Where did the summer go?

My last post was in April, yikes, I often forget about my blog.  I think by the time I edited and upload my photos to facebook, instagram, square website and Etsy, I am done with computer time.  I have had a crazy busy summer with lots of 12-14 hour days and usually working 7 days a week.  It sounds like I am complaining but I am not, I am just tired.  I committed to doing the local market every Saturday from June 18-Sept. 16,  I did amazing all summer and I am so grateful that this little pottery business that I started 3 years ago now gives me a full time income!  I ended the season with the annual Highway 1 studio tour and then I slowed down a bit, went for lunch with friends, went to the thrift store, and had coffee with friends all in one week.  My amazing friends have been quite neglected over the summer months. 

Here are a few pictures from the studio tour

My hubby built this cute little barn for the studio tour, it was quite a hit with all ages!

My husband is the painter and he was also in the studio tour.

The discontinued section is always a huge hit at the studio tour, a good way to make room for all my new ideas!

My man section

 I have made sooooo many mugs this summer, not complaining but I think I will do something else for the next few weeks.

Thanks for stopping by, please leave a comment.  I will try to post soon!

 

Back on Etsy

So after a year of closing my etsy store I am back.  I closed my etsy store because I would keep selling the items at the market or in my store then I would have to deactivate the item.  Plus it is hard to keep track of everything when it is busy but when I am slow it is really slow.  Since January I have only had a couple thousand in sales, so my store is bursting at the seems.  I am however about to get very busy again and may regret reopening my etsy store but I feel I need to diversify.

Here is a link to my etsy shop
Etsy shop

Here are a few things you will find in my store.  If you live in Canada, I suggest you shop from my facebook page as there is a better selection.  Just go to my facebook page and click shop now.

Update

I have closed my etsy account because it was too hard to keep track of my inventory so now it is all in one spot on my web page  Kimundsethpottery.biz

The power of second and third chances

Yesterday I was so excited to open my kiln, it is always exciting when you have new combinations of glazes, however I did not have good results!  I had to re-glaze at least half of my pots!!  I am so glad that it is possible to re-glaze.  Some of the pieces that I have re-glazed have turned out to be my most beautiful pieces.  I never take pictures of things that are ugly so I have no before pictures but trust me they were ugly.  This got me thinking about my own life, there have been a lot of really ugly moments in my life, really ugly but I didn't stay ugly.  Some people do, stay ugly that is, they are bitter until the day that they die.  Life throws really hard stuff at us at times and we can choose to stay in that place or we can allow the master potter to re-glaze us.
I may have gone through stuff that no one else would ever want to go through.  I have actual had people say that when they are feeling bad about their life they just think of us and feel that their life isn't so bad, not sure how I feel about that, lol.  The point is I didn't stay ugly, I really feel that I am more caring, compassionate, non judgmental and  more.
I get so excited when I take pottery out of the kiln that used to be ugly and now it is beautiful, some time it takes up to 5 firings to get something beautiful.  The only problem is, I can't recreate the piece, I can never achieve the same look again.  Each of us goes through different ugly periods of our life and if we allow God to re-glaze us, he will turn the ugly into something beautiful but it won't look the same as anyone else, you will be uniquely different.
Here are a few of my extra special re-glazed mugs!

Love this one!!

I wish I could recreate this combination, I love how it looks like fire.

Succulent addiction

I have been wanting to make succulent planters since last summer and I have just now got around to it.  I am not the best at keeping house plants alive but apparently succulents are easy, we shall see!

I think this one is my favorite,

or maybe this one,

They are all just so darn cute!

I just love this slouch planter!

Let me know what you think!

A much needed break!

I just came back from a wonderful holiday! I went with my oldest daughter and 3 kids to Sea Brook Island in South Carolina, to my sisters house. My other sister and Mom met us there and we basically gabbed for 2 weeks and ate lots of food. My sister lives 1 mile from the ocean so we spent lots of time soaking up the vitamin D (sun) and letting the sound of the waves stripe all the stresses of life away! We saw dolphins almost everyday and even got to see an alligator.

I am in the middle my daughter is on the left and
my sister is on the right.

I loved spending so much time with my Grand kids, Owen is 5 and his twin sisters are 10 months.

The beach was practically empty everyday. 

Owen 

Sea Brook was amazing and we will definitely be back.  Now back to reality, which included a horrible nasty cold!

Learning and growing!

The last two years have been a whirlwind of change.  I started my first pottery lesson 2 years ago in the fall 2014, opened my store/studio, the spring of 2015.  Yesterday I had to apply for a GST # because my sales were very close to the limit, crazy!!!
So I have been using the square for taking credit card payments for the past year and I just found out that you can build a square store for free, that's right free, how did I not know this! Another great bonus is it will keep track of my inventory, woohoo, that will save me lots of hours.
here is a link to my store

Here are some more glaze tests:

I love love these mugs, 2x of Oatmeal, 2x of Seaweed 3/4 down and 2x of Ancient Jasper on rim.

This, no clue, I thought I would remember but nope!

I need to write down everything.  I do know there was 2 base coats of Oatmeal, I think Textured Amber brown on the bottom, then chun plum, Arctic blue, seaweed, Textured turquoise and I think Ancient jasper on the rim.  

More glaze results

this bowl was glazed with the metallic silver.

First coat white opal, then Bermuda green with mazerine blue on the rim.

Love this bowl, however I would glaze it slightly different next time.  I glazed the middle with white opal and rootbeer along the rim, where there was no white opal the rootbeer had some pitting.  Next time I will glaze the entire piece white opal with rootbeer on the rim.

I think this is my favorite combination! 2 coats Oatmeal base, 2 coats seaweed 3/4 down rim, 2 coats Ancient Jasper along the rim.

For this bowl I used ravenscriag White and Floating blue with cool magic along rim.