Two years of taking notes every time I glazed a pot has finally paid off.

Rewind like 6 years ago: I made and glazed over 144 sample tiles. It seemed like every potter had sample tiles except me. Every combination of every glaze in my library was tested over and under each other. Then I spent another year figuring out how to read and study these tiles, what do I do with these now that I have them?

I started putting stars on the tiles I liked. I started glazing pots mimicking the patterns on the tiles. I made lists of "tried and true" combinations and taped them all over my studio walls.  I was starting to get the hang of this! 

Finally I created a spiral bound journals for note taking, and one by one I filled up these notebooks. I took notes every time I glazed a pot. What glazed I applied first, second, and then third. Did I put flux on the rim? Check. Did I paint Alligator Green around the belly? Check. After the pieces came out of the kiln - I wrote down the results. Did I like it? Hate it? What would I do better next time?

Glazing a bunch of bare pots can be intimating, just like a blank canvas. Many of us hate glazing and my lesson here was planning and note taking has now made glazing fun. 

I really use those notebooks, I look back, read my results, star and tag pages of combinations that work. I put big red X's on things that didn't.

I opened my home & studio to the public this past weekend for my very first "open house" and I was so pleased with the traffic and great conversations I had with all.  Leading up to the weekend,  I wondered how the turn-out would be being the only artists "on the map" in the Saukville area. I spent many evenings cleaning and vacuuming cobwebs from the basement ceiling, mopping, and setting up a "pop-up" shop in the corner.

The tour was organized by the Cedarburg Artists Guild's Covered Bridge Art Studio Tour - a great group of artists from Ozaukee and Washington Counties that have been supportive colleagues and friends for almost 8 years.

I welcomed about 30-40 visitors each day and enjoying talking about my pottery process and answering everyone's inquisitive questions! I demonstrated how I make marbled clay and threw some wine goblets and mugs on the wheel. Everyone seemed to be really intrigued with how I bubble-glaze my porcelain pieces, too. I hope to start posting some short videos about that this coming year!

Thank you to my dear friends, Cara, Jodi, and Nora for assisting me!

I am featured in this week's Ozaukee Press "Good Living" section of the paper! A  photographer came to the studio and took a bunch of photos of me working and throwing and then the reporter stayed over an hour and asked me all sorts of questions. It was a humbling experience. And the entire article is about ME. I can't believe it!

You can read the entire store here: Pottery is Her Reward for Being Messy

Story is by Mitch Maersch, Ozaukee Press
Photos courtesy of Sam Arnedt, Ozaukee Press

I may have mentioned this before :: Introducing two new glazes I am adding to my glaze library. Glossy Black Licorice and Nutmeg. You may already own a piece utilizing these beauties. Today I am dipping test tiles with my other glazes to learn new combinations that might work together. ​

​I am having SO much fun in the studio glazing - which used to be a process that really intimidated me. I could do all the other steps of the pottery process, but when I stood there before my naked bisque-ware, I wasn't quite sure how to glaze or how to get started.

Many years ago, I made 144 test tiles with the 12 glazes I had in my library. Every glaze was laid down on a tile, one over the other and then the reverse. I fired all of them. But I still didn't know what to do with them, how to read them, what I was supposed to get from them. I just made them because other potters did.

It's now probably 5-6 years later and I feel like I am finally figuring this out. I guess something in my brain clicked. I introduced a 3rd overlapping glaze, I made oxide washes and flux glazes. And I studied glaze techniques of other potters and tried to mimic that with my own library of colors. 

I introduce to you a few glaze combos that I am really loving! "Lake Michigan Inspired" is my periwinkle blue, with creamy butter, and ketchup red (which fires brown for me). And another one that I think I will call either "Winter Flannel Inspired" or "Flannel Shirt Inspired". This one is 4 different glazes overlapped to create 4 additional colors/patterns. Doesn't it remind you of a cozy flannel shirt?!

My 2022 Art Fair Season is coming together rather nicely! Below are the fairs I will be showing and selling my work. And, new this year is a Holiday Show I will have at my home & Studio mid-December as well as a fair in Sheboygan County at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. Take a look and mark your calendars!

Strawberry Festival: Saturday & Sunday, June 25 & 26, 2022
Downtown Cedarburg, WI

Midsummer Festival of the Arts: Saturday - Sunday, July 16 - 17, 2022
​John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI 

​Firefly Art Fair: Saturday - Sunday, August 6 & 7, 2022
​Wauwatosa Historical Society, Wauwatosa, WI

Mount Mary Starving Artists' Show: Sunday, September 11, 2022
Mount Mary College, Milwaukee, WI

Covered Bridge Art Studio Tour: Friday - Sunday, October 7, 8, 9, 2022
My home & studio in Saukville, WI

Holiday Art Fair: December 2 - 4, 2022
Community Gym, Cedarburg, WI

Holiday Sale & Open Studio: Saturday, December 17, 2022
My home studio in Saukville, WI
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Back in early December, I purchased a few new shelving units to have additional storage around my wheel as I work. The left side has cubbies for things like throwing pats, plaster blocks for clay drying, sponges and hand towels. And the right side has a unit with 5 drawers so I can store tools, utensils, textured mats and all my cookie cutters and letters. ​

Testing the new kiln! Red and shiny new, this thing purrs like a kitten!