Workspace

 I never show you pictures of my studio space at Beech Grove Clay Works because -

Well, because it looks like this:

But Kelly Daniels, whose blog I've been following since her Kickstarter for her Penland trip got funded, posted a picture of how messy her space is after just one week. And I thought Yay! I'm not the only one! And it gave me the courage to share my space with you guys.

And here is my old school Pinterest board;)

So my space is not hip or cool looking at all, and there's stuff everywhere, but I'm grateful to have it:D I kind of feel like, as long as I know where everything is, and I have a little space to work, I don't mind mess and clutter. I once had a teacher tell me that there are two kinds of people - people who are externally organized, and people who are internally organized. My keys may not hang on a neat little peg, but if you ask me where they are, I can tell you (usually) that they are under that pile of papers in the corner. If you try to clean up for me, I'll never find anything! Yeah, that teacher's quote stuck with me, because it made me feel less crappy about myself. I do try, but I'm just not a naturally neat person.


What about you? What does your workspace look like? Is it organized and inviting? Or a big ole' mess like mine? Which do you prefer? Which type of person are you?

The 12" challenge

Class challenge inspired by another pottery blog whose students set this challenge for themselves. I can't remember where I saw it, so if you're reading this and you just wrote a blog post about your students doing this, let me know so I can give you credit!

Turns out this challenge wasn't as easy as I thought! I threw one 12" bottle on Tuesday first try out of red clay, but it was pretty wobbly. Yesterday I used porcelain, and I've always struggled with getting much height from porcelain. My first try flopped, but I got it the second time around. Both the other students managed to succeed with at least 12 inches as well. Mike B has been throwing for years longer than I have, so he did the challenge quite nicely. It's humbling having students who are better throwers than I am! I'm looking forward to getting to that point where I've got 15 years experience under my belt.

Things that are happening

So much going on! It's been a busy couple of months, and the fun doesn't stop! I'm just gonna dump a lot of happenings here, so my apologies if this post becomes bloated and tl;dr.

Last weekend I did the Bloomington Handmade Market Holiday Show, which is by far my favorite craft fair to participate in. It's well attended, profitable for me, and seems to draw a crowd that appreciates my work. Also, the volunteer staff is super helpful, and it's always well organized. The icing on the cupcake is that they provide coffee and noms for the vendors, which pretty much means I'm sold on the whole thing:)

There were some really rad vendors there this year. Here are a few of my faves:

http://pinkcheeksstudio.blogspot.com/