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This year I'm planning to offer a lot of sgraffito work because I love the art and enjoy the process. I've found that people are really responding to these pieces and it's exciting as an artist to make something that's appreciated, so here we go. Let me tell you about the life of a sgraffito mug. Day 1 Throw mug body on the wheel. Day 2 Trim mug and add handle. Put into a "damp box": A sealed plastic tub with plaster in the bottom. This prevents the mug from drying. Since I'm a little bit of a SciFi nerd my damp boxes are labeled Stasis Chamber One and Two. Day 3 Brush on two or three coats of underglaze. I've been using black for the stark contrast and because it's traditional, but the color choices are endless. Return mug to damp box. Day 4 Let mugs sit in open air to dry out enough to be handled but not completely dry. This is tricky because too wet and things smear, too dry and the underglaze chips off. Put into sealed bin without plaster to "hold". Inside the hold bin is a portable humidity monitor, I've been studying my ideal working level. Day 5 Carve designs into the mug. Each one takes an hour or two. Set onto drying rack to dry fully. Day ?? When fully dry, usually about a week, low temp (1900° F) fire in kiln for bisque firing. This sets the clay in permanence while leaving it porous enough to accept glaze. Day ?? Dip the outside of the mug in clear glaze, add color glaze to inside and lip. Day ?? High temp (2200° F) fire in kiln a second time to mature the glaze and the clay. This step is what makes the mug functional, now the clay shouldn't leak. Day ?? Quality check the glaze, if it passes I sand the bottom with a series of diamond sanding pads. The sanding removes sharp edges to avoid scratching your furniture and it makes the bottom feel silky smooth. If the glaze doesn't pass quality check the mug goes back on the shelf to be reglazed and refired. Day ?? The mug is ready to find it's home. Overall the process is at least three weeks with a week for drying, and time for the drying rack to fill enough for an efficient bisque fire, in my case about 30 mugs. My two plaster lined damp boxes hold six mugs each and the one without holds four. I try to keep twelve mugs in various stages of readiness at a time, working in batches of six. I can usually carve two mugs a day before my hand starts cramping up and I need to stop, but that doesn't mean my output is fourteen a week. Sgraffito is just one style of pottery I create, and I usually work six days a week, on other days I'm making other pieces. In a recent push to create a lot of sgraffito work I finished the week with eight mugs on the drying rack. When you touch a sgraffito mug you'll feel a slight texture variation on the surface from my carving. If you study a mug I carved you'll see the tool marks as well as imperfections in the line work. This lets you know they're carved by hand, freehand, without a stencil. Many times I start carving without knowing how it'll look until I'm finished. This is why I love sgraffito. I could use resist methods to make perfect designs using stencils without carving them, but that's not what I'm going for. You can get that at the Pottery Barn, or Home Goods or whatever it is now, and it would still be a mass produced piece. Handmade is one of a kind, no two are alike because it was made by someone who loved making it. :)

As my business grows I'm constantly thinking of ways to do better. Here is my list of things to improve for 2024 with detail below. 1. Provide listings for finished work before sharing online. 2. Make better use of my website. 3. Record firing costs in kiln log. Provide listings for finished work before sharing online This one has been on my mind a while after watching how other potters share their finished work and sell it in hours. My error really hit home for me when I saw some art online that moved me enough to consider buying if the price was something I could handle. I looked all over the place and I could not find a listing for it anywhere. It was so frustrating. Sitting back being annoyed, I realize that I do that all the time. Hypocrite!! Hee hee. I've gone down the road of contacting an artist to get a price, got sticker shock and then felt embarrassed and slightly obligated to buy even though I couldn't afford it. Don't worry, I didn't succumb to the guilt, but I sure felt it. I understand why you wouldn't want to contact me for a price, I get it. So starting now, I'm trying to control the "OMG lookit this!!" excitement I get after opening the kiln. Control myself long enough to make a product listing. This will be very challenging. Make better use of my website I truly LOVE having my pottery in the shops I'm in, and I think pottery sells better when you can make the connection that comes from holding a piece. That said, some things happened in 2023 that smacked me right in the heart: Facing the closing of one of my favorite places. In my attempts to "pivot", to find a way to recover from the loss, I realized that I need to take responsibility for my own success by giving more attention to my website and encouraging people to buy directly from me. But... My website had some issues. The shipping calculations were ridiculous so I set out to fix that and I did. I was focused on stocking the shops more than anything else all the while neglecting my own website, and in