A revelation in gray

Same gray glaze.  Different results.  Sometimes a smooth and satin-matt- consistent throughout, sometimes pin-holed and pocketed.  I've been wracking my brains all fall and winter trying to figure this glaze out.  I've wrecked countless pots on the attempts.  Ruined 3 custom teapots on it.  And sacrificed my level of quality control in some cases just because I felt so disheartened. Seriously beautiful when it's worked out, and so unfortunate when it didn't.
So I kept thinking that my kiln had hot spots.  That this glaze really doesn't like to be over-fired.  Or that it needs to be really thinned out.  Or that my recipe needed tweaking.  Just when I thought I had things figured out, I'd have a couple of great pots with this glaze in the kiln right beside one not so great pot. 
And last firing I finally figured it out.  Clay body.  I've been using 3 different clay bodies in the studio, one being my slip-casting clay body (image 1), the other being the original clay body I've used for the past 7 years or so (image 2)- I make all my bowls and large pieces with this clay body, and, the culprit: a porcelain clay body (image 3- look close: see the pin-holes?).  I had started using this clay a couple of years ago when my supplier for my other clay body went out of business and I could no longer get clay #2.  Then after a few months a new clay supply store, in a very inconvenient spot, opened up and started carrying my old clay body.   I quite like the porcelain for a number of reasons- my poppies have a sort of glow to them on the porcelain, but in many other ways, #1 being warpage, this clay body is a real pain. There are so many factors that go into a good pot- sometimes I forget that at the base of a good pot is the clay itself.  What a relief to know that I don't have to change much here- I just have to remember which clay is which.

Kiln is cooling today with plenty of striped bottle vases to go off to new shops and back in stock on Etsy!  I'll be announcing some new shops that will be carrying my work soon!

Weekend projects

I did finally get to sewing a tote bag out of fabric that I had dyed this last summer.  I used an Ikea cushion cover that had a broken zipper on it for the lining.  It feels good to re-use something for another purpose or another life. 
This weekend the boys and I took a trip to the Family farm.  Johnny has a school project that he's working on about documenting a family treasure- he has to interview someone about the treasure, take photos and tell the story behind the treasure.  So out of a few possibilities he chose a friendship ring given to his Great-Grandmother as she left Russia to come to Canada in 1924.  We looked through old letters from family that stayed behind during Soviet Russia.  One of her brothers who was thought to have died in a work camp during Stalin's reign was re-united with our family about 12 years ago, only a few years after the death of his sister. 
I particularly liked the wallet that the ring was found in- such a great design.  Each of those corner flaps opened up to a pocket.
And check out the 'Rules for the baby' Great-grandma Dahl got when she had one of her son's in 1949.  'Most important of all.  Leave Baby alone.'  It really is a wonder babies survived with advice like that!

First signs

Oh, spring is really on it's way.  The days are getting a little longer and there are buds on the trees.  And a whole lot of green stems coming out of the ground.  I know that this might be misleading.  That snow or cold or hail can come up any moment, but it sure feels good to know that these signs mean good things to come.  Did you know that Spring arrives here on the West Coast first before anywhere else in Canada?  Yes, it's true.  Victoria on Vancouver Island is usually first and then slowly Spring spreads across the inlet to Vancouver. 
So I've got a busy week, but will try to pop in here and there.  It's a week of glazing and sending off wholesale orders so I might be a bit busy on the studio front- and of course, it's the last week before spring break, so that means report cards and parent/teacher conferences (ie early dismissals all week) for the boys.  Sheesh. And this year our spring break is 2 full weeks. 

Lotta Jansdotter

 Lotta Jansdotter has a new blog as of January this year.  She also has some amazing tutorials on her new website. And a new exclusive web shop.  Just thought you all should know about that.  I might just be inspired to crack open my Lotta Simple Sewing book and make something this weekend! 

