I look at all the gnomes and the gnome mobile song from that really old movie starts playing in my head. The gnomes in that movie just look like tiny humans, but it's still what I hear.

The santa gnome came out awesome. My husband called it folksy and I think I agree, but I'm not sure if it's the exact right word.

I might have to keep the mushroom gnome for me. She's just so cute!

When I made the ghost I wasn't really thinking about the fact that I had laguna 60 clay. Then when it came time for glazing I was like uhhhh. I had just made the tree mugs and so I decided to go with white and lean into the speckles. It's not a traditional ghost, but I like it anyway.

Laguna 60 Mayco Red Gloss x3 Hat: Mayco White Gloss x3 Beard: Opulence Marshmallow x3 Belt: Mayco Tuxedo x2 Amaco Saturation Gold x4 Nose: Mayco Cutie Pie Coral x2	Laguna 60 Mushroom Tops: Mayco Red, Blue or Green Gloss x3 White Gloss Mushroom Bottoms: Clayscapes Nutmeg x2 Hat: 2167 Clear Body: Mayco Passion Flower x3 Hair: Mayco Dandelion x2 Nose: Cutie Pie Coral x2
Laguna 60 Hat: Laguna Monstera x2 Body: Mayco Passion Flower x3 Hair: Mayco Dandelion x2 Beard: Mayco Cotton Tail x2 Nose: Cutie Pie Coral x2 What's interesting is there is also 3 coats of Mayco Peacock on the male but you can't see it	Laguna 60 Amaco Snow x3
Laguna 60 Hat: Amaco Tangelo x3, Right only Mayco Peppered Plum x2 on pumpkin Body: Mayco Rootbeer x3 Hair: Mayco Dandelion x2 Beard: Mayco Cotton Tail x2 Nose: Cutie Pie Coral x2	Laguna 60 Left Hat, Right Body: Coyote Oatmeal x3 Right Hat, Left Body: Amaco Tangelo x3 Beard: Mayco Cotton Tail x2 Nose: Cutie Pie Coral x2
Laguna 60 Hat: Clayscapes Nutmeg x2 Body: Coyote Oatmeal x3 Hair: Mayco Dandelion x2 Nose: Cutie Pie Coral x2 This nose broke off when I was handling it too rough during bisque. I tried to glue it on with glaze, but it popped off. Oddly it wasn't at all stuck to the shelf. I'll fix it with some E6000	Laguna 60 Hat: Coyote Oatmeal x3, Mayco Peppered Plum x2 on pumpkin Body: Clayscapes Nutmeg x2 Beard: Mayco Cotton Tail x2 Nose: Cutie Pie Coral x2
Laguna 60 Hat: Coyote Oatmeal x3 Body: Midnight Ceramics Unlucky Penny x4 Beard: Mayco Cotton Tail x2 Nose: Cutie Pie Coral x2	Body: Opulence Eggshell x2 Feet and Ears: Mayco Tuxedo x2 Chest: Mayco Java Bean x2 Face: So I accientally used Cutie Pie Coral and then tried to wipe it back then I used Pink a Boo x2, Tuxedo and Bluebeard
Opulence Marshmallow x3 Glaze Chips	Opulence Marshmallow x3 Glaze Chips
Opulence Marshmallow x3 Glaze Chips	Opulence Marshmallow x3 Glaze Chips
Opulence Marshmallow x3 Glaze Chips	50/50 Gerstley Borate, Iron Oxide Mix Clayscapes Oribe
Refire - this had some holes where the texture was so I added some more Opulence Violet	Leaves: Mayco Just Froggy, Irish Luck, Sour Apple Bark: Kentucky Mudworks Ocean Mist x3
Laguna 60 Coyote Papaya x3, Hydra Scale x3	Laguna 60 Clayscapes Nutmeg x2
Laguna 60 Amaco Tangelo x3	Mayco Norse Blue x3 Light Flux sweeps Mayco black ug wiped back, Hot Tamale x2, 2167 Clear

Are you ready for some gnomes? I've got pumpkin gnomes, Santa gnomes, wizardy gnomes. This is the kiln o' gnomes. I also have a bunch more glaze chip plates. The glaze chip plates are so exciting because you really have no idea what they're going to look like. Each one is its own piece of art.

