Sunday, June 22, 2008

In the Garage

The garage was hot and smelly, but I prevailed in making two very cute puzzles. One is a gift so I will not talk about it, the other is up on my etsy site: www.sagerocky.etsy.com. I thought it turned out great. It was cut from a piece of hard wood using a scroll saw and is in the shape of an owl. I found it hard to cut the wood; the blade would get stuck and heat up and singe the wood so I had to force it through. Also since the blade kept getting stuck the wood rattled something fierce. I would love some advice on this problem. I will tell you what worked out great, clear tape! I read in this wood working magazine that putting clear tape on the back cuts down on the amount of mess you get on the backside of the wood from the saw. It wasn't perfect, but it made a huge difference. Happy hand made day!

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Vacation is over

Vacation is over, school is over, and I am home for the summer. No excuses! At least that is what I keep telling myself. No excuses - go to the shop and BE CREATIVE! Yeah right. I have taken to going through the encyclopedia and making anything that sparks an interest. So I have made a paddlefish, a pelican, a pecock, a pirhana, and I was thinking of a porcupine. :-) So this is what creativity looks like.
I am only to pi in the dictionary; what could be hiding just on the next page? Puffer fish, porpoise, puma....oh my. Respond back and tell me what comes to you as an interesting animal after Pi in the encyclopedia.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Promotions

So on top of everything else creatively that I am doing, now I have to try and promote myself too! I spend several hours today with 6-10 internet windows open trying to figure out how you promote your shop. It is not easy. I started out with a post in the buisness forum of Etsy, which was very helpful. From there I looked at other people's blogs; specifically I looked at their links to investigate their promotional methods. I found some webrings to join, I learned about Etsy mini and I looked at their advertising. You should notice a few new things around the frindges of this site :-) Do not worry I also did some artwork yesterday. I made two new turtle minitures and a bunny rabbitt. I figured out a new way to attach the limbs on my minitures that is so much easier and faster to clean up then my old method. I fired a bunch of stuff, which can be seen on my etsy sight, but overall I was not very pleased. Things turned out a lot darker than I had expected and some underglazes disappeared all together. I chalked it all up to a learning experience and I will know not to use those glazes later.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Today in the shop

Okay so summer is almost beginning for me. School will be over in three days and I can get to work on some serious shop time. Today I warmed up in my pottery area in the basement. But, I was side tracked by my husband who wanted me to write names on the bottom of 16 mugs (because his handwriting is illegible) and then wax resist them. I did it and did not complain, but I did give him a look he understood. :-) After that I was free to play around. I made several little things, a fish, a turtle, a bunny, and sea turtle. Then I cleaned up some leaves for a bisque fire. I was so tired afterwards. It doesn't sound like much, but it takes a long time to make things. Some people forget that. They think it looks simple so it must have been quick. Oh, they are sooo wrong. It takes a lot of work to make things look so simple and easy.

Sagerocky
MiniBlog

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