Busy busy busy and stop

I had a wild couple of weeks before Christmas trying to get everything painted and fired and baked and wrapped and sent and... Christmassesd. So, I'm cutting myself a bit of slack now and falling into a bit of burnout phase again. You know, sinking into the couch in front of the fire and knitting. Instead of braving the 30 degree highs and getting out into the studio. But, hand building may actually be accomplished this week. Maybe. We've got a new challenge for the mud team, a kiln god swap. Let's see if I can pull it together before the 18th...

Sooo, you may wonder, what kinds of things did you make for friends and family this year? That's the fun of Christmas, making new things and patterns up for my loved ones. For my precious child I made the half sized mug:


And the tiny starry tea set:



For my sister, the fetishghost inspired footed pedestal cup:


For my mom, the soup mug:


For my sis in law, the night garden mug:



Hopefully, everything will be enjoyed and used. Wren has already been loving her new Wren mug for the purpose of hot chocolate. I'm just hoping that it warms up enough that we can resume our walks around the neighborhood soon! Nothing like taking a long walk and coming home to fire in the fireplace and a nice mug of cocoa. I'm about as dull as dishwater right now, so will write again when I find my normal wittiness.

Happy Holidays!

Something that makes sense will be written soon, but now is the time for gingerbread and wrapping packages, hot chocolate and stories by the fire. It is warm and lovely in my house by the tree, and smells of cookies, and songs are sung about the snow we almost never see here. I still can't remember the words after the five gold rings. But the air is crackling with excitement.

new things all around me

This has been a busy busy busy couple of months. Full of great changes and adjustments. We're just rolling with it. For the most part. Sometimes, I try to stop rolling with it and then it rolls me over and I flop and flail around for a bit until I can get back with it and start rolling again. Does that make any sense?

Anywhoo. We'll start with Ian's new job. Ian had been with Pier 1 forever. Or, at least for 13 years. So, when the opportunity arose, he finally felt it was time to move on. He started with GE in the middle of September, which involved a lot of out of town training for about 6 weeks. Needless to say, I didn't have a lot of time to get pottery done. I was mostly trying to keep Wren as happy as she could be, considering she thought he had left us. I had shows right in the middle of this period as well, so I was killing myself trying to get things made in time while Wren was sleeping. Well, we all know how those turned out. Ahem. So I had enough made to let me relax for awhile. Be burnt out for a bit. Knit things in my spare time. But, I'm back to it now. Really! I've got something quite exciting in the works, which will be unveiled soon. It involves a new shape. hee hee!

Ian decided to sheet rock my studio this week, which was super exciting. I'll have walls! I'll have a ceiling!!! I'll be able to heat the place effectively! He went and got all of the supplies on Sunday, so Wren and I made sure we had a place to put the sheet rock. I helped unload all thirty sheets of it from the truck and realized I might not be the greatest of helpers. I'm a trooper at working, but if someone's going to drop a corner of the stuff on their hand or get injured, I'm the one. Poor Ian.

We had to move things around quite a bit so that he could get to the walls as well. Wren ordered me to make a horse as we were moving and cleaning. A horse? I'm no handbuilder or sculptor, but I managed to work one out. She gave him many wild rides on the banding wheel until he took one to many spills and his head fell off. Poor horse.

She did make herself useful with the shop vac, though. Well, she did make herself loud with the shop vac, at least. Poor Wren.

Finally, I managed to get my new website up and running. I thought that it was a thing of beauty. As long as you pull it up in internet explorer. Otherwise, it's a messy mess. Or so I've heard. Actually, my friend Pam was kind enough to catalogue and e-mail me examples of the messy mess. Ouch. Oh well, check it out: www.amyhuntpottery.com!

show is me.

Well, this was my first big show back, at the Matthews Art Fest, and I hope that it was just a cursed show and the economy isn't as crap as we all fear. Do not get me wrong, this is usually a great show to do. But all possible elements got together and conspired to make it absolutely ridiculously bad in many ways. Let' s get the bad out so we can get to the good.

