new series: Arabesque

Here’s the good thing about listing stuff on Etsy: lots of people see it. Here’s the bad thing: lots of potters floundering in their own development copy it. Or try to. My flower bowls, with altered rims in a ‘flower’ shape, have more look-alikes than Cher at a drag queen show, so it’s time for something new. The Arabesque series has been in development for a year, and I finally have prototypes to test market. They will be sold on OneClayBead (Etsy store) until I decide on a full line, which will then be for sale exclusively on Lee Wolfe Pottery. Meanwhile, the prototypes are value priced, so if you like them, take advantage of that. I like the arrow points, the negative spaces between pieces, and the strong visual geometry.

 

 

 

Fine Artisan Ceramics vs DIY

I listed this platter on my website and then pinned it on Pinterest .

Where it soon acquired this comment:

@ Savannah Hall cool idea to incorporate lace to make pattern in pottery when you make it.

One of the dilemmas we’ve all encountered as artisans is the perception that images of our works for sale are also DIY projects that any beginner could easily achieve. When, in reality, this piece has been in design production for years. It has evolved out of pressing lace in clay, such as in these ornaments That I made for Grovewood Gallery from 1996-2009

In 2010, I helped my daughter design this tray:

  

and here in one of my own from 2011

By 2012 I was partially obsessed with lace trays, with organic shapes. Here are a few:

 

And here are the lesser quality pieces from the same kiln load; all experiments done on the same day:

and a similar piece:

I want to encourage everyone to play around with clay, as it is a lot of fun. I do, however, want to dispel the impression that what I do is so low-skill and easily replicated that anyone in Ceramics 101 can whip them out. The work on my website represents countless design tweaks.

So here is the reply I posted on my Pinterest Pin:

It's an easy technique, but don't expect to get results like this in your first 1,000 tries!

Artisan Food, Artisan Pottery

I've been working on texture in clay, if you can even call that "working"; it consists of pressing, poking, and dragging things into the clay to see what happens. I've also refined how to roll clay into a circular shape so that the edges are the natural, untouched texture made by the process. they are not cut into shape. This is my first nesting bowl set made in this manner. You can find it on my website here.

I've also been studying a bit of food styling. Here is a simple shot, using some melon balls to show scale in my nesting bowl set. My props are beginning to tell a story about my bowls. The gray placemat was made by stamping onto fabric, a technique similar to my textured clay. the melon balls visually articulate the intention of my Urban Rustic series, which is to showcase wholesome, artisan food, particularly fresh fruits and vegetables.

My new frontier is to integrate my love of food with the styling of my pottery. My ceramic work is shaped in part by my own needs as a home cook and hostess. Here is a recipe I use all summer long. You can use the syrup sparingly for a light fruit salad or lavishly for a very tasty dessert. It is ultra-simple. Everyone wants seconds and the recipe, too!

Melon Balls in Grand Marnier sauce

3 cups- cantaloupe or mixed melons (watermelon is great in this), balled or cut into cubes

sauce:
1/2 cup orange juice
sugar to taste (4-5 T approx)
1/4 cup Grand Marnier liqueur

whisk sugar into orange juice. You will need a little less or more depending on how sweet the juice is. Fresh squeezed orange juice needs a bit less.Then add the Grand Marnier.

Pour sauce over fruit and allow to marinate 20 minutes- 1 hour before serving.

Savor!

Urban Rustic Dinnerware

Beach Storm dinnerware set

My dinnerware had to be changed. This directive did not come from the marketplace, clearly; I have orders booked 8 months out. I don’t know, after all these years, what drives my work forward in new directions.

Ice blue bowl with vines

I know that I worked through many transitions until these new pieces finally emerged. As soon as I had enough individual pieces that felt right, I began assembling them into sets. The last piece to emerge was the thrown and altered bowl from Minimalist:

Minimalist dinnerware set

Which is also in this set:

Soft Kiss dinnerware set

River Journey has the same elements of my older set except for the vines on the underside:

But I truly, after all these years, do not know where these ideas come from. If I want new ideas, what I do is to stare at something from the natural world, or perhaps photographs of it. One minute there are shadows from the fence posts in the late afternoon, and the next there are textured stripes in my clay.

Sarah- Lambert Cooke wrote this week about inspiration here.  Victoria, owner of Donauluft wrote about it here.

We seem to have one thing in common. Inspiration is born in moments of fascination. It is the best experience I have ever known.

Battle of the bowls

My eye is drawn to pattern and so the flower shaped bowl, with its complex symmetry, has become a signature form. The second bowl is the flower bowl just before the rim is altered into the waves. Something inside me has been wanting to stop there. So, in the middle of my busiest season, I took  time out to throw 4 of each.

There is no clear winner yet. The flower bowls sold out faster but those who bought the round ones loved them a lot.

When you love pottery as I do, certain pieces appear as if I've been searching for them a long time only I've just remembered that I lost it. They feel both utterly new and utterly familiar all at once. Both bowls evoked this type of reaction, so I don’t know if I should choose just 1 to continue, even though that is far more practical.

Which do you like better?