holiday sale

Hello There!
I know I have been all but present here in blog land. I do wish I could tell you that a torrid love affair has kept me away but alas I have been doing a little traveling and working, working and um, working.
Though, I could blame it on Facebook but let's not even go there.
Thankfully I have some new work to show for my absence.

But guess what...
I am having the first sale ever in my new studio!
I moved into my beautiful space in October 2007 and have been so busy with shows and making work that I haven't had time to get it together to invite you all over until now.

So please, come on by. My doors will be open This Saturday, December 6th from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. It's a bit of a schlep to get out to the Bay View but I promise it will be worth your while.


I have a lot of new goodies to show plus many affordable gift items, as well as my one of a kind work. I know times have been tough for all of us so I've kept that in mind in when making things.

So here is the skinny...


*Holiday Sale*
Saturday December 6th, 2008
11:00 am until 6:00 pm
1044 Revere Street unit B-29 (upstairs)
San Francisco, CA
*map*


My little ol 'self and my ever lovely studio Elf, Liz,
will be awaiting your presence with a kettle full
hot cider and plate full of cookies .

Hope to see you all then!

just in case...

you were wondering where I have gone, really not far, just holed up in my studio making cups and vases and bowls and then more cups, vases and bowls. I am in full on production mode from now until December. It's been nine hour days, filled with casting, forming, drawing, painting, glazing. My knuckles ache and at the moment my back is not being terribly cooperative . I am trying to keep paced and focused so if my posts are spotty it's only because I am too pooped at the end of the day to type. Though I will try and do my best to keep you all posted as things progress. Oh and one exciting bit of news...some the pieces in this photo will soon be going off to Heath Ceramics for sale in their shop. I couldn't be more thrilled 'cause you all know how much I love Heath.

a quiet moment

porcelain tags on linen thread available here

I am not sure about you but I am still scratching my head wondering what the hell happened to October? Thanksgiving is already next week! I wish I could slip a couple of extra weeks back in before the Holiday season kicks in to full gear. Alas it is only a wish and I suppose I have to buck up and just go with it.

I was able to get a little down time (a day) after my show but I am now back in the studio daily, from here on out until Christmas. I have orders, man do I have orders to fill and I am wondering how I will ever manage to pull it all off. I have been having a lot of loss in the kiln lately which is anything but good. I have this order for a a set of twelve plates, a large platter and a large bowl. Half of the plates have peeling issues and the platter though it is perfect on the front and looks wonderful, on the backside, the glaze puckered and peeled. So I have to start at square one and remake all the work.

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about the feasibility or better yet the sensibility of making a living from my ceramic work. I know it looks as if I might be getting rich off of my work. My prices may seem to suggest it but the truth of the matter is that I lose so much of it and spend so much time remaking work that already takes a tremendous amount of time to produce the first time around, I am lucky if I am even breaking even. I feel as if I am constantly swimming against the current. There aren't any easy solutions or quick fixes. It is simply just the way it is.

So in a quiet moment I returned to making my porcelain tags (which I have been making on and off for years now). They are simple and straight forward, no glaze, just very thin porcelain, stamped with a lead letterpress stamp (I have a large collection of letterpress images) and hung on a simple thin thread of linen. Something that I don't have to struggle with and that gives me some immediate gratification with a medium that is anything but immediate.

I wanted to share the quiet moment with you. If you would like one for yourself they are available here.

Enjoy the weekend friends!

what I am not going to say

I can't believe I have neglected you all for so long. I'd say it one more time but I keep going on and on about how busy I am so I won't mention it again (at least not in this post). I know you all understand.

I wanted to share this photo of this bus with you. It is parked out in back of the building where my studio is. It is what I see when I look out my window. Isn't it beautiful?!
So peaceful in its decay.

Okay and I also want to share a little bit of this too...(for my show that opens in 10 days!)

This one makes me laugh every time I look at it. She looks a little like Grandpa Munster from the old TV version of the Munsters.

...And this, because it says it all in one photo at what my world is like these days.

Well really only one part of my world. There is a whole other reality going on over here...

Oh and let's not forget about these...

They are available here.

