Gearing Up For Summer

Well the kiln is nearly ready to be loaded, I managed to get about fifty pendants onto my bead rack, and a few other things glazed for this firing. Its been a crazy year full of ups and downs, and I had a slow start to the spring production, but things are starting to settle back into some semblance of routine around here. Thankfully I have patient Gallery folks in my life.This past year has held more than a few challenges to my pottery making. 

When I came to Cape Breton a few years ago, I started making pots at my kitchen table with a crappy old cheap rolling pin, and a dollar store exacto knife. My templates were made of old file folders and I had five boxes of old clay that I hand recycled to make those first few pots. I lugged those pots into town, and paid to fire at the craft centre, sold the pots and bought more clay. After about a year, I was able to buy a kiln, with the help of some grant money, and the pennies I had saved from selling my pots. I have upgraded my rolling pin a few times, and now have a selection of exacto knives, my templates are still made from scrap card stock for the most part, and I am still carving my own stamps. I love what I do. There have been ups and downs financially, and physically, but somehow we always manage to plow through it. Sometimes its difficult to see how far I have come, when it seems like there is so much further I need to go.

So far, I have managed with rolling pins, and knives. Simple tools for not so simple pots. But 43 years of doing all things with one hand have taken their toll. My body is protesting, my production is slow due to pain, and my good hand is now, my not so good hand. Time to re evaluate the methods, rethink the process, and get pain reduced, production up, and income flowing. 

BEER! and The making of the Mugs

Its seems that all my posts these past few months start with an apology for being gone so long. Shortly after my last post, pre Christmas, Our computer took a nose dive, it spent several weeks at the shop getting fixed, and I got caught up in making pots and not blogging. Its been a long winter. Mid way through this sluggish winter, I got a message from an old friend from back home. Seems my friend was following his dream to Brew fine Craft Beer, and he needed some Fine craft mugs to serve it in. I jumped at the chance. I mean who wouldn't? its BEER...and I love beer.
The Brewery is called Railcar Brewing Company, Its located in a refurbished Railcar in  Bristol New Brunswick. How cool is that???


So over the past few weeks, I have fiddled around with his logo, and hemmed and hawed over the design. I think I am making good progress, and today is the day I will start the major production. I have approval of design, so onward ho.
Here is a little photo step by step.. to the making of the mug, well the sprig mold anyway.There are still some bugs to work out with the details in the logo. But i think we are well on our way to a great mug for some great beer

 The first step is in carving a clay model for the logo. To do this, I reduced the logo to a line drawing, and transferred it to a slab of porcelain. In several steps, I carved the details in and let the clay get leather hard.

Once the details were finished, I created a wall around the finished logo, and poured plaster over the model. This is the tricky part, any air bubbles in the plaster will cause me to lose detail, .. and there is lots of fine detail here. 

When the plaster is set, I removed the retaining wall of clay and exposed the clay model

 After the model set for a bit, I gently removed the clay, and trimmed the edges of the mold. I think it turned out pretty good. There are a few minor air bubble issues, but I can work around that.. I'll be casting a few more molds before the week is out. Cheers, and look for an update when the first batch of mugs comes out of the kiln.

Holiday Craziness

Sorry its been so long since my last post. Things have been very hectic around here, what with all the holiday sales, and the intense last legs of the cruise ship season. Three shows in three weeks was a brutal haul, I have another show tomorrow, and then one on the 10th of December. Blogging just seems to have taken a back seat to all of that non stop activity.
Despite all the hustle and bustle,I have been working on some new stuff this past week, some special orders and some gifts. One of those special orders is a set of mugs for a Beatles fan. I think they are coming along pretty nicely. They will be firing today, I can hardly wait to pull the finished product out. Its been a really fun project. Today I paint fairies, and fire a kiln... so I guess over the next few days I will post some new work, and get the blog back on its feet.

A little Side Project

This summer, J and I have been spending a fair bit of time checking out the beaches of our fair Island. There is something so wonderful about the sound and smell of the ocean, something magical about the wee treasures it brings to the shore , particularly after a storm. Over the summer we have collected a fair amount of wee sea treasures. Bits of sea glass, shards of porcelain that have been weathered and tumbled by the ocean into smooth beautiful little jewels, some beautiful pebbles and rocks, even a fossil or two, or ten.... 

