Back at It

Holidaze holidaze. Was great having some time away from work, but was still working on a bunch of stuff for the new TINSEL site and redesign and and and. Too much, so I took some time to slow down, and that meant lots of cuddling with The Zoo, panic-shopping for new winter reinforcements (new full-length puffer, boots that are actually lined, all the Uniqlo Heat Tech...), and lots of reading and writing.

Back in the clay studio today, as the snow has melted (and will re-freeze this week), so I was very pleasantly reminded of all the pieces I sent out for the bisque firing before the holiday rush. 4 plates, 2 bowls. Wondering if I'm forgetting anything... But the carved undersides of the plates turned out quite nice! The swirly pattern is pretty interesting, so maybe I'll get gutsy and do that on the outside of a new piece.

Also, this strange, vaguely tropical pattern came out of me today. Really happy with how the left one turned out. That was the first try, and I think I was more free with it. Because I liked the first one so much, I think I was trying to hard to replicate it with the second one and simultaneously infuse a little more order to it. The result is a more conservative version of the first–more restrained. Naturally, I don't like it as much. Looking forward to trying this out with more pieces though. Also, curious to see how the glaze will interact with the texture.

And since documenting this whole journey is also part of my practice, I'm going to go back and write some journal entries from the holiday rush that have either been sitting in my drafts folder and never published or have just been a pile of photos waiting to get written and posted. Also, going to showcase some of the new gear that I got for the new year, thanks to Swanberg and some serendipity. Really excited to put all this new gear to work!