Sunday, January 31, 2016

Tech Nerd Needed...

Day; 249. Sunny in the suburbs with clouds covering the Sangre de Christos and Santa Fe. Apparently a storm is acomin'!

Temperature on outside kiln; 48 degrees
kiln firings; none
Music in the studio; none

A bit of a lazy Sunday, no studio time, but I did spend the day putting the finishing touches on my written tutorial "Making and Firing Laser-toner Decals". This was in preparation for listing a digital copy of it on my on-line Etsy marketplace. After weeks of working on it, and buying new word processing software, the file is too big to upload onto their site!  I would have to trim it by 4MB!? This I cannot/will not do as it covers the essentials and taking images or text out would destroy the usefulness of the product.

 So... what now brown cow?! I have decided to try and list it on my own personal website instead and see if that works.. Darn it, I really wanted to be able to tell students/customers  where to get a copy when I am completely tired of answering the same questions over and over! There has to be a way to get this out there, and I am determined to find it. The longer book-length version could be years in the making (if at all?) so I am anxious to find a solution to the problem of selling a digital download product. I guess I need to talk with a techie- type person,  may need to get Jackie Gerstein on it ( as we say for anything tech related with the Contemporary Clay Fair; got a problem? Get Jackie on it!) 

Off to send her an email right now..... 


Saturday, January 30, 2016

A Balancing Act..

Day; 248. Sunny and beautiful but I hear a storm is on it's way this upcoming week. Temperature is likely to drop 20 degrees so I guess I should go stand out in the sun while I can....

Temperature on outside kiln; 42 degrees
kiln firings; none
music in the studio; Still hooked on Luther Vandross, can't get enough of his silky voice. I just feel transported instantly to a good-feeling place when I listen to him....

Saturday morning in the studio... Finishing up some work from yesterday, larger pieces for picture taking, (show applications coming up and I want some new images) and making more cups for the truck show at Artful Tea in two weeks. Spirits are high but my body, well, my poor body, it just can't get a break! I'm feeling better generally but now it is allergy season and the juniper trees are doing their thing and pollinating... Which makes me stuffed up, wheezy, and achy like I have the flu.. Someday soon I will get my glorious body back and  Dear Friends slap me a good one if I ever take it for granted again!! My new mantra for the rest of my life; I love my body, I love my body, I love my body..........

In the interests of a more balance life, I am looking for other things to do with myself that do not involve ceramics! Like what?, I can hear you asking me.... Well, I don't know! I am open to divine inspiration..
What I really want to do is sing, but my voice comes out as a croak...Sooooo, I'm doing things like clean house, wash the sheets, stack wood, carry water, you get my drift... I'm staring at my 2015 taxes but I'm just not that desperate yet, I'd rather clean the toilet...
I ordered some new software for my computer last week and I am really hoping it comes in the mail today so I can play around with it, I will check the mail a little later and maybe get lucky... I want to get my decal tutorial formatted into a document that others can actually open and print, the word processing program I have currently is pretty much worthless, but it was free off the internet so I guess I really can't complain. I know, I know, it's ceramic related, but at least it's in another room and I am not rolling out slabs or throwing clay on the wheel, that's progress towards balance, right? Why am I feeling pathetic!?

I watched a great movie last night,   The Martian with Matt Damon. What a great flic! So convincingly real that I was sweating as he was shot into space with just a tarp over the roof of his space ship trying to get home after being maroon on the red planet.. Towards the end of the movie as they were shooting back towards the earth, they showed a picture of it from afar. I was so struck by the beauty of our  little blue ball in space. I felt so honored and special to be human and experiencing life in all it's pain and glory here on our gorgeous planet. There was  something about seeing it in relation to the rest of the universe, just floating there, that made me love it so, I felt a rare sense of reverence. How lucky we are!!!!!!

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

If It Feels Good, Do It!

Day; 247. Sunny, gorgeous. Quintessential New Mexico day....

Temperature on outside kiln;
Kiln firings; none
Music in the studio; Eva Cassidy sings Somewhere Over The Rainbow
Happiest moment of the day; Listening to Luther Vandross sing A Change is Going to Come, wickedly good, how gorgeous and fine is he? And oh yeah, that velvety voice...