turn, really only making my work available to locals. That's not bad, locals are wonderful and very supportive, but I also want to branch out. I'm really no good at product photos and I don't have the patience for it. I hear all the time that the work is more beautiful in person. I wish I had the ambition to be a genius at product photos, but I'm not there. The studio was getting crowded, so Aaron set up a spare bedroom for all things website: The photos area, a packing area, and shelves to hold my web inventory. What a guy! I set out to stock the site in time to offer sales for the after Thanksgiving shopping, and I did it! If I keep my first resolution, I will have new work going up regularly, and I can keep things fresh by moving work from the website to the shops. I'll still be in shops, I'll still make new work for the shops and share when I'm restocking. Good news: The loss that broke my heart has been worked out and on top of that, I have plans for another location in the new year. Coming soon I will improve my custom orders page so people know what to expect. Again, trying to cater to people like me who have a fear of the unknown, are semi-shy and don't like pestering people. I'll re-establish my Facebook and Instagram shops, and I'll set up my Google merchant account so my work will show in searches. Record firing costs in kiln log The basic tax deduction for energy costs for a home based business uses a percentage of square footage dedicated to the business against the annual energy costs. So if the business occupies 10% of your home, you can deduct 10% of your energy costs. In our case, I'm certain that the costs of running the kiln far exceed the result of that calculation. It's about $6.00 per firing and I've done 105 firings year to date. My kiln allows me to program the current energy costs (KWH), the kiln's wattage, and then at the end of a firing I can review the details and the energy costs are calculated and displayed. The data is only available until the next firing is started, so I need to get the costs before running the kiln again. I want to develop the habit of logging it so I can share that with our accountant to increase our deductions. So there you are! Let's see how we do. If you catch me slipping please call me on it. We're excited to see what 2024 brings!

One night I was goofing around on my phone when I got a message notification from my website. I read the message and my heart started pounding. Let me tell you about it. The message was from a gentleman who explained how the artist Gerry Rafferty had managed to capture the love he and his wife share in the song "Right Down the Line", and they've considered it their song since 1978. A significant birthday was coming for his wife, and since they already enjoy my pottery, would I consider making a custom mug that includes some of the lyrics from the song. He confessed to being a romantic and offered me artistic freedom to do my best. Thump thump thump. I didn't have to look into it, that song has meaning in our marriage too. Thump thump thump. What an honor to be trusted with this task. What a delightful project this will be. I replied with a lot more than yes, but yes is all that was needed. Over the next few weeks the song played in my head each day as I brainstormed how to get the lyric he wanted as well as some of the other parts of the song that make it so great onto a mug. How to celebrate this love story. A little follow up to make sure his wife is right handed so an idea I had would have the greatest effect, I learned her nickname, Bonzie. More trust was extended when he said he wanted to see the final piece at the same time as his wife when she opened it at her birthday party. Thump thump thump. I offered to gift wrap it. I used my outrageous glitter wrapping paper. Over the top, why not? As we arranged getting the box in their hands, I confessed to how this project has been really meaningful, how the story is beautiful to me and I asked for permission to write this post. He agreed and offered to send me photos. Thump thump thump. I got some great photos from the party and even a video of Bonzie opening her glittery gift. The family played the song as she opened it and after a bit of figuring out what it was, she was overcome with emotion. I'm not sharing that here, I'm keeping that to myself. Thump thump thump. Later I heard from Bonzie herself and she sent me photos of her and her love with the mug. Ya know, it takes quite a bit of commitment, patience, kindness, and understanding to maintain this kind of love between two people over 47 years. Though our marriage is only half that long so far, it's what I'm hoping we can maintain as well. Similarly, it takes a lot of commitment, patience and I'll admit it, love, to develop a talent for pottery too, so to combine my love for love and my love for pottery into one project just meant the world to me. I'm so thankful that I was asked to make this mug. Here are some photos of the many elements of this mug. It's a lot to take in, but I'm told that it's cherished. Happy Birthday Bonzie! Thanks for reading! Michele

