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;)!

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.

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. 

rhythm 'n blues

Well, here we are in January, fully back in the swing of things and I can't say I'm as happy about it as I should be.  I think with the 2 weeks of fever/cold thing I got the week before Christmas, I was not quite prepared to get back to the rhythm of work and school.  I have been meaning to blog, but every time I wrote something down it came out like a list of complaints.  Kind of like my boys who seem to have a whole host of complaints for me when I pick them up from school:  Why do they have to walk home instead of drive?  Why did I have to give them a sandwidge for lunch?  And why do they not get paid more money for setting the table at dinner like all their friends do?  And why can't they have everything they ever wanted for free????  I'm sure you get the idea.   So anyhow, today I resolved to put my own complaining behind and approach the year with a more positive attitude.  That doesn't mean I won't occasionally write about some of the challenges I face as a working ceramic artist, but I just wanted to be sure that I don't sound as annoying and entitled as my boys do when they forget all the great things they have and are doing in their lives. 
Here's to a rainbow kind of year.  They keep popping up everywhere so I'm sure it's a good sign!

Until next week

I'm wrapping up posting for the next little bit as we take off to Vancouver Island for a Spring break holiday with the boys. We have family and friends to visit along the way, but also managed to book ourselves into a hotel in Victoria for a couple of days to really feel like we are on a holiday. 

Thank you to those of you who stopped by on my blog this week.  I had a real up and down couple of weeks which thankfully ended on an up note.  Between battling a cold, the Teacher's strike, an order that felt as if it took forever to finish and not taking a day off in 2 weeks,  I realized that I've been wearing myself out.  On the up side of things, I made a point of getting out of the studio this week and connecting with some really great people.  I was able to make some progress on my exhibition coming up in June that I'm super excited about- (more on that later), and possibly have found a unique opportunity for the dilemma I've been having about how to grow or out-source some of my work.  I'm still a little overwhelmed, but reading this post made me realize that it's a good time for me to strongly consider why I have been saying 'yes' to things I maybe should have been saying 'no' to. 

Have a great week!

Back to winter

We had moments early this week when I thought winter had passed and we were now onto spring.  It's ok, Spring will be upon us in record time once again.  Here we are nearly mid-February and I have so many projects that have just gotten started or I'm in the middle of.  I like starting things and I really like finishing things, not quite as much this middle ground.  I continually feel as though I'd like to be ahead of the game instead of always feeling behind.  So I'll be busy this weekend, trying to wrap up some of the exciting things going on so I can start sharing them here.
Thanks for stopping in this week! My facebook page has been a real source of encouragement for me this week- friends of ours were in NYC and stopped by one of the Anthropologie stores to snap a photo of my vases.  They look so amazing set up in this beautiful cabinet highlighting other products of similar colour-ways.  Seriously, their shop design team really knows how to put it together!  Made me want to take the red-eye to New York this weekend to check it out in person...
Have a great weekend!

Coming along

 We have been in our current home now for nearly 6 years- about 5.5 years longer then we thought.  I spent months and months looking for a new house to rent- we had been in an up-stairs of a house on a really busy street with a mostly annoyed landlord living below us.  Annoyed because the boys were too noisy at 2 and 4 years old. The writing was on the wall, so when we found our current house- I jumped.  The price was right, it has a 3rd bedroom, no one lives below us (ie the boys can play and be boys), the yard was stunning (had a garden plot), there was a school and preschool close by- nearly all the things we were hoping for in a house, except that it was small, with only one bathroom, no dishwasher, and the eating area in the kitchen is super tight.  That and the landlord had decided to cover the wood floor in the living room with purple carpet before we moved in.  On  moving day, Dean said that we shouldn't get too comfortable- it was too small for us and we should think about looking for a new place in about 6 months.  Not the easiest thing to hear from your spouse on moving day. 

So here we are, all these years later.  I usually get restless in a space after about 3 years, and for some reason, this house has felt like home more then any other.  For the most part we just needed to get over the expectation that a house has to have a lot of space.  Somehow we realized that having good neighbours and a good school for the boys was more important then the purple rug.  We edit our closets and the toys regularly trying to keep clutter to a minimum.  And perhaps one day our landlord will be able to clear out the basement suite for us to rent as well (we had made arrangements for that a few years ago, but he lost his mojo to move stuff out). That being said, it's taken me a while to commit to hammering holes in the wall.  I finally got started in the kitchen...

