Last minute gift ideas

If you are like me, the holiday gift giving season sneaks up before you are ready. So, at the last minute, I have added downloadable gift certificates to my etsy shop.

This makes it easy to download, forward to the gift getter, or print and tuck into a card for personal delivery. For those of us who are super sensitive to design, style and color, this is an easy way to please since the recipient can enjoy the gift even further by having the choice to pick the exact mug/bowl/clock that they love the most.

I hope this helps you cross off that last gift on your list-of-things-to-do during this busy season!

Keeping warm in the snow

The snow drifted down this morning covering our yard with white fluff but we were toasty warm inside. The kiln has been running full force all week keeping the studio hot, hot, hot! I'm restocking all of the holiday gift favorites like wine coaster and olive trays. I'll have everything ready for the 12 days of art and ideas coming up this week. I can't believe it will be December so soon.

Make sure you pick up everything on your gift list by stopping by December 2 to December 14, 2010 at Triangle Gallery, 38 Abell St., Toronto, Ontario. Gallery hours 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. daily (closed Mon., Dec. 6th).

Holiday Craft Show in Toronto

The Collective is a gathering of creative artists and artisans for 12
days in December, from December 2 to December 14, 2010 at Triangle
Gallery, 38 Abell St., Toronto, Ontario.

That's West Queen West, near the Drake and Gladstone. I will have a lot of new platters, hostess gifts and Gifts Under $20.

New earring designs

Here is a quick photo of my new earring design that will match my acorn pendants. You will find a larger variety if you stop by the St. Clair Outdoor Art Market this Sunday!

Pottery Sale at St. Clair Artwalk

I'll be there Sun, Sept. 26th, 11am-5pm at the Artscape Wychwood Barns in between Christie Street and Wychwood Avenue, just south of St. Clair Avenue West.

I will have lots of new work and new designs!

Art in the Park

Here is a little taste of the recent Art in the Park show I was involved in.

Inspiration from a designer

I am looking at Tibor Kalman for inspiration for the redesign of my business cards. I have my new bird logo but have only used it online branding. Now it needs to go to print but I have such a hard time finding good usable fonts. Tibor Kalman is a genius with print and design. I am proud to own one of his amazing clocks and find his books like visual candy. Maybe Tibor can help me find a font!

Scarborough Art in the Park

New Obsessions

I have been busy doing what I do and have completely misplaced this blog for a while. In this brief sabbatical, I have found a few new obsessions. The first is trying to perfect my new acorn beads and I'll get to the second in a moment.

I have been playing with making handmade beads for a while and have been learning a lot as I go. I was really aiming to keep the beads consistently textured to catch the variations in my glazes but didn't want to stilt them in the glaze firing because the stilts would blemish the surface texture where the beads sit on the little tines.

So, I bought a bead stand and was happily hanging my beads from the heavy wire. I had to search for findings and bead caps that were malleable enough so I could fit them to my handmade (and not perfectly symmetrical) beads. The pieces also had to be strong enough to hold and secure the weight of clay.

Now some of you might say "just make them symmetrical" but I rather like qualities that let the viewer see the mark of an individual maker. If I valued perfect symmetry, I could just buy or slip cast perfect beads.

Well, I thought I had figured it out until I put them together. Visually, I was really happy with the old school charm of the clay against the metal, but the hole where the bead was hung from the wire was a bit thick for the thin headpins I used to connect all the pieces together. So, back to the drawing board (or rather back to Etsy for some online shopping). Luckily I found some stronger headpins and some tiny beads that I can string onto the pins to firm up the center hole in each bead.



Ok, enough rambling and on to my second obsession...my new neighbours. You may have seen these on my Facebook page but here they are again!





1 protective Mama with 5 babies have moved into our back yard. We found them under the steps of our deck the day they were born. The next evening, they had move up onto the deck and Mama put all of the babies into our BBQ cover that was hanging over the deck railing. It was the perfect hammock for those little ones. We gave them one more day to grow until giving them enough attention that they decided we were not the best neighbours. Those little ones had a party at midnight, trying out their wobbly legs and when I checked on them this morning, the hammock was empty and they had moved on to the next adventure.

The Big Bang

This is seriously the coolest process I've seen for getting organic forms using clay. I feel the need to go blow something up!

Thanks Steve Tobin!

I'm heading to New Zealand

I guess I'm not actually going to New Zealand, not really. But some of my work is! A good friend of mine moved to New Zealand and she requested some of my jewelry to leave behind with some new friends she met there. I absolutely love when my creations get to travel to destinations far from the Canadian cold.

OK Brigette, here are some choices for you. (I apologize for my dusty camera lens in advance...)

Rectangluar rings: Left to right 1) Waterlily, Whiskey, Icy Blue, Winter White, Grey Blue
All on adjustable sterling silver plated bases with clay piece 1 inch x 1/2 inch


Circular Pendants with Floating Wire Necklace: 1) Midnight Sea 2) Waterlily
pendants are 1 inch in diameter



Rectangular Pendants with Floating Wire Necklace: 1) Midnight Sea 1 3/8 x 3/4 inch 2) Waterlily 1 1/8 x 6/8 base

I hope this gives you enough options but be sure to check out the stuff in my Etsy shop too.

New Year Inspiration

I think that I may have shared this great ceramic blog with you before, but it is time for a reminder. I don't really make New Year's resolutions because I'm a Pisces that tends to just swim in whatever direction suits me at the moment. My mind can never settle into one specific goal for a full year. It needs freedom to wander and get lost only to find something better along the way.

I have decided (but not resolved) to push my style into a little more creative path rather than the purely functional aesthetic that I have been producing lately. Don't worry, I'll still be making those great mugs and bowls and functional ware, but I want to throw in some more creative and possibly sculptural works too.

Before I ramble on too long, here is a great blog called (Mud)Bucket that I turn to for contemporary ceramic inspiration.

My newest obsession is this sculpture by Canadian Julie Moon!


I love the way the organic forms are held above the figures below. The repetition and grid of the layout contrasts with the variety and flow of organic shapes above and on the illustrations below. I love it!

So, anyways... though I could discuss the concept of moon's sculpture for pages, they reminded me of scent bottles. There goes my meandering Pisces train of thought again... So, I thought I may try making some scent bottles with stoppers in the near future. I plan on keeping my glaze aesthetic intact because for me, the form is most important so I do not want to distract from it with elaborate colored decoration. (Though I love it when other artists do). Scent bottles have always been on my list of things to eventually get to. So this year, maybe I will!