I love doing this show because it’s so personal. I love connecting to people that buy my work and to hear feedback in an environment such as this is pretty priceless to me.

it’s hard to know where i belong in the world of galleries and shops right now as i don’t have a lot of time to pursue those avenues because of full time momhood. I have found that the Home Show avenue is presently the best for connecting to people that are purchasing my work. These are real people that have a desire to buy handmade objects and in talking with them i gain so much.

so, here i come Jackson! If you are in the area, Please Stop By!

Annie Singletary Ceramics

Holiday Show 

handmade functional and decorative ceramics 

unique gifts for those special people 

 location: 850 Avondale 

                        Jackson, Ms. 39216 

date: November 30, 2011 

time: 10:00am-6:00pm 

Focus.

Whatever you do to your pots, do it deliberately. Make conscience decisions through every step of your process.

i had forgotten this. my work seemed to be lacking in so many ways and yet i was just happy i was still working through having babies. but now that i’m able to work for a longer period of time with naps and such I had to have a very honest conversation with myself. did i like my work? and painfully, the answer was no.

so, about 2 months ago. i changed some things. actually, went back to what i like about my work before babies. Don’t get me wrong, i learned a lot the past few years of making mediocre pots and technically speaking, got a lot better. I decided to focus really.

So, out of all that work and struggling to find who i was now as a potter i feel like it’s just beginning. good questions i asked myself were:

who am i making work for? my answer: a combination of myself, customers and respectful work in my field

what are 3 important aspects i want in my pots? my answer: function, softness, and surface dimension

Where do my pots fit? my answer: ultimately peoples homes, but how i will get them there?

so i ask you, how do you sell? how did you go about finding the right niche for your work? once you got your pots where you wanted them where did you take them, or did you wait to be found?

thanks.

letters in this word. It is the chemical name of titin (the largest known protein).

This pretty much sums up what life has been like since having my second child. One distraction after another.  I will get in the studio during a nap only to hear a cry coming from little Jack (now 15 weeks old) and when i fix him i stop by the computer to check on something, then next thing you know i’m looking up the longest word in the world. Wow!….and facebook, we won’t even start with my uncanny sense of wonder into other peoples lives.

The last body of work i did was for the christmas season and i raced to get that done. Some little oval vases I did came out just right. I was tired of having all the old element wire from my kiln around and so I decided to use it for these little guys. I broke it into small curves (being very brittle it’s all i could do). Reusing items around the house and studio for different purposes give me great joy.

working on filling my etsy shop back up……yet another “to do”. Excited to have some pots to post on there! Another “to do” is change some major aspects of my website.

Working on my list but knowing all the while that even if i don’t get one thing done on my list in the day, everyone in my house is rested, fed and clothed…..and maybe just maybe i learned a new word!

born Sept. 27, 2010

Jack is here, we have 2 children now. Trying to figure out how to get back in the studio is a little daunting at this point. I’m attempting to let myself enjoy this time with baby Jack, probably the last time i will have an infant. There is a time and season for everything under the sun. As i look out at the leaves changing i am reminded of this. Enjoy every moment for what it is.

So, I am sketching a  lot. Ready to get back in there and work. I feel like i’m storing up to work hard when i can get back to it. I’m reading books about the chemical aspects so i can perfect some glazes i’ve been working with. Looking at all kinds of beauty and looking in my childrens faces is inspiration in itself.

I’ve been thinking about childhood a lot. How fast it goes by and the fleeting memories that are like ghosts. Sometimes when i’m trying to remember a time from my childhood my head begins to ache from the lack of clarity. Why does the past seem so ghostly? Why do our memories not serve us well? Objects hold those memories within themselves. When i hold a mug from a good friend a flood of the past comes rushing back.

 That is what i love about functional pieces, the beauty of being able to create something that makes ghosts turn into real time, real people, clear visions of the past. They are grounding.

In my house are my grandmothers glass door canning shelves. I remember her spending hours a day preparing the cucumbers, tomatoes, ocra and other vegetables from her garden and putting them in jars. I remember this now bookshelf filled with her jars and cookbooks. I remember where it was in her house and hearing the doors lift and slide back while she got a jar out. It’s a vivid memory. The power of an object is inspiring.