My view on a lovely day

With the menagerie of weather (snow, sleet, hail, rain, sun, clouds, wind, warm, cold- all in the same day!) we've been having in the 2 weeks, I thought I would post a very sunny, but cold Saturday in Vancouver 2 weeks ago.  It was stunning, with fresh snow on the mountains, a clear blue sky and the cold blue water.  It truly is a beautiful city that I live in and I'm more smitten with it the older I get. 
Hope your weekend is lovely!

ECU Ceramic Auction Gala 2011-Saturday night!

The details:

 

The Ceramic Auction Gala will be on Saturday, March 5th from 7:00pm to 10:00pm in the Concourse Gallery at Emily Carr University. 

Tickets to this event will be $10.00

Emily Carr University’s ceramic department will be hosting its bi-annual Ceramic Auction Gala, which will feature donated ceramic work from artists in the community, alumni and students of the department.  It is a great opportunity to engage with ceramic art works from established and emerging Vancouver artists. This is a student-run fundraising event where all proceeds raised help support educational field trips and lectures from visiting artists.

I can't quite remember how we raised money for special firings and trips when I was at Emily Carr, but I do recall making work to donate for sales and such, oh, all those many years ago.  I've re-connected somewhat with ECU a lot more this year than I have since graduating- partly because Kelly, my studio assistant from last summer, is graduating this year, and I've had the chance to connect with some of her fellow classmates.  I think there are a few students who pop by my blog regularly too. So this next bit is for them:)

One of the things about going to art school is that a person has the chance to build his or her skill level, knowledge level, and understand their own aesthetics etc. in an environment that is academic.  It's completely different then a business environment.  It is really great that in the midst of learning about the materials that no particular monetary value system would be placed on your objects for school purposes, because it gives you a chance to just make art for arts sake.  However, the moment an auction or fund-raiser comes up, everyone suddenly starts thinking about the money of it.  How much is the object they made worth to people out there?  Can I make money making my work?  So while these objects have generally been made without a dollar value attached to them- they've rather had an academic value or a material value or a personal value or a time value placed on them, suddenly, in time for an auction and sale, and one is wondering how much money the school can get for that item.  It can be seriously dis-heartening this close to graduating from school to have the numbers not add up to one's expectations.
Please know that whatever happens at the auction tomorrow night, that your work may  have a different set of 'values' than cold hard cash.  The value for you having made that work really can't have a price tag put on it.  Especially because you don't know the future of your career as an artist, and how that work might be the 'ground work' for all the rest of your work later on. 
I'll hopefully be at the auction, one of my low striped bowls is up for grabs and I'm very much looking forward to seeing a really interesting selection of work!

The days that follow

I quite literally have not been on Etsy's front page since July 11th of last year.  I was in a treasury that made it to the front page in December, but my item, being on the back end of the treasury didn't actually make it to the front page.  It's always remarkable how my stats go through the roof on a day when one of my items does make it to the front page, and yesterday, I had two items in 2 treasuries on the front page- one at 8am and one at 8pm.  Kind of funny.  All I can say is that I never look forward to the days that follow a front page appearance.  When I check my stats and the percentage of hits falls like 400% or something.  It's hard to come down after such a huge climb up...

I'm finding the new system for treasuries a little crazy- anyone else out there think it's a little nuts?  I mean, the open door policy on creating treasuries is, on the one hand good.  I think I've gotten more traffic through treasuries this way because everyone feels obliged to go and click onto a treasury with their objects on it and then they see other people's stuff and click on that, and then perhaps they it in a treasury and it has sort of a ripple effect.  But it feels a like it's a bit much, like over time, people are going to start ignoring treasuries because there are too many of them and they are over-used.  Maybe that's just my feeling- perhaps people will keep loving making treasuries despite the lack of constraints, but it did used to feel as though being able to make a treasury used to be a big deal.  Anyways, food for thought. Hope your day is swell!

Happy first of March!

Wow.  March already.  For some reason the shortness of February always seems to take me by surprise, and the month is over when it felt as though it just began.