I've made some really wonderful friends in the pottery community over the years, in fact I have two close potter friends who I chat with daily. Perhaps a key to our closeness is that we all take the same approach to our work and the work of others. No egos, we're just out here doing our best. There's a lot of space between being a beginner and being a master potter, and we're all happy in the in-between. We're free to praise each other and we're honest with each other when kind criticisms are needed. It's great! I've only had one situation where I felt a tinge of jealousy from another potters work, and it's because they're doing an AMAZING job at an idea that I've been developing in my mind for a few years. The gut reaction was jealousy, but then it turned to a little bit of a broken heart. My idea wasn't as original as I thought and clearly this potter is worlds ahead of me in executing it. Wuh. Except for that one time, my reaction to pottery that I didn't make varies but when I see something that I really enjoy, I'm comfortable enough to say so. I can't tell you how many times I've told another potter that their work is great, and specifically what it was that moved me if I can. I do it because that's who I am and I know how great it feels to get kind feedback on my work. We buy pottery. I know that sounds funny, but we do. It's because of a love for the art of it. I don't just love making and sharing pottery, I love collecting it. There's a specific potter who we have four mugs from and if I could justify buying more we'd have more. All that said, I've taken it on myself to respect what I consider a potters "territory". I won't pursue presence in a shop that has another potter. Even though it's not my call, I'd have feelings about another potter being welcomed into a shop where I'm selling my work. Galleries and pottery shops are a different story. My potter pals and I have talked about this and we've concluded that I'm wrong. :) We've decided that variety furthers appreciation for the art, and that potters selling in the same shop can feed off of each other and grow. That's all very logical and smart, but my squishy little heart is not logical and smart. I guess it goes back to my experiences introducing myself to potters. Some have been really nice, but others have been defensive and stand offish. Not knowing what I'm going to get has made me less open in person. I don't want to feel badly or make anyone else feel defensive. I don't want to trigger a competitive response in anyone, I don't want anyone being mean to me about my passion. It's not insecurity, like I said, I'm happy with my skill level today and I get better the more I work on it. It's just sometimes people get mean for no reason when they begin to wonder if they're the best in the room, and I don't like that. Anyway, competition. That's for other people, not for me. ;)

I'm so thrilled with my first Naked Raku Pot, not only because it's beautiful but because it taught me some things. What the What?!? Naked Raku is accomplished by coating a pot in slip, which is clay that is the consistency of paste, just prior to putting it into the raku kiln. The slip dries and cracks as the pot heats up. We took the kiln to 1400° F this time. Sporting welder's gloves and a long tongs I move the pot into a small lidded metal can with newspaper and saw dust that ignites when the pot is carefully placed in. Fire! The fire is starved when the lid goes on. Inside, the fire fights for oxygen which pulls the carbon (smoke) into the clay. This gives a black to gray finish to the places where the clay was exposed, ideally the cracks, and leaves a lighter finish where the clay was protected by the remaining slip. When things cool down I brush and carefully scrap the remaining slip from the surface. After cleaning I applied Beeswax to shine up and protect the decoration. This pot was prepared with terra sigillata before it was bisque fired, and in the spirit of experimenting, I stained the terra sig hoping to get some interesting color. Here's what it looked like just before the slip was applied. Now For What I Learned This pot is dark for naked raku. At some point the slip lifted while it was in the can and allowed the smoke to travel beneath the surface. Part of the slip had popped off before I took it out of the kiln and that may have been the smoke's entry point. You can see that spot where there is a black shape in the midsection. Edit: Since writing this post I've learned that I was incorrect. The smoke came in through the slip because of my longer reduction time of 20 minutes. I'm going to try shorter reduction times. My stained terra sig was too subtle. I wanted it to be subtle but I was too light handed. In person you can see hints of the color in the lightest places which I find very, well... sexy. I have more pots in progress and I plan to be more dramatic with the stained terra sig. I let the slip air dry some before putting it in the kiln and I intentionally slopped it thicker in some places. The thickest place is where it popped off. Next time I will use my banding wheel to apply the slip more evenly and get it into the kiln right away. I let the pot bobble around in the can a little and I struggled trying to set it upright which probably broke the slip. Next time I will be sure to leave a flatter surface in the middle of the can so it sits down. Overall I'm very pleased with the first one. I haven't decided whether I'll keep it or share it. That's a decision for another day. Thanks for reading! Michele

