Glaze Play 2012: Sponge Stamping and Texture.

Photo Courtesy of: Flickr/luisillusionThis year, I want to tamp down my tendency to try and make 50-wowsand different things, and focus on honing two things I enjoy, but don't use enough - stamping and texture. 

Some of my favorite work from my portfolio seems to be pieces that include some sort of surface augmentation. I love chattering, carving and using all manner of conventional (and unconventional) tools to texturize the surface of my work. It brings out hidden personality in glazing and can really transition a fairly traditional form into something that feels like it has history, depth and character. 

Just before the holiday break, I started playing around with some sponge stamping. I was very excited about my finished product (not yet posted). After talking with one of my potter mentors this weekend, I've decided to add some of my own sponge stamps to my arsenal. Literally minutes, with the proper tools

Much like clay stamps - I hate using stamps made by other folks. While they are lovely, the idea of using them to augment my work feels like cheating. I'd rather learn how to make the stamps, then fiddle about in my own space, creating designs from the recesses of my strange imagination. 

I'll likely take one of the designs from some of the mandalas I've painted and see if I can transform them onto the face of a silk sponge. I shopped around and purchased a wood burning kit - I'll share my sponge stamp making results soon. 

Not a resolution...but close.

Today. During the holiday season, the studio where I do the bulk of my work closes for 2 weeks for a cleaning/regrouping. Normally, during that time, I sneak in for some quiet wheel time while the holidays whirl all about me. It is my oasis and the only thing that feels normal and constant during that time. I'm a nervous nelly. I NEED normal and constant, to be okay.

This year, I decided I would take the two full weeks away from the studio to focus on the growing demands at my job and prepare/rest for what will likely be another hectic year. I figured I could benefit from the break. Use the time wisely.

Instead, I threw myself into work, grew depressed about all the old ghosts every holiday season stirs in me, suffered through two colds and generally felt more detatched from the holiday spirit than ever before. Despite this, I purchased like the dutiful consumer, sent out handmade holiday cards and gifts and did what many of us do - go through the motions. Faking it til I make it, with a grin on my face and a hole in my heart.

I woke this morning still shaking off the last of the latest cold, but eager to get back into a rhythm of a normalized existence. New session starting at the studio refreshed my perspective on work and my lens of the world. As soon as I walked back into the studio, I felt at home. I remembered what is still good in this life, what is still alive and thriving in me. I remembered things like progress and milestones. I remembered that I still have a wonderful gift and opportunity with clay. Every time I sit behind the wheel, I have a clean slate.

There's much to do this year. I'm not one for annual resolutions, or long reflections on all the ways I'm going to do things differently in the coming year. For me, what works is simply vowing to make a better attempt at living a good life. This life is a moving target. I have always told myself, I don't need a list of goals to move forward. All I need is the desire to be better than I was a year before.

Then I looked at my pottery metrics. Last year, I reached some important milestones. I made my first plate (if you knew what a pain in the ass plates were to throw, you'd know what a feat that was). I sold work internationally. I made potter pals across the country. I sold more pieces in 2011 than I did in 2007 - 2010 combined.  In the first week of January, I'm met with a steady flow of commission requests, pending orders and inquiries. I'm already getting a strong inkling (intuitively speaking) that this year will be busier and more productive than I could have even anticipated.

In 2011, I inherited a new (to me) pottery wheel. It's sitting in a garage that needs to be prepped and converted into a home studio, while I am in the midst of considering a residential transition. Suddenly, tonight as I looked over everything that's happening with my creative life, I realized...I need to establish what needs to happen and when.

• I need to get my home studio up and functional.
• I need to work on my throwing schedule/project commitments. I want to know what I'm throwing, where my focus should be (aesthetically) and what I need to do to challenge myself this year.
• I need to be more strategic about how I present my work to the world.

Well what do you know...those look a lot like goals.

I won't make you any grand proclamations. I will just tell you this...I'll make this year better than the last one. That's a promise I tend to keep.

Studio Update: Slip and Slippin'

Not sure if I can blame it on the moon, my overactive imagination or some kind of freak hormonal imbalance, but this week tested my ability to put on a happy face. Though there is nothing directly wrong with me, it just seems like bad news here and there put a damper on the blissful high my friends and I experienced after celebrating the marriage of dear, dear people within our circle. I'm carrying a heavy heart...and I can't quite put my finger on why. At the risk of being too punny, I feel like I'm slippin'.

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Don't stop believin'.

It was a labor of love, which is always the very best kind. It went off without a hitch, all pieces arrived in perfect condition and each item found a home with guest and venue employees in New Orleans, LA. But that exercise and the fact that it all came together was not the gft for me. Improving on my skills, and learning how to make my pottery process more efficient? Not the gift. Their heartwarming thanks and the kind words shared with me from the guests? Not the gift. The gift for me, was seeing that, contrary to my own limited and unsuccessful experience with it, a Love Supreme does exist, and for some, it can provide a happy ever after.

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Studio Update: The Month of January (whew)

I have a lot to get done this year, but before I did anything, I needed to work on some project to stock my shop for awhile as I handle some work that will likely consume a lot of my *free throw* time. So in January, I've been cranking them out. Bowls, jewelry pieces, vases, the usual. Then I had a great idea. Why not work a little of my new age preoccupations into my work? It works within my brand to create things I might actually use, too. So in January, I worked on two items that I've never worked on before. Smudge bowls and incense holders.

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