Here's a little glimpse of one of the newer smaller abstract paintings that I worked on in January.  Sometimes it's hard to see connections between my architectural paintings and my ceramics.  This summer I had started on some small paintings with ideas that I then left it until January to work on again.  Something about the act of paintings re-surfaces in my clay work and vice-versa.  I find both practices integral to the way I work, and while the ideas out of paintings that come into my ceramics (or the other way around) can tend to take some time to be worked out, more often then not, the ideas are much more realized when they do.  I'm so much more inspired by the act of translating an idea, a shape, or colours in both mediums, even if one of the mediums doesn't turn out to be as successful as the other. 

On a totally different subject, I was pleasantly surprised to see one of my old ceramics instructor Joan Bruneau has a post on the Ceramic Arts Daily Blog, all about throwing/cutting & pasting.  I saw Joan last year at the Clay Symposium here in Vancouver where she re-inspired me to consider creating 'dynamic forms', and to re-consider form by creating little sketches or small pots to rework, cut and paste as possible examples for creating larger and more interesting forms.  Both posts are worth the read!

Ceramics on Etsy: What I like

New work by Doug Peltzman Pottery

Black & White Teabowl pair by clamlab

oil & vinegar ewers by Courtney Murphey

Luna Moth Squirrel Rose Bottle by Adam Paulek

Ceramics by Brian R Jones on Etsy

 

 

everything, alltogether

Thank you for stopping by my little corner of the world this week!  It's been an epic week for me: running to the post office shipping orders, shipping my work to New York for a potential Magazine feature (fingers crossed:),  being blogged about all over the place, working very hard on a glaze firing, starting on some new wholesale orders that came in this week (that Line Sheet work I did last week might just be paying off already:), and my son's birthday party and planning!  Some weeks are like this- everything, all at once.  And some weeks are a much slower pace.  For all the weeks on this journey, I am very grateful!

Some more lovely mentions:
Hija Del Sol Blog
HandMaid Liset 
Tickety Boo

Walking the Line: thoughts on creating a Line Sheet

Ok so I'm going to start this post by saying that in no way am I an expert in creating a Line Sheet.  'A line sheet?', you might ask?   Yes, you know, a line sheet.  Not a sheet with lines on it, a sheet with your Lines on it.   Your Lines of ceramics, or cards, or knitted things, or silk-screened t-shirts, or hand-bags or jewelry... you know.  The Line Sheet you send to shops and retailers who are interested in carrying your work for wholesale.

(Insert footnote here:  There is a difference (I feel) between Galleries and Shops.  Most Galleries don't need Line Sheets to have your work in their Gallery. They might just contact you a few times a year and say we need a bunch of mugs and a couple of Teapots, some bowls.  You invoice them or it's consignment and you get a cheque a month later.  Shops and boutiques are essentially retailers.  There are some great independent shops out there that carry a variety of handmade work as well as perhaps manufactured products.  They are used to ordering through a Line Sheet.  If you make work that fits in with their aesthetic, they may want to see your Line Sheet.  This is how I came to have to make my own Line Sheet.  End note)

There is a lot of information that they don't tell you at art school about the actual business of making and selling your craft.  I've read a number of books about starting up a craft-based business, but feel as though Line Sheets were one thing that wasn't really covered.  I started asking around the studio building- hey, do you have a Line Sheet?  What's on it?  And most of the responses I got were a little vague, and, in fact, no one was really willing to show me their actual Line Sheet, which had me a little confused about the whole subject.  So needless to say, I've gone and done a little research, feel that I've made some pretty big mistakes in the process, probably turned away a few shops and shop owners because of my lack of knowledge and professionalism on this one, but perhaps could help you or even you could help me sort out the whole Line Sheet phenomenon. 

