make, glaze,fire, repeat

 I feel like things are going a bit round and round in circles at the studio these days, as I am working so hard to stay on schedule for my up-coming holiday shows, along with shipping off the shop and gallery orders so they arrive in time for holiday shopping in stores.  It's a bit of a scramble to do it all on my own, but once I get in the rhythm, it can be fairly satisfying.  For the most part all my shipping to other shops is done as of yesterday.  Phew! It was a lot of work (and I have 2 more NEW Galleries to showcase here on the blog still), but all that remains is a couple of local galleries and then my 2 shows- one in November and one in December.  I hope to be able to take a good long break over the holidays and rest my weary hands, which have been worked pretty hard over the past couple of years.

Sometimes I feel like fall just whizzes by and I hardly have a moment to really enjoy it.  Other times I'm really glad to see the year coming to a close, marveling about the opportunities that came my way and all the work I was able to make over the course of a year with only my 2 hands, a whole lot of determination, skill, and the support of my family and friends.  I totally feel thankful to be able to document it here on my blog- thanks so much for stopping by.

New work at the Woodlands Gallery

Fall Rhapsody by Melissa Jean at the Woodland's Gallery

I'm really excited about having a wider selection of my work available in my home-town of Winnipeg at the Woodlands Gallery.  I spent the first 14 years of my life in this city and still have a lot of family and friends who live in 'the Peg' so I'm a prairie girl at heart.  One of the great things about working with new galleries is being able to develop a body of work that is exclusive to their clients and venues.  The Woodlands Gallery will be carrying teapots, mugs, and vases in my Tangerine and Indigo Stripes, which I think will compliment the gallery's fall landscape paintings- the one above by Melissa Jean.  You can find the Woodlands Gallery at 535 Academy Road, and on Facebook too!

New Shops carrying my Striped Bottle Vase

Hello, hello! Since September, things have really ramped up at the studio and I'm chest deep in shop orders that will be sent out by the end of the month in time for the holiday season!  I spent all day yesterday cutting my 'stickers' for my striped bottle vases (which I will be doing again today!!), as I have an enormous amount of Stripe Bottle Vases heading out the door in time for the holidays. 

Over here on the blog, my Stripe Vases might seem a bit old hat, but I did want to mention that I have added a few new colours to the mix and also changed my slip-casting body to a more pure porcelain, then my previous stoneware casting slip.  The difference is slight- oh, pretty pernickety in the making stage- likes to rip and tear if you don't use the most sharp utensil to cut the rim or seams, but there is a softness to the edges- where the white glaze meets the coloured glaze that makes my little ceramic heart sing.  Yes, I have a ceramic heart inside me- must have one of those to be so persistent and patient with all things clay related. 

So anywhoo, just wanted to pipe up and give a little shout out to a couple of new shops that will be carrying my striped vases soon:

Spruce Collective is a brand new shop that is opening in Abbotsford, BC, with all things vintage and good- this shop will be full of amazing and beautiful finds, I'm sure.  I can't wait to stop by in person soon! What a pretty logo, heh?

Gus & Ruby Letterpress is a letterpress boutique in Portsmouth, New Hampshire that will be getting a batch of my striped bottle vases towards the end of the month.  Their shop and letterpress designs are absolutely lovely and I'm thrilled to have work available at their shop in time for the holidays!

Adesso Atelier is a beautiful shop in Santa Barbara, California that I would love to visit!  I am really loving the studio store-front concept with most of these new shops!  Adesso is already carrying my striped vases as well as a few tall cylinder vases that include my triangle pattern too!

I'll do a post with some of the galleries that will be carrying a wider range of my work this fall- I can't stress how wonderful it is to be working with shops and galleries all across North America.  Many of the shop owners are makers or artists themselves and really understand how much effort and time I put into my work so I'm really grateful to be working with them!

thoughts on the Studio Magazine article, working with large retailers, and 'craft' becoming mainstream

Back when I was in art school I had a favourite inspiration go-to book in the school library- it was an Arts and Crafts Movement book - I think it's the same as this Phiadon book, but it had a different cover back when I was looking at it, so it's hard to tell.  The book was literally filled with drawings of designs for teapots, mugs, textiles, rugs, china patterns, and glassware from this period.  While I was preparing for my talk at the Gardiner Museum in June I found these slides I had taken from portions of the book as a reminder of how much I had been inspired by the drawings of designers from this period.  I can't help but think of this book and these drawings when I see Molly Hatch's work, especially the teacups from the Mimesis Series.  I absolutely love how she drew teacups from this period onto a simple wheel-thrown mug.  I just had to buy one- a real one, hand-thrown, mishima incised and hand-painted, by Molly herself.  Imagine my surprise when I saw her designed version available in Anthropologie Stores a few months later, just as I had finished and was about to ship off my very large 450 vase Anthropologie order!

