Website, muddy2012 promo code etc.

First and foremost, I now have a real website! muddymissy.com
It's nothing super special, just kind of a hub for my etsy store, blog, etc and it's easier for me to say to people. Designed it myself =)

In honor of that, I've created a new promo code for 15% off that will be good through the end of June: muddy2012. I've made bumper stickers, magnets, keychains, postcards, labels, a banner... just a ton of crap through Vista Print, most of it was free sample type stuff but I'm pretty pumped about it and I'll be throwing a free piece of merch in with every online order while supplies last.

Moving on... the following pictures are from a couple of recent firings, I did a lot of before and after shots. This first picture is from the middle shelf of this past weekend's firing. I made a lot of beads because I want to start selling beads and pendants in the "Supplies" section of etsy soon. I tried using a small toaster oven rack to hang them from in order to get more out of the firing then I usually do just using the 8 metal posts I have.

 

Here is a better shot of why this whole rack thing was a bad idea:

I knew the metal was going to warp, and that's fine. I put it on lifts high enough to accommodate for that. But what my dumb ass did that completely screwed the pooch was put a bunch of herb markers underneath the stupid thing. Apparently I did not accommodate for that... It was not a complete disaster, maybe 3 markers and 8 beads got messed up. Still, a mistake that I shouldn't be making at this point. This next one is also from that firing.

I'm sending a package to TUIH today that has a bunch of shotties, some moon and shroom necklaces, salt and pepper shakers, aerators, a serving set, ummmm and other stuff that I can't remember. I fired a bunch more aerators last night for Finding Joy and shotties for Clover Meadow Winery outside of Shell Lake which is the newest place that will be displaying my stuff. Here's some pictures from last night's firing.

This is the sun that I made for my Mom's bday =) The pic to the left is of the bisque firing, I forgot to take a picture of it before I glaze fired. I am really happy with how it turned out and can't wait to give it to her on Feb 11th when her and Dad come to visit! I'm going to get some more pictures taken of it and list it as a made to order item on etsy with a couple of different color choices. It's about 18" from tip to tip and takes 6 or so hours to sculpt because I don't use a mold or anything. I'm thinking $80 for this size, it's going to be a pain in the ass to ship. Customers will need to allow 2-3 weeks and some variation in the finished product as it is hand sculpted so no two pieces will be exactly alike. 

A few more shots from after I unloaded the kiln this morning:

Lots of aerators for Finding Joy and muddymissy.com

A couple of small salt and pepper shakers that I sent off to Tangled up in Hue. 

Lately I have this motivation complex and it's really weird for me because it's the complete opposite of what I've dealt with most of my life... I actually have a ridiculous amount of motivation when it comes to making stuff. When I'm not at work I have to constantly have a piece of clay in my hands, whether it be that I'm sculpting, glazing, making necklaces or what have you. It's a completely new thing for me to feel guilty for laying down to watch a movie without making something. I used to love not doing anything, and now if I try to do that my mind is going non-stop about how to promote, what I should make next, new techniques... the only way to slow it down it to actually be making something. It's become therapeutic for me in a huge way, it's crazy the passion I have for this. I love it. Definitely flexing my multitasking muscles. Anyway...

Speaking of multitaskers... Xavier Rudd is the best there is! Check him out and have a great day!

Looking inside the kiln (for 5 hours kills my freaking back)

For the past month I've been making a ton of stuff to fire in time for Christmas shopping (I'm already behind). I did a bisque last week and busted my ass to get everything glazed so that I could fire yesterday and work tonight to get stuff ready to go into the stores and on my site. I stayed up until 3am glazing Friday and Saturday and I still didn't finish everything but I had enough to fill my kiln. Here is what the bottom of my kiln looked like before firing:

Shot glasses, cork pots and the first of 4 sun sculptures to survive a bisque fire!

The color of these pieces will look 100% different after they are fired, of course. I will post an after picture eventually.

When loading the kiln for a glaze firing, there are several things that need to be considered:
•  Pieces cannot be touching each other or the kiln floor/shelves - the glaze will melt and they will stick together. (Unlike a bisque where you can stack pieces and they will fire fine.)
•  If there is glaze on the bottom of a piece it must be dry footed
•  All beads and ornaments must be wired and hung separately
•  Space must be used wisely, like-sized pieces should be placed on the same shelves in order to maximize the firing.
There's other stuff, but that's really all that I had to worry about for this one,

It takes quite a bit of time to wire hang beads, but it is the best firing technique I have found. As you can see in this picture of my second shelf, I hang the beads on small metal posts. I also have pendants and color sample blocks on this shelf.

You will notice the 4 tall posts on the left and right of the picture and the "kiln sit" on the left kiln wall between the two posts. I will be talking about that in a minute so keep it in the back of your mind.

