For days I’ve worked on making faceted stoneware mugs with a bat wrapped around the handle. It’s a tedious process. The bat is cut from a paper pattern and the body is sculpted while the clay is still soft. Very thin coils are used for the bones in the wings. Before the clay is leather hard I drape it around the handle. Using soft coils and slip I join the wings to the mug. It will always be fragile but functional with care. When I first moved to my home outside Asheville, NC there were bats living in my attic. I lay in a hammock as night fell and watched them fly. They are ghostly and very ee ..read more

I’m beginning my vegan journey with adaptations of my favorite recipes. I am extremely curious about the plant based meats. The first I’ve tied is Beyond Meat ( it was simply more readily available). I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and am still a fan of Cincinnati chili. It’s not as spicy but has complex flavors including chocolate. It’s served over spaghetti. This is One Way, topped with oyster crackers. How did it come out? It’s delicious. My husband could not tell the difference between plant based and real meat. I had to change the way I cook it and added more spice. I will make it agai ..read more

Has your Instagram follower growth fallen off a cliff? Has the new algorithm rendered you invisible to your current followers? Are your hashtags no longer bringing you new views? And have you blamed yourself, thinking that maybe your art is stale, your photos boring, your Stories irrelevant?   And have you tried many new improvements with little or no results, until self doubt starts to eat at your creativity like slugs in a garden? Me. Too. I'm a chronic researcher. Another way to say that is I'm curious- maybe even a teeny bit nosy. I found plenty of helpful tips on Instagram Shadow Ba ..read more

I took this to the NCClay Club meeting recently. My fellow clay makers referred to it as "Crack Corn." It's a great holiday party snack because it's very low fat, relatively low in calories, and likely to be the tastiest thing on the potluck table. So here is my recipe. Be sure to follow the clean up instructions! That will save you scraping hard caramel from your pots! Caramel Corn Ingredients: cooking spray 1 C packed dark brown sugar 1/2 C Karo syrup 1/3 C butter 1 T molasses 1 1/2 t vanilla extract 1/2 t baking soda 1/2 t salt 12 cups popped popcorn, no salt or seasonings (3 microwa ..read more

I make large batches of this applesauce several times a year, and each one disappears like a video on fast forward. It's simple, and you absolutely can't really mess it up.It's also very healthy. You can make it without the Grand Marnier, and use coconut sugar to make it paleo style. It's still good! The one essential is high quality apples. Organic apples are almost always more intense in flavor, and worth the splurge. I use a hand held blender stick but you can get great results in a food processor, making some batches very smooth and some slightly chunky, then mixing the 2. This gives a ni ..read more

A fan is someone who derives great pleasure from what you do or make. They see and seek to understand the smallest details of what goes into your process and design. They watch the evolution of your work with enthusiasm.  If you mention on social media that you are having a bad day, fans will console you with real feeling. If you are having a good day, they will celebrate with you. Nothing surprised me greater when I first started out than to see an actual fan base emerge. Studio artisans are, by nature, introverted souls who lead lives filled with great internal pleasure but sparse ..read more

These listings will be stocked Tues, 9/27 @ 7pm EST Preview  Also watch for the Just Listed pieces;:noodle bowls, mugs,Birds Nest casserole, small poppies, large nesting bowl set, Arabesque nesting bowl set in Turquoise. Just Listed  ..read more

I resisted my fear of trying something new and shot a video with my cell phone for Instagram. It got around 5,000 views and I was hooked. Then I got really brave, cleaned up my studio a bit, and shot some videos of works in progress. 12,000 views. I got a bit delirious, and enrolled my biggest fan (aka, my husband, Ken) into shooting for me as I made a footrim on the bowl shown here. 27,000 views in 11 days! And 100 new followers per day for several consecutive days!  Then I woke up to this announcement in my notifications: All videos from your account are now eligible to be featured in ..read more

Here's something Google got right. When Douglas Edwards was hired as head of marketing, he was given a paltry budget. and strict limitations on what he could do to build the budding search engine's market share.  He was told by Sergey Brin,  Google co-founder, that money would primarily be spent on developing the best search engine available, and that if Google wasn't the best, it didn't deserve to have the most users. The product is the brand. So let me backtrack a bit. I know this anecdote because I listen to... okay, I devour- audiobooks in my studio. I have very e ..read more

I'm trying something new. This is a preview of the new work for you to see before it goes live. Remember that you must check out to complete a sale. Just putting something in a cart won't hold it, so make your selections quickly! These will be available here when the Restock opens Wed. Hope you can make it ..read more