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Saturday, 30 January 2010 After a several month absence from writing in this blog, I pick up my figurative pen to promote a worthy fund raising event – Three Cups of Tea Santa Cruz. Over 50 Santa Cruz artists have created theme related art to be auctioned off both on-line and at the event which will be held at the Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz, CA on February 11 at 5:30 pm. Many of the artists including myself created sets of 3 cups for the auction. The poster pictures a small selection of the art. All of the wonderful artwork can be viewed in the gallery of art on the 3 Cups of Tea website . i
For the second consecutive year some very fine local potters, Steve and Bonnie Barisof , have organized this event to benefit schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. All proceeds go to the Central Asia Institute created by Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools.
In the words of Steve and Bonnie: If you haven’t heard of him or the books, you have been missing some really wonderful and uplifting reading. It is about an attempt to climb K2, the 2nd highest mountain after Everest, how things went wrong for a climber on his team, how they had to quickly descend, and his getting lost. He somehow came to a very remote Pakistani village, was given food and shelter, and after he recovered asked what he could do to repay them. They asked for a school for their children! The rest of the story is about how he managed against great odds to actually do it. Today, about 17 years later they have helped to build 130 schools in Northern Pakistan and Afghanistan, and they are all safe! Why? How come? Read the book, all of our foreign policies could take a chapter out of his books.
More information on the February 11 event can be found in this on the 3 Cups of Tea website .
Friday, 18 September 2009 This month’s Etsy Mud Team challenge was to create a Sake Set consisting of a pouring bottle with 1 or more cups. As always, the creative mud team has come up with stunning entries. This one is my entry:
And these are a sampling of a few of my favorites:
Sake for 3 – JDWolfePottery
Sake Squared – JennyBlasenPottery
Secret Faces Sake Set – MaidofClay
Serenity Ice – Almapottery
Sake for Six – Dbabcock
You can see the rest of the beautiful sets at the Etsy Mud Team web site where you can also vote for your favorite and in return you will receive a discount coupon to these member shops: patspottery, claynfiber, siennaorlando, trpottery, smokypendants, laurawallstaylor, jessicasharrah, glyntpottery, lomaprietapottery, loveartworks, claycrazypottery, brookhousepottery, foxpots, claydogstudio, dancingdolphinpotter, potterypeddler, khphillips, dbabcock
Tuesday, 15 September 2009 It’s been more than a month since I have taken the time to write a blog entry. My art salon buddies: Liz Crain, Connie Williams, Annie McHale and Gwen Revino are as busy or even busier than I, but have found the time to post to their blogs. My no-excuses excuse is prepping and doing two back to back Art and Wine Shows followed by Santa Cruz Open Studios in mid-October. So to get me started again, thought I would just post these pics that were taken of my Open Studios host, watercolor artist Karen Nevis, and me at the Capitola Art and Wine Festival this past weekend.
We both had booths at the festival quite a distance away from each other, so it was a treat to have Karen come by my booth to see my work! Karen’s art was featured on the 2009 Wharf to Wharf poster. [SinglePic not found] By the way, if you live in the Bay area and missed going to Capitola Art and Wine this year, mark you calendar for the second weekend in September so that you don’t miss it in 2010.
Thursday, 28 May 2009 If you found my blog today, you may have noticed that the blog has now been incorporated into my website. As a result of integrating the blog and the website, I am also redesigning it. Some of the pages need a lot of additional work and others are still in the draft stages so some of the links are not active. All will be fixed and in working order soon. In the meantime, if you notice something I need to fix, please let me know.
Wednesday, 20 May 2009 The Design Style Guide is beginning a new and exciting project! Design Style Guide is going to be having giveaways approximately every 2 weeks!
The first giveaway features Karen Faulkner Art. The winner will receive a $20.00 credit plus free shipping and you will be able to pick any item from her store that is within the given limit. Visit the Design Style Guide blog to enter the giveaway — there are many ways in which you can enter and once you see Karen’s work, I’m sure you will want to enter more than once. This giveaway ends on June 3 so be sure and visit the blog soon!
I have my eye on this beauty:
Karen says, “Painting is restorative for me and I hope that a peaceful yet uplifting quality comes through in my work. I strive to make each piece unique, saying as much as I can in just a few brushstrokes. My paintings are often reflective of a mood or emotion.”
You can visit her blog at to find out more about her most recent creations.
Sunday, 10 May 2009 If you journal or are thinking about starting a journal, CREATE a Thought’s Etsy store is sure to please you. As she says in her profile: “Everyday you are creating thoughts. Thoughts that are interesting and beautiful, profound and deep, silly and funny. Whatever your thought style is, they should be recorded. CREATE a THOUGHT’s mission is to help you do just that.” And she does a wonderful job of fulfilling that mission. This one is my favorite: 
In addition to the many styles of journals to select from, she has other items to brighten your day. And as a lover of words she also has a blog, of course.
Thursday, 30 April 2009 
The poster says it all! I proud to be one of the 26 artists included in this terrific event. To see some of the works of these artists visit the Santa Cruz Clay website. From the press release:
Saturday, May 2 11:00a to 5:00p
26 talented local Santa Cruz Clay artists will be showing and selling their creative art works at the Bargetto Winery in Soquel on Sat., May 2nd and Sunday, May 3rd 11am – 5pm
Enjoy live music and wine tasting in this lovely setting, a perfect place to come and see the works of these talented Santa Cruz Clay artists.
Thursday, 23 April 2009 
This months featured Etsy Blogger is TwoZanyZebras. TwoZanyZebras just celebrated her one year anniversary on Etsy on April 4th. Her shop is filled with delightful items for babies and children. And as a new grandmother, I was especially pleased to have found her shop. TwoZanyZebras is the home of the Zarkles. Wondering what in the world is a Zarkle? They are whimsical creatures that are part of the Zarkle family. Each Zarkle has their own unique name, personality, and Zany Pocket Blankie to sleep in. Pictured above is a Zany Pocket Blankie with Ginger Zarkle. Be sure and checkout this delightful Etsy shop.To read more about TwoZanyZebras’ zany world visit her blog.
Wednesday, 22 April 2009 No doubt about it, but the making of pottery requires room and equipment. Currently, I am fortunate to have a dedicated studio space for the pottery process up until the pot is ready to be fired. And the equipment and tools to get it to that point. It’s a small space, but a well lit and it has a view!
Two wheels occupy most of the space inside.
View of the studio from the outside.
The rest of my studio is spread out – bisque kiln in the garage, glazing area, glazes and glaze kiln at the home/studio of another potter, and my “showroom” is in a spare bedroom which is also used to house our exercise equipment.
Which brings me to tomorrow’s dream – a bit more space in the wheel area would be nice, but a more important need would be to have a small showroom for displaying and storing finished work and a glaze /firing area that would house an electric kiln for bisque and a gas/propane kiln for the glaze firing. And a ware cart (or two) to transport pottery from one area to another. Some of the newer lightweight kiln shelves would make it all just about perfect!
In the meantime, I’ll just appreciate what I have!
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