Studio Visit, November 10, 2017

my own personal design zone, often used into the wee hours

Hello friends! A few goings-on to share with you from my busy as bees, used to the max studio.

Client feedback is golden and surprisingly rare. Often I ship out a project and never hear about it again unless I run into the designer from the project. I’ve trusted that no news is good news because any response I have received is overwhelmingly positive, but I’ve also started asking because I want to know! After all, I put so much into every single piece I make so it’s bizarre to ship and never hear about it again.

And asking is working. The customer who bought my Moon Mandala has been watching my work for nearly 20 years. He is also one of my early yoga teachers from way back. This week he wrote me this note:

“We are quite pleased! Your art and its crafting and installation by teams of workers, makes me think of the Renaissance. There are modern minor Medicis who commission your works and provide the means for you to continue these many years, past and into the future.” He then goes on to offer some yoga teacher advice which I include just because it’s lovely “Lift up from the drawing board occasionally and do some light yoga. The yoga now is needed for maintenance of fluidity and grace as we move through space with little, or hopefully no, pain.”

He’s right. I couldn’t do my work without my modern day patrons, and you my Steemian friends are also some of these “minor Medicis”. Thank you for your loyal support, it means the world to me.

And what have Rob and I been making? As always, there is some production and some art in the works.

Rob is working relentless and long hours on a Cloud Porcelain order of Duals in Sky blue.

Duals are 5-1/2" tiles made of pigmented porcelain that are half glazed with clear and half left raw porcelain sanded to a soft suede finish. Very harmonious design and the half gloss gives the eye something to ponder while not being too distracting.

He’s about halfway through this large order with a very short deadline. I’ve never previously had a customer call or email nearly weekly to check on progress, and not only to check but to push. Now I can say I’ve experienced this and as irritating as it is, I’ve become much thicker skinned because of it. I used to go in to a cold sweat when a customer would hassle a designer who would then call me and pass along the stress! This time I step back, take a breath and remember that no one has ever died over a tile order. It’s a good perspective that saves me from having knee-jerk stress responses that take days off my life simply because of someone else's reactionary reality. The thing is, we are already people who are meticulously and passionately dedicated to delivering excellent products and artwork and on time, but ceramics is fraught with technical complications and we can’t always control a completion date.

To soothe their anxiety we’re shipping smaller batches of 150 tiles at a time so they have it in hand.

Also in the works, we are working out the glazes for a Tara Yantra:

Tara is the Tantric Goddess of Compassionate Guidance. She helps navigate and traverse the metaphorical oceans of life also helping to calm the fear of the crossing, the journey.

Rob and I have been handing this one back and forth to each work on different stages of the making and despite the short segments of time working on it, there is a palpable sweetness that arises in me each time. Curious to experience it complete.

And lastly, my side endeavor has been a lot of wheel throwing of cups by request. I’ve done more wheel throwing this year than in a very long time and have developed a cup shape that I really like. Although I like how it looks just fine, it's my hands that love it - it feels just right.

This is a medium size tumbler that I’m finding I always reach for when drinking wine or whiskey and water (my fav). Even at a friend’s house yesterday I found myself wishing for that cup as she was pouring me wine in a glass.

Have a beautiful weekend and thanks for supporting my art making!

custom gif by @stellabelle , to order yours see this post