Oink

As always, there were lots of piggy banks in this firing. The copper red came out great. I had an order for one, but made two. All too often the red crawls, so I wasn't taking any chances. I was happy that both came out great. One was shipped to it's new home, the other is available in my Etsy shop.

The flower pigs are always cute.

I had mixed results with the first little boxes to be glaze fired. I will post about those as soon as all the piggy banks are packed and shipped. I think I have been wearing a path from here to the post office!

The Garden of Eden

"EDEN" came out of the kiln yesterday. Isn't she sweet? The buyer made the perfect choice of color and carving for a little girl named Eden.

March was the month of the big piggy bank. Most every order I had was for our large size bank. The larger piggy banks are about 8" in length and 7 1/2" from hoof to ear. 

The problematic part of making larger piggy banks is that you can't stand them on all fours until the legs have stiffened some. I typically put legs on a few then let them rest on their butts for any where from a half hour to an hour, depending on humidity. The trick is not to forget about them before it's too late to make leg adjustment. I try to get them as wobble free as possible.

After making a round of these hogs, our standard size seems so small to work on.

As soon as this kiln was unloaded we started to load it again for another bisque firing. April is a busy month with the Celebration of Spring Pottery Tour in a couple of weeks as well as our commitment to making 50 bowls for the Empty Bowls event for Second Harvest Food Bank. We are also excited that Jeff's son Matt is arriving tomorrow for quick visit! The extended family is coming for a barbecue lunch on Thursday. Matt leaves on Friday, and we have potter friend from NH arriving in the afternoon... just in time for FireFest at STARworks. Jeff and I are thankful that we now have a larger home to entertain in!

Piggy Production

These big guys cracked me up yesterday when I walked into the studio! I just had to snap a photo. The big piggy banks seem to be growing in popularity. Due to the weight of the their large bodies, I have to attach the legs and sit them on their butts for awhile to allow those legs to stiffen. You can see that the third piggy is "Roman". I have had a quite a variety of names to stamp on piggy banks for this go around. Along with Roman, there is Olive, Viggo, Vincent, Ambrose, and Hubertus!

It's been nice to start the year with lots of piggy bank and salt pig orders, but I have to admit that I miss having a little down time to read a few books or work on other projects. But the bills keep coming no matter what time of the year and with the extreme cold here in the south, I am sure my electric bill will be a whopper!
Income is a very good thing.

New Letter Stamps

I have been struggling with some of my letter stamps. I have 4 or 5 different sets. Some are rubber stamps, one interlocking set that is designed for clay, and another metal set that I believe are jeweler's stamps. My largest font are rubber stamps and they are not well made, making it difficult to line the letters up. They are also not very deep, which means I am often carving them out. The stamps that I use on the standard piggy banks is starting to show some wear, particularly the letter "A." Last month I searched the web for a deeper set of stamps, with a font that appealed to me. The only one I found was $66 dollars. The size was fine for the standard size piggy bank, but really too small for the large pigs. I decided I needed to think about it before plunking down the dough.

Lo and behold, last week on facebook, another potter posted a link to these "stone stamps". She was using them to letter dog bowls. I was able to order a set for under $5 and have them shipped to Walmart for free. I wasn't sure how easy they would be to work with, since there is no handle or guides on them... but for less than five bucks I was willing to take a chance.

I practiced on a salt pig and once I got the hang of it, moved on to orders. The size is great for the big piggy banks, and will work well for short names on the smaller banks. Lining them up was pretty easy. Now I wish they were available in a smaller font too!

The New Pig

Last week I had a request for a piggy bank for a boy. His sister was gifted the whimsical flower pig last year and Mom wanted something similar but with carvings for a boy. I have to admit I was a little stumped about what to carve. I told Mom that my carvings are typically flowers and leaves... so she said, "Do leaves!".  So here it is... the whimsical design with leaves. After the bisque fire, I will apply the black underglaze to the leaf design and leaves. I think this pig will be the perfect pairing with it's sister pig.

Name your pig

 We unloaded the gas kiln in the late afternoon on Sunday. Most of the load was orders and it was a great firing... thank you kiln gods and Jeff, who stayed up all night to get this firing done before his trip.

These are few samples of the "personalized" piggy banks. I was relieved that "Anne" came out perfect. This was a re-do. I totally forgot to add the flowers to the first one, and didn't realize it until it was bisqued. If you know someone named Anne that needs a piggy bank without flowers, I have one ready and waiting for glaze! At least Anne is a common name. I am sure it will eventually sell.

 I had some fun with the underglaze on this piggy. It will be available in my Etsy shop tonight...

I took Jeff to the airport yesterday and he landed in Tokyo in the early morning (our time). He is staying with a potter friend in Naga and will visit Mashiko tomorrow. On Thursday he will fly to Seoul. It was a stressful week preparing for this trip. There was so much to do and we both came down with head colds at the beginning of last week. We felt like we were moving in slow motion. To save our sanity we took some things off of our "to do" list. We postponed the stripping and painting of the kitchen cabinets job. Better to focus on getting healthy. The cabinets can wait until Jeff returns.
I am certain they will still be there, in all of their peeling paint glory.

My consolation prize for staying behind was a shopping trip to IKEA! Since I was already in Charlotte, it was an easy decision. I didn't go crazy but did come home with new towels and shower curtain for the main bath, along with place mats and a runner for the dining table. I will actually NOT have a "photo taking set up" on our dining room table anymore! We have a good size office where we can keep it set up and out of the way. Now to see if we will actually eat at the table...

Name that pig!

I have an order for a couple of personalized piggy banks. It was a nice reprieve after making 30 pigs, all glazed in green and white. The most fun thing with the personalized pigs are the names that I stamp on them. You may remember the "Murray" pig from last fall, that was a fun one. This first order of the year are "Ruby" and "Talulah". Aren't those just great names?

Of course the big talk of the day has been the giant blizzard that is about to fall upon the northeast. I don't even live there anymore and I am excited about it! I had a sudden need to dash off to the grocery store for bread and milk.... except I came home with bananas, a pork roast, and wine... as well as a nice IPA for Jeff. I hope that everyone in the great north weathers the storm, warm, comfy, and safe. Jeff and I will be living vicariously through your facebook posts, enjoying our libations, and not having to get out and shovel.
Cheers!