I real time posted about this on Instagram, but somehow neglected to post about it here. Going on a hot air balloon ride was a bucket list item for me, but it's one that kept getting postponed for various reasons (most of them weather). When I saw that the Chesapeake Bay Balloon Festival was going to be near me, I jumped at the chance. There were issues with the venue, but it still went on! There were a number of balloons going up from various companies. I went up with Charles Blair of Blair Ballooning. Going up at the festival was great because I got to see all the other balloons in the air, but going up with Charles was amazing.

First going up in a balloon is like no other experience I've had in the air. I felt when the balloon got buoyant and was about an inch of the ground, but after that it was like floating. Every so often we'd turn and you could feel that a little, but still it was just like floating. We went all the way down at one point to brush the soybean crops and then brushed a tall oak tree on our way back up. My favorite picture is the one I got of the reflection of the balloon in the pond below.

Part of the experience of hot air ballooning is helping to blow up and take down the balloon. I let Craig do the helping so I could take pictures, but it was really cool to see the whole process. Another balloon even landed in the same yard as us so we got to see it twice!

We landed in some guys yard and then the guy who was following us with the van knocked on the door to make sure it was ok to pack up. He was totally cool with it and took pictures of the balloons in his yard.

If you're not afraid of heights, I highly recommend it.

This is part 2 in my series about how I do my inventory lists. Last week I started the series talking about To Do lists. In this post I am going to continue and start talking about my master price list and how it drives all the other sheets in the Excel file. This series is 4 parts:
Part 1 - To Do List
Part 2 - Master Price List
Part 3 - Packing for a Fair and Prep
Part 4 - Tallying after a Fair

We are going to continue along in the sample file that you can use for your own studio. Reminder, I recommend downloading and using Excel vs Google Sheets as some of the formulas may not work, or work differently, in Sheets. I use Square for my credit card transactions and my sale web site. In Square I have Categories and Items setup and they are repeated in Excel. I use excel in addition to Square because I can visualize the detailed data better in Excel. It's also easier for me to see the history of shows in Excel than in Square.
This blog post focuses on the Master Price List worksheet (or tab) at the bottom of the workbook.


This worksheet is really simple, but it drives the rest of the tabs. The first column is Category. This is just a grouping of items. Your categories can be anything that makes sense for you. They can also change over time as your work changes. I find that things which may start in my Misc category often end up as their own category. I try to not have more than 10 or so categories because for me it gets difficult to manage when it's more than that.

The next column is Item. You'll see that for some of my items I repeat the category. You don't have to do this, but in the next post in this series when we talk about prep for the fair when I sort on Items it will make more sense why I do this. When I first started out, I had a whole lot of individual items. As I've done more and more shows, I've found that I can condense a lot of items which makes it easier to find when I'm at a show.

The last column is price, which should be fairly self-explanatory. It is important to keep the price here and the price in your credit card tool in sync.

When I was first pricing my items, I really had no idea what I was doing. I read a lot of posts on Facebook, but I really didn't know how to price stuff. So I started by putting all my items in Excel and then putting a price that I thought made sense. I know that there are calculators out there for materials + labor, but this isn't my primary job. I'm not trying to get rich making pottery; my goal is to be able to enable my hobby to pay for itself and continue to use it as my way to de-stress. Once I had the prices in for everything I sorted on price and wanted to see if things made sense. I found that I had weird discrepancies. Why would someone pay $30 for a mug and $45 for a bowl? I adjusted the prices so that items that were like sized and like amounts of work were like priced.

Now it's time for me to geek out on Excel for a bit. Excel tables are one of the most powerful tools you can use. This sheet is a table that is named Inventory. You can see the name by clicking anywhere in the table then selecting Table at the top and then the name will be on the left. Tables are powerful because now anywhere in this workbook I can use the name Inventory in a formula, and it knows that I mean this table. You can name your tables anything you want as long as it starts with a letter, has no spaces, and isn't an Excel reserved word (e.g., you wouldn't want to name it something like Sum since sum is a formula to sum numbers).




This is an example of a formula on another worksheet where I am referencing the Inventory table. We'll talk more about this formula in the next post in this series Part 3 - Packing for a Fair and Prep.

