FIND INSPIRATION IN THE EVERY DAY.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Patterns from Terhune's

Brought my niece, nephew and the boys to Terhune's Farm, right down the street on Cold Soil Road. Brrrrrrrr....buttoned up jackets, furry hats, and paper cups of hot cider.  (With gingerbread cookies for the kids...Terhune's rightly does NOT skimp on the icing...mmmm.)  Breathed deeply the icy air, tucked my nose into the grey weathered bins of fresh-cut evergreens, and watched my kids help my sister's kids feed the goats.  Bliss.

My cold fingers found enough leverage to capture these pretty patterns from vintage tractors and some fence posts.





Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Befores and Afters

A gigantic thank you to all my wonderful customers at the Princeton Y Crafters Marketplace.  I am happy to say that I had my best-selling show ever!  It was lovely to chat with everyone and to send them home with some colorful pottery.

I’m a bit tired and nursing a cranky back, so not a lot of words today.  Just a few photos to do the talking and offer a little color from the show.   xo



Mini Tweets: Before
Bright and Shiny After



Poinsettias: Before
Poinsettias: After
Before: Princeton Y Crafters Marketplace Booth
Full After
Before the show: A Nest of Lovebird Vases
After : An Empty Nest (Yay!)

Before: Birdie Dishes

Shiny After



More elbow room for the birdies...










Monday, November 12, 2012

What's Next, Mudstar?

The last thing I should be doing right now is write a blog post.  But I always seem to do things when I'm not supposed to.  Like cleaning out the fridge when I should fill out paperwork, or move my summer clothes upstairs when I should be trimming pots.

My tush should be at the wheel right now.  Oh, I'll head down there in 20 minutes, I promise, but I'm a little preoccupied at the moment.  What's happening?  Well....as I said in the post before this one, I've been re-evaluating my direction, and I can't stop thinking about where I want to go.

I love ceramics.  There's a physical response in my body for clay, which is unlike any I've had towards anything else.  But I feel the need to stretch my muscles, to do some new things.  I want to write more.  My blog, a play, a book? And I want to push myself in claywork, to somewhere that feels new and maybe a little uncomfortable.  I feel, dare I say it, ready to take on work that's a little more...yikes...serious.

I'm a little torn.  Over the last year and a half, I've been building up this little business, developing happy patterns and designs that I have repeated over and over again, because they seem to be loved and they sell well.  And isn't that why I started this whole Mudstar business in the first place?  To see if I could make money from my art?  I wanted to legitimize myself in that way.  It seemed so important at the time.

The more I go to workshops, the more I read articles about other potters, the more I read their blogs and see their work, the more I sketch and the more I write, the more I realize how little I know and how much more I want to learn.  I feel as if I have just completed my freshman year and now I'm a sophomore.  I want to push myself in a way I haven't felt in a long time.  Or maybe that I've never felt.  To take risks.  To make work that might fail spectacularly.

Though I know I haven't made my last little Tweet dish, or Hydrangea candle, I'm a little twinge-y about switching gears.  But I think I have to think about it this way: there is NO WAY I could have taken a leap of faith in a new creative direction if I hadn't gained confidence with my Mudstar.  She's made me braver.  She's made me deal with face-to-face criticism. She's made me accept failure.  She's made me smile when I wrap up a sold-something that I made with my own two hands.  When I sell to a stranger.  She's made me tougher and she's made me ready for the next bit.


So what is next?  For now, Mudstar is thinking ahead only as far as the holidays.  So lucky to be close to home until then.... Get your little red Tweets while the getting is hot!! :)


  • The Arts Council's Sauce for the Goose Holiday Sale, which runs the month of December.  Stay tuned to www.artscouncilofprinceton.org...they'll be posting details soon.

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