This same grandmother is who Jack is named after, his middle name McClure is for her memory, i loved her. I hope to tell him of this cabinet one day. Maybe he will have it in his home and be able to tell others of her.

What are your cherished objects that bring back vivid memories?

[View with PicLens]

Well, it ended up being exactly what i needed. the repetition was the greatest excersize for me in discipline and perfecting my handles and form. when i worked for a production potter in college i was in a different place and in art school, which drove me to want to be innovative and creative. i think about how i dreaded making the same thing over and over and all the various conversations i would have with other artists about this topic. there is a time and a season for everything i guess.

in the end i am so grateful to have been given this oppurtunity to make the gifts for the staff  of these 4 marvelous camps, Ridgecrest, Crestridge, Merri-Mac and Timberlake.

7 weeks left until baby Jack comes. I’m busy making the last round of work for a while, which will go to Pottery 101 in Salisbury,nc and Morning Sky Gallery which is a great shop here in Black Mountain, they have been so kind and done really well with my work. i’m really excited about some satin matte glazes i’m bringing back into my mix. i’ve always loved the satin surface and how it accentuates the softness of my pots.

I’ve also wanted to update my etsy site for a while now, hopefully i will get to that too. so much to do, having a baby is a little daunting of a task when you are not sure how much work you will get done or want to get done. i like to give myself the freedom to not work for a while, i think this is healthy because i always end up craving being in the studio. so here’s to cravings!!!

even as a potter i find endless words of wisdom from dillard’s writing about her own struggle in being a writer. every artist alike deals with “writers block” and as i struggle through my own period of this i am comforted by her words.

the latest quote that is helping is this:

“Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.”
— annie dillard, the writing life)

i believe she is saying here to pass on what you have learned by teaching, discussing, this is funny but blogging too.

also i find more meaning. i think even learning more myself, to never end the discovery process is so important. i have a rule for myself to take a class or a workshop once a year. it can be in anything actually, just so i never stop learning. this is hard with kids, but i find it so important, especially when you have had a summer of making 350 mugs and don’t have time for much else.

i also think she is saying to share what you have inside through your work. get it out so that it won’t spoil and become a vacant land of forgotten and wasted ideas.

so, besides mug after mug after mug for a large order, i’ve been getting my ideas out and making these:

[View with PicLens]

i am 12 weeks pregnant. as i am thrilled about having our second baby, it comes with challenges. i have been very sick the past few weeks and therefore have not been able to get into the studio.

now, i am feeling better. but seriously lack motivation. i am sketching, thinking and reading a lot, which i find all to be great things to do when uninspired. however, i miss it but just can’t seem to get in there. i have found that being a mom is difficult in the creative process because there is always something else that needs attention. there is always someone that is needing you and totally and completely deserving of you as well.

i think a book should be written about this subject. motherhood and the creative process it could be called. anyone ever heard of such a book?

next subject: viruses

thanks to a very wonderful blog friend, meredith. thank you so much. i discovered that my blog had a trojan virus attached to it.

for the past month i have been dealing with this. my great professional web friend, Clark, came to the rescue.

he loaded an old version of my site and saved me…..totally saved me from having to redo my entire site. i learned some valuable lessons from this and i would love to share them, as i am not in the studio very much right now so i can do this instead…..it makes me feel useful.

*passwords to everything must always be a unrecognizable, a capital letter helps and a number too, physically write it down, don’t store it in computer or ever send it over email.

*when having wordpress there is a responsibility you have to update plugins often, they are updated because bugs were found and so you need the new version. as far as updating wordpress itself, no need for this as often but maybe sometimes as it may change some things about your site

*delete all spam messages sent as comments, report as spam

*always have an updated version of your ftp files saved, this is your site, if something happens you can always have the clean one to upload

*for wordpress you need to have the security scan plugin, it scans your site for unusual items.

that is all for now. I have learned a lot from this experience about how hackers are just sitting there typing nonsense in until they get in. there is no order to it, no reason for the sites they hit. If you are vulnerable in any way, they will strike. i mean my passwords were all the same and had my dogs name in them, talk about vulnerable.

Against all Skutt manual advice, I placed my kiln outside, here she is covered with a tarp to shield from the winter weather. Haven’t had any problems yet with this set up, although i looked out there this morning and it was at 29 degrees…brrr. don’t think that will hurt the elements, anyone ever experience any problems with electric kilns outside?

beautiful isn’t it.