Back at it after a rather challenging weekend, it's over and it's Wednesday now! and I haven't posted in several days, I just couldn't get any studio mojo going... But Maggie's back in town and actually making something today... even if it is just a few cups for the tea shop, it's better than nothing and I am enjoying myself singing and making stuff kinda like ol' times before I derailed in November... I feel better and better every day about studio work, not sure where I am going with it, and it doesn't matter at this point, but I am enjoying myself making again at least for some part of the day. I will just follow the good feelings... if it feels good, do it! ( as we used to say in the 60's!)

Yesterday I actually send off a book proposal to Lark Publishers, a company who has published a few of my pieces before.. This has been about a year in the making, stopping and starting so many times, but I finally got a glimpse of what I should do with the article on laser-toner transfer that I had been working on. If I do say so myself the proposal I wrote up was pretty damn good and I am excited for feedback and any possible projects which may come down the pike. We will see where that road leads....

I also contacted Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu (have to look up that spelling every single time!!) about any teaching gigs that might be possible this summer. I am too late for 2016 but proposals for 2017 can still be submitted. As this is 1.5 years away it was hard to get very excited about anything up there. However, I was reminded that Pot Hollow had been washed away in a flood last summer and fund raising is on-going  to bankroll a new ceramics studio. I offered my services in grant writing and in crowd funding set-ups and have been emailing back and forth with the Ghost Ranch staff about that. I would be pleased to help set-up and build a new studio up there, and of course teach in it one day! So, more irons in the fire all the time! As I am into cliches from the 60's today, I will just  keep on truckin'!

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Other Income Streams

Day; 246. Sunny, very crisp!
Temperature on outside kiln; 45 degrees
kiln firings; none
music in the studio; none

Happiest moment of my day; Nap at around 3pm.

No studio work again today, not feeling the pull, soon however, wait for it, wait for it.....

Spent the day working on a long workbook/tutorial for students and my Etsy shop, only took me about a year to get it together, but I  should have it listed by tomorrow hopefully.. I figure some passive income streams like this, where I don't have to create inventory, might be just the thing for times like these...




I also contacted the Santa Fe University of Art and Design about teaching positions. I know they have a small ceramics studio and may need someone to teach one of their classes so I put the word out, one never knows what kind of serendipity might occur... (practicing throwing myself in the river and seeing where I end up).

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Couch Potatoes

Day; 245- 250! Sunny, windy, cold

Temperature on outside kiln; 34 degrees
kiln firings; none
music in the studio; Democracy Now with Amy Goodman

I'm cheating today!? But I have done virtually nothing in my studio since my last post 5 days ago, so I figure this post pretty much sums up the last couple of days, and catches me and my two readers up! Ha!

Anyway, don't know what to say or where to start. I have a deep need to make it positive, so I will try... Taking stock like I have never done before in my life, which is good.. Figuring out day by day how I want to live and what, if anything, I want to make out of clay. I am looking at some other ceramic work which hopefully excites me. I am mulling things over, percolating, brewing, masticating, hibernating, and all the other -ings... I know this will lead me somewhere I just don't know exactly where that is right now. I only know I can't make the same old work anymore, it used to be that a small change would satisfy my creative need and that as long as I changed the foot or rim or handle on a piece,  I was satisfied. That is no longer true, I seem to need to make much larger changes that are a bit nebulous and even a little scary. What this means for my work and show schedule I am not completely clear about.  I know I love working for myself, being at home with my dogs, being on the road, moving clay around, but I am so burnt out on the way I was making and selling that I don't have complete clarity right now... AND THAT IS OK!

I will find creative satisfaction again, I am sure of it, I just need a little time. Meanwhile, I am here on this couch with these creatures, not a bad place to be...




Thursday, January 14, 2016

Truly a New Beginning..

Day; 244. Sunny, brisk.

Temperature on outside kiln; 35 degrees
kiln firings; none
Music in the studio; Democracy Now with Amy Goodman 

Today I finally turned a corner; I delivered the dozen promised pieces to the Detours Gallery ( as in the old Fred Harvey SW Detours of the early 20th century) in the La Fonda Hotel which marks the end of my committments/special orders  from 2015. I finally feel like the very difficult end of that year is over and 2016 has really begun. The two orders that were hanging over my head as I struggled with body/life last month  in December, are history. What a relief it was to pack up the truck this morning and drive the work in to Santa Fe. There were several days in the last 6 weeks when I didn't really know how I was going to pull this off in time, but I did, moreover with a week to spare. Yeah Me!! Another Cowabunga! hoot as I drove into town this morning, similar to the tile delivery of a week ago...

