First Pieces Made In The New Home!

I finally sat down at my wheel on Tuesday night and threw my first pieces in my new home! I had been at work that afternoon and was getting restless (we just got through the 10/15 extension deadline so now work is REALLY slow) and all I could think about was throwing on my wheel. I hadn't felt this motivated to throw in a long time so I decided to go with it. I took off work at 2 p.m. and went straight home where I threw on some old clothes and started playing in the mud.

It felt so good to be back on the wheel. It's like riding a bike, you never loose the knowledge and experience you've gained and the skills you've mastered never seem to fade. I can still center a piece of clay fairly easily and I still struggle to open up my pots, I also still make my bowls too thin at the base. Some things never change.

My ideas have not changed much either and I went to my studio with a plan and a piece in mind. Of course, I wanted to make another turtle bowl. Only this time I wanted to make a sea turtle. I've tried in the past and been unsuccessful but with my new-found motivation I felt like I could accomplish it this time around. So I threw a few pieces, attempting to make a good sized bowl for my turtle shell. I failed a couple times and made a few pieces that weren't large enough and I ended up combining these two bowls into one:

I also made a rockin' lidded jar, probably my best to date. And I didn't even measure the lid!

But the highlight of my evening was finally getting the bowl I needed for my turtle. And last night, once the pieces were all leather hard, I completed my latest Clay Critter. I call him "Crush" from my favorite character from Finding Nemo:

I can't wait to glaze and fire him but I'm afraid I will have to wait for a while because I'm going to fire him in my own kiln. I don't want to transport him or give anyone but myself an opportunity to mess him up. I am currently looking to buy a kiln though, I'm going to look at one next week and keep checking Craig's List for new listings. So hopefully Crush will not have to wait too long to be completed.

New Studio Space!

So if you read my last blog you know that I've been moving a lot. I left the wonderful little basement pottery studio and office/jewelry workspace on Hendersonville road. I spent the summer in Bearwood with carpeted floors and therefore no way of throwing on my pottery wheel.

It was an emotionally draining summer and one where I lacked the motivation to do pretty much anything. Needless to say, I made nothing along the lines of jewelry or pottery. In fact, I haven't touched a piece of clay or a glass bead since May. Life has been too hectic for me to have any time for my hobbies.

Things are better now though, actually the best they've ever been! I decided not to move to Raleigh so I spent most of the summer house hunting and I bought a house! I closed August 24th and now, in the middle of October, have finally gotten the house in order and where I want it to be. I am fully unpacked, organized and even have the place decorated to my liking! And the best part is I found a house with not only an office but also a full basement so I have both a jewelry workspace and pottery studio!

Here is my jewelry desk set up in the new office and my pottery on display:

My roll top desk is across the room so I use the same chair and can roll is around the room to my various drawers full of jewelry supplies, same as in the Hendersonville House office. Its a nice set up, small but it works. I plan to hang up some small tackle boxs for my beads on the wall above the jewelry desk.

And here is the basement studio:

There's ton's of room in the basement for all of my pottery equipment! I will be going to Lowe's this coming weekend to buy shelves for the wall behind the wheel and also a sink to hook up to the left of the wheel. I am hunting for a kiln as well, which will fit perfectly on the gravel porch in the back yard. And I have a little nook beside the wheel, just outside of the photo above, that I will make a space for glazes. Its the perfect set up!

I haven't thrown yet because I have no sink in the basement and also because I've just been too busy. I wanted to get the house painted and decorated so I could feel settled in before I got back into my hobbies. I am ready to throw again though.

I've displayed some of my finished pieces throughout the house and want to make more. I went with a beach theme throughout the whole house so my Sand and Sea pieces work perfectly with the decor!

To see pictures of the whole house check out my Facebook album.

Keep checking back! I'll be blogging again now that I'm finally settled in and have my own studio space once again!

Moving, Moving and More Moving

This past weekend I moved in to my new apartment for the summer. The lease was up in the "Hendersonville House" and things went south with the roomies so no one wanted to renew the lease. So for the summer I have moved back to Mars Hill and gotten my own apartment. It is amazing finally living alone but it will ultimately be a lonely and boring summer.
See I chose this apartment because I had lived in the complex before, when I was in college. I had an all-tile apartment then and was allowed pets. Well now it is under new management and not the best I might add. I am no longer allowed pets so my baby Samantha is back in Waynesville, at her country home, for the summer (hence the lonely part of the summer). Also, I requested a tiled apartment and got carpet. This means I cannot throw on my pottery wheel all summer long!
So I left my full basement studio and my office/jewelry workspace and everything is now stuffed in one carpeted bedroom in my useless summer apartment. I am a bit bitter.
I do plan on making a lot of jewelry this summer because I still can do that. I may even make some clay beads. My potter wheel is serving as an end table in my living room though, and will remain there until I move again, hopefully in August.
I wanted to move to Raleigh and live with a friend there by the end of the summer but job hunting is not going so well so Plan B is to buy a house here in Asheville. I need to settle down, stop moving every year, find a place to call home for a while. So I'm house hunting now and looking for a house with studio space. I either want a three bedroom place or a house with a basement, shed, garage or office to convert into a studio.
I feel that no matter what, I will end up buying a shed for a kiln and glazes eventually. I want everything on site so I don't have to deal with transporting my work to the Odyssey anymore. If I build a shed big enough for the wheel as well, that will be fine too. But none of that will come until the end of the summer. So for now, I will "go back to my roots" as Tenzie says and stick to jewelry for a while.

New Necklace Design

My friend Josh left for the summer to work in Santa Fe. His birthday is at the end of this month but since he won't be here for it I made him a going away/early birthday gift. I sat down one night and came up with this new design. Let me know what you think!

Spring Has Sprung

Spring has sprung and tax season has ended! I survived through April 15th! So that means I'm back on the blogging scene everyone! I took a little break from everything once the season ended, I slept a lot and worked very little. But recently I've been catching up on my reading which included fellow artists' blogs and figured it was time to start writing in my own blog again as well. Also, yesterday I got a check from Pura-Vida, I'd sold two more pairs of bottle cap earrings and a pair of resin bead earring. Needless to say it was some encouragement to start creating again so I drug out the jewelry supplies and came up with this cute new earring design last night:

I also finished up some pottery that has been neglected and sitting patiently on my desk, waiting for my attention, for weeks. I painted the turtle and crab in these two Sand and Sea bowls:

I just can't help it, I love this design so much!

And finally, last night I took photos of all the glass bottom bowls I had originally made for Pura-Vida. I haven't decided if I'm going to list them on Etsy or bring them to Waynesville to sell in a gallery there.

So there you have it, a blog (hopefully) worth the wait. Thanks to all my readers for being so patient with me!