This post will be about the things I did while setting up our business, relationships and processes. I own a pottery business but there's nothing about clay, glazes, kilns or wheels here. I'm writing because the topic frequently comes up in groups. Business Name The first thing that needs to be done is to decide on a business name. I don't really even want to go into how because it's a rabbit hole, but part of deciding is checking to see if the name is available and not in use by another registered business. When you pick a name, go ahead and search all of the things for that name. Social media, Google general search, search your state's list of registered business names, see if the domain is available. If the name that you want to use is close to but not exactly another business, find out what kind of presence they have. You don't want to share a close name with a business that is doing something you don't want people to mistakenly find when they're looking for you. At this point, if everything checks out, I'd grab that domain name. Type of Business Small businesses can operate as a Sole Proprietorship, a Partnership, a Limited Liability Company (LLC) or a Corporation. Learn more about what each type means here. https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/launch-your-business/choose-business-structure Consider your goals, your willingness to accept risk in the form of liability, others who will be involved in the business. I chose to open an LLC but that doesn't mean it's the right choice for you. Registering the Business If you choose anything but a Sole Proprietorship, you'll need to register your business. This is where the peanut gallery will rise against me, because I hired Legal Zoom to do everything for me and it cost about $300.00. Gasp! Yes, it's much cheaper if you do it all yourself, but I didn't want to do that, and I was also concerned about missing/not knowing something that could affect me in the future, so I hired a professional. If you follow my lead they'll collect the details about your new business and in return you'll get registered in your state, with the federal government, you'll get an EIN (employer identification number, which is like SSN for business) and all of the legal letters of incorporation and papers to sign. Using a professional, I was only left needing to request a sales tax account and seller's permit for my state. Even with this seemingly simple task I was still there bewildered. What should my NAICS code be? Ugh! Fortunately there was a lot of help on the state's site. Your state may have regular requirements for continuing your business. Here in Wisconsin I have to do an annual report which sounds intimidating but it's basically just saying yep I'm still here and then paying the fees to maintain my LLC. I have to pay sales taxes on the schedule dictated by my state. Otherwise the government mostly leaves me alone. Accountant/Tax Preparer Now that you have a business, you need bookkeeping to keep track of your income and expenses for your taxes. A local accountant offered a free meeting to introduce me to it all. I was sure I'd need an application like QuickBooks but based on my specific situation I learned I could manage everything in a spreadsheet. In that meeting I also learned that our town requires a home based business permit. Professionals, I'm telling you. The accountant had already saved me money and trouble I hadn't even spent a dime yet. I got my spreadsheet going, and I applied for and got my permit. I update my bookkeeping spreadsheet monthly so that it doesn't become overwhelming at the beginning of the year. Digital receipts are printed to PDF files with the date and merchant. Physical receipts are put into a basket to be scanned at the beginning of the year. So, save your receipts, keep track of your deductible mileage and allowable business expenses. Pay your sales taxes. Let a professional do your annual income taxes. Business Bank Accounts Depending on the type of business you've selected, you may or may not need a business bank account. I like to keep things clear so I approached our bank to set up a business account. It was pretty fast and easy. I have a debit card for the accounts but have decided against accepting any credit accounts offers. Just a personal decision that may change in the future. Set up business accounts to accept money through wire transfer too, such as PayPal, Venmo, CashApp, Zelle, etc. Using your established business name for these contributes to your legitimacy but many of these will charge extra fees for business transactions. If you need to accept in person credit payments you'll want to obtain a physical payment processing solution. Again, depends on the business: If you've got a shop then a POS (point of sale) register may be what you need. If you're doing shows then a handheld device will work. The "best" payment processing solution is also a hot topic for people. My advice is to look at the choices and decide what will work "best" for you. Don't be afraid that you'll become locked in because you can change if you need to. Business Insurance In our case we needed business insurance for a couple of reasons. The most important is that we live in a litigious society and I don't want to be sued for something and find myself unrepresented. Additionally the very fact that I'm running a home based business affects what's covered on our home owners insurance. Talk to your agent. Find out what you need and tell the truth. I don't think many people are successful at tricking insurance companies when they file a claim for