First of all, the weather was unbelievably silly on Saturday. It's been 80 degrees most of the time lately, but Saturday we were suddenly transported to some harsher, colder, and wetter climate. It never got above 65 and kept a steady mist or drizzle going much of the day. Everything was damp, business cards curling inward, price stickers freeing themselves from earthly bonds, and sudden rivulets cascading down back and cleavage from the tops of the tents. We shivered in the dreary moistness and had fantasies of soup. Lucky me, there was a Thai place right where we were, so I got a steaming fiery plate of tofu, veggies, and cashew nuts courtesy of my loving husband. Sharon got the same thing upon seeing mine, minus the fiery. Then we almost came to impolite conversation when we started discussing the herb that was in our food. It was thai basil, Sharon, really it was. We actually had some customers, which made it hopeful. My display looked good, despite the craziness I went through to get it that way. Thursday was ridiculously busy, with running to pick up pots from Lark and Key, then going to lunch with Wren, then going to pick up printing supplies to do cards and bios, then going home and painting display boxes in the kitchen as she slept, then getting a card from my neighbor at 6:30 that she had lost my tablecloth for my third table, then running to the fabric store and trying to find a perfect match, then getting home and realizing that the white material was much too white, then tea staining the white material, then staying up until 1:00 am sewing another damnable tablecloth. [pant pant pant] I need to go back further, don't I? To the part about Ian being out of town all week and me having to pull all of my wax and glaze supplies into the house and setting up an impromptu glaze room in the kitchen to avoid getting killed in my studio at working night by myself since I had to get two firings done in one week. [pant pant pant] Ummm... and I'm done. Yes, the setup looked good. So good, in fact, that it won an award for best booth display! Yes, there was a lovely purple ribbon and a nice cushy check that went along with that honor! Yay for efforts getting rewarded!

Sunday was absolutely beautiful, sunny and warm with a lovely breeze. Though, not too much breeze that I feared the plates would come down. But where were the customers? [insert sound of crickets here] Not in my booth. Not in anyone else's, either. No, they were at the two other festivals that were occurring at the same blooming time. Matthews Art Fest, I love you so. Can you please switch to a different weekend? This one has gotten so full. I had two sales all day. Ouch. I did make three really great trades, though. One was a meditating lady for a fantastic om necklace. The other was a vase for a mug from Valerie Hawkins, who was taking lessons from the studio when I was apprenticing. Her things have grown into something gorgeous. Way to use a leaf impression, Valerie! At the end of the day, she traded me again, two cups for two cups, so I could give something to my best friend, sitting beside me coveting my mug all day. Hey, I am a unrepentant trader, not a ruthless one. My spoils:

And finally, I managed to finish this huge beastie before the show. It only took about three weeks to do. It is heavy as all get out, when compared to the rest of my stuff. But, I love it. And have put a swooningly high price tag on it. Because I can. And will probably not make another like it any time soon. I think...

Of apple pie and new things...

I, for some reason, have suddenly jumped into a few shows coming up in the next month. Which gives me very little time to get ready. Good thing I was already making things for Christmas, because I'm now deep in a festival of painting. Lots of painting. Tiny painting. Hee hee! So, whoever lives nearby or will be in NC can check me out at the Matthews Art Fest on the 26th and 27th of this month. I will be right beside the gazebo alongside my very dearest friend, photographer extraordinaire Sharon Augustyniak.

All these preparations and custom orders have put me on a fast schedule of firing, the latest of which finished last night. I put myself to the test of getting the latest mud team challenge entry finished and barely made it. I was taking pictures at eleven thirty last night and sweating bullets trying to think of something clever to say about a sake set. Clever doesn't come easily at certain times of day. Clever was woefully absent last night. I really liked how the set came out, though!

I had a few other things come out that were new and turned out well. I had done a treasury for etsy awhile back that featured yunomis, little drinking cups, and got inspired. Also, I have been doing large wide bowls with elaborately tall and sweeping bases. Put the two together, and this is what you get:

I also did a tiny tea set, inspired by Wren always wanting "Wren-sized things". She gets so excited about finding things that fit her perfectly, so I think she'll be getting a tea set this Christmas. Of course, I asked her which pattern she liked best, and she chose the night garden. Figures!

Speaking of the night garden, I managed to finish a ridiculously time consuming plate in that pattern to put in this firing and was so proud when I opened the kiln and saw how it came out.

Until I looked at it from the side and saw the warping. Oops.

