Best of Baltimore;)

Woohooo! I'm so excited that Baltimore Magazine gave me a Best of Baltimore award this year!! I just got the letter yesterday:) Of course I had to run out and buy a couple copies of the magazine right away! (sorry for the crappy photo) Hopefully Michael and I can go to the big party they host in celebration. Yay! Just had to share my news;) M and I are off to NY for the weekend, it's gonna be HOT. Luckily we are there for fun and not for standing behind a booth for long hours in the ridiculous heat. Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Single Serving Coffee Maker

Artscape is finally over! For those who don't know, Artscape is the biggest arts festival in the USA an it takes place right here in Baltimore! It's 3 days of scorching heat, thousands of people and long hours of standing at your booth. I was lucky enough to have some wonderful booth mates and my super awesome mom who came for the weekend to help me survive. I met some wonderful people and sold lots of pots, thanks to everyone who came out for the weekend! Now that it's over I'm taking a couple of days to recover on the couch and get some work listed on etsy.
One of my favorite new items is this single serving coffee maker. Just add a #2 coffee filter, a few scoops of your favorite ground coffee or loose tea and set on top of your favorite mug (fits all my handmade mugs as well as standard commercial mugs). Slowly pour hot water over the grounds and let the coffee maker drip your hot fresh coffee into your mug. This is a perfect way to make just one cup of coffee without all the waste (and expense!) of a commercial pod coffee maker. Keep one at your desk so you can have a fresh cup of coffee anytime you like!

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!

Technical Question

So it seems that last night my kiln took extra long to glaze fire. I'm thinking that my elements may be starting to go. I have had the kiln for a couple years and it's on it's 215 firing or so, does that seem like when you would need to change the elements? I've never had to do this before so I also don't know if it's something I can do myself or would need professional help. I have an L&L easy fire with the automatic programing. I also have only been using it for bisque and low firing until recently. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks in advance:)

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!

Craft Party TONIGHT!

For all you Baltimore folks....tonight is the ETSY Craft Party in Roosevelt Park. Come join the Charm City Craft Mafia and BEST as we host one of the top 50 craft parties! It's supposed to be a lovely evening and fun for the whole family so bring a blanket and join us for some outdoor crafting:)

In a hurry

Yesterday morning I threw a bunch of mugs, here is one tray on the shelf. I trimmed most of them last night and today I am hoping to finish them up before my family from out of town gets here. I also need to run to the clay store to restock some supplies. It's gonna be a busy day!

Also...if your looking for something to do tomorrow evening there is an ETSY CRAFT PARTY going on! I'll be there with more members of the Charm City Craft Mafia and BEST. Hope to see you there too:)
Click HERE for more info on the craft party.

New Stamps

I'm so excited! The other day my new custom stamps came in. I found a site that will take my (and Michael's) drawings and turn them into rubber stamps for me to print with. I'll share more later but for now here are my new stamps:) I will be ordering more pronto!

Adventures in White Stoneware

I know a while back I promised to share some of my white stoneware work with you and today I finally have some pieces (espresso cups thrown off the hump) that work and that I have pictures of. I forgot how different this white clay behaves. My first batch I applied the glaze the same as I have been doing for the red clay and it ran all over! Low fire stays put but mid range runs when it's thick....duh! So I thinned out my glaze, added a pretty Celadon interior and got printing. I'm so excited that this is finally working out. I really love the throwing body (I use a white stoneware similar to a porcelain) and the way the final pot feels in your hand. It's such a pleasure to work with. There are still some kinks to work out but I'm having fun playing with the surfaces and experimenting with different slips and underglazes. Now I just need to see if my hand building techniques will still work on the white clay without major warping and cracking. What do you think? Any suggestions for hand buliding with a porcelain like body?

Berry Strainer

New product! This cute little bowl will wash up your fresh berries and catch the water drips while the drain. Each bowl washes about 1.5 cups of fresh berries but can hold a little more. You can use them to wash up cherry tomatoes, peas, herbs or any small produce. Perfect for the home gardener. Check 'em out in my etsy shop!

Planter Vases

My friend Jon is great at giving me ideas for new products to try, he's very creative. The last show we did together in Philly he suggested that I make these hollow stakes that are unglazed at the tip and decorated at the top. The idea is that you stick them into a potted plant, fill them up with water which slowly seeps out of the unglazed part and keeps your plant watered. Great idea. As soon as I was back in my studio I thought I'd give it a shot. The first batch really didn't work out. For one thing, they are way to small to keep a plant watered. The water would last about a day. Second, the top layer of glaze ran all the way down the interior sealing the inside of the tube. That totally defeats the point of the object. So I'm left with a few of these weird stakes that I'm not really sure what to do with. My best idea is to use them as mini flower vases to spruce up some potted plants. Sadly I don't have any potted plants in my house since my kitty is partial to eating them up. This looks like another "mom gift", she loves my rejects and can always find something to do with them!
On the plus side, I tried a new stain on top and really like how the unglazed surface came out. That may be showing up in my real work soon....not sure if I will give these plant stakes another go or not.

Happy Memorial Day!