I can't say I love every piece, in fact, I snuck in a few older larger pieces that had been sitting around, but I think as a body of work, well, it worked! And the newer pieces I did like, so there you have it. And I enjoyed slowing down and making fewer but larger pieces with higher price tags. Hmm, a lesson in there somewhere! And no mugs or cups were requested, THANK GOD! It was interesting pricing the larger pieces for wholesale/commissioned sales, they asked me to just specifiy what I needed to make the pieces and they would price them as they wanted to.. hmmm, interesting. So, I went for it, I asked for what I thought I needed to get for large serving pieces and platters. There was one awkward moment where the buyer said; "this is for each piece!?" And  I said yes, each piece, $85-$95 dollars. And of course they will double that, which makes them  expensive, but I refuse to sell my work for peanuts anymore, it is good work and I deserve it. That being said, gosh I hope it sells! I am not sure how the hotel guests are going to get my big heavy pieces home with them, but I guess that is an issue for the gallery manager and UPS.

The opening for the new gallery is in two weeks and I am very curious to see it all set up. I peeked into the space today with the buyer but it was a hard-hat area and I couldn't see much. But what I did see was a nice big open space with windows all along the sidewalk/street entrance. As wholesale accounts go, this is the creme de la creme, so I am really optimistic.

So I look forward to 2016; I don't really know what is around the corner exactly, but I can feel good things coming down the pike....

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Colder than A Well-digger's Ass

Day; 243; Sunny and stunningly gorgeous, but extremely frigid

Temperature on outside kiln; 11 degrees
kiln firings; bisque firing to cone 04
Music in the studio; More singing lessons with Felicia Ricci
Best moment of the day, so far!; warming my hands in the wood stove after loading the kiln


Me as I loaded the kiln this morning at 11 degrees;


Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Monday, January 11, 2016

Colder Than a Witches Tit...

Day; 242. Brillantly blue sky in the land of enchantment...

Temperature on outside kiln; 13 degrees
kiln firings; a quickie image transfer firing to cone 92
Music in the Studio; singing lessons with my new fave girl; Felicia Ricci

I went out to load the kiln this morning and it was 13 degrees, ouch! Luckily I had only a few re-fires and it was a quick job.. still had to defrost my fingers on top of the woodstove post-loading however.

After that I spent the day getting all the Detour Galleries' ( La Fonda Hotel) green pieces ready for tomorrow's bisque firing and working on my dinneware submission for the La Mesa Exhibit. I need to finish the large serving pieces for the La Fonda's new gallery next week so into the bisque firing they go in the am. Jeez, I hope they all come out, it is such a good space and the exposure is par excellance! Right on the busiest corner in Santa Fe and in a world-class historic hotel, but hey, no pressure! I just want to do myself proud, you know? So, slowly, slowwwwwwwly. My new mantra for the rest of my life; relax!!

Which apparently is the secret to really great singing as well. According to Felicia, it is all  in the breath, and I believe her. It really is what is fueling all the sound. So, I had a good ole time listening to her singing lessons and making funny noises while breathing diaphramatically. At one point Leona the Lioness ( one of 4 rescued huskies) sang along with us, albeit not quite in tune but very relaxed and with a lot of gusto. I should take a cue from the 4-leggeds, they don't worry about how they sound, they simply throw their heads back and let 'er rip... OUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!


Saturday, January 9, 2016

Winter Wonderland

Day; 241. Sunny and bright, but really chilly.

Temperature on outside kiln; 24 degrees
kiln firings; unloading image transfer firing from last night
Music in the Studio; Vocal exercises with Anne Peckham
Happiest moment of the day, (so far!); Waking up to 2-3 inches of fresh snowy powder covering my world, so sparkly!!

Woke up after a mostly sleepless night to 2-3 inches of fresh powder.. I am committed to rustling around and finding my x-county and telemark skiis, I know they are somewhere and I would like to use them since we are getting so much snow this year. I think we had 3 separate storms come through this week, nice!!! Would like to take the dog-sled team up to the Pecos Mountains and just let them runnnnnnnnn..................

Here is what my world looks like at the moment;

So pretty!!


Friday, January 8, 2016

Vibrational Shifts

Day; 240. Overcast and really cold. A snowy winters day  in January...