something that isn't covered. The agent is going to ask you about the business: Your processes, your equipment (kiln!!!), will the public be allowed in your place of business for shopping or lessons? Do you need coverage for theft or other losses? Do/will you sell at shows that require proof of insurance? Let the expert guide you. Business insurance doesn't cost much in my opinion, mine is $300 annually through State Farm and it's a business expense for my spreadsheet. Setting Up Shop When it comes to social media such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, you really want to have the same user ID and handle throughout. This is so it's easy for your customers, and it brings brevity to printed materials. Go ahead and set up business pages on social media. You really should. Really. No, I mean it, don't do everything from your personal accounts, set up business pages. Be sure to set up multifactor authentication everywhere that it's offered to you. This is necessary to protect your business accounts from being hijacked, or hacked as some people like to say. Yes, it can be irritating to sign in, especially when you're in a hurry, but it's critical. A friend of mine lost his business page to a thief. They got in, set themselves as admins and removed his admin access. You'd think support would be very helpful but they weren't and he lost a page with a few thousand followers. I can't imagine that happening to me, getting followers is a lot of work. Please, use multifactor authentication. As for your domain, you should set up a website even if it's under construction or incredibly sparse for now. This will cost you varying amounts depending on what you are trying to do. With our website, I intended to sell, and shop capabilities cost more than just a vanity page. Either way, don't be tempted to use free sites because it affects your legitimacy. Which business is more permanent: One that uses a domain name that matches their business name or one that is running at www.somefreeserice.com/yourbusinessname ? There are some exceptions of course. If you're going to use a site like Etsy to sell, you'll have to play on their playground. Once you have your website and socials running, create a business account on Google and make the profile as complete as possible and you feel comfortable with. You want to be searchable, but you may not want your address and phone number if like me you operate a home based business that does not allow customer visits. A Word About Email Generally I feel the same way about using your domain name for your email as well. I got myself into a little trap by setting up my site at a service that wants me to pay $5.00 a month to use my domain name for email. The technical reasons are boring, but I am a little trapped that way and I decided against it. I use my Google business account for email and so my email address ends in @gmail.com. I'm mostly ok with this because I've established legitimacy with all of the steps taken above. Printed Materials This is going to be different for every person, but I'm one who still believes in physical business cards. I don't think they're a waste of money, but I've discussed it with people who do. At some point as a business owner you're going to have to decide for yourself what is right for you and your business. Do you need business cards? A banner? Custom tablecloths for shows? Custom price tags? Brochures? Signs? Hats? Mugs? If you need mugs hit me up. :) The possibilities are vast for the marketing materials you might need or want to try. Final Thoughts So like I said earlier, now that you're a business owner you've already done something brave, and you need to carry on with the bravery. There's nothing wrong with asking others for guidance, but in the end you should really be considering all of the information that you've gathered, do your own research and decide what is right for your business. Avoid asking people what is "best" because most people think that what they're already doing or using, is the "best" and they'll say that without having experienced the other options. An unbiased review sounds like "I use PayPal Zettle for mobile payment processing and I'm satisfied with how it works.". Get ready for a ton of offers. When your business is formed the info becomes public and there will be so much mail and so many offers. Be skeptical as some are official looking scams. This is another place where having a professional in your corner can help. The marketing companies are going to tempt you endlessly. When you're tired you may think you need 5,000 branded mouse pads for a $35.00 introductory offer, but you probably don't. Eh, who am I to say? Maybe you do. :) Most importantly have yourself a big old blast being a business owner!! There's so much to do, you're going to be busy! So many hats to wear! It's easy to get pulled into a rabbit hole in the interest of improving your business. Should I focus on content creation? Search engine optimization? Photography? Should I start a blog (ahem)? Should I put on my branded shirt and hat and go out for tacos? (Yes!! Just don't have too many margaritas and do something that goes viral.) Don't forget to rest, you're gonna need it. Hope this helps! Michele Did I miss something or do you want to contribute something else? Hop in the comments! When I said peanut gallery earlier I wasn't talking about you, I was talking about know it alls.