I have more to show you but I promised you that I wasn't going to go on in this post about how busy I am.

{so check back soon!}

Happy Monday Friends!

get in line

I wanted to pop in and show you that I am still up to ceramic no good...This little grouping is a commission that I just finished for some very lovely people in Washington State. The couple whom I made these plates for have a farm and wanted twelve salad plates that represented the farm so I did a series of fruits, flowers and branches for them. They have put together a table setting of mix and match work from various Ceramic Artists. I love this idea! For me it is like I will be sitting down in the company of the guests at their table AND also amongst peers and fellow Artists as well.

I am starting to prepare my new studio space for my big move. I have to admit that it has been difficult for me to focus on work while at my studio with my impending move. I keep catching myself daydreaming about where I will put my tables, should I or shouldn't I paint the shelves white, etc. Joy of all joy's I will finally have a large wall to hang work and put up my little bits of inspiration. I have been crammed into a very small amount of space for a number of years now. I have made the best of it but lately I have been spilling out everywhere so the extra space all to myself is not only necessary but super exciting as well. I'm gonna make it nice and organized and pretty too!

Off to work now...Happy day all!

do not bend

11" x 9" charcoal, gauche, screen printed paper and ephemera on cardboard envelope


Dear Friends,
I am afraid to admit (though I know you are all already quite aware) that I have been so very absent from my blog these days. The reasons are many and none. Changes are happening in my creative life, really nothing major, just a gentle shift that has been organically occurring in the past few months. Growing I think...yes I am growing. The new drawings that I am working on (see above) mark the transformation that has been taking place. No fears, the ceramics are still the loves of my life, I am just spending a little more time with my little kerchiefed ladies these days. I hope you won't mind spending a little more time with them too.

And on the more mundane side of things I am moving into a new studio space next weekend! It is literally five feet from my old space (through a doorway). Never the less it means a major transition and a LOT more space for me. It is bright and airy with a window, yes a window people... a very coveted commodity when it comes to studio space. So here is a before picture of the new space.

I will keep you posted on the after as well.

Happy Weekend Everyone!

a little more green

First off, Thank you Laura for such a fabulous and informative post on the *green* question regarding ceramics! It is obvious that there hasn't been much discussion about it and I think perhaps there has a bit of a presumption that because ceramics are made from clay that they are inherently earth friendly. In this world (especially here in the U.S.) often the focus on selling something is on marketability and trend (which is all about being green these days). All those things are well and good and can make us a buck but when it comes to something as serious as the environment it is so important to be honest with ourselves and others about what we make. So thanks again Laura, your honesty and thorough investigation into the greenness of ceramics has been an eye opener for us all.

Though ceramics themselves are not a green product I do agree that buying handmade and locally is ultimately the best way to go. It is virtually impossible to make anything without causing some sort of impact but there are ways to lessen that impact and to be aware. Many of you wrote about ways you are doing that in your own studios and passed on some ideas of what everyone can do to be more conscious about their studio practices and the impact they might have on the environment. Thank you all for your comments and if anyone else out there has any tips they would like to share, please do let us know.

Now on a more personal note; I have been a little out of the loop as of late. Distractions by loved ones, kitchen painting, sight seeing and lots of laying in the park and ice cream eating has put me a little behind but happy and well rested. So many exciting things are coming up in the next few months. I will be back again soon to fill you all in on the details. For now happy Monday to you all!

above bowl; quince on green 10.5"x10.5"x5"

lining up

Just popping in to give you a glimpse of what I have been up to. This isn't even the half of it either! I wasn't kidding when I said I was making too much work for this upcoming sale. I don't know how it will all fit in the wee 10'x10' block of space I get to display my work. Like I said, I am thinking of piles and clusters. These vases are drying and still need to be bisque fired and glazed. I spent all day yesterday drawing and today looks like it will be more the same. I am on a tight schedule now to finish all of what I started. Looks like I will be working through the weekend.

the plaster & I

Mold making and I don't always get along though I persist in making us life long partners. If you asked the plaster's opinion (if it had one) it would say I was out of my mind and that I am delusional about my abilities and mathematical skills. I say, I like math and think I am quite capable. I think that I can figure out the weights and measures that making the proper plaster mold requires but alas the delusions endure and I am often faced with head scratching concentration and confusion only to give it up and rely on the "other" less sophisticated method of making plaster molds which requires no math at all, just the ability to move fast and eyeball it. I know I can do it the correct way but am often feeling pressed for time or just plain anxious to get the job done that I don't take the time to figure it out. When I want a perfect mold, lets say for slip casting, I hire someone else to do the the job. Though deep down I really want to do it myself. The plaster, says "give it up already, would ya!"

