Slow Start

Christmas sales were amazing for us at A Griffin Pottery Associates this year. The day after Christmas I took down all the decorations and rearranged all the pots in the gallery.  A lot of Allen's work was sold, so I needed to consolidate his things and make some more room for Lisa, Gail, and Ronnie.  Jeff was a big help with this, and I think everyone was pleased overall with what I did. I think we did a pretty good job of reorganizing so that each potter's work is together and everyone has a pretty fair amount of space.  

In addition to having a lot of empty places on the gallery shelves, we were almost out of bags too.  I ordered new bags in the week after Christmas.  I probably spent too much money, but I'm excited about what we have now.  Yes.  I said it.  I'll say it again.  I'm excited about buying plastic bags.  They are pretty and they (almost) match the color of the building.  Come by and make a purchase and I'll send you home with one of the new pretty bags. 

Beyond those two things, it feels like I've gotten a very slow start to the new year in the studio. I've not been able to be there much, but here's a little bit of what I've worked on. After Christmas sales were all said and done, I only had 2 mugs left in the gallery at A Griffin Pottery Associates, I think there are 3 at Buffalo Creek Gallery, and there might be one left at Hannah's Coffee House.  More mugs are a definite priority right now.

On Dec 29, Jeff and I headed to Charlotte to visit the grand kids.  Lady got to go with us that trip.  We started out with a few hours in the studio before we headed that way.  She loved the visit with those three little people who adore her.  She didn't love the studio all that much.

We got smart and took a baby gate so we could keep her out of the gallery.  It's not that I think she would misbehave in the gallery and break things, but I'm sure that she would run out of the door the first time it was opened. The baby gate was much more effective than blocking the doorway with a rocking chair and buckets of glaze. 

After that, we spend a few days away visiting the family in Greensboro.  I got to meet my 2-month-old nephew Ewan.  That's pronounced "You-un."  Don't feel badly.  They had to tell me how to say it too.  How sad it is that he was 2 months old before I could get there to see him?  I knew that the fall was going to be busy, but I don't think I was really prepared for how crazy things were in November and December for me. Next year, I'll know what I'm getting into and maybe I won't be so freaked out by it all. 

 

Here's Ewan and 2-year-old big sister Fiona in the sweaters and hats that my mom knit for them. Too cute!  Go ahead.  You can say it.  Everyone is thinking it. Ewan is huge!  It looks like he's almost as big as his sister.

This gives a little bit better perspective.  Here's my brother Jack, Ewan, nephew Callum who is almost 13, sister-in-law Kelsey (yes, Callum is as tall as Kelsey now), and Fiona.

Mom and Dad with their three grandkids.

Lady got to go on this trip too.  This was her first overnight trip away from home.  She did great.

What's that you say?  This blog is supposed to be about pottery? The previous pictures are some of the explanation of why I haven't done much in the way of pottery lately.  We were out of town and then it was back to work for me.  This part of the school year is especially challenging because our spring courses at Cleveland Community College begin on Monday (no, I'm not ready yet) but our fall courses for those of us teaching at the high schools in our county don't end until Jan 20.  I have a substitute lined up EVERY SINGLE day next week because of the conflicts.  It is great fun.  (That was sarcasm.)

I did allow myself to spend a little time in the studio late Thursday afternoon.  I'm trying to maintain something resembling regular hours at the studio even though I completely overwhelmed at work and freaked out about it. These will be some more of those "wine mugs" that I tried out this fall.

  

I worked on the designs on Friday.

Two sets of 4 cups.  A little bit of an abstract design on all of them.  The design part is the hardest thing for me to do on these cups. I compare what I can do to the things that I used to watch Allen put on his work and I feel like I'm no good.  I know I will get better with practice, so eventually I'm able to suck it up and get started. I don't think I'll ever get things to match exactly, but may be you can tell that these go together?

I spent so much time trying to figure out how to decorate all these cups that I didn't get done with everything that I hoped to finish on Friday. My goal was to get these trays ready to glaze in addition to finishing the cups and throwing some other pieces.  

Sometimes I have unreasonable expectations for what a person can get done.  I was also slowed down significantly by my lunch.  A salad is tasty but takes a long time to eat.