Fair warning, this could get long. Thank you if you stick it out. After four years of making pottery and three years of selling in commission/rent based retail locations I've finally decided to put my big girl panties on and set up at a local in person event. I'm both excited and terrified. It took a lot of contemplation to get here and I'm going to review the barriers: Smallest to largest. Spoiler alert, I'm the biggest problem. Presentation: We've gone to craft shows, flea markets, pottery shows and I've walked around fantasizing about how I'd present my work. In my mind my space is virtually irresistible. An oasis. Have a seat on a moss covered rock, dip your favorite mug into the margarita waterfall and enjoy a bird's song. I'll sashay over in my colorful swooshy hippie pants and give you a sliced lime. Ha ha ha. That's too much, but maybe you see it. Peaceful. That's my vibe. I can dream up a really cool presentation, but I need to know if I can actually stand there selling pots before I invest in it. Goals: At the right venue, a potter can sell in one day what I sell in a month, so that's one good reason to set up, but I have to consider my goals. I love making pots at my own pace. I don't really consider the possibility of making a living at it because I don't want it to be a job. As for sales I track dollars but more importantly pieces sold so that I know how much more pottery I can make to maintain a decent selection. I love that people want my work. If I can spend my days doing something that I love and people respond by buying it, that's my ideal. It's not about money to me, it's about making pots and sending them to their homes so I can make more. I make a slight profit, but nothing that someone could live on. I just want to make pottery. Venue: My debut is not a big high pressure juried show. It's a local spot that I'm already comfortable with, provided by a community minded entrepreneur that I like, and overall it's real low key. I'm not sure how well we'll do, but right now that doesn't matter to me. The experience matters. I'm carefully inviting people out, I'll even invite my neighbors and townspeople in a few days, but I despise the idea of being pushy. No, I won't do pushy. I hope to see some familiar faces, I hope to meet some people who know me through social media, and I hope some neighbors come out. The Pottery: The other day I revealed to my dad that we were committed to setting up for an event and I was really nervous about it. He immediately jumped into an uninterruptible pep talk about how wonderful my pottery is, that there's no reason to feel insecure about it, how I should hold my head up high and proudly show off what I do. Sigh. I'm not worried about the pottery. I'm happy with my current skill level. I'm better than I was last year and if I keep going I'll be better next year. If you really think about it, using your hands to turn a lump of mud into anything useful is kind of amazing. So, yeah. I'm aware of my "place" as a potter. There are beginners and there are masters and somewhere in between is me. I've listened to criticisms of my work and have observed people experiencing my work and I adjust if they're right. No big deal. It's all growth. I'm proud of my work, but you won't catch me boasting about it. Proud, yes, but not boasting. The Human: Here's the biggest problem. It's me. Some asshole told me that I have resting bitch face. Unapproachable, the asshole said. So in the times that I've been put into situations where people were looking at me I over compensate by never allowing myself to be relaxed and I make a weird, inauthentic smile. Like a crazy person. Now let's add on that I'm NOT a salesperson and I'm uncomfortable in crowds. I'm not shy. I'm just.. the way I explain it is that I'm good with a person but I'm not good with people. I struggle with small talk but I thrive in conversation. If you meet me in passing in the context of my pottery you'll probably sense my discomfort but if you get to know me, you'd probably like me. But I can't get to know everyone. Ain't nobody got time for that. I guess it's called awkward, and my pots deserve better than me, so that's why I sell in stores and online. This is my biggest worry, that people will be interested in the pots but that I'll scare them off with my weird mannequin smile that hurts my face. I intend to make a blog post about how it goes after my in person debit June 25th 11-3 at Pop's Pub in Muskego. Stay tuned.