Once again I am about to embark on a mold making adventure and I am determined to get it right. I've decided to stay small (some two part vase molds) that won't require large quantities of wet plaster as I am also known to have a deluge of wet plaster flood out of my coddles. I am really not sure why I persist in this endeavor. It seems silly after so many failures at something to not just give in and say, look I am just not good at it...but I want to succeed at this. I actually love the whole process of making the model and preparing it for a mold (which is a lengthy process that requires precision). It's the plaster part that messes me up. Everything else I have figured out just not the plaster. So wish me luck. I'll be back to let you know the results. By the way, I did make all the molds in this here photo, though these are not the kind of molds that require much skill, just the fast moving eyeball it method. "Yeah, so what" says the plaster, "lets see you make a real mold!" I'll show you...you pesky plaster, as long as it is up to me we will get along. So there!

tar & daisies

I have had a love hate relationship with my studio ever since I moved into it eight years ago. I once had a garage space studio in the lovely San Francisco neighbourhood of Potrero Hill complete with a backyard garden, a fig tree that had doves nesting in it and Java, the neighbors dog, to keep me company. Then the dot com boom hit and I (like so many other people) was forced out by a doubled rent that I could not afford. I put my studio in storage for about a year until my good friend Maggie offered to rent me a corner of her warehouse space in the Bayview District of San Francisco. I remember very well the first time I drove out to look at the space. It was a rainy gray day and as I drove closer to the warehouse I became increasingly depressed. It did not resemble my fig tree studio one bit. Push came to shove and I took Maggie up on her offer and moved in. I was spoiled by my Potrero Hill studio and now had to settle for the urban tangle of the Bayview.


Since I moved into the building I have occupied three different spaces. I moved with Maggie twice as her business grew and then she went out of business in 2002 and then Beni , a potter down the hall offered me a space in his studio. As the years have passed my distaste for my studio and the neighborhood has turned into affection and appriciation. The building mostly houses businesses, including everything from fortune cookie makers, harpsichord builders, motorcycle mechanics, popcorn poppers, cheese distributors, model makers, shippers, purse manufacturers, the odd painter, screen printers and the most interesting of all...a dildo maker. Oh yes, I have a piano builder on one side of me and a dildo maker on the other side. A girls dream indeed...music and well...eh hem, you get it... To top it off there is a French bakery downstairs so the smell of fresh bread baking greets me when I come into the building. Pleasure indeed! These things have succeeded in distracting me from the piles of garbage everywhere, the drug users and vagrants that hang out in the back of the building and the enormous field that stretches to the bay that is oh so beautiful and oh so toxic (it was once a navy shipyard and is contaminated with all kinds of toxic waste). There are even a couple of dogs named Ginger and Zed that greet me with barks and wagging tails when I drive into the parking lot.


There is beauty there too though sometimes I have to look for it through the muck. I was taking photographs today along the fence that divides the warehouse parking lot from the toxic field. I was admiring all the wild flowers in bloom, picking yellow daisies and then I stepped on something very strange only to realize it was an old glove stuck to an oozing blob of black tar. That is kind of how it is out there, tar and daisies... All mixed together. I like the fact that it a place where people work and are creative but it is not just artists. I like the mix of professional and eccentric. I like the guy who regularly walks through the parking lot and hollers out to me "Hey Girrrrl!" I holler back, How ya doin' ?! Then I head up to my studio betwixt the dildo maker and the piano builder and get to work.

sunday fog

whale & black bird platter 16"x16"


Sundays can be difficult for me. I often find myself at a loss with what to do with myself on Sundays. I know most people relish their weekends but being a person who worked weekends for twenty years and then suddenly having them free is well, a little unnerving. You see I got very used to doing things in the off times of the week. Taking Thursday off, for example, was completely normal for me. I never vacationed when everyone else was vacationing and often I did not participate in weekend activities because I was working. I find it a little strange to be out in the world when everyone else is out there too.