As a kid I was always told that I was terrible at art. I was really creative, but give me a blank piece of paper to draw on and it wasn't going to be pretty. For a lot of years I internalized that I wasn't good at art. I couldn't draw or paint or scuplt. Then I got really into pottery and found that I was reasonably good at it. I've always been creative and can find creative ways to do things, I just didn't know how to apply them to art. Finding the right teachers who could explain things in a way that made sense to me was the key. My pottery really went to new heights when I found Clayshare during the pandemic.

I've watched Jessica on Clayshare and some of the guests she's had on like Paula McCoy of Colors for Earth paint on pottery and I really wanted to do that.

I decided to start with watercolor because I really like how it looks on pottery. I also had it in my head that it was easier than acrylic. I'm not sure I believe that any more, but I'm glad it's where I started. I found a book on Amazon that seemed like it would be a good starting place - Ink and Wash Florals: Stunning Botanical Projects in Watercolor and Ink by Camilla Damsbo Brix. I can't say enough good things about this book. I'm only 1/3 of the way through and I feel like I've already learned in leaps and bounds. I started by drawing the flowers first in pencil and then in ink several times in my sketch pad. Once I felt like I had a handle on the drawing part I drew each flower several times on the watercolor paper.

Then I took the big leap and started painting. Several of the designs require you to put one color on and then let it dry so having a few pages I could go between helped me. Not every flower I've done looks awesome, but there is at least one of each that I love.

I'm working on the next set of flowers in the book and I've already pre-ordered her next book because I find the way she explains things to be so simple to follow.

There is some adorableness in this kiln. I'm so excited with how my little piggy planter came out. Putting on all those medallions took forever, but it really makes the piece special. I need to find the right plant to put in it. Any suggestions?

The giant mushroom came out amazing. It was actually in 2 pieces after bisque, but I glaze glued it together. It feels pretty sturdy. I need to find the right place in my garden for it. I also think it needs a few friends.

A lot of fall in this kiln, but I'm starting to look forward to winter with the white tree mugs. I love how Amaco Snow looks over Laguna 60. I feel like it almost gives it the feel of snow falling.

Standard clay unknown Nose, Ears, and Feet: Mayco Cutie Pie Coral x2 Body: Midnight Ceramics Malibu Barbara x3	How cute is that tail!
Standard clay unknown Top: Mayco Red Gloss x3 White Gloss x2 Bottom: Mayco Black UG wiped back 2167 Clear	Laguna 60 Outside: Mayco Black ug wiped back, various Mayco Stroke and Coats and then 2167 clear Inside: Amaco Snapdragon x3 Bird: Mayco Bluebeard x2 with some Dandelion on the beak
Standard clay unknown Leaves: Mayco Green Thumb, Irish Luck, Sour Apple, Just Froggy and 2167 Clear Stem: Mayco Teal Next Time x2 Body: Kentucky Mudworks Ocean Mist x3	Body: Opulence Eggshell x2 Feet and Ears: Mayco Tuxedo x2 Chest: Mayco Java Bean x2 Face: So I accientally used Cutie Pie Coral and then tried to wipe it back then I used Pink a Boo x2, Tuxedo and Bluebeard
Kentucky Mudworks Brown Bear Inside: Laguna Power Turquoise x3 Mayco Night Moth x2 Outside: Various Mayco Stroke and Coats x2	Laguna 60 Coyote Oatmeal x3
Laguna 60 Inside and Rim: Mayco Norse Blue x3 Light Flux Sweeps Outside: Mayco Black ug wiped back Mayco Hot Tamale x2	This was a refire to try to even out the glaze, didn't really work Clayscapes Oribe
Laguna 60 Amaco Blue Rutile x3	Laguna 60 Amaco Snow x3
Laguna 60 Amaco Deep Sienna Speckle x3	Laguna 60 Clayscapes Nutmeg x2
Laguna 60 Amaco Tangelo x3	Laguna 60 Amaco Deep Sienna Speckle x3
Mayco Underglaze Black, Bright Yellow, Harvet Gold, Leaf Green 2167 Clear	50/50 Mix of Gertlsey Borate and Iron Oxide wash on wet clay Clayscapes Oribe This is a little wonky but I love it anyway
Mayco Green Thumb, Irish Luck, Sour Apple, Just Froggy and 2167 Clear Stay tuned on this, more to come	Laguna 60 Mayco Black UG wiped back Mayco Cotton Tail x2 Hot Tamale x2 2167 Clear