Boordy Vineyards Artfest

This weekend I'll be at the Boordy Vineyards Artfest! Come drink some wine and buy some pots! It looks like it will be a great day for outdoor shopping. Saturday June 4th 11am-8pm. Hope to see you there!

Crafty Bastards

Well everything turned out ok. The kiln was fine and my glaze firing came out just peachy so I had plenty of work for Crafty Bastards. The show was great and it totally made up for all the headaches before hand. M and I even decided to take yesterday off to go to the movies and eat sushi with friends. Today I will need to clean up the studio as in the mayhem of wet-vacing I threw some things out of the way and there is equipment piled on other equipment as well as glaze buckets strewn about the basement. Ugh, I just depressed myself. I did decide during the big soak that it's time to clean up/ rearrange my studio for real. I want to make it feel a little more light and open and less like the basement that I am in every day. Once I do that I think I'm gonna put a call out for an intern. I could use the help for a day or two a week and I think I could be benificial to an aspiring artist....maybe? Anyway, here are some shots of Crafty, they aren't very good but it was the best I could do in the heavy crowds! This was the one time the booth was empty and I had to act quick! I'm really starting to get my display down, just in time for the indoor shows to start. As soon as the sun shows itself again I will be listing some of the work that made it home with me in my shop.

Get Ready Ashville!

Tomorrow Michael and I are heading down south for a mini vacation and craft show. I'm so excited because we are planning to visit the Penland studios while we are there! I've never actually been and can't wait to see....I'm hoping someday to be able to do a small reidency there. I'll share some pics when we return but if you are in the Ashville area be sure to stop by my booth at the Big Crafty on Sunday and say hello! I will be taking full advantage of the time off because when we return the next weekend it will be Art Scape which is CRAZY! I will surely need another vacation after that.

Photo Booth

Happy Friday and 4th of July weekend! Here are our pics from the Pile of Craft Photo Booth. I clearly didn't see the first shot coming:)

Getting back to work.

Pile of Craft was so super fun but M and I needed a couple days of recovery! We took pretty much all of Sunday to veg out and eat Chinese food on the couch, thank goodness for Netflicks! Monday and Tuesday were still a little slow but we managed to restock Red Tree, unpack the car and get some pots going in the studio. Here are a few shots of my booth that my friend Jenny Strunge took and sent to me....I totally forgot so I'm glad she was on the ball!

Pile of Craft this Saturday!

Hey everyone! I've been busy getting ready for our 4th annual Pile of Craft Show at St. Johns Church this weekend! It's gonna be great so I hope you can come out. We have over 40 hand picked vendors, food and drinks from Red Emma's coffee shop, a raffle basket to support the Village Learning Place , a FREE photo booth from Magnolia Photo Booth Co. , demonstrations and more! Come on out and do some summer shopping! Make sure to stop by my booth, check out the new stoneware work and say hello!

Come see me this weekend in Richmond!

I'll have brand new pots fresh from the kiln at the Spring Bada Bing this weekend. If your in the Richmond area stop by to check it out and say hello!

Apply Now!

Applications are open for Charm City Craft Mafia's Pile of Craft 2010!!!
CLICK HERE TO APPLY
Pile Of Craft is our annual juried Spring craft fair, featuring handmade and original items from 40+ talented artists from all over the country. Apparel, ceramics, handbags, jewelry, fine art, scuplture, homegoods and more - made by hand, sold by the artists themselves!
Want to be a vendor? You can APPLY HERE. Applications to Pile Of Craft 2010 are open until April 2 at midnight, and we will be announcing the accepted vendors by April 9th.

Good luck!!

Holiday Heap is this weekend!!

If you are in the Baltimore 'hood make sure you don't miss this years Holiday Heap Craft Show put on by our own Charm City Craft Mafia. It's gonna be THE place to get your holiday shopping done this year. I will be there bright and early on Saturday (like really early 'cause it's our job to set up!) selling my wares so be sure to stop in and say "Hello"!

Come see me tomorrow in Philly!

Come check out all the new work! I'll have new tiny vases and the new hot air balloon design:)

SquidFire's 2009 Philly Art Mart
Saturday October 17, 11-6pm
Old Pine Community Center
Philadelphia, PA

A quick trip to Booklyn

This weekend was so incredibly crazy busy, we went from Crafty Bastards in DC (which was an amazing show, thank you to everyone who came out!) back home to Baltimore to restock Mikey and then hit the road to Brooklyn NY where we crashed on a friends floor to wake up early and show at Atlantic Antic street fair. Then we drove back home that night. I was so excited to see Brooklyn for the first time and was super excited to see that Whimsey and Spice was located just a few vendors down from us! Needless to say we had Pumpkin and Ginger cookies for breakfast, Earl Grey cookies for dessert and Mikey and I are now enjoying one of their Cardamom Marshmallows in our morning coffee. I just love their treats! The photography on their site is just lovely and the treats are just the right amount of sweet. Yum all around. Now that I am back we have 2 weeks until our next show and I have lots of work to do until then. I'll keep you posted on my etsy updates and a new design I've been cooking up in the studio.....stay tuned!

