you like clay, it's your favorite

I’ve been playing with paper cut outs lately. Here’s a pile of them. I find it nice to play with paper and scissors to work out design ideas. I often tell my students to work out design conundrums with a media they’re familiar with, paper fits that bill nicely. Pots with these designs should be out of the kiln this week. Yippee!!

Looking for a great selection of my pottery? Live in the Minneapolis / St Paul area? Come to No Coast 2010! A great selection of local, and national, designers, crafters and artisans. It’s where I do all my holiday shopping, and you should too!

It’s that time of year again. Farmers rural and urban have donated veggies. Potters professional and amateur have made pots. People have generously donated their time and chopping skills. Another Empty Bowls * is upon us. It’s a national concept that we have put our own South Minneapolis spin on. This year we even have bakers making bread at a new on site earthen oven.

For one day Powderhorn Park becomes the community living room where folks from across the city get together to break bread with one another. Folks attending the event are asked to make a free will donation for a handcrafted bowl and soup meal. Attendees go home with a full belly and a beautiful empty bowl. This bowl serves as a reminder of the need in our community throughout the year.  Powderhorn Empty Bowls gives the money to organizations in South Minneapolis who are helping to feed those in need.  It is a win for everyone involved. As a potter it is a great way for me to give back to my community directly. Over the years we have raised thousands of dollars for local food shelves.

If you’re in South Minneapolis on Friday stop by and have a meal. I’ll be in the kitchen making soup from scratch all day, pop your head in and say hello. Our event runs from 11 am to 7 pm or until we run out of soup!

* Just an FYI. The Powderhorn Empty Bowls site has been attacked with malware and our original site has been replaced by a muzzleloader fanatic. None of us are that computer savvy, and it went unnoticed for a while. Under normal circumstances I would point you to that website for more info. Instead I have linked to the National Site for more information. We hope to have the Powderhorn Empty Bowls site fixed soon after this year’s event. *

I was fortunate to attend SOAR last weekend. Chris and I rarely get to spend time with one another outside of shows so we used this as an opportunity to have some much needed R&R. The mix of vending and classes was great, a few hours in the market followed by some off time. Fortune was on my side as I was able to take a spinning class with Maggie Casey. The class was on spinning multi-colored yarn from solid colored roving. It’s a topic that has so many different approaches. Here’s a shot of Maggie explaining the fractal spinning idea with solid rovings. I’m hoping to try that out, someday.

Two nuggets of advice were most relevant to my progress as a spinner. Spin with a project in mind and spin at least 15 min per day. I’ve taken this to heart and have some yummy Wensleydale on the bobbin with the intent of knitting it into a pair of socks. The weekend was a brief but well neeeded respite. The travelling for this year is done. No potter roadtrips until Stitches West in February. I do have one local show planned and one, maybe two, updates in the works. Back to the salt mines potter.

Just thought I would write a brief post about the availability of my pottery. Right now I am primarily producing work for my show schedule.

When you find me at a show you will see the largest assortment and variety of my work available. New designs, motifs, and shapes are debuted at shows. I understand that it isn’t always possible for folks to find me at a show for a variety of reasons. That’s where the updates come in.

A few times a year I will produce pots for online updates. These pots are available for purchase at my online etsy shop. Fans of my work can join the update list and get advance notice via email letting them know when to be around a computer to purchase the work as it becomes available online.  All the work I post in an online update is already produced and will ship from my home studio in Minneapolis within 48hrs of your purchase.

I am an artisan who believes in fine craftsmanship over mass production. I only have two hands and my work takes time to produce. Each and every piece is hand thrown by me in my home studio. I hope you will find its well worth the wait.

Look for the next update to happen sometime in November!

Once again I was fortunate to attend the New York Sheep and Wool Festival, affectionately known as Rhinebeck. This year was a wee stressful with an outdoor booth and a forecast of 40 – 60 mph wind gusts. There was a last minute booth move, fifteen minutes before the festival opened, when the winds really picked up, but in the end everything was okay. As usual I made it through with a little help from my friends. This year I made a squirrel knitting a sweater for the 2010 Rhinebeck mug. I totally forgot to take pictures before I packed them up and hit the road so the pictures above are of the last one before it was sent home with a very happy kniter.  My apologies for the poor images – but you get the gist. It was a lovely time, I met SO many wonderful folks and I am so happy to have the opportunity to attend it.

A short stack of mugs in progress.

A view from the kitchen. Fresh melted bittersweet chocolate for Lil’s first birthday cake.