About The Artist

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I am a jeweler, a potter...an artist I suppose. I have been creating hemp, glass bead and wire jewelry since 1996 but have only been throwing pottery since the Spring of 2008. I plan to open my own gallery and workshop within the next five years but for now I make my work out of my home and sell in galleries and online. I sell my work to feed my hobby and because I am running out of room for my creations in the house. My art, like this blog, is in it's beginning stages and I hope that as my reader you will join me in my journey as an artist and enjoy it as much as I know I will!

Friday, December 11, 2009

Have a Happy Heart

Whenever I'm doing something I don't want to do my mother always asks me if I have a "Happy Heart." She got the saying from a friend and uses it all the time. She says we should strive to have a happy heart in all that we do. So with each piece I make, jewelry or pottery, I try to remind myself to have a happy heart during the process.

Usually this is not a difficult thing to do since I love making pottery and jewelry. However, I recently completed a piece where, during the entire creative process, I never once had a happy heart. I won't go into detail as to why but let's just say I've decided to re-think taking special orders after this one.

So, remember the special order teapot I made back in November? Well that's the piece I've been referring to. From the beginning I struggled to put the teapot together, having issues throwing the pot on the wheel and then having the original spout dry too quickly to attach to the pot. It was one problem after another.

I did finally get the piece together though and was pleased with it at it's green ware stage.


But of course once it was bone dry the teapot was very fragile and in transportation to the Odyssey, the mouse's tail broke off and required repair. And that was not where the problems ended, oh no. It made it through bisque firing but then I glazed it with Floating Blue and after firing it came out brown.

You can see a hint of the blue is was supposed to be on the spout of the teapot. It would have been beautiful. I guess the glaze was not mixed well and it was my fault for not paying better attention. It had been fairly thin but I didn't think much of it until I saw the teapot. I was aggravated, to say the least, and at that point felt like throwing the teapot at a wall. Luckily I refrained and instead, I hand-painted the entire piece.

The piece is still functional but is brown on the inside in order for that to be the case. The paint I use is not food safe, though it is dishwasher safe which seems a little silly to me, so I could not paint the inside. I am pleased with the end result though and am bringing it to the client tonight is hopes that she will find it satisfactory as well. If she does not, I may throw the teapot at her.

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