Snow Day

 I ended up with a snow day/pro-d day at home with the boys.  It was a good thing I had no expectations of getting any work done, because my boys seem to require a lot of attention these days.  There's been an increase of homework and school-projects that take extra motivation and assistance and the sibling squables start from the moment they get up and are loudest in the car. Because I'm not a big fan of too much screen-time, extra activities needed planning so we had 2 visits with mom-friends and their kids to break up the day a bit.  Despite this, I'm feeling a little stir-crazy and very ready to get back to the studio for a little peace and quiet, space to breath, think and be creative without someone asking me for a snack. 
With work in mind, I have a few exciting things coming up for me - all in the planning stages.  It's great to have sudden waves of inspiration (they are all such good ideas!!), although I admit that the day-to-day of life sometimes deflates my ability to move beyond the initial stages of planning.  It's difficult to wrap my head around all the things in the studio needing to be done when lunches need to be made and homework needs to get done.  Is it just me or is the work/home/life balancing act getting you down too? Maybe it's the January blues that make me feel like just crawling back into bed and leaving it for another day.

On a Sunday in October

About a week ago the boys and I went on a great walk/bike ride, enjoying the bit of sunshine against the fall trees.  This is the kind of weather that makes me love where I live.  Ask me in about 3 months time when it's been raining for 5 weeks straight and I might not be so keen, but for right now, it's just so beautiful. 
I've been neglecting this space for a while.  I'm not online or on the computer very often these days.  For starters, the busy season has me ramping up my efforts in the studio and I get home, with clay splattering over my cloths, the boys hungry for my attention, and few precious hours to spare.  I've been wanting to read before bed and put my mind on other things, not just work and that's been healthy for me.  Frankly, my life has been rather quiet lately: a lot of introspection after a great amount of work completed, long conversations with friends who need me to be a good listener, and time spent doing things as a family have all been more of a priority.  All that being said, I will be stopping by here a couple of times a week, sharing some new work, up-coming shows, along with the occasional ramble from my heart.  I do hope you'll hang in here with me...

I'm ending the week on a positive note- I finally tackled a few more things that have been hanging over my head (namely accounting), and got caught up, thanks to help from a friend.  It was seriously a daunting task.  I know that this is something that's supposed to happen weekly or monthly, but sorting receipts has been the very last thing on my to do list, never to be crossed off.  And then it got out of hand.  Mounds and mounds of shipping receipts that I couldn't even imagine trying to record and sort through.  Mental block hit, and this last week I had the brainwave idea to get Kat to come in for help.  She helped me pack all the boxes to send to Anthropologie (they have arrived! not online yet) and she really is a wiz at being organized.   So, along with finishing up all my local shop orders, I feel as if I have a handle on things once again.  More or less, that is.  Until I realize that I don't actually have anything ready for my holiday shows... all in due time. 

I'll be in the studio this weekend with a bunch of 14 year old girls.  Our niece is celebrating her birthday and I offered for them to come to the studio while it's still bare, to do some making.  I have a feeling it's going to be full of laughs and giggles.

Have a great weekend!

green to yellow

I'm trying to get myself geared up for my 2 up-coming shows, and I must admit that it's hard to think about Christmas and holidays with this kind of weather. We are probably due in for a bunch of rain soon, but in the meantime, it's been lovely during the days, colder at night, with only a hint of frost.  The apples are starting to turn sweet, and we are going to have to get a hold of some more soon. 

I always find that fall feels like a good time to hash out new designs and ideas that have been stirring while all the other production has been going on.  Although this year my designs are getting more complicated and less efficient in the glazing department.  Glazing a kiln-load of work is taking me a whole week, when it used to take about 3 days, partly because I'm working through design ideas, but also because my process is just that- slow.  This does not bode well for me when it comes to wholesale orders.  I feel the pressure of needing to get the work out faster and smarter, and even cheaper.  It's an interesting thing to think through- how much wholesale (ie double the amount of work) can my business sustain.  I'm sure there are some good formulas out there for how much direct sales/wholesale/e-sales is a good mix- it would be interesting to know what that should look like. I guess finding the 'perfect formula' is somewhat subjective, but it would be at least nice to know.

