Holiday Colors

Christmas colors, a few days late I know! Happy holidays and Happy New Year to you all! Thank you all for making Dirt Girl Pottery very successful this year. Here's to a great new year!

Studio Sale

I had my 2nd annual Studio Sale today. Well, it wasn't exactly a studio sale, more like a "move all the furniture out the living room and put my show set-up sale." But, you get the point. I almost did have a sale this year because I've been so swamped with craft shows and gallery stuff, but I really wanted to do it. It's great for me to connect with friends and neighboors.

Now my living room is back to normal and my pottery is back in the basement until next week! I'll be showing at the Old Crow Gallery for their holiday show.

Holiday Art Show
Opening Reception
Saturday December 13th 2008
5:30 pm - 9:00 pm

331 Cottage Road South Portland
Show runs Dec.13th thru Dec. 24th

Paintings Photography Glass Textiles Jewelry Pottery Sculpture
HolidaySale hosting over twenty local Maine artisans
207.347.8181 http://www.oldcrowgallery.com/

The Dreaded Mug

I was talking to one of my dearest friends Shanna about throwing mugs last week. I love mugs. I love drinking out of them, love heating them up in the microwave and sipping my favorite beverage. But making them....hmmmm. Let's just say that the mug is not my most enjoyable form to throw. It's the handle. Let's face it, when I make bowls and tumblers, it's the few steps of weighing the clay, throwing the form and then trimming. With mugs you have to add the extra steps....

of pulling the handle, and then.....

drying them ever so slowly upside down for days and days so that the handle dries and the same speed as the rest of the mug.

Don't get me wrong, I love mugs, but this time of year, I'm mugged out! What about a nice tumbler or tea bowl???? Yeah, I know, you all want mugs. grumble grumble

Just kidding really! Okay, off to heat up my coffee in my favorite....mug!:)

New Encaustic Work

Here are some new encaustic pieces that I've finished in the last month. Above is titled "Orange Leaf". A few of these will be in River Roads Gallery, a wonderful little space in Skowhegan, Maine that has been showing my pottery and small clay sculptures since February.



Showing paintings is something very new for me. In the past, my paintings have been created just for me or given as gifts.

"Tree Sky"

"Green Leaf"

"Green Ovals"

I will be in the Holiday Show at the Old Crow Gallery in South Portland, Maine, from December 13-24 next month. If you're in the area, stop in and check out all the local artists. I'm the only potter so I'm really looking forward to some good sales.

Cool Uses For My Buttons!

I've been making ceramic buttons since last winter and love them. They are really enjoyable for me to make since they are whimsical and just plain fun. They are awesome "kiln stuffers" which fill all the empty spaces in a firing so a potter saves money because there is no dead space. Carol Dean from SandFibers makes the most beautiful woven bead creations. She bought a few of my large buttons several months ago and listed one of them in a felted wrist cuff.

And.....she sold it!

Picnic Portland!

I had an awesome time showing at Picnic Portland in Lincoln Park this past Saturday. I shared my tent with my long time artist friend Allison Villani, who makes recycled paper jewelry. The weather forcast was pretty sketchy, but then it cleared up and became beautiful. My 6 year old daughter was dropped off an hour into the show and stayed for 6 hours. I was completely floored that she was able to handle it that long, but she made a bunch of new friends and ran around the whole time throwing stuffed animals into air.

Here's our shared space in my tent. We had so much fun hanging out. I remembered that Allison and I had met in this park 13 years ago while walking our dogs. We both lived in the Old Port at the time.

This was the booth next to us. The guy who makes these large fabulous birdhouses actually made this set-up out of recycled cardboard tubes that had rolls of fabric on them. It took him and a few friends close to 2 hours to rig this up, all the while we were biting our nails watching. It took them 5 minutes to take down. I was happy for him because the birdhouses were priced at about $150, and he sold two. Phew!

Check out Wordy Smith!

MaryAnn from Backwoods Creations, a fellow Etsy Maine Team member, came up with a great cross promotional idea a few weeks ago and I am just now trying it. She has encouraged all team members to blog about each other. I love this idea! I have chosen by good buddy Kellie, from Wordy Smith!

Kellie has so much fun making her amazing decoupage work. I have some of her bamboo tiles that she thoughtfully crafted just for me. She found many vintage pictures of potters and clay pots and decoupaged them onto the tiles. I later glued magnets on the back and get to see them everyday on my fridge!

I been to a few etsy Maine Team meetings with Kellie and I love hearing her talk about her process. She enjoys finding the right phrases and passages and words in her vintage finds to create her pieces. I know that anyone who purchases one of her goods, will have something very special, not to mention funny as well! Kellie is a hoot, a great team member, and an awesome friend! Check out her shop!