I'm a planner. I'm not one for spontaneity, surprises, or pushing deadlines. I think things out carefully before I make any moves. It's probably not surprising, then, that I have a planning process for my pottery as well. There are shelves holding pottery to be delivered to the retail locations, shelves for my webstore, and shelves for upcoming events. An upcoming event is the mug show that I participated in last year, I was thrilled to be invited back! I need at least 25 mugs to be included, which isn't a big deal, but I decided to offer a mix of sgraffito and marbled mugs this year, and those babies are time consuming. I started building an inventory for the mug show in April. Now here in June I have half of what I need and nine more weeks to finish. Sounds like I'm on track, doesn't it? I thought so. I'm also working on pieces for my first in person show at the end of June which has been the focus for me, but I'm ready now. There's a pop up shop in September that I've been invited back to this year, that will be my focus after all the sgraffito. So, here I was thinking I had things under control when some folks in the pottery groups were showing off making work for CHRISTMAS! In June. Not one super ambitious person, but probably five potters have admitted to making Christmas decorations already. What the hell? Now, some potters participate in holiday themed shows so they need a lot of inventory, let's say that's what's going on, ok? :) Either way, I hopped online to chat with my potter friends about it and one friend admitted that she too was working on Christmas. Come on... Really? She's building an inventory of gifts and stays away from decorations, which, for the moment, is my plan as well. Sigh. Well, I guess there's no bragging about how ahead of schedule I am then. Let's just say I'm right on time, and that will have to be good enough for me.

In early November of 2022 I was thrilled to be invited to participate in a raku firing and squealed when I heard I could bring a piece of my own to fire. I've found myself admiring raku pottery and it's been in the back of my mind to someday add this method to my skillset. Quickly and summarily, Raku is an alternative firing method for pottery where bisqued pottery is quickly brought to 1000°F - 1800°F in an outdoor gas fueled kiln. Once the desired temperature is reached, the piece is removed while it's very hot and then a variety of techniques are used to shock the surface creating finishes that are like no other kind of pottery. It's thrilling, unpredictable and requires the acceptance of loss because often the piece does not survive the process. An experienced raku potter accepts about 25% loss. I learned when we arrived that we'd be doing two methods: Obvara and Horsehair/feather carbonization with ferric chloride finish. Our host, Lee, went over the processes thoroughly and pretty soon it was time for the four of us to jump in. I first took on the fairly simple task of operating the kiln door while a fully protected Lee reached into the 1400°F kiln with tongs to remove a pot. Over to the Obvara bucket the three days fermented solution of water, sugar, flour and yeast was poured over the pot while Lee turned it. Once satisfied, the piece was dunked into a bucket of water and set aside to cool further. When cooled, the pieces were covered in a slimy and burnt film of material. We all touched them to experience the texture. Next, the slime and carbon were scrubbed off with a common kitchen scrubby and that's when we were able to appreciate the true reaction and texture. The resulting surface showed beautiful shades of light brown to black with varying patterns of blotches, veins and spots. Some areas looked like wings while others looked like worm wood. I quickly appreciated the unpredictable and mostly unplanned effects we were achieving by controlling the pour rate, the different ways the solution reacted if the piece was cooled a bit before pouring, as well as how quickly the dropping temperature affected ability to be finicky. There certainly is a degree of art and experience combined to get a desired effect but it was largely out of our control. Thrilling. In all we fired about 15 pieces Obvara and lost two which is below the 25% loss rate so basically we killed it. Next was horsehair, feather and ferric chloride. These pieces were only (only!!!) fired to 1000°F and held for a little bit to try to maintain the heat for a little longer after they were removed from the kiln. First a little bit of granulated sugar