Sometimes life slows down a bit.

I found out about a month ago that I have cervical spinal stenosis, which had left me in enough pain and numbness to finally see a doctor. I knew I was having trouble with throwing pots, and tried throwing smaller pieces, but the whole process was getting to be too much. I am taking a break, and my blog, which has been sporadic at best anyway, will be either focused on other activities-- or maybe I will finally catch up with photographing my work.

I am reminded more and more of Chuck Close's comment, after his paralysis, to the effect that we are all just temporarily abled. Yep.

One try at making baby booties....

As I have mentioned in the past, I really like the magazine CRAFT. The last issue had a fun contest for the cutest baby booties, the Michael Miller Baby Bootie Contest . There are some really great ideas here, as at Flickr in general. And the best thing is, I finally have something posted at Flickr... now for those works of pottery I have promised for the past year. See my Flickr photstream at http://flickr.com/photos/2make1thing/.

Fun website

Hi everyone-- I just found a really cool website, for Hermes:
http://lesailes.hermes.com/us/en/.
It is just simply fun-- you can even make your own Kelly Bag-- OK, it's paper, but cool.

Very Busy Holidays

Hi everyone who actually makes it to my blog. I have had a busy fall and holiday season, happily making a few pottery pieces for a holiday show Wyandotte, Michigan at the Biddle Gallery and making a few gifts for family. The most fun was making fuzzy toys, monkeys and monsters, for my kids, my niece and my nephew. I also beaded bracelets for my mom and my mom-in-law. I hope to have pictures of the monkeys (patterns were from Aronzo Aranzi) and the monsters here this weekend. The monsters were my first shot at a design-a-softie-toy.

(added monsters, which no matter where I upload these they come out sideways. why??)

I came across a cool website, buyhandmade.org where thousands of people pledged to buy handmade gifts for the holidays. Lots of interesting links there to be found as well.

Before Christmas we (my family) went to Japan. This is a culture where people make things, a lot. I didn't get to go everywhere I wanted, but I got to a few places. I visited the beading district in Tokyo (great buys, great things) at the Asakusa Bashi subway stop. I stopped at one of the smaller Tokyu Hands in Ginza, and wish I had more time there. I went to Maruzen bookstore across from Tokyo Station-- I recommend taking ISBN numbers for Japanese titles from amazon.co.jp to get the crafting books you want from a very, very, very helpful staff. I went to Nomura Tailor in Kyoto (got a few cute fabrics), but did not get to the fabric district in Tokyo.

Just another quick note-- if you go to Tokyo for any extended period of time, and you love Ghibli films, go to the Ghibli Museum. It is a thing of beauty.