical Garden Gift Shop...

-plan 2 weeks of Spring Break in the middle of March for my boys

-sort out transportation to NCECA 

-plan/make work for up-coming exhibit with Krystal Speck at bookhou in June

-work on a presentation of my work and process for the Gardiner Museum Gift Shop in June

-plan a studio sale for the spring

-not to mention the obvious pick up boys from school, make dinner, do laundry, plan things around Dean's work schedule etc.

So many exciting things in the works, so little time to make them all happen. 

photo credits: Curtis Hildebrand Photography

the Gardiner Museum

Just a couple of pictures from the Gardiner Museum of Ceramics in Toronto.  The museum shop carries my work and I had been wanting to pop in there to actually meet the manager and staff who I've been emailing back and forth with over the last couple of years.  It was super helpful to hear what was working, and also, what I need to change on my end to make orders process more smoothly.  Nothing like a good face-to-face!

We had the chance to check out the Betty Woodman Exhibit happening right now at the Gardiner, and both my friend Disa and I thought her work reminded us of the Vancouver artist Gathie Falk (here for some of her paintings). They are both of the same generation so it kind of makes sense even though one is is from Vancouver and Betty Woodman is from New York.  There were some lovely pairings of her small teacups on porcelain with historical ceramics that I liked- perhaps I'll show them here on the blog.  It's not easy to capture images of anything with glass in front of it, but you would get the idea. 

The Porcelain collection at the Gardiner is truly amazing.  Going back to the 1700's and perhaps even earlier, it was hard to come away without seeing every idea I've ever had having been executed already 300 years ago.  Even the glaze colours and combinations looked so contemporary compared to their age.  I'd like to work on a little pairing of the historical ceramics with contemporary look-a-likes.  It would be interesting, indeed!

I'm still sorting through some of my photos from the trip- I'll be back with those next week.  In the meantime, I'm signing off for Easter weekend.  We are hunkering down at home together this weekend- we've either been on holidays or had company or I've been away or Dean's been away for the past month.  So a little family togetherness at home is certainly in order!
Happy Easter!

A post without pictures...

I'm not sure about you but blogger seems to have a new system for uploading images and mine's not working. Technical assistance, anyone?

A little up-date on the Wedding Magazine shoot and my cake stands... thankfully all went extremely well and the only 'glitch' was that whoever made the cake didn't quite take the theme or colours into consideration! Thankfully they found other ways to use the cake/cupcake stands! I might even get a glimpse later today...

Here's off to a busy Wednesday!  For those of you in Toronto I'm shipping off a pretty large order of new work for the Gardiner Museum Gift Shop today, and for those of you in Vancouver, the Gallery of BC Ceramics will finally get some work! And my online shops are looking a little bare again- I'll hopefully get to uploading what's left tomorrow!  Thanks for hanging in with me while I sort out the photo up-load issues and have a great day!

Fall Ramblings...

Well it's back to school for the kiddies officially today- Johnny's first full day where they finally tell him who will be in his class and who his teacher will be, and Sasha's first little intro to Kindergarten! Wow- the summer went by fast! This year's Kindergarten year will be a challenge to get to school and back 3 times a day for drop-off and I'm already feeling overwhelmed by the idea of getting to the studio enough, especially in the coming months.
I've been getting back in the studio quite a bit over the last 2 weeks and just pulled out 2 kiln loads. I've been doing a bit more experimenting with new glazes, and while I don't have any pictures to show for it, I'm getting some cool results. Testing glazes is something I like to do when the studio is fairly quiet, and when I have my enough of my tried and true glazes for the pieces that are for shops or orders. The worst time for me to be testing new glazes is November or something- in the thick of Christmas where every pot counts.
So my order for the Gardiner Museum Shop is getting shipped off to Toronto today in time for a big opening launch for the fall season! I also received word recently that the Crafthouse YVR (Vancouver Airport) shop, opening later this month, has accepted my work for their shop! It's an exciting venture considering the Olympics coming up!
Anyways, busy day, I'll have lots ready for the Poppytalk Handmade Market's Mixed Tape stint coming up in a week or so, so stay tuned!
Off to walk up to school!

Thinking ahead...

Fall-winter has been on my brain since May for some reason- possibly registering my youngest son for Kindergarten had something to do with it, or maybe it's that I've had to apply for all my Christmas shows in spring and was able to get word back regarding which ones I got into. Anyways, for all those reasons and more, I've been planning the fall and wanted to share with you some news!
The first thing that's on my radar is that my work is moving East! The Gardiner Museum Shop in Toronto has requested my work and I'm working out an order to send to them in time for mid-September! This is really exciting for me- The Gardiner Museum is a ceramic museum mostly specializing in historic ceramics, but they often have contemporary ceramic shows there as well. Since they showcase ceramics from all across Canada, it feels quite an honour to be included!
I have a few more things in the works that I'm waiting to hear back on, but until then, I'm really excited to be part of the Shiny Fuzzy Muddy Show and Sale for their 10th edition December 12 & 13 at Heritage Hall on Main st.! This is a really great group of artists and designers who have been organizing this invitation-only Christmas show for the past 9 years. I'm super excited to be included and I'll be sure to post more later on in the year.