Yesterday we had a few friends over for a BBQ in our backyard. I made all the food which was a little exhausting but well worth the effort. The menu consisted of egg salad and crackers to start with, I used freshly grated horseradish in the salad for a little bit of kick. Rosemary studded burgers with homemade brioche rolls, marinated chicken kabobs with roasted peppers and for dessert I made s'mores treats with homemade graham crackers, and my cardamom marshmallows. Yum! I also picked a bunch of mint from the garden and M made us fresh mojitos. Let summer begin!

It's me again...

Well, hello there. It's been awhile. I do apologize for my absence but it's been a crazy crazy month. That's not entirely true, it's been a crazy crazy year so far. I haven't written on this blog because to be honest, I was feeling a little down and beaten by the world and I don't want to spread the negativity. But, things are turning around, I can feel it.
Just to fill you in a little this year so far I have had my mother's illness (which you know about from other posts), came home to be snowed in for 2 weeks, my kiln needed repair, my clay supplier stopped selling my clay body, my husbands car was smashed with a brick through both front and side window, my car was totaled while parked outside my house at 8:30 in the morning (we just got a Honda Element to replace it), my mother had to have cancer removed from her lip, twice, and my father whom I haven't spoken to in 2 years went in for open heart surgery and still didn't call me. Don't worry, I'm over it.
Like I said, I feel a change in the universe. The second half of 2010 is going to be soooo much better. I'm working on getting my buisness together, shows are going to pick up, I found a new clay body that I like (it's actually an old friend but I'm making it work with my way of decorating now) and summer is coming. I love summer. It means long evenings sipping wine on the porch, BBQ's with friends and fresh veggies from the farmers market in my kitchen. I just changed my display a little (you can see it in the pic above, but please note that that was a very rainy show so it's not the best set up) and can't wait to get my hands in a little more of this white cone 6 clay body. I've started doing yoga and strength training to help clear my mind and keep my body healthy. I'm a firm beliver in not letting life get to you. Just pick yourself up, dust yourself off and try something else. There is always a solution, you just have to think outside of the box, or in this case...wait for the storm to pass. Here's to more sunny days ahead:)
p.s. Sorry about the grainy iphone pics.

The Mafia is Looking for an Intern

If you or someone you know lives in the Baltimore area and would like a change to work with some super crafty folks for college credit please pass this along!

The Mafia is looking for another intern! This could be you (if you're in college and fabulously crafty)! Please send Carlybird an email with your resume and cover letter at carlygoss -at- yahoo -dot- com if you'd like to spend the summer semester working with the craftiest kids in Baltimore and get real, live college credit for it! Check out the tasks you'd be responsible for below.

The Charm City Craft Mafia seeks an ambitious student to join us as Mafia Intern! The two main responsibilities of this internship are to assist our members with studio work and, most importantly, to help us prepare for our spring 2010 craft show, Pile of Craft! The intern will work along side the Mafia communicating with vendors, performing organizational tasks and marketing, contacting sponsors, as well as carrying out day-of-show tasks including setting up tables, decorating, assisting vendors, making food runs, etc. This internship is a wonderful opportunity for an artist who is interested in community building, hosting events, and the indie craft community. You must be motivated, flexible and fun. You will see the inner workings of the Mafia and what it takes to put on the best indie craft show in Baltimore. You will have the chance to work with a group of 14 zany and talented artists whose work includes painting, drawing, sculpture, weaving, bookbinding, ceramics and much more. This opportunity begins as soon as possible and can last through the summer and even beyond, if we find the right candidate. Other tasks may include assistance with other art and craft shows, studio maintenance, etc.

The intern MUST be available to work the evening of June 25th and all day on June 26^th 2010. Please do not apply if you cannot make yourself available on both of those days.

Send Carly an email now to apply! Resume and cover letter! Do it!

Looking forward to getting crafty with you!

KC Teabowl National

Hey everyone, I just wanted to shout from the rooftops that my teabowl was accepted into the KC National Teabowl Exhibit juried by Pete Pinnell. Amazing! Here is my little teabowl that will be traveling across the country for it's debut. Sadly I won't be able to attend the opening (unless fedex can ship me also) but if you are in the area please stop in and let me know how everything looks.

Drool worthy.

Just popping in to share this drool worthy photo of an amazing kitchen display of pots. I totally need this:)
Via Style Files.

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!

Spring break comes to an end.

Well we did it, we finally finished our upstairs room. Since our basement is used as our studio we have a major storage issue in our little house and up until last week this room was the dumping ground for all of our show displays, boxes of comics for M and just about anything else we didn't know what to do with. After 5 years the piles were just plain embarrassing so for this year's spring break I asked M to help me refinish the room into something we could use for storage, office space and guest quarters. I started the painting a couple of weeks ago when M was out of town for a show and this week he helped me rip up the old nasty blue speckled carpet (you know that 70's style muddled carpeting, yuck) and paint the floors (I know, I know painting wood floors is a "no-no" but they were already half painted and now I have a usable room so I really don't care). After many hours of hard work, several trips to Lowes, Target and Ikea, we are finally almost finished. There are still a few more things that need to be taken to goodwill or the dump and a mountain of recycling to be dealt with once my car is back from the shop (don't ask) but once that is taken care of as well as some picture hanging and minor decorating touches, we will be DONE! Hello new office space (not the dining room table as it had been previously), guest room, drawing studio (not for me) and sewing area (for me), I am sooooo happy to welcome you to our home:)