Happy 2014!

Happy New Year, faithful followers - if there are any of you out there.  Another year has passed and here we are with new resolutions, perhaps, and hope for a bright year ahead. 

I've already posted nine new items in my shop!  I'm venturing out with some new designs - and may try some new types of items this year.  Take a look...

pair of snack plates - grey & orchid with white flower design

soy bowl with crazy dots design in orchid & kelly green

set of coasters in ocean bubble design

set of 3 soy bowls - use for spices, salts, tea lights, kitchen or desk organization

pair of ice cream bowls in deep turquoise with swirly design

  I hope you like!  They were really fun to make.  I'm looking forward to sharing more new items with you soon.

In other news, I decorated my Christmas tree this year with all of my own ornaments.  I was quite pleased with how it looked...

 I was also quite pleased with some delicious appetizers made from fig jelly and manchego cheese - YUM!

 Now I'm officially hungry and ready for my afternoon snack!

New Items!

Even though I've been on hiatus from the blog the past few months, I definitely have not been at a loss with pottery painting... take a look!

Part of my very first wholesale order! 

Another item from my first wholesale order

Testing out a new mug shape... what do you think?

New honey jar style mug with flower design

Matching ice cream bowls

Swirly mugs for the wholesale order

Crazy dots for wholesale order

Crazy dots on a sugar bowl for my friend Sylvia

New honey jar style mug with orchid flower design

What's been keeping me busy

Hello 2 followers.  I apologize for my 3-month break from posting.  I've been working on a few custom orders over the past few months.  Take a gander...

Wedding Gift

 For my sweet cousin

nesting bowls

utensil holder

soap/lotion dispenser

spoon rest

the whole kit & caboodle

Monogrammed Mugs
For a college reunion weekend

Dotted Tray
For my favorite Persian Princess

There is another project in the works to be delivered next week.  I'll post those pictures then.  I don't want to spoil any surprises! 

Studio Shelves

Last fall I invested in a new DSRL camera for taking photos of my pottery and my travels.  I haven't used it a ton yet, but shooting with it is fun.  When I was supposed to be cleaning the apartment yesterday, I decided to play around with the camera instead.  Here are some nifty photos of my studio shelves, full of my shiny pottery.  Whadda ya think?

Crazy dots!

I'm working on some new designs, incorporating my OCD dots.  What do you think?

inspired by those color blindness tests

side view

Ocean dot soap pump

New Home Studio

Now coming to you from West Medford, MA!

unpainted pieces, older pieces, commissions, files, packing supplies; on the wall, a Jane Rainwater woodcut

custom hutch with shelves for my finished pieces, reference books and paint brushes, and drawers for paints, marketing material, shipping & craft show supplies

next to the hutch is this fantastic antique chair I won at an auction on Cape Cod

grey items

soy bowls, ice cream bowls and tumblers

Work table and photo shoot area

view out the back window

More new pieces for Spring!

Soap pump - in my new Ho-Jo's inspired design & colorway

Ho-Jo snack set: funky triangle plate and bowl

Close-up of detail

 

Ho-Jo snack set in alternate colorway

Aerial view

Ho-Jo snack set from another angle

Remember Howard Johnson's?   Not just a restaurant and not just a motel. The distinctive orange, sloped roof of the restaurant, topped with a turquoise spire.  Inside you'd find all-American favorites like grilled cheese, meatloaf, tuna salad and orange sherbet.  Thinking about it now is bringing back memories from summers in the 70's on Cape Cod - crossing the Bourne Bridge and spying the orange and turquoise as we crested the bridge's peak and headed toward our vacation destination, hoping my parents would let us stop for ice cream.  Such simple times back then, it seemed...  Anywho, that's what inspired me to create these new pieces.  Well, that, and seeing a recent episode of Mad Men that featured Ho-Jo's.

I created the snack sets thinking they'd be nice for serving hors d'oeuvres in non-mammoth portions.  To go off on a tangent a bit, I've been reading so much lately about the war on obesity.  This is not a new problem in America, but it seems like portion control and eating food that's closer to where it came from (e.g., local fruits and veggies rather than a chemical-laden Twinkie that could survive the Apocalypse) could help solve the problem.  With that in mind, I thought why make a giant serving set?  Why not do my share to help and make some smaller-sized pieces to encourage smaller portions?  Right?  You're welcome.

I had some issues color-correcting these photos.  The turquoise is all the same color, though it doesn't look like it here.  The top two pictures are the most accurate, color-wise.  The orange, in real life, is a warm, cantaloupe color.  Hopefully your monitor will show the shades in a more uniform tone.  Maybe I will re-edit and re-post, since I have so much free time.  Yeah, okay.