Black & Green

In April just before the Bluff Country Art Tour I started making pieces in a new glaze combination. Nearly every piece I had in the black and green combination sold during the tour. This past weekend I had a small batch of new pieces in this combination and sold out of them too. So I got to work early this week glazing another kiln load of pieces with the gorgeous glossy combination. This evening I unloaded the kiln and really liked what I found. I imagine many of these will also be gone after the Eagan Art Festival this weekend..

I should have problems like that all the time. :-)

Finally Feeling Caught Up

We've had so much going on lately, I was feeling a little behind with everything. Today, I'm working really hard to get caught up and one of the things I wanted to share was some photos from this past weekend. The weekend was filled with lots of activity. Here's just a sampling:

We had sales in Zumbrota on Saturday and Lanesboro on Sunday. While there was some threatening weather floating around the area both days, we didn't see any rain during sale hours.



On Sunday morning I was up early to catch the gorgeous sunrise. I tried to go back to sleep, after taking the photo, but it wasn't happening.




On Monday we delivered this bright, cheery pie plate to the Highland Store and picked some berries for jelly.



And what sale weekend wouldn't be complete without a roadie nap. My roadie works very hard to help me at sales. His only reward for all this hard work is a roadie nap and pie.



There now I can consider myself caught up and ready for the next big weekend. This coming weekend we'll be at a sale in Eagan. Come on out and see us.

Fresh Outta The Kiln

I unloaded these fun canisters from the kiln this morning. I can't decide which is my favorite, though I'm probably leaning toward the one front and center, Iron Red and Beige. Which one strikes your fancy?

Patience

First off, what do you think of the new look for the blog? I'm not sure I'm done with the revisions, but for now, I need to look at it for a bit and decide if I want to make the look a little different.

With sales the next couple weekends, I've been pushing pretty hard to get the last couple kiln loads done to boost my inventory to cover three sales in 10 days. My second glaze load of the weekend is cooling and looks like it has about 500 degrees to go before I can think about opening. (I could, and many times have opened up at this temp to see how things came out, but I'm trying really hard to be patient and let things slow cool.)

In the meantime, I'm doing a little web browsing on pottery workshops this summer (a little late, I know). A friend mentioned she was heading to a pottery workshop and it reminded me I haven't been to anything like that in nearly two years. So it's about time to find something that can stimulate my creative self. Workshops are such a wonderful way to really get you to think about applying the skills you already have in a different way.

Anybody have any good suggestions for workshops later this summer? Let me know - I'll travel just about anywhere.


Let's see, the kiln has dropped about 20 degrees since I started writing this, so I just need to kill how much more time before I can unload??? Hmmm... this could be a long evening.

Have a great week everybody.

Upcoming Shows

My summer show season is just getting started. Despite of the frenzy to get ready for the shows, the work toting pottery around and the set up and tear down, I love the festivals and art fairs. Meeting lots of new people, visiting with the other artists and the food vendors are some of my favorite things, but there is so much more to it. There is sunshine, warm breezes, local music in the bandstand and laughter.

In the next few weeks I'll be at these art fairs, come check out all the extraordinary artists displaying and get your share of the sunshine and warm breezes.

June 19 10am - 4pm
Art in East Park
East Avenue, Zumbrota, MN

June 20 10am - 5pm
Art in the Park
Sylvan Park, Lanesboro, MN

June 26 - 27
Eagan Art Festival
Eagan Community Center, Eagan, MN

Hope to see you there. Be well.

Shakers

I've been toying with making salt and pepper shakers for a couple years now and never came up with much that I was pleased with. Recently, I was inspired by fellow Etsy Mud Team member, Keith Phillips article in Pottery Making Illustrated.

These shakers are a little different from normal salt shakers as the bottom has a cone projecting into the shaker with a hole near the top. You pour salt in the cone like a funnel and into the shaker, flip it over and shake it so the salt sprinkles out the bottom.


Keith makes his more cylindrical, but I wanted to try a round version and may then try different shapes later. I'm more please with these, than any of my previous attempts. Definitely will keep working on it and hopefully get to something I make on a regular basis.

Have a great weekend.

Ahhh - love that long weekend

This wonderful pile of wood chips had been delivered at the farm/studio just before the long weekend so one of our early tasks was to get the chips spread on all the flower beds and around the trees along the driveway. It didn't take long but sure did make a difference in how all the plantings looked.

With that job checked off our list we found some quiet time to listen to the critters of the night. We spend our week in a suburban community and when we are at the farm on weekends it's just amazing the number of animals you can hear when you don't have other sounds drowning them out. A rip roaring fire in the fire pit, beer in hand, chatting with the hubby (my roadie) and looking up at the stars. Ahhh... this is how a long weekend is meant to be spent.


After going to the Highland Store for breakfast on Sunday (another one of my favorite rituals on weekends at the farm) we found this little fawn in the grass about 30 yards from the studio. Patiently waiting for mom to come back to get her. How cute is that??

Unfortunately, I think her mom is also eating the plants in the garden we just put wood chips in so maybe that's not as cute. Oh well, ya gotta take the good with the bad.