was sprinkled on which resulted in cool black spots. No time to stand and marvel over that because next horse mane or tail hair was draped onto the piece where it instantly crinkled and burned leaving a permanent carbon impression on the surface. Finally the feathers were placed on the surface where they too burned and left a feather like impression. Newspaper was added inside the piece which ignited and changed the white clay to gray/black. Lee fitted himself with a respirator while the rest of us stood back and upwind as Lee sprayed the ferric chloride. Initially the piece showed a yellow hue which quickly turned amber to red. Color variations were created by more or less solution sprayed. The finish was stunning and it was exciting to watch the transformation occurring. No water dunk for these pieces, we had to wait patiently for them to air cool before they could be moved for the next piece. These too are scrubbed lightly to reveal the design. The final touch is to seal the work with wax or a clear coat of polycrylic. I've opted for wax. Please don't be misled by my use of the word "seal", for raku pottery is decorative only and is not suitable for functional work that would be used for food or drink. We're simply protecting the finish as well as giving a light sheen and silky surface texture. Ok, so you could use raku for a fruit bowl if you really wanted to. Between the firing, the potter's socializing, the show and tell, a few hours had passed. Riding away I felt exhilarated and yet emotionally tired. I'd found myself invested in each piece and the drama of the experience was tiring. The excitement, the urgency, the caution and the relief a rollercoaster ride of emotions, over and over. Strangely I was the least concerned about my own work. Lee generously gifted me one of his Obvara pieces and the piece I brought was done with sugar, horsehair, feathers and ferric chloride and so I now have cherished mementos of my first experience in raku firing. I fear I may never be the same. I've created a compilation of some of the scenes from that day, but all involved were so focused that recording video was not much of a priority. I hope you enjoy it anyway. Lee Halweg's beautiful raku work is available for appreciation and purchase at Harbour Honest Goods in Oconomowoc, WI.

Well, my cat ruined it. Let me tell you the story. To give some background, my grandmother and her best friend made a gorgeous gingerbread house sometime long before I was born. It was solid yet fragile. It sat on a plaster base and was beautifully decorated with frosting, peppermints and gumdrops. Her gingerbread house was also my very favorite of her Christmas decorations. In the early 90s I was in the process of moving and I asked my grandparents if they would watch my cat, Seven, for a few days until the move was done. My grandma didn't really like cats but agreed that he could stay in their finished basement. My grandpa loved Seven so he spent a good amount of time sitting with him in the basement. I'd taught Seven to leap to my shoulders and rest on my neck. Grandpa thought that was so cool that he showed the trick to his friends. One day Seven jumped onto my grandma's back as she unloaded the dryer, causing her to scream and as she put it, she "Damn near fainted". Her many retellings of the story usually resulted in sympathy combined with stifled laughter. Those were the only events worth mentioning surrounding Seven's vacation with the grandparents, until Christmastime. I got a call from Grandma who was laughing hard while telling me the state of the gingerbread house. The snow covered roof took most of the damage. The peppermints were all licked white, there were soft pink cat tongue swirls in the white frosting. Some of the gumdrops had tiny bites in them while others had their tops bitten off. Parts of the pretzel stick fence were broken in half, presumably because this is where Seven sat while he enjoyed his treat. She thought all of this was hilarious. That gingerbread house survived decades of Christmases only to be eaten by a cat. She continued to put the gingerbread house out year after year and we laughed about it every time. In time grandpa passed away and grandma sold the house to move into an apartment, and the gingerbread house was lost along the way. I was too young then to realize how sentimental I'd become about that old thing. I wish I still had my grandparents, Seven and that gingerbread house today, but the memories of those wonderful Christmases will have to be enough.