My ornaments are long pieces of clay that have been twisted to resemble an abstract icicle. I could lay them down and dry foot them but that would leave a few sharp spots on their exterior that I would have to sand off and they would be pretty noticeable. So I had to find a way to hang them...

I found the rack of a small grill and it fit inside the kiln perfectly. I was able to hang almost all of the ornaments that I made from it and I carefully balanced the rack on the 4 posts. Loading a kiln is all about BALANCING SHIT and because this firing contained so many things that needed to be precisely placed, it took me FIVE HOURS to load my kiln. (Trip to Home Depot to buy more wire not included).

There is a difference between the placement of the pieces on the shelf in the last two pictures, the stuff below the ornaments had to be moved around because a few of the ornaments hung too low and touched them. When removing the ornaments to move things around, one of the posts fell over - knocking a pendant down to the kiln floor. Not cool. I tried taking some wire to fish it out but in the process I knocked a shot glass off its dry foot. I had to remove the second shelf to get the pendant out and reset the shot glass. This happened like 5 times.

Remember when I said to notice the kiln sit on the left side of that picture? Here is another shot of it from the outside of the kiln.

You have to lift a latch and push down a thing that holds it, this moves one of the three prongs inside the kiln up so you can put your cone in between them. When the cone "matures" after a combination of the correct amount of firing time/heat, it will bend down between the two prongs below it. The prong on top will go down with it, shutting off the kiln. Or if when you're JUST ABOUT done loading, you accidentally bump the stupid piece of shit thing on the outside and knock the cone all the way to the bottom of the kiln - you then have to take everything back out so you can reset the cone and reload the kiln. I did this a few times as well. Most frustrating kiln loading experience EVER! I was actually in tears once when I dropped something down to the floor of the kiln because my back was starting to kill me from bending over it for so long and I was getting really sick of taking everything out and putting it back in. I almost gave up but I really wanted to fire yesterday because I was going to donate some ornaments to a United Way silent auction we're having at work that starts today.

When I finally had this f-ing thing ready to go I about did a damn cartwheel. I turned it on low for two hours, bumped it up to medium for an hour and when I checked it after that it was already shut off. No way does it only take 3 hours to fire cone 05, unless it's a high fire which I never do.

You're not supposed to open the kiln until it has cooled because you could wreck what is in it by changing the temperature inside the kiln so abruptly. I however, couldn't resist. I carefully opened the kiln with a hot pad to see what the hell was going on and I wish I would have taken a picture to show you what had happened... The metal rack holding the ornaments warped - a lot - making all of the ornaments shift and tip over to touch each other and the stuff below them. THANKFULLY one of the ornaments also knocked the cone out of the kiln sit, turning the kiln off before it got hot enough to melt the glaze and ultimately wreck everything I've been working on for the last month.

I still need to come up with a high temp metal solution to hang ornaments from... but at least I have the option of re-firing and saving everything. Needless to say I'm glad for that but holy hell is this ever frustrating. Hopefully I will be posting finished product pictures in the next couple of days and be telling you all about the ingenious solution I came up with to fire the ornaments successfully. Until then, please cross your fingers.

Finding Joy and other updates

Few things happening:

1 - Started displaying my work at a local store called Finding Joy, take a gander findingjoyboutique.com.

There is one in Excelsior and a couple of weeks ago a second location in Chanhassen had it's grand opening, my work was included in the event. I gave them some bowls, tumblers, shadow lanterns, necklaces, magnets, cork pots, ummmm I think that's it. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to take pictures because I had to run everything over as soon as it all came out of the kiln.

I am working on Christmas ornaments and wine aerators for the next batch of stuff I give to them and Tangled up in Hue. Very excited about both.

2 - Put some new stuff up on etsy a few weeks ago. Check it: www.etsy.com/shop/missyjayne. The 15% off coupon code (skuttlebutt) is good through December so don't forget to take advantage! I've made a couple of sales since I got it up and running and it is the best feeling EVER! I am working my ass off to get more stuff on there in the next couple of weeks in time for Christmas shopping, here are a few of the things I've added recently, some of which have already sold =)

magnets

 Also made a cheese and cracker tray for Lauren and Eric's housewarming. I have another one on my wheel right now, will be making a bunch of these.

 I'm loving the wax resist on my wheel thrown stuff. Recently bought some screen printing and sgraffito equipment so those are the next two techniques I will be exploring.


3 - Third and final update, fostering a new dog named Lily.

She was 10 weeks old on the 10th and is a lab/german shepard mix. After this we won't be fostering again until the spring. (I really really need a break). She is so sweet, whoever adopts her will fall in love. http://secondhandhounds.org/2011/10/lillian-10-weeks-german-shepherdlabrador-retriever/

Received an application for her yesterday so just waiting to set up a visit. I imagine whoever meets her will adopt her because she is just awesome.

That's it for now!