The guys sledding, we just happen to have one of the best sledding hills we’ve found right on our driveway…but you better be well stocked because you can’t get down it.

hope everyone is having a warm winter day.

This entry is to air some of the questions i have been confronted with lately.

Right before i left to go out of town for 2 weeks, I decided to listen to a good friend of mine and go ahead and risk my ego again (isn’t that what artists do so well after all).

I sent some images into a local gallery, this place being a goal of 5 years from now, I went ahead and chanced introducing myself to them. Unbenonce to me, they actually wanted to see my work in person so I took some work over and got an incredible critique and sold some cups to them wholesale.

So, my foot is in the door. Now, I am not what I would call a production potter, however, they have asked me to change some things about my website to make it more user friendly. The gallery manager asked me to get together my images in a printable format or to make a portfolio of all that i do with all the color options. She showed me some of the big time potters books where all of what they make is listed as well as the color options. I learned a lot from this visit.

Is this the direction i should be going in? I want to be in that gallery so badly and grow this foot in the door that i have, but am i ready to make objects over and over again without being able to change some things. Am I needing to make another “wholesale” type work that will sell specifically at certain galleries and shops?

Something that i have always enjoyed about my work is being able to change when i want, try new things, surfaces, etc. But, will the wholesale world stop this for me? I know that other potters do certain things for wholesale and other work for different venues, but am i able to keep up with that with a small child at home?

I’m excited to be able to have started this relationship with this gallery and others, the feedback is priceless to me, especially since I’m not in a public studio anymore where the feedback was at my doorstep.

Working is all i can do. Keep working. that has been my motto all along.

But, I’m curious how others came to where they are in marketing their work right now. I just bought the book Crafting as a business by Wendy Rosen, which seems to have very valuable information in it. I was curious about the Buyers Market for American Craft which is held in Feb. in Phil. I was wanting to go there as a visiting artist to see what it’s all about. They suggested this book to newbies.

It’s hard not being around a lot of potters to ask anymore. I’m really starting to feel the heat of not having community around me like i used to.

There is the clay club that meets in various places around that I have not participated in like i probably need to. Then, there are relationships with other potters that i have kept up and those are priceless. Also, taking a workshop or class here and there and teaching have helped to keep me in conversation about clay, these are all good i feel. But, there needs to be more.

Funny, the first thing the book suggests to do is find community and a mentor. I think I will move on this somehow…..

This brings me to the blog.

Meredith Heywood at whynotpottery.com has come up with this amazing idea to have a show with all these potter bloggers. The show is to present the value of having a blog as a potter and how the writings have helped connect and fulfill a missing link in the studio; community. This is so interesting to me as i strive to find this in my own world with clay.

I’ve enjoyed reading about Meaders pottery in cleveland, georgia. The thick tradition of the pottery being in their blood. This commitment is beautiful to me, but i wonder, did any of them ever feel trapped by it? Making the same things over and over again, the orders were large and the workers were few, that means they probably worked all day everyday making the same things.

I used to work for a production potter that worked this way. We were filling wholesale orders. That is what I did, make the same objects over and over. Not sure this is what i want.

whoo, that was a lot. Better take a break. I can’t think this way for too long or i’ll get depressed.

Back to the studio i go…..only 30 min. until nap times over!!!

I was pleased with both of them and had a great time. My home show in my town was a great event and i loved introducing my pots to the town i live in. It is important to me to have a presence in my own town.

I have pots left from the shows, so check my etsy site for updates if you missed it and wanted to get something special for someone.

www.anniesingletary.etsy.com

order before Dec. 18th to get by Christmas.

Or contact me: annsingletary@gmail.com for other inquiries.

ok, here’s what was most popular. I called this the triple dipper and i sold out of them. you can use it for so many different things that i think that’s what is appealing about them. It’s very funny though, i can never predict what will sell. this is something I always hear from potters.

Is there a way to know? you make 5 of an item and sell out, so you make 12 for the next show and don’t sell one.

Interesting ways of retail…..always keeps you guessing.

here’s some items i have left

I’ll be back in the studio after Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

Until then I’ll be trying to post a little about various things.