Sunday, the end of the week. It is kind of like night time for me, the end of the day, not my favorite time of the day. I am much more of a morning person. I am optimistic and cheerful in the morning with the possibility of the day ahead of me. By night fall I am ready to stop and my creative juices go into temporary hibernation until the fallowing morning. Today for example, I was feeling a little blue and in my usual Sunday fog. I went out for a walk in my neighborhood and visited a couple of my favorite shops but felt assaulted by the clamor of happy Sunday people. It made me want to hide away. I came back home and thought, okay now it is time to have some coffee! I am not a regular coffee drinker as it does not always agree with me. Though when well timed and not overdone, coffee has can have an uplifting effect on me, which is helpful when I am feeling a little down. So I made myself a delicious cup that closely resembled a milk shake (lots of cream and sugar) sipped it down and then let the effects of the caffeine do its work...
Then I jumped in my car, turned the music up nice and loud and headed to my studio. When I walked into the studio I felt happy and comforted. I finished some more tea bowls, wrapped up some packages to be shipped, loaded my kiln with a whole bunch of new work along with the enormous 23" bowl I just finished for my show (it barely fit in the kiln). It made me feel better to go to work. I feel satisfied and ready for Monday now, ah yes, Monday...I know most people don't like Mondays but me I love them, after all they are a beginning of the week, like mornings they offer up the possibility of the week to come.

51 degrees

Folks, it's fa fa freezing here. Yes, I do live in San Francisco and you are right, I have absolutely nothing to whine about when it comes to weather. Still it is very cold here, it dipped under 32 degrees last night and much lower in areas surrounding San Francisco. I hear the North East of the United States is having it's warmest winter on record according to my dear friend, finder of back roads and keeper of miscellaneous weather facts, M.C. Why am I talking about the weather you may wonder? Well as I mentioned before I am preparing work for my show at Xen Gallery in February and some of my new work has a lot to do with the weather and how the change is affecting climates which in turn is affecting wild life. Think polar bears.

It is not like me to use my work as a platform to talk about global warming. I usually don't go for the big statement or the political and I am not trying to spread world peace with my work. I make my work from a very personal place. Beauty has a lot to do with it. I like beautiful things and I am not ashamed of making beautiful things. I love nature. I find people fascinating. I find life often has quiet, small stories with bigger meanings woven into our everyday activities. I take all of this information and translate it into my own visual vocabulary and record it on my work. Kinda simple, huh? So what has changed? I am asking myself this very question as I work. I haven't quite come to any final conclusions yet and it is challenging for me to talk about it, much less write about it. I am very excited about this new direction with my work but also feeling a little unsure. It is like making a speech in a language you just learned. I know I'll be saying a lot of sentences backwards and certain common expressions may sound awkward. None the less, I can't wait to start showing you what I have been up to. Images will be coming soon.

To keep me in check and to help me experience the full effect of our unusually cold temperatures I have been making the work in my very cold studio that does not have warm running water. The thermometer inside the studio has been reading 51 degrees this past week. There you will find me bundled up, five layers deep in clothing, etching away and thinking about the plight of the polar bear.

plastic clouds

See how hard I am working! I especially love the clouds of plastic that loom about my studio (those are covered pieces in progress) Gives it an ethereal feeling, yes? No, just makes my space look messy. My studio is a little cave like. There is a skylight so light does come in but I don't have a window. It makes being in there feel timeless. It could be the afternoon or late at night and I wouldn't know the difference. It can drive me bonkers but most often it forces me to stay focused. See that book...that is one of the many books that I use for visual reference for my drawings. By the way I draw each piece individually. I don't trace or use stencils. All the drawings are done freehand. I have a huge pile of books that I have collected over the years that I use. This one is especially neat because it is super old. I love the yellowed pages and the illustrations in it are drawn so delicately.