Closing in on the holiday season

We unloaded the gas kiln yesterday which means that we spent a day of sanding and then packing pots to be shipped to new homes. I like to update photos in my Etsy shop, as glazes can vary by firing, some slightly... and on occasion, dramatically. The photos in my listings represent the variations that can occur with each making and glazing cycle. Yesterday was overcast, perfect for our photography set up, so I took some time and snapped a few photos prior to packing up the piggy banks. Here is a sample of the latest pigs...

The classic piggy bank glazed in nuka white is always a favorite

This is one is the larger size piggy bank. Gloss green and nuka white glaze.

I just started making this piggy bank with the blue/black dots. It's slowly gaining in popularity

I am not sure why, but last month it felt like online sales were a little slower than October of 2017. I checked my stats on Etsy, and according to them I was ahead 3%. Not a whopping increase, but at least it wasn't lower! Sales took off over the weekend and have remained steady. I am hoping it's an indicator of a good holiday season.

Today there are two ware boards of pig bodies waiting for me to assemble. Hopefully I can get them to the right stage of stiffness, despite the humidity.
Remember to get out and vote today, if you haven't already!

New Photography Trends

Call me old fashioned, or just call me old, but I am not liking a new trend in photographing pottery. I am sure you have seen it... solid white background, often over-exposed. The pots look like they are floating in air.  Edges are not crisp, and often the colors are inaccurate. I am not totally against the white back drop... in some situations it works. There are some Etsy shops that use it and it is appealing if the work is in focus. I was curious if potters are using this new technique to apply for shows, and is it acceptable? I figured that the best place to take a look is the 2016 Strictly Functional Show. The majority of the work is photographed with the traditional gray scale background. There are some with the stark white background. Here is a link to the 2016 show:

Strictly Functional Pottery National

What are your thoughts about this new photography trend? 

In the mean time, Jeff and I are still photographing the old fashioned way...

Slip Sliding Away...

This is what my pretty blue mailbox looks like now. Thanks to the State of NC snow plow drivers. Do you think maybe they don't get enough practice? A road crew knocked it over last year as well. As you can see in the photo, it's not too close to the road. I am not sure why there were even plowing. There was no snow accumulation, they should have just spread some salt to melt the ice. I suppose they are overzealous because they don't get to take out the big toys that often around here!

A day of sleet and freezing rain gave me an excuse to slow down and skip working in the studio. I took advantage of a dark day and photographed work. I even spent the day in my pajamas. New photos means new pots in the Etsy shop. Most of these will get listed over the next few days.

and what would a day be without pigs?

the art journal project

Some old time readers may remember that in 2009 I joined a year long art journal project. My good friend Cindy approached me in December of 2008 about joining this group she was coordinating. JZ had recently died, and she thought it would be good for me to get involved. You may be familiar with how this works, but I will explain anyway...
There are twelve members and each person decides on a theme for their journal. The journals can made of anything... store bought, handmade, recycled books, etc. The first month is spent creating a cover and artwork for your own journal.  A list is created with journaler's (I don't think that is really a word!) addresses. At the end of the month you ship your journal to the next name on the list and you receive a journal from the person whose name is before yours. Over the next month you create one or two pages of artwork based on that journal's theme.
The theme I chose was "Loss". When I got my journal back at the end of the project, it was very emotional. Here are few photos of pages in the book...

 The cover is a photo that JZ took of his vintage Esquire. The drawing I did represents him and the things I associate with his being. Some may find it morbid that I represented him as a skeleton shortly after his passing. The skeleton represents not only his death, but also his fascination with skulls. I still have his favorite goat and steer skulls hanging in the log cabin.

This is my friend Cindy's page. Underneath an abstract water color painting, are layers of tissue paper stitched to the page with gold thread. Under each layer are the stories of friends that have died.

 And sometimes loss is GOOD thing! 

 This page is very sweet. A collage of letters and envelopes that a father wrote to his daughter over the span of many years.

 More sweet pages with father daughter memories

Abstract painting, glued into the pages. Sometimes journalers wrote explanatory notes along with their entries, others left you guessing.

Some months I opened my journal package and was immediately inspired. Other times it was a struggle to complete. The project was a catalyst for me to get back to work in the studio and at the same to explore other mediums, and a little art therapy while grieving is a good thing! In the past I shared some photos from the other journals. I may post some more over the next couple of days.

So you may be asking why I am writing about this now...

I am considering getting a new journal group together for 2013. Who better to ask than my blog readers & writers, are any of you interested? If shipping costs concern you, the journals are shipped USPS media mail, which is the least expensive (but slow). I would do my best to have the person that you ship to, live as close as possible to you.

You don't have to be a visual artist to participate. This is very open ended... there was lots of poetry in the journals, collages, photography, stories. I am looking for 10 (Cindy get first refusal) or possibly 11 people to join in. 

If you think you may be interested please comment and ask questions... I have 6 months to pull this thing together!

taking pictures

We bought a new softbox to photograph our work. This is what our old set up looked like...

ha ha ha... a rather Mickey Mouse set up but it worked for us! We photograph work with a long back drop that rolls off of a hanger near the ceiling and then spreads out across our dining room table.

Here is an example of the photography...

Not bad photography... but note the shadows from the handles. We have been happy with the results used with the rigged up lighting, but it's a pain to adjust and has fallen over a couple of times.

Here is our new softbox set up...

We use white foam core on each side to bounce the light around. Holding it at different angles changes how the pots are lit.

and below are the same mugs photographed with the new softbox...

Notice that the shadows are diminished. These are the photos prior to any photoshop tweaking, which we typically do. Our plan is to hang this softbox from a pulley system over our dining room table and eliminate the fact that it now hangs from a boom microphone stand. When we are not using it we can reel it up and out of the way.
Perhaps we will start a new trend... softbox lighting instead of chandeliers for dining room tables :-).

The new softbox was very inexpensive (39.99) and came with one large curly q light. An extra $20 bought you a stand to go with it. We weren't interested in the stand because we needed the light to hang overhead. The white diffuser velcros on and the whole thing folds up and fits in a storage bag. We added a layer of non-fusible pellon inside the box, lying flat on the white diffuser material... we were getting too much glare before doing that. Maybe a lower watt bulb would be the answer.

It would be great to have an extra room to have a dedicated photography set up, but for now this will have to do. Luckily we don't eat at the dining room table very often.