Little Art

I started making these little tags a few weeks ago. They were originally meant to be garden stakes but since the season is almost over it seemed silly to start making them now. Next year. Some of them became these little tags. I put them up in my shop to see how they do. I'm very hesitant now of putting smaller things out at shows because the last 2 or 3 shows we have done, as I packed up I noticed that at least one of my mini salt and pepper's had walked off. (I can tell because I will have a random S or P without a mate.) I have to re-think how I display smaller items, which is a shame because who steals from artists? That's just not ok. Not that it's ok to steal from anyone but it's just really wrong to steal from an artist at a street fair who is standing right there! Anyway, got off track there for a minute, sorry. I made the tags thinking that they could be hung on the wall as mini art or as a holiday ornament if you liked. I'm sure you could even put them on a chain as a necklace. Let me know what you think. Does anyone make small items?
p.s. I will be back later this week with some new glaze tests....

Back and Inspired!

A crazy drum circle we ran into our first night in town.
Michael made fun of me for taking a picture of a street sign.
Here we are at the "scenic view" about 2 hours away from Asheville.

We are back in town from our trip to Asheville, North Carolina and we had a blast! Some highlights include....awesome food (our favorite was the Tupleo Honey Cafe), cute downtown with crazy good street music, The Big Crafty of course (we were 2 tents down from Mudstuffing and I came home with one of Keith's peep show mugs!) and a walk around the river arts district where we got to see just a few of the many many potters who live in Asheville. Wow, there are a lot. Today I was read to be back in the studio and spent some time mixing up glazes and sitting at the wheel, something I haven't done in a while since I've been pretty into handbuilding lately. It felt good to have the clay in my hands again and I can't wait to try out some new ideas that have been stewing in my head:)

Pile of Craft TOMORROW!!!!

This weekend in Philly.

If your in the Philadelphia area this weekend be sure to check out the Art Star Craft Bazzar happening Saturday and Sunday in Penn's Landing. It's sure to be a great time with music, food, the water and really nice crafts. It's supposed to be a beautiful weekend and this would be a great way to spend it outside enjoying the sunshine. If you make it by be sure to stop by my booth and say hello!

Double the shows...and the sun came out.

Well the rain took a little break today but the rumor is that it will return tomorrow just in time for the two craft shows Michael and I will be in. That's right, we split up our work and each of us is taking a show, two for the price of one! Wheeee! My momma is coming down tonight to help me with the show in our neighborhood, the Bizzare Bazzar in Hamilton while Michael will be hanging with the mafia at the Spring Art Mart in Mt. Vernon. If your in the 'hood you should stop by and check it out...should be lots of fun. Here is a little peek at my seedlings, they are taking off quite nicely, although there are some that haven't sprouted yet. I'm not sure if they just aren't ready or they are duds. Only time will tell I guess. I hope you all have a happy mother's day and treat mom to something special! Mine is getting to sit at the craft show with me all day:) She is getting a very nice tea set and some other goodies though (including one of those garden dibbles and a scarf from Red Praire Press). We might even go out for crabs!

Spring Bada Bing, this weekend!

This weekend I will be at the Spring Bada Bing Craft Show in Richmond Virginia. If you are in the area stop by and say hello! It's this Sunday at Planet Zero from 11am-4pm.
I will have some new work out but not as much as I would have liked. I just opened the kiln to find a total disaster. I am so overly paranoid about using new glazes, I tested this one first and it was beautiful so I made a whole bunch of plates with a nicely textured bottom that would look gorgeous under this stony matt glaze. Being so paranoid I didn't want the glaze to run so I made sure to stay far from the bottom and just for a little extra I put all the work on stilts. Well I fire my earthenware pretty high and since I don't normally glaze the bottoms I don't use kiln wash. Needless to say the pots all melted around the stilts, the glaze was not thick enough yet somehow managed to drip on 3 kiln shelves. Yep, 3...with no kiln wash. The pots are beautiful except for the underneath which is a nasty mess of badly applied glaze. Right now I am sitting on the couch, swearing off any more work for the night, giving myself a facial and trying to look at the positive. I really liked the new ice cream bowl set and now they will live in my cabinets plus I think I can make the glazes work. They are really nice when dipped but a hot mess when brushed. I am going to try adding some CMC and Veegum like I put in my other glaze. I really really want them to work since they are a nice satin and dry matt and I want that surface and color in my work! Ok. Enough whining. Shake it off and start again. Anyone have any suggestions for getting glaze off a kiln shelf???
p.s. I will be taking most of my work from the etsy shop with me so if you had your eye on something now is the time to get it while it's still here! I will relist when I get back:)