100 cups.

This is what 100 cups looks like. Processing a few boxes of my alphabet cups for the store. I had to inventory them to see what letters I might be short on, check for any 'seconds', and put them in boxes so they are easy to find (a-z). They are all electric fired to ∆6 with iron oxide sprayed onto the exterior, the letter is wiped with a sponge, and then the liner glaze is poured in and the lip is dipped. 

They are all slip cast from recycled clay scraps. I use 7 molds so they range in size but generally hold 4 oz. Great for all kinds of things but mainly fun. They sell for $12 each.

I'm off to the studio on a beautiful Sunday morning! Wife does not go into work until 11am and I am not prepared for a class I am giving tomorrow. 

Isabel's Espresso delivery

I brought some cups down to one of our local coffee shops yesterday. We are a small island, with a small village. We have two coffee shops. I love them both. This particular coffee shop appeals to my organic, hippie, tree hugging side.

I love seeing pottery out of the studio.

Julia and Josh are wonderful Baristas! If you are ever on Lopez Island, go here Isabel's espresso

Of course no visit to a coffee shop would be complete without an Americano for me and a hot chocolate for my handsome assistant. 

Life is pretty sweet!

700 ml. sealable ceramic bottle

I finally have a sealable bottle! Ha! This project has taken so many hours of brainstorming and effort. It feels really good to finally have a working prototype. It opens and closes nicely. I have given it to both men and women of several different ages and it seems to perform nicely! It holds 700 ml. and adds to the line of very functional kitchen wares for food storage.

Here is a raw clay piece from the mold before I made the last bit of modification. Turned out the width of the lower neck piece was too wide to accommodate the lid in the closed position. So I may rework the mold a bit. But until then it just needs a small addition to the neck (perfect place for a bit of texture!

I finished the shelving in the tower. It is now stained a dark brown. I need to touch up the walls here and there to get it ready for stocking! We open Easter weekend.

I also got out a set of plates yesterday and the results were stunning! Again, this project took soooo many hours but the results were worth it. I will be doing these with the rim in several different colors, blue, green, the turquoise pictured, and maybe grey.

Close-up. 

I love the speckling from the iron oxide! Large plate weighs in at 695 grams which is comparable to a Macy's plate I purchased many years ago. I still need to make a small modification to the little plate.

Shelving in the Tower

Yesterday I spent the morning in the 'Tower' (our retail space) building some shelving upstairs. There used to be an old rack style shelve unit built with 2x4's. it was effective but crude. So I started working on something that has many levels, a must when selling pottery. Our biggest obstacle is that the towers walls are slanted, it's an old water tower.

before

after

I still had some more work to do but my wife needed to get to work and the kids wanted to go see the high school sailing team race at the dock. Very light wind. 

The sun came out at some point and the kids and I went for a walk....well I walk and they ride. But it gets us out of the house!