I can't add

Sometimes before I have a big show I get a little anxious over all that I have to do in order to be ready. I put things off until the last minute. I have always been this way. When I was in college I would write 15 page papers at 4 in the morning of the day they were due. Always. No matter how much I wanted to change, I just couldn't. Thankfully I work fairly well under pressure and some of my best work, be it writing or making, has come from these last minute freak-out sessions. It does take its toll, however, and last night I was plagued by bad dreams all night long. I had a dream that I was at a show and my calculator would not work. I was desperately trying to add up a big purchase and the buttons would not work. It kept giving me wrong amounts and half numbers. I couldn't figure out the sales tax. It was maddening. I finally handed the calculator to the customer and asked him to add everything up. And then I hightailed it out of there.

It's kind of a funny dream now that I think about it, but at the moment I wasn't feeling too jolly. It just highlighted all my anxiety. It's not that I don't have a lot of merchandise for this show - I have a lot, probably close to 400 pieces in total. I'm a big believer in having a very full booth with a lot of selection. And of course you need to have a lot in understock so that every spot can be filled when something sells. That being said, I am just anxious overall. Ugh.

Anyhoo, above is a new version of my peacock necklace. I like the simplicity of it and the antique vibe going on. Sadly this is the last of my vintage copper snake chains. And that makes me sad.

I listed some new pieces in the shop. A new owl bracelet in beautiful Autumn colors...

This little sweetie is a new design...

This is a new glaze combination in my favorite (for the moment) combination of blue and brown...

New Crater Discus earrings...

I must fly to the studio now to see if the kiln is cool enough to get my bracelet pieces out. Here's to an evening of assembling bracelets! And a dream-free night...

The perfect family portrait

How great is this family portrait from 1961? Pretty great, I say. I mean, a Dutch bunny and a cat?! Awesome.

Pieces for miles

Most of my day will revolve around these endless tiny pieces. I am really low on bracelets and I have a three-day show coming up on Friday so I am working madly. Yesterday I sanded them and today I will glaze. I will have to single fire them since I need them by Wednesday. Wish me luck. :)

I just had to show you these cute, puffy sheep I saw on Saturday when I was driving the back roads to Syracuse. It was a very cold morning and they looked so warm and cozy. I just love the one in the middle who has his head down on the ground. He reminds me of a big, wooly bunny!
(I wish I was skilled with Photoshop - I would put a pair of bunny ears on him, email the photo everywhere and start an internet sensation!)

OK, can you tell I didn't get much sleep last night? Ugh. Time to head to the studio...

Lantern love

Yesterday at the Guild show I got to have some fun (read that as not working and totally slacking off) and play around with some carving. No, those gorgeous lanterns above are not what I carved - they were made by the fabulous Lauren Ritchie. She was kind enough to demo her technique both days of the show. She even threw a bunch of small bowls in advance so that others could give the carving a try.

This is Lauren working on a large piece. In front are three examples of her work. The piece on the right was just carved with a gorgeous Mackintosh Rose motif inspired by her recent trip to Scotland.

And here is one of her intricate circle designs in progress.

And this funny little pot is my attempt. OK, so I have a long way to go before I reach Lauren's level of mastery but it's not too bad (stop laughing!). I brought it home with me so that I can finish it up myself. Hmm, how should I glaze this masterpiece? :)

Lauren's work can be found at Gallery fifty-four in Skaneateles, NY.

Artbeads.com coupon!

I came home from my show late last night to discover a wonderful little care package had arrived from Artbeads.com. Thanks Artbeads people! And the exciting part is that they included a discount coupon code that I can share with everyone!
Use this code to get 10% off your next order (there is NO minimum order required AND they have FREE shipping within the US - and super cheap international shipping to boot!!)

SCF10P-ARTBEADS-0424

This coupon expires by the end of the year - 12/31/09 - so be sure to take advantage of it!

Things I should be doing instead

I have a small show tomorrow and Saturday with the Syracuse Ceramic Guild. I should be tagging my pieces (with their incredibly large, inconvenient and terribly time consuming tags) but instead I am sitting here eating pizza, drinking beer and writing a blog post. This is much more fun than spending hours tagging and writing an inventory sheet. (Note to self: stop doing these guild shows - the tags are going to send you to an early grave).

Well anyhoo, I really just popped in to complain, I guess. Which is not very productive and certainly not very PC. (Has anyone else noticed how it's uncool to complain these days? I mean, I love a good whine now and then. I excel at it, actually. Let's make complaining cool!)

OK, enough beer. I listed this new rabbit necklace in the shop today. I love it quite a bit and hope you do to! :)

Unpredictability

Believe it or not but the two pieces shown above were glazed in the exact same way using the same glazes. OK, so my fellow clay-heads who are familiar with reduction firing will believe it (they are all nodding their heads up and down saying "yep, been there, done that."), but those of you who aren't are probably saying "Really?" Or maybe you could care less (probably more likely). Anyhoo, we fired the gas kiln this week at the studio and I went in bright and early this morning to unload. Aside from pinching a nerve in my neck and getting a leg cramp while lifting very heavy kiln shelves in a tight, contortionist position (how old am I?), it was a good firing with pretty good reduction throughout. The pale green piece up top, however, escaped reduction. It should be as bright and flamboyant as its partner but alas, it's green.

And no matter how many times I tell myself "don't fire earring pieces in the gas kiln" I continue to do it and every time I end up with a group of pieces that don't match. It's all about location in the kiln and if two pieces get separated (as the two above did) they are often receiving different amounts of reduction and therefore won't look the same. Most of the time this unpredictability is exciting but when you need to match two pieces it can be rather problematic.

Thankfully I was lucky in this firing and most of my earring pieces matched, like the pair above. Yay!

The true joy in reduction firing, for me, comes with results like these, above and below. The colors that can happen are so freaking incredible - I can't stop staring at them! I love to glaze. The chemistry involved thrills me probably more than it should. I like chemicals and I like to see what happens when different ones are combined. My goal is to be a glaze painter. :)

This one, above, is going into my keep-it-forever pile.

This last piece is one I made quite a while ago but never glazed until this week. The design was made with a water etching technique. Seeing how this one turned out made me want to play around with this technique some more. I used to experiment a bit more with textures and techniques - sometimes it seems like I get a little stagnate and need to shake things up a bit. We can't have that! What to do, what to do...