chug chug chugging along

Somehow I caught a cold the day after christmas, it's been a fun few days sneezing my head off. But I was getting antsy to start making again so I made two bowls.





and I spoke to Giulietta over at Trouble Coffee Company, we are heading forth with some new mugs. Here are the mock ups. So hopefully at the end of next month, if you're in San Francisco you can pick one up.





I'm so excited about the crab- build your own damn house one.

I did something right!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

I finally worked out my temperature/firing issues. No more melted black pots, no more blow ups.



better pictures later. But On with the show.

and some family love.

man oh man...

Not sure what is wrong with me lately...

So this last kiln load... over fired. melted... later pots. I've had 3 days to sit in this information and stew. I've never blown up a kiln load or over fired. ever. Now two back to back mess ups.

fun.

So since I only have 3 bowls and 2 plates left, I closed my etsy shop and won't participate in the December north beaches art walk. Bummer.

I haven't had the nerve/heart/energy to go into the studio yet so I've taken this time to do some drawings and work things out design wise in my head. Not sure why i'm never satisfied with what I've got.

Hopefully I'll get back on the horse this weekend and do some testing and test firing. (I fired to cone 5 with a 10 min hold and I only have 4567 cones in the kiln and all of them were down. :/ oops.

So here is what i've been sketching. I'm going to take 2 weeks "off" to do some kiln fixing/testing and working out some glaze color issues.

new mug!

I bought a new mug. :)

I was so excited to wake up and see what Kyle Carpenter had put on Etsy this morning. http://www.etsy.com/shop/KyleCarpenter I've been admiring his work and reading his blog for 2ish years? So I shouldn't have but couldn't help mysekf and bought this beauty. I'm sure it will be a house favorite.


my pots are still cooling. I should be able to sand the bottoms, take photos and put on etsy during afternoon naptime.

Birthday birthday

I knew this day would eventually come..he's finally one.

and we had a blast.


It's MY BIRRRRRTTHHHHDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY



He took the cake part out and ate the wrapper.





I'm carving 10 mugs tonight, going to bisque tomorrow night. Hunters party with friends is saturday, tacos and beer for all who come. :) I'll glaze sunday and monday, fire again monday night and hope to have new hot pots on tuesday afternoon and put them on etsy soon after.

better get to making some pots before I pass out from birthday fun

the knitting clock

is one of the most beautiful objects and ideas I have ever seen.

http://www.ohdeedoh.com/ohdeedoh/the-knitting-clock-133625

blogging before bed

Ready for bed but I thought I'd post some pictures. I didn't think I would have enough time for another kiln load this year so I'm excited to get some more bowls and mugs out. I'm looking forward to making some different things next year.

glazed some bowls



carved some bowls (narwhal and sea lion are new to the bowls)


and the cutest almost one year old ever waving at you! Hi blog readers!


now to hit the hay so I can keep up with the tornado of destruction. Side mommy talk, now he thinks he is a bonafide daredevil. He can't walk but he can climb up a 4 step step ladder and thinks that standing up in shopping carts is hilarious.

back on the bus

Okay so after the disaster and working out a plan with the owner of trouble coffee company, I feel much better. Got my babysitter to come for 2 hrs and I made bowls and mugs.

not your ordinary bowls and mugs, these guys are for people who are serious about their food. Big bowls, big mugs. :D not for your dieter...unless you want a big salad or water (boring).







Sending 5 mugs to San Fran, the 5 out of th3 first 30 to survive.


and little man is getting a fohawk.. now to get some gel and stick it straight up!


feels good to shake the kiln disaster off

trouble indeed. more wreck pics.

The plan was to unload the kiln this morning, add the divers on this afternoon and coat with clear glaze tonight, then fire so it would be ready to ship wednesday afternoon.




kiln gods and my inability to wait till the cups were dry enough turned my beautiful plan into this



Thankfully I have this little spaghetti monster to help me not have a total breakdown.



so.. Hunter summed up this day pretty well.

:( ugh

so turns out that I can't speed up the process



and make bad firing decisions.


awesome.

Holy Epic Epic Epic failure.

I tried to hurry things along and everything blew up.


I know better than this. I know better than try to hurry the process along.

Out of the 30 finished mugs, I have 4 that are salvageable.


That's 20 hrs of time I don't have down the drain. Well, suppose the good news is that I only have 4 mugs to add scuba divers to and glaze. :/

I'm going to go hyperventilate and have a heart attack right now.

pictures to come.

the cups continue

30 cups for Trouble Coffee Company in San Francisco and 3 tests. (I should probably do tests on test tiles and not cups.. I'll learn someday)






Now I need to bisque, add some diver silhouettes, clear glaze, sand bottoms and ship the first batch off to san francisco. I'm exhausted just thinking about it.


we also found some time to get a christmas tree. :)



I also uploaded everything I have on Etsy.. 25 items. I'm so busy with trouble coffee company that I doubt I will have any time to make anything else until late January.

20 cups

The 9 on the right are waiting to get their feet cut

working during daylight

I have to send a bunch of mugs off to Trouble Coffee Company in San Francisco

So to keep on schedule I got our babysitter to watch hunter for 2 hrs between nap times. I forgot how awesome it is to work while the sun is up! Holy cow what a difference. I feel guilty for feeling this way, but I'm looking forward to preschool. I'll be able to get so much done and even get some time to teach lessons.

busy busy!

Been quite busy around here.

Hunter is getting so big and he is almost one. I may have a heart attack. 11.5 months old, where is the time going??? Slow down little one. Before baby I didn't realize how quickly time passes, each month seems to be going quicker and quicker.



I'm making lots of cups. Soon some of my work will be at Trouble Coffee Company in San Francisco. Giulietta is amazing, looks like a fantastic place and someday I'll go vist!

I have a load of coffee cups ready for the north beaches art walk this thursday! Coffee cups and winter are awesome. I have a few soup bowls too. Bowls have been selling like hot cakes.. and I only have 4 left. Oops... better start making some more.

I have a glaze fire going right now, so hopefully i'll have some nice hot pots in the morning!

Anyway, that's my ramble for now. I need to get going before my little tornado of destruction takes apart more of the house. :)

growing and changing

With ever small kiln load I keep tweaking things and adjusting.

One of the things I'm playing with are drawings on the exterior of the bowl. This came from a lady, who probably doesn't know how much she influenced me with her simple comment while walking by my table at the art walk. This woman picked up one of my bowls and bluntly said "I'd love it if there was something exciting on the outside".








I guess we will find out if the sea anemone and other sea plant life is too much or not. I can never tell until they are finished and glazed.

soup bowl with handle

decided to try a few of these

dreaming about glazing

I'm sure others do it too

but I may have had a glazing breakthrough dream last night. Lets cross our fingers and hope it works and find out in 2.5 weeks.

beach days and missing cup

So it's 88 in late october... so we've been spending some days at the beach. Hunter is fearless when it comes to the water. I had to stop him from diving (crawling) under the waves.


I've also been photographing and uploading some wares on to etsy. Which brings me to the missing cup. I unpacked everything left over from the art walk and seems like I'm missing a tumbler. :/ I hope it's just misplaced. I know I didn't sell it because it was part of a set.. and the rest of the set is here.

Jason Burnett

Every time I see his work, I swoon.

I also get the urge to learn how to use decals.

listing new work

Listing new work on Etsy this week. http://www.etsy.com/shop/monicapharr

Also going to work on some pasta dishes and ornaments. yay.