Digging Pits On Vacation...

Hey friends! Life has been super hectic the past few weeks, my apologies for not blogging! I'm finally getting some me time and on vacation for a week and trust me, there is a whole lotta blog worthiness where I am! And amazingly we have wifi this year! 

So, even though its vacation, I am doing some good old fashioned hard work around my families cottage by re-digging the fire pit for my Grandmother. This is how it looked before and then during my "renovation"... more like excavation!

I will totally admit that re-digging the pit is partially selfish so that I can get a few good work outs in while on vacation and so that I can give pit firing a try. But I also know that its is something my Grandma has wanted done for a few years but was one of those projects that by the end of summer still hadn't been gotten to. So its a win win.

 I've brought my cute little brent wheel with me and have been throwing some pots that are now drying.

  Its very likely that all of the pots I've made will die a fiery explosive death because using open flame, or even hot coals is a much more volatile exposure to heat than in a kiln but hey, the 1st ceramic artist never got anywhere by being afraid of losing a few pots in order to try something new! 

 But some of the pots I threw today are really cute so I photographed them pre-firing to keep them in mind for some future pattern ideas incase they don't make it.

 Before I put the in the fire to pit fire, they need to be completely dry. So they hung out by the fire today.

White on Red

I kind of have a thing for putting white glaze applied non-uniformly over my red stoneware pieces. I just love the rustic quality.

Mmm, I just love the visual interplay of the white with red peaking through!

The Craftsman House

There is a beautiful craftsman home on Central Ave in St. Petersburg Florida and it happens to be full of beautiful pottery by several hundred different artists!

You can bet my brain has been full of ideas for my ceramic work ever since! :)

My 1st Wholesale Order!

So I actually got this order back in the beginning of April, but it is now finished and ready to share! 

After doing my 1st show back in March I received an order for 10 yarn bowls from one of the other vendors who was there and runs a fiber mill! Fortunately she didn't need them til June so I was able to approach my 1st big order with some time and thought. I threw 14 bowls so I would have some cushion for any mishaps like broken bisque, over fired kiln or warp. Of the 14... one of them broke in bisque (its fixable but a project for later) and one of them really warped in the kiln so I had 12 good bowls to choose from! Perfect! 

Here's some of them in greenware stage drying on the shelf waiting for bisque fire. 

And now all 13 of the ones that made it glazed and ready to be downsized to 10 and packed up!

Here are a few up close! 

It was a fun challenge and gave me a much better idea of how working on a wholesale scale works. And I am now on the hunt for my own Kiln so I can have better control of my roll over time even though the studio where I work was and has always been very accommodating to me and other artist who sell their work.

So if you like what you see and would like to order something, please don't hesitate to ask me! :)