The NorthWesternBelle

Holy crap, y'all. It's December. I swear it was just June, like, yesterday. November was an exciting month, full of all the things I love to do. Not having to wake up at the asscrack of dawn is fantastic, and being my own boss is everything I've ever wanted. Being able to see my baby off to school each morning, and picking him up in the afternoon (most days) has surely perplexed the bus driver (he hasn't asked about it or anything, though, so I guess he just assumes correctly), but I love it. Having hours to focus on my own work, doing exactly whatever floats my boat; it's seriously the best thing ever. I'll never, ever give up this freedom. You're probably going to be shocked to learn that I did a LOT of pottery in November. You're not? Well, then, you know me. I finished the Pot Bellied Tea Mugs for my sister, and took on my very first pottery commission project (which, I just realized, I never actually published anything about yet; I've only

I am in love with these mugs. So much. So much that I'll be sad to hand them over to my younger sister. Solace is to be found in the fact that she's family, so I will likely be seeing them again. Whew! Because seriously, they are gorgeous. I love them so much that I photographed them outside, in the very cold, to most accurately capture how this matte glaze, winkur yellow, turned out on the porcelain body. My BFF has been calling it terra cotta. Only, it turns yellow where it went on thick. The Time for TEA mug is my absolute favorite. The shape on this one was perfect, and the glaze pooled nicely in the letters. The dramatic handle finishes it of perfectly. Imma drink tea in this one next time I'm at my sister's house. Also, I really like this mandala, and I was very pleased with the plate. Either I'm getting better at this, or I got extremely lucky that all four of these worked out so well.  I made a before and after video

It's probably not really a surprise that I have taken to zen doodling and hand lettering on clay. Exhibit A: the Pot Bellied Tea Mugs. They were nice and leather hard when I first cut into the, and the bodies are nice and thick, so I was able to get a really good purchase with my embossing tool.  This one might be my favorite. A lot of sponging and tracing goes into making the lines this clean. I've been told that using saran wrap can reduce that labor. I'll need to give that a try because it's time consuming, and I tend to get obsessive. The plates were a little bit too dry for carving, and I've lost a couple of plates recently to over-confident carving, so I think I was a little bit lighter-handed than needed on this one in particular. Carving is a little bit risky because details can get lost if you use the wrong glaze. I'm planning on using Yellow Winkur on these, which is a matte orange that, recently, has been pooling yellow on

The story behind the mugs I'll be blogging out about today actually starts way back in 2010, when I made a set of pot bellied beer mugs for my younger brother. Seen here, circa 2016 with said mug, and fleece-lined crochet wool beanie also made by yours truly. I had been doing pottery for two years at that point, and I haven't seen them since. I'm sure they're not completely terrible, but they're definitely heavy and uneven, and the feet are most likely very chunky.  They are, however, awesome enough to impress my lil sister when she spent some time at his house recently. The next time I saw her, for a girls' weekend in October, she asked me to make her some similar to them for tea. Being that I am highly in favor of drinking tea and encouraging others to do so, I wholeheartedly agreed, and I got to work on them straight away. The fourth one didn't get photographed, apparently. I'll have to get one of all four before they go

I've been seeing wheel-thrown candlestick holders on Instagram lately, so when I had a lump of recycled clay on hand I decided to give it a shot. Voila! Not bad for a first go, methinks. Several days later, it was ready for a handle. Handles are a challenge, and not my favorite thing to do, tbh, but they're a necessity. Since this piece only requires a small one, I went ahead and pulled it.  I will say, my handle pulling skills have improved over the years. 

ICYMI: I covered all the big news in Issue 1 of the NWB Monthly Newsletter last week.. I was able to spend about six hours total in the studio last week, which is triple the time I have been averaging per week. It was so awesome. I got so much accomplished. Nearly too much, to be honest, because I'm going to be burning through clay at this rate. I plan to recycle as much as I can to be efficient, but it is still $20 per 25 lbs, and I don't love working with anything less than 2 lbs at a time. Tuesday night is my regular class, which runs from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. I got to the studio around 2:30 and was there until 6:40, because it was also Halloween. It was also a potluck, to which my awesome teammate brought tasty beer! So tasty! In those hours I trimmed a set of square bowls that I had thrown two weeks previously. Their altered forms and a bit-too-dryness complicated matters, and two of the five did not survive. One cracked at the rim, the other flew off the wheel whi

The NorthWesternBelle Issue 1 November 2017 Welcome to my monthly newsletter! This is the first one, obviously, so it's probably going to look different than any other ones to come. I have been planning on doing a newsletter for the last six months, but could not find the time to design what I wanted it to look like. Which brings us to the first bit of news: I am now unemployed! For the first time in my adult life, I am not employed. I worked for the same company for nearly 12 years; in fact, they let me go one day before my 12 year anniversary date. So, without 40+ hours of someone else's work to do, I have the time to focus on my own. Is it terrifying? Yes. But, it's also exhilarating and liberating! I am excited for the opportunity to truly focus on work that is fulfilling and satisfying. So, this month is going to be about pottery! When I saw my instructor in class last night, she was very supportive and encouraged me to come work at the studio

The August 21 Solar eclipse has been a big deal for several years in my world. Since I found out about it, say, three years ago or so. Since then, the fever over it has only grown, but it is important to me personally because it is happening on my birthday, and its path of totality passes very close to my home town, Idaho Falls. The plan was always to go to IF and be in the path of totality. For two solid years I looked forward to spending a couple of days with my sister & brother that live there and being there to experience the full thing. Then, news from the City Counsel: they're expecting 500,000 people to descend on Idaho Falls, a city of 50,000. Citizens are advised to have enough supplies on hand for a full week, including gasoline. The freeway will be turned northbound all lanes beforehand, and all southbound afterward. The power grid and cell phone towers won't be able to handle the influx. Treat it as an emergency situation between Wednesday and Wednesday.