It's the friday before Thanksgiving weekend and I'm at home today, catching up on all things computer-related, with my mind spinning and my body slowly starting to decompress from the last 3 months.  It's been an intense period of production for me: I shipped and dropped off over 500 pots this week!  That's a lot of pots for my 2 hands (with a bit of help from a couple of other hands here and there) to make in my little 300 sq ft. studio, and as you can imagine, I'm asking myself how I can possibly keep this up and where I can possibly go from here. I had a really significant conversation with an amazing ceramic artist this week and am processing some much-needed insight into what a career as a ceramic artist in today's day and age can truly be.  Mind-boggling actually!

The day Steve Jobs suddenly passed away was also the day my 93.5 year old grandpa passed away.  His passing was sudden, and yet not sudden.  He had fallen and ended up in emergency.  He seemed fine and he was himself, but he had a bit of pneumonia.  No one seemed alarmed and so he had told my grandma and parents to go home, have some dinner and come back later.  And an hour or so later he had passed away.  Just like that.  Of course we all would have wished that he was surrounded by his family.  That we all had been able to say 'goodbye'.  That's the part that's hard. 

I'm due for a good relaxing weekend off from the studio but I'm anticipating being back here a little more next week, now that things have calmed down a little in the studio.  Have a great weekend!

Something fresh

Hello!  It's been a busy few weeks at the studio and I'm at the stage where I've just had to put my head down and 'get 'er' done (sooo close!!)  Things are coming along, but to be honest, I'm tired.  I got hit with a cold this week and it's taken the wind out of my sails.  I haven't had time to take photos or blog lately, mostly because things have just been all about getting back into the routine of fall, packing up orders, finishing up new orders, trying to complete old orders, and wondering how a day can go by so fast with so much left to do. 

For fun I thought I'd switch up the stripes on my vase in the last firing, just to see what I thought.  It might be something I work with a few of my glazes- I also thought I might work on some colour pairing instead of the white.  That's the one thing that's great about my glazing method- I'm never limited to things being one way, even though I admit that once I find a way and a combination that works, it can take me a while before I'll be willing to try something new.  After pulling out hundreds of these vases from the kiln this summer I've been ready for something 'fresh' to lay my eyes on!

We are heading out of town for a wedding this weekend.  It's up in the mountains, about an 8 hour drive from Vancouver.  We won't be taking the boys (thank you Grandparents!!), but Dean is involved in the wedding so it will be busy but possibly a good little break for both of us.  I'm hoping to get some much needed rest so I can start feeling like I have the energy to get back to finishing all the work I've started all summer. What a good feeling it will be when it's all finished!

summer skies on the shore

I've been looking through the photos I took this summer and noticed that I took a lot of 'sky' images against the backdrop of the ocean.  Photos of skies and sunsets never seem to be quite as amazing as being there in person, but somehow these are the images I want to keep in my mind as we head into the school year.  It's with a twinge of regret that I head into fall.  Perhaps it was that the summer seemed so short this year with the weather in July being so cold.  Most likely it's that my kids are getting one year older, things are getting busier and more complicated.  Nothing is staying the same, but is constantly changing and moving like the tides in the ocean and the movement of clouds and sun in the sky.  The rhythm of fall is going to be starting up again, and the swift tide moving towards the end of the year is coming much faster then I could imagine.  I just want to soak in the beauty a little longer...

Summer memories

We are heading out to Savary Island for a few days for some much needed R&R.  The summer feels like it's just flying by and now that our weather feels summery we want to spend a little time enjoying it before the boys head back to $#*ool (It's a 'bad word' around here this summer:)!
Here are some of the flowers in bloom in our yard right now- so many purples and pinks. The vase is one of the last I have from the collaboration between my friend and designer Disa MacKay, from last year.  And the textile piece is something I got at a thrift store when I was about 18 years old.  It brings up memories of the shed at my parent's place; my sister and I spent one summer completely decorating the inside of it with thrift-store finds and having slumber parties in the loft. I'm hoping we'll make a few summer memories like that for the boys this week! 

