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'.

On the home front

Photos from the past couple of days.  I've been sick with a cold, so I spent a little time doing some serious spring cleaning of the boy's rooms, making soup and bread, baking cookies and generally trying to lay low.  My mom brought over some Tulips on her way to the Island to see my sister and her family, who are in the last stages of waiting for their 2nd baby to come.  So exciting! Once again I'm hoping to be at the birth, like with Oliver who will be 2 years old in March.  I remember this stage of life- having a toddler with a new baby on the way.  It's a busy time of life.
Well, I'm feeling good enough to get back to it, and boy do I ever need to finish up some studio work.  I have a glaze firing planned for later in the week so I'll be  hunkering down over the next few days.  See you soon!

Studio work

...is coming along, slowly but surely. Orders are starting to get finished and shipped off.  My glaze tests didn't quite turn out the way I was hoping, but it wasn't all a wash.  I've been hoping for a great semi-matt charcoal grey (the one I've been using has a green tinge to it- beautiful, but sometimes, one just wants grey).
I recently realized that I've been throwing on the wheel for 18 years now.  When I first got started (took my first ceramics class at 18 in college), I was told by an older potter that I'd need to be working in clay for 20 years before I could consider myself a 'master potter'.  The term seems a bit archaic to me now- not really something I would think about ever striving for, but at the same time, I did take the advice to heart.  I decided to slow down, take my time in school and really spend years honing my skill before launching out on my own with my own signature style.  Maybe it held me back a little, because it would be about 13 years before I started 'dahlhaus', but on the other hand I think I needed that time.  It gave me space to sort out my ideas, and to work out all the kinks that were going to come up.   And most of all it gave me the confidence I needed to really make the kind of work I wanted to make.

Inspiration was needed

It's soggy outside.  Cold, wet, gray and dark.  It's no wonder I need a little colour and pattern injection in my life!  I've been a little slow on the blog front, partly because this light is so horrible to take photos in, and partly because life is just humming along with nothing too new to report (lots in the works though!) Nonetheless here's the latest:

+On a recent excursion on Commercial I popped by the vintage shop to admire all the ceramics.

+At home the boys are knee deep in class projects, math tests and snowboarding.  Naturally all of this takes some effort so we've been busy.  Who knew kids could be this much work?!?

+Our 'new' to us arborite table and chairs passed on from Dean's brother and wife this past weekend.  Dean helped them move and we got first dibs- not too shabby!  It looks rediculously cute in our yellow vintage kitchen.  Now if I could only move that light switch so I could hang artwork properly...

+At the studio I started on my first glaze firing for the new year!  I'd love to be filling it with new designs and all sorts of fun, but I'm going to have to settle on a finishing up a bunch of orders to start off with. 

That's pretty much it.  All the really exciting stuff is still in the works and can't quite be let out of the bag yet.  

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.

Things are back in their place

After setting up the studio all nice and neat so that over 3000 people could walk through my studio doors without being distracted by all the stuff I seem to have to store while I make, the house was a bit of a gong show.  A quick trip to Ikea the other night solved 2 problems I was having: one being no place to put all my office stuff and lacking in desk space since Dean and I are sharing 1 desk for our laptops.  Also the shelving unit will come in handy for my booth display at the One of a Kind Show, coming up in a week or so.  Thankfully I didn't have to put it together- it was in the 'as is' section and I somehow managed to fit it in the back of the station wagon along with the 2 boys.  Sometimes all it takes is some determination and creative woman-handling to get things done!

The studio is winding down for the year.  I finished all 'wet work', as in starting with a ball of clay work, so what I have is what I have. I'll be closing up my online shops in a few days as I get closer to the show so that I don't double up on selling all my stock.  Plus, regular shipping to the US needs to happen by December 8th  (the 16th for Xpress post- a little more $) so things are starting to get a little tight for time.  I've been getting lots of special requests for things that I actually do have in stock, just not up in the shop, so if you had something in mind, just send me an email.  If I have it available, I'll ship it off pronto, if not, then put it on your wish list for next year!

Okay, off to read with the boys, soak in the tub and drink some tea.

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!