Running out of time

It's been a while since my last post, so here is a quick update. As you can see from the picture above, I have some "new to me" modular display shelves. My friend Susan offered this system to me for free, as it was just gathering dust in her garage. I took her up on the offer and loaded my car with a ton of shelves and uprights. I put up this 7' section last week so that I could take pictures for a sale application. There are many more sections to this, and all of various heights, but I think this will work for application purposes. I have since installed some LED lights on the underside of a few of the shelves as well as a few clip on goose neck LED lights to illuminate the pots. I ordered that banner a while ago and I think it will work just fine with this display. Of course it will not be attached to the shelves, but hung in front of the table at the sale (assuming I am accepted that is). My next task is to take good quality pictures of a few pots, but first I needed to find a battery charger for my camera battery. The original charger was lost in the flood and I have since tried a couple of times to find one that will replace it, but apparently it is not so easy to find an actual Nikon charger without buying a whole new camera. I purchased a universal charger a while ago but it failed after a while, as did the replacement I got. Now I have a different one that seems to be doing the job. We'll see how long it lasts. I also had to re fire a glaze load as it was seriously under fired when an element died mid fire. There were a lot of good pots in there, so I am hoping that everything works out and doesn't just get worse. I will need these for the picture taking mentioned above. I borrowed a photo cube from a friend of mine a little while ago and I have finally gotten around to testing it out. I was only using my iphone for these shots and the lighting was less than optimal, but still OK results. 

Looks like my weekend will be filled with working, potting, making a family dinner (that's my fault, I offered), more potting and hopefully getting some more pictures taken. I need to get that application off before the end of the month. I just looked at the calendar and YIKES, May is only 2 weeks away.

random blather

I’m must be gettin old. I missed 5 weeks of my exercise class that I go to on Monday nights. I was teaching at the studio for several weeks, then it was my Dad’s 67^th birthday, and I couldn’t miss that. Then, it got so bleeding cold here, the last thing I wanted to do was slip and slide my way to class to get all sweaty and then go back into the cold and have my sweaty hair freeze. Anyway, I went to class last night and then went to bed early (is 8 hours and 53 minutes of sleep too long?). Today, my back is killing me, my left ankle and foot hurt and I have to go teach a pottery class tonight. Wow, I sound crabby, I’m not, I’m just sayin, getting old sucks! I’m not even that old, but I sure feel every one of my 39.5 years today.

There is a pretty strong Chinook arch today, so the weather should be mild (0 Celsius?)...much better than the -29 Celsius last week (It makes you feel like wearing shorts when the temp rises 30 degrees over night) but the Chinook related headaches are a pain. I never used to get them, but I started getting them last year and now I know what everyone else complains about.

The mountains are very clear today, they are right there, in your face and bright and toothy.

Not sure what I am going to demo tonight. Lately I have been making a mess of my demos instead of inspiring creativity. My bowls have flopped, my facets have ripped open, the elongated platters rip in half as I am “dramatically” stretching them out on the canvas table, and my slip trailer develops a case of gas and barfs slip all over the freshly decorated plate (at the very end of course so that I have to try and scrape it all off or just try to blend the burp into the overall pattern). Maybe I will stick with what I do best (bowls), how boring....I need to replenish my stock of everything, so perhaps it will be casseroles tonight, or pitchers with fancy rims....who knows, I will find out when I get there. I need to buy some clay too, so first thing after work I will be off to CC and pick a box or 2 up.

On a non clay note, my computer should be here in 3 days (Yippee!!!). Can’t wait!!!

I have been reading a few discussions in the blogosphere regarding the pro’s/con’s of selling via Etsy. I posted a while back that I was thinking of starting up an Etsy account, but the master procrastinator that I am, I never got around to it. Now that I will have some enhanced technology, and if I can get around to setting up a mini photography studio in my condo, I might give it a try. I will take all the sage advice that is being offered on this topic and hopefully put it to good use when I get my shop up an runnin. I really need to get some proper shelving in my “store room” at home. Right now it is a disaster zone with pots all over the floor amidst wrapping paper, painting supplies, an easel with an UGLY painting on it, and other sundry crap.

Enough rambling and babbling,

TTFN (What?, Did I just say that?)

Maybe I should say something like:

Make pots purposefully and make purposeful pots.

Nah, how about:

Go get dirty...

UNEMPLOYED, BUT STILL POTTING!

These are some of the things I have been working on recently. The Pictures were taken by by friend Barb Clarke. She is studying photography, and these were her first "commissioned" photos.
On another note, I have been spending a lot of time in the studio lately. I was restructured out of my job. Oh well, I am not angry, just ticked off. I am looking for work now that will take advantage of my creativity, and allow me to grow and develop my skills.
I have a couple of pottery sales coming up. The first is the Mad Potters Sale on April 17th, and the 2nd is the Fairview Studios Pottery Sale on May 1st.
I am also currently participating in a glaze development class for cone 6 offered through Fairview Studios, and hopefully this will result in some interesting new surface treatments for my work.
The painting that I have included in the photos above is one the paintings I have been working on. I have been part of a painting group that meets once a month. We are not all professional painters, but some of the members do make a living at it and are quite good.