Extruder die storage and Kiln posts storage

I have a pretty small studio space as some of you who visited my studio must have noticed. I try to make the most of every inch of space I have.
Early this year I visited Barbara Dunshee's studio who is just great at managing here studio space for teaching pottery in her basement studio. What she shared with me were here IKEA CD shelves used as storage for kiln posts. I loved the idea and was on Craigslist hunting for them right away. Found two of them for $30.
With adjustable shelves these are perfect for arranging kiln posts by height and they work great for storing all my extruder dies as well. Make sure to attach them to the wall so they don't fall over. And they have such a small foot print fitting perfectly in the dead corner behind the kiln.

What are your favorite storage solutions in your studio? Comment away.

Cyber Monday Etsy Sale + Free Gift

Season Greetings and a FREE Gift with every purchase!

This year has gone fast. I am going to complete my one year anniversary being a full time potter and I thank you all for the support. As a special gift from me, from November 26th - December 20th, every purchase in my store gets one of my Favorite things!! Take advantage of shopping early and get a FREE gift with every order placed on my online shop. Yes, I said FREE gift with every order. If Oprah can give away her favorite things for free, so can I. LOL!

What is the FREE gift? A reusable foldable waterproof Tote bag. Great for your trip to the farmers market or to your local art show. Be Green, Reuse and Save the environment! Available in different bright colored prints, every order gets a FREE bag.

I have added several NEW items in my shop for this holiday season. Browse through and you are sure to find something special.

Lidded Mugs Perfect for brewing your tea

Sugar Jars

Small Teapot For the Tea Lover

Act Fast before your favorite item from my shop is gone!

Thank you and have a great Holiday Season! Charan

Soap Dishes with New Recycled / Upcycled Glaze

I have been making soap dishes for a long time now and I love their simple design and at the same time they are very practical.
The deep grooves help keep the soap high so it drains and dries the soap well. They have very smooth glossy glazes which makes them very easy to clean. And if you love automation, just stick them in the dishwasher to clean them. :)
And the feedback I have got for these is just amazing. Custmers love them and keep coming back for more.. either for their other bathroom, kitchen or as gifts. Read through some of the feedback I have gotten with pictures sent by my happy customers.

"Well made, sturdy, great design and functionality. I love the two tone veriation that looks great with the tub and am so glad I got two for my master bathroom!"
"Wonderful product!!! So well made and generously-sized, these soap dishes are more like beautiful piece of art. Seller was great to work with - attentive and responded quickly to my request. Highly recommend!"
"Love my soap dish! I used it today for the first time. Awesome quality! Quick shipping. Arrived safe, all in one piece.I will definitely be purchasing more from this artist!"

The main reason of writing this post is that I am introducing a new glaze color for my soap dishes. And it is just not a new glaze recipe.. it is very special. While working in the studio and clean up glazes, I always saved up the glaze which came from spraying glazes or cleaning pots. To this I also added glazes that I wasn't using any more. Rather than just dumping this in the environment, I tested and tweeked it. Low and behold, I have this beautiful deep blue grey glaze which has some specks of brown. I looks beautiful over the white glaze and also has some white specks in it if you look closely.

I cannot replicate this glaze ever, but I have 5 gallons of it. So I should be able to make several soap dishes.

So don't waste your glazes. Mix them up and see what you get.

I would love to hear what waste material artists recycle in their studio and upcycle it to create truely unique work.

Travel Entry: Chatuchak Market in Bangkok

Another place we visited during our vacation was Bangkok. We spent 10 days there and it was just amazing. It is sad to see the current conditions of Bangkok. Everything was so different a few months back.
Anwyays, one of my favorite places we visited in Bangkok was the Chatuchak Market. It is kind of a flea market but with a lot of beautiful handcrafted work. The celdon glazed work below just blew my mind away. I wish I had purcahsed something, but the logistics of travelling with pottery didn't work out. I love the balance of the tan carving with the soft green celedon glaze.

These metal decorative vessels caught my attention. They were extremely thin with beautiful intrictae carvings. The insides were lined with gold paint and with tealight candles floating, they made a stunning impression.

I have always admired the wood carvings at Thai resturants here in the US. It was a delight to see such a huge collection of these at this Market. The details are hard to describe. Evey leaf can be admired by itself.

Wonder what to do with those large plastic soda bottles? Check out the lamps below. The work is so clean and it took me a while to figure out they were soda bottles.

And the following picture had us laughing for a long time. What you see below are toilet paper dispensers. It is a fine line between being repulsive and funny. LOL!

The dance of pulled coffee drinks. This was just a joy to watch. The coffee drink was mixed by transfering from one cup to the next with the guy swirling around, turning and doing all kinds of stunts. All to mix coffee.

And there is nothing like having fresh coconut icecream on a hot day and that too served in cocunut shells.

Travel Entry: Rock Garden

This is one of the most unique gardens I have seen. Rock Garden is located in Chandigarh, Punjab and is made of mostly recycled/upcycled material and also uses a lot of concrete that is used in the most creative way.

Here you will see stunning landscapes of mountains and waterfalls. If seen closely they are jute bags that filled with concrete to make the structure and of course a lot of rebar.

Almost every surface is covered with broken tiles, broken sinks, cups, plates, glass. There was this array of abstract concrete forms and I spotted my early teapot forms here. Can you see the resemblance?

Then there was this huge area set up like an outdoor auditorium. the mosaic work done on the walls was one of the best I have seen. This place would be a mosaic artist's paradise. The picture below is of a small section of the 300ft+ wall. Just square measures about 6 feet. So imagin 50 of these in amazing colors.

Other than covering the walls with tile, there are surfaces covered with electric sockets. Like in the wall behind my wife in the picture below. You can see the detail.

The walls below are made with pebbles stacked in different ways making lovely patterns.

And the wall below was one of my favorites. From far it just looked like an orange wall. But in close up you can see it is small terra cotta pots that are stacked to make this wall.

The highlight of the garden are the doll scultures below that are made of broken glass bangles. I had visited this place when I was 8 and I have a feeling my current dancing diva sculptures made their first entrance in my brain at that time looking at these beauties.