Oh well. And finally, this week I made my first apple pie. You may be looking at me askance and thinking, why did it take you thirty-four years to bake an apple pie, but I do not come from an apple pie family. I came from a pecan pie family. Or strawberry in the summer. Wren and I went apple picking at a local farm and had a lot of questionable apples. Questionable because she picked all of them in about five minutes with me running after her with a camera. It was a photographable moment, but we didn't get the nicest apples. And, ever since we had a peach tree in our yard that I decided to sample from, I have a fear of nature in my fruit. Never again will I bite directly into a piece of fruit not from the grocery store. Ugh. Cutting first, please. Which led me to the idea of a pie. However, another reason I have never made an apple pie is, I don't really like them. Well, I do now. I did the whole thing, from the crust to the apples and it was delicious. In case you are mentally accusing me of type-A-ism, I was going to use a store bought crust, but they are full of lard and that freaks me out. And, I found, pie crusts are no harder to make than biscuits are and so much more delicious than the things from the frozen depths of the store. Behold the beautiful results. Yum!

Huffing and puffing and stretching...

I came to realization not long ago that I actually have shows coming up. And Christmas. And custom orders that I must get done. After the initial hyperventilating, I got to it. I started off trying to get a few more mugs churned out and actually tried throwing without my trusty ruler. I'm trying to get away from my production roots just a bit and decided that one way to do that is to just throw. Oh, now, you know that my anal retentive little soul wouldn't let me just rip off a chunk of clay and start going. No, no, no I still weighed the pieces and wedged them up before I started. Of course, they came out pretty much the same shape and size within a half inch. Hey, I tried.

I did get inspired through a video another potter shared on the etsy mud team forum, though, to actually use the tools I have. Here's the video of fellow potter Cory Lum throwing a gigantuan bowl: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QND6UoG5lTA . I have to have everything just right, clay wise, to throw a giant bowl or things get ripply and ridgey and collapsy. I started a relatively sizable bowl today of about 6 pounds and had my doubts on it's success due to a softer reclaimed clay. Yep, the ridging and rippling and collapsing started trying to happen until I used the force and called upon the power of Cory Lum. And picked up a metal flexible potter's rib. And used it. It worked! Nice even curved sides! No collapsing! No ridginess! For those of you who have actually seen me work, you know I keep three things on my table: sponge, pointy stick, and needle tool. I actually use the sponge and the pointy stick. Sometimes a wooden rib comes in for the big 'uns. Adding a new tool to my repertoire is a big girl step for me. Hooray hooray hooray!

Did I say reclaimed clay? Yes, I did. Because I've been working through my bags of recycling slowly but surely. I'm so proud of myself. Especially since all of the spiders have fled to that area and like to poke their heads out menacingly when I come too close. I have a particularly heavy bat that I keep near to throw just in case one of them decides they can take me. Does this go against everything I believe? Hmm... some of those boogers can jump.

And, finally, I got the surprise of my week by winning the latest mud team challenge, which was a bottle challenge. I painted it with the completely ridiculously time consuming new pattern I invented for my big pots, which is a chrysanthemum swirl star pattern with a black background. Here it is hanging out with a fellow pot:

The other entries were so fantastic, I did not think I had a chance of winning, so the whole thing was flooring. Next challenge is a sake set, but I don't know how to top that last pattern! Hmm...

bigger and bigger and bigger and pop!

Well, it's been fun and excitement all around lately. I had my first real custom orders on etsy this past week, including the most awesome description ever. This woman included a full page thesis of the bowls she wanted, complete with links to examples, measurements, and a scale drawing of a side and aerial view of the bowl using a photo from my shop. Awesome. So much easier to make something when you have plans like that. She had a great idea for noodle bowls, too. They may become a staple of what I make. The other will be my first international order, also really exciting!

I finished my largest piece to date today, which is standing at about 30". It's neck got a little lean-y, but otherwise it's pretty cool. If I say so myself. The coil and throw thing is definitely getting easier, it just takes really precise timing. And lots of patience. And luck. And the planets aligning and a big one legged hoodoo dance while burning sage.

I will not include a picture of me with the pot. Why, you ask? Is it because you are so shiny and unwell looking, Amy? I will tell you. Yes, I am. Because it's as hot as hell in a microwave with 5000% humidity. Remember all of that whinging about the cold studio? Well, same song, different lyrics. Here's what the kiln that I was loading today told me about the indoor temperature situation:

I'm thinking about trading my throwing chair for a block of ice!