Which leads me to the article that was recently written in Studio Magazine, an Ontario Crafts Council publication geared towards professional crafts people within Canada.  I was approached to be included (along with a couple of other amazing artists) in an article about Anthropologie buying Craft and agreed to share part of my experience of filling a couple of small orders (the article says 1 small order, but it was 2), and then a really large order of 450 vases for them last year.  The premise for the article came out of a curiousness about what happens when a retailer gets behind a craft aesthetic, both by purchasing directly from artists and designers, or from creating designs in collaboration with an artist.  I think more opportunities have opened up to work with retailers over the past few years then perhaps previously, and while I myself have jumped on this band-wagon, I also recognize that it's a hard path to navigate as it's relatively new territory.  As artists we understand the role and commitment a gallery plays in our career, but the role of retail is something entirely different.  Many artists and makers that I talk to are wondering whether working with a retailer is right for them, and I guess I saw the article as an opportunity to explain a little bit about what's involved.

In the article I shared how the work load for an order of this size was really much larger then my studio of mostly myself can manage (although I did manage to do it!) and that, over the months it took me to fill the order, I didn't have the space or the ability to work on any other creative work.  I felt that it was important to share the reality of production when the work is created 'in house', as opposed to if the work was designed by an artist but produced over-seas.

 Since finishing the Anthropologie order last fall, I have had a lot of time to think through whether I would ever do an order like that again.  While I was really learning on the fly (ie steep learning curve!!), I very quickly realized that I am an artist and maker of small batches, not a ceramic manufacturer.  I have appreciated the ability of a retailer to promote my work the way Anthropologie did, but understand too well the limitations of my ability to produce a volume of work consistently for a retailer of that magnitude. While I have some misgivings and am frustrated by the lack of North American ceramic based manufacturing options for retailers, I would likely opt to design if this kind of opportunity ever came up again.

I think the article brings up some positives and negatives of retailers at large jumping on the 'craft bandwagon'.  It's not just Anthropologie who is working with artists and makers- there are many other large retailers doing the same.  I too have noticed terms like 'handmade', 'woven', 'knit', and 'hand-painted' being added to manufactured items as a way to add value and somehow increase sales based on the addition of a crafty term.  These are words that were once used by us as makers as a way to distinguish their work as being of more value (and thus more $) then manufactured items, but now everyone seems to be using these terms and it's become confusing to the average consumer.  Clearly hand made is a trend that is becoming more mainstream and we as professional makers aren't quite sure what to do with this kind of "success".  Sometimes I compare it to the rise of Skateboarding- which started out as really small sub-culture and then blew up into mainstream proportions.  A lot of hard-core skaters I know went underground when it all became so mainstream- that or just kept trying to do bigger and better tricks while they rode the wave of popularity.  Not to say that the hand-made movement is exactly the same, or that we have to have the same response, but just that I find it kind of interesting considering a few years ago someone made the comment about my work- that it was a 'bit too handmade looking', and now that's what everyone seems to be looking for.

a visit to a Blacksmith studio

Nope, not every day you meet a real, live blacksmith.  But meet one, we did, while we were visiting friends on Vancouver Island this summer.  I know this post comes a whole month later, but needless to say, my boys are still talking about how they want to be a blacksmith after checking out Island Blacksmith's studio and watching Davej Friesner banging out some reclaimed metal.  Boys + metal + fire + knives.  Makes total sense, doesn't it? 

from our holidays: Victoria and girl friends

I keep forgetting about some of the photos I have from our holidays this summer.  In all the back to school and studio rush, the blog has been a bit neglected, but I thought I'd post a couple of photos from this GREAT house that has undergone a transforming fresh coat of white paint since the last time we were there. There are so many things about this house that I love- Caroline has such a great way of putting it all together!