Now maybe you think I am over-complicating something that's quite basic.  Perhaps if I'd had a background in retail I would really know what I'm doing in this department.  But, if you're like me, and you've been in the Art sector or have worked in Social Work, or in Education, or were an Apple Picker, and merely spent 5 dreadful months working at a jeans and work wear store, you will not really know what the hello a Line Sheet is supposed to clarify for a potential shop owner.

A Line Sheet is quite simply a list of the items you wish to wholesale, the prices (wholesale and possibly suggested retail) that each item is, and a description of size/colour/materials.  In addition to the Line Sheet you would need to include your ordering information such as your wholesale order minimum, the shipping and handling costs that might be on top of the order cost, your 'lead time'- estimation of time to make the work, and any other considerations the shop might have before they order from you- ie, your item is hand-made and so some variation within the 'Lines' may occur.  There might be a few more things here worth noting, but for the moment, I believe that's a pretty big chunk to swallow.

The complication in making a Line Sheet that works for the shop owner is that you have to leave out all the guess work.  This is where I made most of my mistakes- it often felt like too much work to create an actual page full of images of each piece that I was prepared to wholesale and I merely wrote down a list of items with meager descriptions expecting the shop owner to go back to my website and sort through which piece fit with which description.  Not that I got any feedback from shop owners about this, but I sort of figured out after a few seemingly good-fitting shops didn't end up ordering from me after their first email of "I love your work and think it would make a great fit for my shop!".   Essentially, what you don't have time for as an independent artist and maker is also what a shop or gallery owner doesn't have time for either.  However, in this case, your the one that loses out.  Instead of the general public being your customer, the shop owner is your customer.  Just as you don't want your booth at a craft show looking shoddy, your Line Sheet is intended to 'sell' your work and get a potential shop owner excited about selling your work in his/her shop. 

Now I must say here, that people out there a little more business savvy than I would also include product number codes, and ordering sheets with style codes, amounts, and prices so that a shop owner can be checking off boxes while they are browsing your Line Sheet.  This feels a little to 'product-ish' for me.  I know that may not make sense, but as someone who makes everything with my 2 hands, by hand, I'm not super-keen on the whole 'code' idea.  The Line Sheet in itself is a bit of a stretch.  I mean, there is really a limited amount of this work I want to produce over and over again before moving onto other ideas.  Which is why it's good to up-date one's Line Sheet. Some would say seasonally, but for myself, I would say yearly.

Last, but not least, it might be a good idea to put in a plug for order minimums.  Look at the pieces you wish to wholesale.  Are they worth wholesaling to the shop owner and to you- are you both benefiting enough from the sale of your work?  What is the price range (lowest-highest) of your items?  How much of those items for wholesale dollars would fill what you would expect a shop owner would want in their store at one time.  Most shops I know are fairly small. They may not want everything in every Line that you make.  They may also want to sell your work quite fast so that their displays are always rotating and changing to catch their customers' eye.  Have your minimum order not be too high so that they feel like they have to order everything on the list in order to fill that.  For example, my minimum order is $250.  But yours might be $400.  It really depends what you make and what the average price of your work is.  I'm sure there is an equation out there somewhere for the math inclined.

So let me know what you think- perhaps I've missed something here! As an independent artist/maker, I feel that the best way for me to actually make a living doing what I love to do, means that I have to have a few different ways to sell my work.  Whether that be doing shows, selling through shops and Galleries, selling online, or even doing studio sales, all of those things together are what could carry me from January through to the rest of the year.  Perhaps one day I'll just be able to do one of those and make a living, but for now, I guess I'm willing to give it all a go to see what will work best.

