Stylish Home: Home Makeover Addition

Thrilled to have my teapot featured in StylishHome Home Makeover Catalog. some really cool Vintage and Handmade goods in. Do check them out in this online version



 Here is my teapot on page 19!

A glimpse in the Nate Berkus Show

Who would have thought? Well I always wanted my work to make it to the Nate Berkus show. And to my surprise I get a note from facebook friend "Scott Reed", saying he saw my work on the show. What??? Really???
Do I dug up Nate's website, and did find the clipping of Nate talking about Etsy. Check out the video and one third of the way when she says "1 billion", you see my work flash for a fraction of a second. Really.. don't blink or you will miss it.
Even though just for a fraction, I am amazed that someone saw that and recognized my work.
The two pieces pictured are still available in my store. Go get the stars of the show. LOL!

Happy Mother's Day!

I have two new great news to share this morning.
Firstly,... wishing my Mother a very Happy Mother's Day. And what better way to wish her, than to have her featured on Etsy's "This Handmade Blog"!! This is a picture of me with her when I was only 10 months old.

Charan of creativewithclay: "When I was a kid my mom ran a boutique store in India specializing in clothes for brides and bridesmaids. She dragged me along whenever she needed help. I never really enjoyed doing the billing or taking orders for dyeing fabric, etc., but she told me to just do it and there will be something I will gain from it. What fascinated me was the color in fabric and helping people choose matching or contrasting colors for their outfits. I enjoyed helping them decide what embroidery designs to pick and working with tailors to give them new ideas and patterns."

Secondly,... I am the winner of the teapot challenge on the Etsy Mud Team

It is such an honor to be part of such a great group of talented potters online. Lots of beautiful teapots, so do check them out. Also when shopping on Etsy for pottery, search for "emt etsymudteam" and you will see beautiful collection of pots by talented potters on Etsy.

New Teapot Design with cups

Last weekend I attended Ginger Steele's workshop on Form and texture. We made handbuilt mugs and a teapot with textured slabs along with textured roulettes and learning how to pull handles off the pot. I don't have pictures of the work I made there, but it sure was fun to learn.

What facinated most was the process of making a spout. I love those long elegant spouts which are next to impossible to throw on the wheel. Ginger's technique of rolling the slab on a mandrell was quick and efficient. I got back home and tried one of those spouts on my extruded teapots as seen in the picture above. This is one of my first handles pulled off the pot as well.
The cups are extrusions too which are rolled. I like this new design and will play with it some more.

Thinking about teapots, 5 years back, I made a 22 inch commisioned teapot for which I needed a long spout. I used Steven Hill's method to pull a spout from a pool stick. It came out fine, but it was a little heavier than I would like. I can't wait to play around more with teapots again but it will probably have to wait till the end of the year.

Front Page on Etsy

My Sassy Teapot made it to the Front Page on Etsy thanks to AppliedWithLove. When I had seen this tresury I had a feeling it would make it to Front Page of Etsy. The color combination is so unique and the mix of items was just perfect. It requires a real good eye to make an excellent treasury. Thanks AppliedWithLove

Learning from Ginger Steele

I can't even begin to describe how generous potters are in sharing ideas, techniques, glaze recipes etc... Since making pottery is so entirely handmade, every artist will have something different in their piece even if they are making similar items.

I have met several potters online and in workshop and all have added so much to my skill set but Ginger Steele truely takes the cake. I have always been struggling with lids. I managed somewhat but was never entirely happy. I spent last weekend at Ginger's studio learning how to make thrown lids for small/big jars, teapots, casseroles. It was all hands on and I gained so much. We also exchanged some patterns and stamps and I am very excited to see how we incorporate it in our work. We made casseroles, jars, pitchers, bowls... etc.. Attached is a picture of some of the work I did and later carved. I did it in her clay so I can get then fired in her kiln. I really like the way the lidded pieces turned out and I have never had such good fitting lids.

One key thing I realized was that I was working with very soft clay, which wasn't letting me manipulate the clay enough for lids seats. The most important thing was to make the lid seat before pulling up the wall. It might be second nature to everyone, but I had not realized this.

One big take away was that I really need to let go and experiment more... not worry about wasted clay, or waste my time thinking about how to use my scraps of clay etc.. etc.. So I am very convinced to purchase a pugmill and I will getting one very soon. I think it will change the way I work, evolving my work in different ways.

I am looking forward to working with her again on her handbuilt work.