Temperature on outside kiln; 29 degrees
kiln firings; image transfer firing in baby-bear kiln
music in the studio; Live Sara Barielles album

Best thing about today (so far!); quiet day in the studio singing along with Sara...

Creeping back into producing some work and trying to change my vibration around it...  Making only what sounds fun and stopping and starting as I feel like it. Changing my reality starts with changing how I am thinking about what I am doing and therefore changing the vibe. As the Universe responds to this, (like unto itself is drawn) I get more of what I want instead of what I do not want...and my experience of life starts to change... It all begins with staying right in the Now and looking for positive-feel-good things that are right in front of me; my trusty toyota, my fur-babies, my great studio, my two kilns, my thoughtful husband, my HEALTHY BODY!. As I focus on gratitude for what is already in my experience, I attract more positive experiences to be grateful for. 

So, today I am finishing up some larger pieces for the Hotel La Fonda Gallery and thinking about my dinnerware design for the La Mesa show at NCECA this year. As everybody who is anybody in the ceramic world will be in this show, I want my table setting to be the best it can be. And what would that look like exactly...? Hmmmm good question; back to you on that! Also thinking about my truck show at a local tea shop for Valentine's Day; time to make some new tea cups and small tumblers...

As long as I don't have to roll out clay with the slab roller, I am happy! After 270+ tiles rolled out last month, I really never want to see a slab of clay again, but I am sure this will change! So, lots of little projects to start and finish as I create my new life/reality in 2016, EXACTLY AS I F*CKING WANT IT TO BE! (thank you very much!);
Here is what that would look like;

*Repair house after 17 years of hot sun and cold snow; new roof, new windows, new stucco on the outside, re-paint the entire inside of the house, privacy wall in front garden with new gate and plantings, workshop for Handsome Husband, new carpet in back bedroom, open up front windows to new garden, etc....
*pay off credit card debt
*pay off new car
*take a vacation to Kauai and show Davie around my favorite Hawaiian island
*monthly visits to 10,000 waves for massage and facial
*order anything and everything that I want out of the Title Nine catalog; new clothes and shoes
*new electrical elements for both kilns
*trip to Nicaragua for work brigade with Potters for Peace
*trip to Italy to eat, pray, and love (with Handsome Husband this time..)

Well that should do it for 2016!!    (Thanks Universe!!!)





Wednesday, January 6, 2016

The Strange Case of Maggie Beyeler

Day; 239. Overcast and really cold yet again. Snowing lightly most of the day...

Temperature on outside kiln; 26 degrees
kiln firings; unloading Big Mama Kiln
Music in the studio; Ipod mix...

OMG!!!! A red-letter day if ever there was one.... I drove up Cerrillos Road today screaming and  whooping it up... Not sure what the other drivers thought and I didn't give a damn anyway....
Why? you ask, well.... I FINISHED THE 273-TILE COMMISSION that I have been laboring under since last fall and delivered it to the tile store at 2929 Cerrillos Road today. Never have I been so relieved to get a particular project out of my studio, I just didn't even want to look at them one more day...
A nice thing happened while I was there... As I was waiting for the last check to be printed and handed to me, the interior designer that I have been working with and that hired me, walked into the store. What timing! We have had many meetings over the last couple of months on pattern, design, glaze color, and she had talked me off a panic-y  ledge more than once. To have her standing there while I brought in the final box of tiles was very sweet, and it was all a so-call coincidence!! I love how the Universe orchestrates things like this, so beautiful. Just a little gift for all my sweat and tears....

For whatever reason it brings to mind a movie I watched for the 3rd time last night, The Strange Case of Benjamin Button. Dear Reader, if you have not seen this movie I implore you to do so, no, I command you! Rent it tonight and settle in for 2.5 hours of pure magic! The basic premise is this (but it is so much more...!), A wrinkled, ugly baby is born at the end of WWI and  is so hideous looking that the father abandons it on a nearby doorstep. The rest of the movie is the life of this baby and the woman who loves it over the course of many decades.The story unfolds as a flash back of this woman as she lay dying in a hospital in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. The extremely interesting part of the whole affair is the reason the baby is so ugly to begin with; this seemingly unfortunate human is aging backward. It starts out with cataracts, RA, and old skin. As it gets older, every year it's body grows younger!!?? The implications of this for Benjamin and the love of his life are extremely touchingly played by Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchet. As she grows older, and has his baby, he is getting younger. It is so wonderful to see Brad Pitt gradually transition from old man who cant walk to beautiful young boy... Anyone who has had doubts about his acting ability previous to this movie, can rest assured that those may be put to rest.... He is fantastic. I can't remember if he was nominated for an academy award for this film, but the picture itself was nominated for an Oscar but lost to Slum Dog Millionaire.
But really it is the scenes as they live and love over the course of their lives at different ages that is so very poignant.. he as an old man/she as a young woman, both of them in middle age, she in late middle age/he as a teenager, she as an old woman/he as a baby...  Such an interesting dilemma!