We spent much of our summer holidays hanging out and staying with families who have girls.  I have to say that it was something quite special to see my boys playing with polly pockets and my little petshop stuff.  They would be absolutely livid if I told anyone that they a) played with girls for their entire holidays, and b) they played with girl toys, because they are so in that stage where they think their friends would tease them about it.  But the reality is that my big, boyish boys loved playing with the girls this summer, and I couldn't help thinking how good it was for them to have to play differently, negotiate differently, and frankly just enjoy hanging out with friends we don't often hang out with. 

Sun rays

Some days it just takes your breath away, doesn't it?  It's not often here in Vancouver, with the mountains on one side and the ocean on the other, that we get such amazing sunsets with actual rays of light fanning their way across the sky. 

Thank you to all the lovely blog posts and mentions about my vases at the West Elm Vancouver store!  I managed to check out the West Elm opening for all of 15 minutes (Dean and the boys stayed in the car so I could jump out, have a drink, check out the store and get back in the car during the opening- not really much time to actually shop...).  In all fairness, the 4 Etsy featured artists were only sent the invite the day of the invitation-only opening (hmmm), so things were a little complicated schedule-wise by that time.  Anyways, if you are interested in checking out the shop, please do- such great stuff and it was great to be included in such a fantastic store. 

Practice verses Business...and a bit more of the new studio

Ever since Forage, I've been thinking through the difference between having a 'practice' and running a 'business'.  One of our panel discussions had to do with grant writing, online financing campaigns, and award applications for making art.  The term when to use 'business' and when only to use 'art practice' came up - for instance don't ever use the term 'business' when applying for a grant- always use the term 'practice' or the grant jurors won't even consider your submission.  Although when it comes time to collecting and submitting my taxes or applying for a business license to be able to use my studio, I essentially operate as a ceramic manufacturing business.

So I started thinking through how I felt about the terms 'business' and 'practice'- whether or not one applied to me more then the other, and also, if these terms were really in fact the same way of talking about what I do.  I generally use 'art practice' and 'business' interchangeably but I often feel ill-equipped as an artist to be running a viable business.  For instance when the chatty guy at the bus stop starts asking what I do and I say 'ceramic artist' and he replies 'Is there any money in that?' I kind of stumble over my words.  Not like it's any of his business, but it has become clear to me that I'm much more comfortable understanding what I do as a practice where the personal out-comes of creating and making are more important than the dollars and cents of it.

Part of me realizes that my core values are being triggered here- that I have always viewed 'business' and 'making money' as self-serving and with a negative slant.  The artist in me wants my motives for making decisions to be 'pure'- as though making decisions to do with my creative goals and out-comes are more honourable then if those goals considered financial out-comes.  I totally admire those who feel like their ability to profit financially through their creative endeavors comes honestly or naturally, and always hoped that this would be really seamless for me as well, but am recognizing that making decisions based on my artistic out-comes alone and not considering the financial isn't healthy, viable, or sustainable either.

Every milestone I have crossed with 'dahlhaus' has been really amazing and I'm truly grateful for the opportunities that have come my way.  The potential I see in what I do will come at the cost of other things for sure, but I sometimes mourn the missed opportunities that have come across my desk- missed because I wasn't ready to have all the pieces in place to make those opportunities happen.  I have always been less prepared for success and more prepared for failure and I'd really like to change this notion (*thank you to Fiona from Cartolina Cards for clarifying this in her talk at Forage).  I'm hopeful that I  can create a more symbiotic relationship between the business of what I do and the practice of making so that the decisions and the opportunities don't overwhelm or stall the creative path that I'm on.

 **These are a few photos of sections of my new studio. It's a little hard to see how big the space is (360 sq. feet!).  I have yet to photograph the whole thing because last week I purchased a used slip-casting table to help me out with some of the heavy lifting that slip-casting demands.  It's a big massive table that I still have to sort out how to configure the rest of the studio around it.  I'll also be sharing this space with my former studio intern from a few summers ago, Kelly, who wanted to share some studio space for the next few months before she moves far, far away.  I'll be missing her when she goes so it will make for some good time together before she leaves.

New for Fall available at West Elm Vancouver!

Introducing my new glaze pattern for the fall- the Herringbone in colour-ways of turquoise to green, orange to red, grey to blue, shades of blue and yellow to green! Really, the possibilities with this design feel endless and I'm looking forward to not ever feeling bored with this one, despite the extra effort and work involved.