on my side of the fence

I've had to step back on the blogging front here this past week. I'm so busy, working hard, long hours to be on schedule and to keep up with everything while Dean is away.  The boys were at the family farm for a few days and I was able to pool together a few lovely people: my sister, my good friend Kat, Sarah and my cousin, to help me out with the most tedious and repetitive part of my glazing process- the stripes. I'll be firing my first of 6 glaze loads to complete this order I've been working on... so much work.  In the meantime, a lot of my local galleries are starting to send me orders to finish up the summer with.  Not only do I not have a lot of spare work in the studio, but I also don't have any room or energy to make anything besides this order until September comes, even when they are expecting and asking for me to send the work asap.  Since when did pottery get made asap?  
I often straddle between worrying that I can't possibly keep up with the demand for my work verses being concerned that people won't be able to afford what I make, considering all the financial crises and budget cuts.  I hesitate to push my little studio into a bigger space with more equipment and a full-time assistant in order to keep up production, and yet I am at full capacity with just one order right now.  It's clear to me a few things have to change for me not to burn out, but I'm not quite sure what it will be yet.  I'm just taking it one day at a time and trying not to feel too overwhelmed by it all.  

Keeping motivated

 It's my birthday this week and things are being kept pretty low-key around here.  My boys are at my folk's place all week while work continues on the largest order I've ever filled.  It's not for the faint of heart these large orders.  It's a whole lot of intensely physical work and I've been going to bed with sore muscles from all the lifting and pouring of molds in my little studio. I'm so grateful to have Sarah with me in the studio this summer- her energy and enthusiasm is certainly helping me stay motivated to keep at it.  At the rate we are going, we'll only have 1 more week of slip-casting, and the rest of the summer will be glazing, glazing and more glazing.  If all goes as planned, the bulk of the order will be finished by the end of the summer (and by the time Sarah has to go back to school), so I'm just finishing up the last bits in time to send it off early October.  By then I'll be full-on in Holiday mode.  Phew, what a year!!

photos:  The waterlilies at the studio are blooming again!
I remembered I had this photo kicking around- circa 1981 or 82.  Love the wallpaper, and clearly, I am ready to party!!

red, white & blue

Happ

Happy Independence Day to my US neighbours! These were taken at the family farm this last weekend, where we ate local strawberries and admired the garden! 
I'm now on 'summer time' which means that I'm at the studio at odd hours- late on Sundays, early on Mondays, and so on, so that Dean and I can still work while the other is looking after the boys.  So I'll be popping by here at random times to say hello! Hope you all are having a great start to your week!

the Garden this week

 

The garden is coming alive.  It's rather exciting...

On the horizon...

 Hello! I'm slowing down on the blogging front for the next week to finish up as much as I can before my boys are home from school for the summer months!   I've got a few orders to fill and more work for Renegade to finish up, while also preparing for a summer of filling the largest order I've ever produced.  Yes, it feels exciting and harrowing all at the same time.  I know I've said this before, but this ride I'm on- making and selling my artwork and crafts, is a wild one!  If someone had told me at the beginning of the year what opportunities would come my way, I probably wouldn't have believed them.  Usually I have goals and vision for what I do, but somehow this year I was having a hard time imagining how I could possibly make 2011 better then 2010.  I guess 'better' is a loaded word, because everyone's idea of 'better' is different.  Certainly there have been highs and lows, but this year is again exceeding my expectations and I'm having to plan and make decisions that I didn't expect to make so soon on this adventure.  Needless to say, I feel really thankful to be in the midst of it, a little overwhelmed, and excited at the prospect of things to come.
I just wanted to thank you all for stopping by here, to the place that I share my inspirations and thoughts.  I'll be a bit random from here on for the summer, but I'm looking forward to sharing with you the highs and lows of producing a volume of work in a fairly short amount of time.  My due date on this order is September 5th, so basically my summer will be spent with my nose to the grindstone. I've thought a lot about this, especially concerning our kids and Dean's schedule (he's running 2 week-long skateboarding camps this year instead of just one) and hopefully we can still make this a memorable summer despite the busy works schedules!
(sorry, for some reason my blog isn't uploading images today... )