seven years ago

I can hardly believe that my baby boy is 7 today.  It's also amazing to think that I gave gave birth 7 years ago.  Having a baby is no short of a miracle.  After Johnny's birth (which took me 8 months to heal from- another story all in itself), it took a lot of courage to even think about having a second baby.  Well, turns out it was something we didn't have to plan, and thankfully, the birth was so easy (relatively speaking, of course)...and short!  I had been induced again- it was only 4 days after my due date instead of 13 with Johnny and my labour started really easy- Dean and I went shopping together, went out for dinner, I had a nap- both of us enjoying having Johnny, our 21 month old, be with his grandparents.  Anyways, I woke up from my nap and I was in full labour- we called the hospital to say we were on our way and my Doctor was waiting for us when we arrived at 11:30 pm.  Sasha was born at 12:30 am on Feb 23rd.  So fast! And after Sasha was born I sighed a big relief and said "I'm Done!".  Dean turned to me and said "Done done? or just done?"
We were both surprised to see our new, healthy little boy.  He looked so different than Johnny did- had lots of dark hair, a button nose and had my chin.  
Sasha is my artist.  He's very musical and loves to draw.  He's a funny story-teller and has an interesting slant on life, with big ideas of how things should be.  Every year he grows older I feel sad that I will miss the way he was when he was 3, 5 or 6.  Even so, I'm still done.

Collections: Lucky Clover Pencil Box

First off- special thanks to all the lovely mentions and comments regarding my colour wheel bottle vase photo!  One little bird, down home amy, and the Room6 blog.  Oh and then this little post from On a secret mission about 2 canadian bloggers, one being myself and one being the very talented Arounna from bookou.  It's made my week start out with a smile!

So here is another little glimpse into some of my hand-me-down art supplies.  This wooden pencil case- a lucky pencil case with all the 4 leaf clovers around it, was passed on to me by my great-aunt.  It's kind of the perfect case for Ink nibs and pens, don't you think? 

And the sweet little houses and the snow and trees, mixed in with all the different patterns, how lovely is that?  There is something about opening a box like this and pulling out the nibs that makes me want to write a letter.  You know, a real letter on nice stationary.  Using ink, because my writing looks so much better when I use a proper nib and ink. Have you ever noticed that?  Remarkable. 
I have a pen pal- I really should say 'had' because I'm notoriously bad for writing her back now, but I have had a pen pal from Germany since I was in grade 3.  We kept in touch all these years, she visited me when we were in grade 12 and I visited her in Stuttgart about 8 years ago.  I still have all her letters to me- most of which are in german, all of which were written with a real ink pen.  I'm quite certain it's my turn to write and so I think this might be a good place to start.  But where to start when it's been so long...

Stripe Bottle Colour Wheel!

I'm ready for Spring! Are you?

This is the result of last week's epic glaze session!  Seriously fun.  So much work.  And so rewarding!  I mean, just look at them all.  I mixed up countless stains with 3 different base recipes and most of them turned out as I had hoped.  I was a bit disappointed with how much the pink stain burned out in the nearly white on white vase.  And the bright orange- wowza!  Seriously bright. Might need to tone it down a bit.  Although maybe it's not so bad after all.  Goodness knows we all need a little colour at this time of year!  Jan from Poppytalk had emailed me about something this weekend so she got a hold of the colour-wheel  image for the front cover of the Poppytalk Handmade Lookbook.  Super fun! 

New collages

I'm off to unload my kilns and will hopefully have some lovely new ceramics to show you here next week and to up-date my shop with! 
In the meantime, I thought I'd show you some of the little collages I've been working on in the evenings when the boys are put to bed.  I received a few new inks and nibs, got some new washi tape in the mail this week, and have found a use for some of the sun prints that I made with the boys last summer.  I also had picked up some vintage stamps at a craft sale (can't remember who I got them from, sorry) that had bird and flower themes so those have been fun to experiment with.  I had bought some Daler Rowney heavy weight paper at the Art Supply store and it's amazing for drawing and painting and gluing papers on.  Doesn't curl up at all.  Also amazing for pen and ink, which is want the pine needle was drawn in.  Along with some new lino stamps I had carved and the blue and white patterns from the insides of old envelopes, I just had some fun with these and am looking forward to making more.  Sometimes when paintings just seem a bit too daunting, it's kind of nice to work small and on a collage.
Have a happy weekend!