What has this all got to do with me and my life as a potter? Absolutely nothing! Well.... there is one point in the film where after they live together for awhile and have a child, he decides to leave. He just can't in good conscience ask her to raise both a baby and himself as he gets younger and younger. He packs his bags one night and leaves for India... He starts over and goes on walkabout, not sure of what else to do. There is a very beautiful voice over as you see him trekking around; something about starting over, and that it is never to late to begin again. And that if you find yourself in a situation that isn't working, it is ok to scrap it and light out for new territory... I watched this as tears slid down my cheeks; a confirmation that an unsustainable life can be left behind and a new one can be begun, at whatever age you find yourself, even 58....


Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Back From Planet X...

Day; 238. Overcast, snowy, really cold

Temperature on outside kiln; 29 degrees
Kiln firings; watching the Big Mama Kiln Cool
Music in the Studio; early Jackson Browne ( For Everyman & Saturate Before Using)

Best/Happiest moment of the day (so far!); Waking up in my big bed and realizing I could be/do/have anything I set my mind to...

Day five of the New Year and I am finally able to write something... I have been on a different planet for 6 weeks now ( after a major and serious burnout) and I have just  returned from the comfortable cave that I inhabited there....

I sorta miss my cave though; large warm bed, private TV with Netflix, lots of good books, and  roaring kiva fireplace two feet from this particular cozy perch...  But it is time to leave... I am ready to join my tribe again and get back to my life, but a different one..

One that is not killing me as I live it... One that isn't hectic and crazy, one that is not 100% work and 0% play.. But one that IS; happy, slow, creative, fun, music-filled, sweet, adventureous, active, thriving, abundant... in a word; sustainable. Something that my old 2015 life was definitely not! To get to this point I had to STOP  everything and remain in one place for, well,  6 weeks, so that is what I did. In the guise of bronchitis (an excuse to stay in bed off and on through November and December) I had an undistracted view of my life and I realized I was drifting towards some serious rocks. As my Dear Handsome Husband held down the fort, walked the dogs, fed me soup, I laid in bed and slept, watched movies, read, laughed, cried, daydreamed, freaked-out, and breathed.

Somewhere around week 4-5 I gave up the struggle I had been waging for, I don't know, the last 20 years?! This was immeasurably hard to do; as a child of two depression-era parents, if you want to succeed in life/business, you just work harder... and harder...
But it wasn't working for me, I was getting sick every two years, and I was as broke as the day I got out of grad school, clearly I needed to let go of some very out-dated notions I was dearly holding on to.
But I am nothing if not stubborn, so I held on, and held on, and twisted in the wind, all the while knowing I needed a break but could not figure out how to do it...

Most especially with winter coming on ( the slowest time of the year)  and with two MAJOR  commissions sitting on my work table, I was not about to give up and go to bed for 6 weeks, and yet I did... I somehow just knew this time was different and that if  I didn't change I was not going to live to a ripe old age... AND I WANT TO!!
So, I am still reading, breathing, watching old Streisand movies, eating soup, and relaxing next to the fire, but just not all day and night now. I have crept, chagrined, back to the studio and am slowly, very slowly, finishing the two commissions I started last  November. But I am also dancing, singing, playing with the dogs, soaking in the tub, and thanking my lucky stars...
Somehow I knew what I needed to do to avoid crashing and burning completely and had the wherewithal and support to pull it off. I am so proud of myself and  my husband, and look forward to this New Year with child-like glee...I now know I can create a life that sustains me and that is joyful at the same time.

What ever Great Spirit/Source accompanied me these past 6 weeks, I am so very exceedingly grateful to you,  I really think I could not have done this without you...