Last weekend we travelled to Inverness. We had both heard great things about the beauty of this beach, and about its treasures

It was a beautiful day, and so worth the drive. We walked a fair distance on the beach, and found some beautiful stones a few bits of sea glass and this.. 

Its not very big, but its beautifully worn and has such a nice pattern on it. the reverse side is a lovely crazed grey blue. I think I may well make a pendant out of it. 

Back after a long break......

So life has been hectic and ever changing. There are still pots being made, there are a few textiles being made, and there is progress on the house and garden, and life is continuing on here in Cape Breton. This season there have been some changes, I am still selling at a few galleries, doing some wholesaling, but did not do the usual summer show in Halifax. Instead I have been selling at the Cruise ship terminal here in Sydney. Its been an interesting experiment so far, I have met some interesting people, and made some new friends. We are on break until August 21, then back at it full force through September and October. These next few weeks will be spent making tons of pots to sell in the fall season. Lots of mermaids and sea critters are being painted, and lots of new Celtic designs being made.

My Life's Work

I am extremely happy with the way my work has been developing over the past little while. The feedback online and in person has been phenomenal. I have been working very hard to develop the Celtic Porcelain line into something I can be proud of, and I think that I just might be getting somewhere with it.
I have had many technical problems to work out with these latest peices. The heavy stamping, and layering of stamps was wreaking havoc with the rims during drying. Many adjustments were made in the depth of the stamps, the thickness of the clay, the speed of the drying and even the curve of the pots themselves . Finally I have most of the kinks worked out, and my successes are many, and my losses are few. 

Those who know me well, will attest that I am VERY particular about my work. I pay a great deal of attention to detail, in both the design and execution of my work. I research technique relentlessly,I seek out both advice and criticism. I want my work to stand on its own merit. I am a perfectionist, and I am okay with being that way. I have friends who keep that in check for me. Mostly I listen to the voice of sanity that they represent. Mostly. Sometimes I just hand them the pot in question, and tell them to take it home, out of my radar. Either way, we all end up happy.

The part I struggle with the most is maintaining "true" production work. I feel that I am almost there with the confetti line. I have a set range of products, they are basically alike, the colours are consistant, the stamps are the same, the variation comes in the patterning, I like that the stamps are randomized, no two peices are exactly the same pattern.  However I can now set a table with this line, which I guess makes it semi complete. Now I just have to make bunches of it without flying off on another design tangent.

I have decided to reward myself for this tight and consistant line by  giving myself complete artistic freedom on my large Celtic pieces. I am allowing myself this playground, this permission to make 'em all different. This is where I want to be.

A Whole Lot of Change.

So sorry that I haven't been keeping up with my promised posts. I have led a very hectic life since May. There have been so many major life changes since the spring, I hardly know where to start. First of all, I should just say that sudden change is difficult for me to process. The past five months have been CHOCK FULL of sudden change. I have been on automatic pilot, getting stuff done, and taking it one day at a time. We are slowly coming through the other side of what may have been the most overwhelming experience of my recent life. Its been a crazy ride, and I am glad that things are slowing down. I am now in the process of re evaluating my path and making this pottery thing survive this season, and continue to grow. This is not as easy as it might seem. But in the end, lizziespots, has a new home, and a new studio.

This move was both unexpected, and very poorly timed. It was extremely difficult to balance all of the important things in my life, keep my business going, and my family together and sane. All in all, we have come out the other side(almost) a little worse for the wear, a little bit dusty, but mostly intact. I have learned a lot about my own resilience through this move. I have strengthened some friendships, and I have made some new ones.  I am busily trying to restructure my business, and make up for the loss of income and of production time that were a result of the move. I very nearly tossed in the towel, and quit pottery altogether. At times it seemed nearly impossible to keep up with all the many things that needed to be done. I am exhausted, but I am nearly there. My last few back orders will ship this week. I will be able to breathe for a minute, and tackle the next hurdle.