Summer, so far

The summer beds are out~

one is under cover,

one is under the stars.

Our best seller this summer, for wedding presents, is this origami dish.

It seems to be a match between the perfect size + fanciness 

and a fairly typical price point for a wedding gift @ $125.

Mornings feature breakfasts of raspberries from our bushes and eggs from our hens.

Our cat makes good use of the bird watcher's table.

It takes a floating dahlia

just this long

to break apart.

Three weeks until Showcase

large oval platter w/ wavy lip 

Production is going full tilt with only three weeks left until Ceramic Showcase. I'm switching things up in the studio, moving back into animal and plants in addition to dots and stripes, and adding color to the black & white.

tray with scalloped edge

Despite that Portlandia episode (you know the one), I persist in putting birds on everything. 

Platter with green fish

I'll have to stop making pots soon and get my booth figured out, there are so many details to track when getting prepared for a show. I feel like I am starting from zero, it has really been years and years since I've done this.

This video of pendulum waves is mesmerizing.

address numbers

my first address tiles

I got an order for some custom address tiles with carte blanche as to what I could make; wheeee..... 

wareboards with bisqued numbers and letters

I decided to make over-sized individual letters and numbers with deep texture. I put two counter-sunk holes in each tile for screws to mount them on the wooden fence that is their final destination.

glazed with my new favorite surface treatment

This glaze is nothing more than manganese, mixed with water to the thickness of whole milk, brushed on, fired to cone 6 in oxidation.

so much variation, matte black to bronzy-metallic

thick and chunky

don't you just want to take a bite? ^click on it

garlic drying in the sun

In other news, the garlic harvest is in.

trimming it up

I have the perfect basket to put them in too.

spice dishes in the garlic

My studio assistant got creative with some photos.

little dish of smiles

 cauliflower and bun dish

I am pretty proud of my cauliflower this year.

broccoli and mini plate

And of my broccoli too.

Have you seen the yelp reviews read by actors on YouTube? There are about six of them, go there and watch them all.

Freaking hilarious~

summertime

 sage growing in a pot glazed in Shaner's red and fake ash glaze (old skool!)

 collected stones, coral, shells, glaze tests

fresh raspberries, textile series dish

ahhhhh, the summer bed

I love Ruan Hoffman's sense of humor (click through them all).

origami pots

cheerful eggs

How to distinguish hard-boiled eggs and, perhaps, to surprise refrigerator visitors.

log with mushroom

Spied on a hike, a single mushroom that looks like a magnolia blossom.

just like a flower, right?

but, clearly, a mushroom

The very next day it was completely collapsed.

origami pots waiting for decoration

I'm working on a new series of hand-built pots made by cutting and folding slabs of clay. I make them by cutting a slab into a circle, square, or rectangle, then making little slashes in the edge (three or four, depending on the shape I'm after) and then folding up the sides (+ score, slip, press, smooth). Do you want to see how? I'll document the whole process if anyone asks...

compost bucket for the chickens

Our compost bucket was looking especially pretty after a kitchen session making roasted sweet potatoes, kale chips, and watermelon.

I really liked The Hare With the Amber Eyes by Edmund De Waal; here is a link to his netsuke collection, so wonderful, especially when you know a bit of their history.

blue and white and spring

matsuno vegetable kitchen tile

I've been working on a blue & white tile job for a client in California. 

Sigh...

Even though I have made hundreds of blue & white tile, sometimes I miss a defect. This one was probably already cracked when I  decorated it and it didn't reveal itself until the glaze firing.

now there's a bee 

But, the client likes insects, so I added a bumblebee while I was at it. 

chickens enjoying the sun

We have taken to calling the chickens "pennys", partly because of their coppery coloring, but also because its easier than calling them out individually* (also, they don't care). 

gorgeous, and huge (!)

yay spring

Yes, but why is it still snowing and storming?

*for the record: Henny, Penny, Honey, Blackie, Little Red, and the other three...

loooooooney

I love getting interesting commissions. 

Just before Christmas, I had a inquiry from a publisher wondering if I could make several small custom tiles to be inset into the cover of a box for a handmade book. It sounded right up my alley as he wanted blue & white porcelain with a design that echoed the calligraphic line dancing throughout the book. 

"Easy-peasy" I though slyly, already planning how to spend my loot.

He preferred a thin line, so I thought mishima might be the way to go~

mishima tests

I didn't like the resulting stiffness in the line, so I jettisoned that idea and went back to slip-trailing.

Getting the exact size was challenging because the shrinkage varied depending upon when I cut the pieces, cutting right away gave one set of dimensions and cutting later in the day gave another.

drying under a brick

My basic blue slip color read a bit dark for the printer's eye, so I launched into a flurry of color tests. I always think it will be easy to adjust a color and it always turns out to be, well, not. 

Fortunately, my client was not too fussy about an exact color match to the ink so it only took three rounds of tests to get to where I needed to be.

color testing

It was important that the tiles be both very thin and quite flat, so I made many, many extra to be able to cull out the ones with lifted corners and such.

awaiting bisque firing

Once out of the bisque, I chose the flattest ones to slip trail~

decorating with slip

After that, it's just rack them up, spray, and load into the kiln for the final firing~

ready to glaze

glaze sprayed

finished

They are winging their way south as we speak, so to speak.
It was definitely a fun challenge, but am I looney to keep on doing this?

This dancer will blow your mind...

Holiday Open Studio

We have so many balls in the air right now...

juggling bunny cup ($12)

For instance, getting ready for our annual open studio~
I am baking things, both sweet and savory.

rugelach

And getting the house and studio ready for the sale.

blue & white pottery display in the dining room

Also making many, many very affordable things, and a few very special things too~

baskets of spice dishes

I am fond of the rhythm of the rim of this piece~

enormous bowl, topographical design

Also, there is always the daily wrangling of the chickens; they love us so much that they follow us everywhere, even into the house.

our favorite chicken, Honey, stealing wild bird seed

We very much hope to see you at our open studio:

Saturday, December 10th, from 10-5

22017 NW Beck Road 

Come and enjoy a glass of wine, hot spiced cider, and a snack with us~

and thank you for supporting your local potters!