I'm heading over today to the new West Elm store on South Granville in Vancouver to drop off these new vases for their store launch and 'WE heart handmade art' Etsy event that's happening on the 13th of September! It's one of those opportunities that came up while we were away on holidays with a super fast turn-around date.  Fortunately I had pulled these new herringbone colours out of the kiln before we left on holidays.  I'll be expanding the series to include the colour-ways as mugs, teapots and large vases over the next month, similar to the series in blue I created for the Kindred in Blue exhibit this past June!

 

Post Forage Part 1

The Forage Symposium was a 3 day conference jam packed with guest speakers and panel discussions from participating makers, artists and designers.  We covered topics like marketing your work, finding your audience, how to apply for grants, issues to consider with outsourcing, social media tips, selling online, and how to juggle family life while being a maker.  When I say 'jam packed' I do mean that the schedule pretty much had us in a session from 10 am until 10 pm with small breaks for lunch and dinner.  Hosted and planned by Mariko McCrae and her husband Brian in their beautiful studio- it was truly an amazing time to really reflect on what I do as a maker, a mom and a creative person.

At Forage I re-learned that a creative life is ever evolving (I think Bianca was the inspiration on this one)- whether it be in finding new inspiration, launching a new product, moving to a new studio space, or completely changing mediums.  It felt empowering to be reminded that whatever stage of the journey I am on, that I have creative license to change things about my practice when things aren't working.  Every project and opportunity in my life can viewed as a creative venture (thank you Doug Jones for this reminder)- to learn and grow and also perhaps to fund the next creative opportunity I embark on.  Sometimes the opportunities that come across my door demand change, and other times I recognize that I'll need to channel change in order for me to be prepared for potential opportunity or growth.

I came home after Forage feeling completely inspired and overwhelmed at the same time.  I needed these pep talks, the encouragement, and the advice more then I thought, but I also am more aware of the out-comes of each decision I need to make for the next stage of my creative life to begin. 
The most amazing part of being at Forage was meeting a new community of artists and makers who are making really exciting work.  I look forward to connecting with them and introducing a few of them here on my blog too.

Gabriola home love

While on Gabriola Island I was invited to stay with Christine and her husband in their beautiful home while we attended the Forage Symposium.  Not only was it a beautifully designed home with beams and big windows, but it was full of Christine's collections of vintage ephemera, beach combing finds (like the Ice Cream/Take Out sign), as well as pillows and bedding that she makes out of vintage fabric.  Christine's one of a kind pillows are for sale at the market on Gabriola and I have a feeling she'll be selling her pillows online soon, so I'll link soon!

Holding on to those moments

There are so many moments that make me want to hold onto summer for just a little longer.  This year we managed to find a totally new swimming spot in Vernon (we've been holidaying here with our friends for about 10 years- thought we had all the good spots dialed!), spending 2 full days of our holiday enjoying the view, the little beach hut, and the cool water.  I'm not a real sun-bather and get pretty worried about the possibility of skin cancer creeping up on my fair and freckled skin.  Sometimes this clouds my ability to really enjoy beach days as I'm constantly re-applying sun-screen or seeking out shade for the boys and myself.  My Mr. is of the belief that sunscreen causes cancer- even though we use the paba-free kind and, of course, he rarely gets burned so that's easy for him to say.

The boys start school tomorrow and the fall kicks off with a bang on the studio front.  I have shop orders coming out the wazoo these days, all of which I already feel behind on, even though it's only September 3rd.  It's the month I start thinking about my holiday shows, so I'm doing a whole lot of planning and organizing to hopefully be prepared.  This summer was all about the new studio and trying to come up with a strategy for how to grow or change some of the things that feel as though they are holding me back as a maker.  Attending the Forage Symposium at the end of our 2 week holiday felt a little like plunging into a cold lake on a hot day.  The symposium included panel discussions and guest speakers from a variety of creative practices and businesses and I learned so much.  As a way to process this, I've been writing a number of blog posts, hoping to wade through the sometimes murky waters of this self-employed creative life.  I appreciate feedback on this blog and with these posts, will appreciate it more then ever.  As much as it's to process my own thoughts, I also hope that it creates a dialogue in the process.

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!