About a month ago, a customer who purchased a Ladybug in my Mug - Mug asked me if I would place any other animals or wild things inside my cups. I thought about it from a practical stand point and tried to come up with a shape that can be simplified to sit flush against the bottom without creating too much of a headache when washing the cup... and so came the bunnies. They were so darn cute I couldn't help myself and I placed them on all sorts of things!
It maybe hard to believe, (with such fast turnover in electronics) but I've had the same Dell Inspiron Laptop for almost 8 years. This sweet little dinosaur has served me so well and gave minimal problems. Over the last year however, with my excessive pottery photo, and i-tunes downloads, it became really slow and started to overheat. To combat the problem, I've positioned it in such a way, that the fan portion of the bottom would hang off the desk slightly to create a bit more ventilation. (Can you tell I have a problem with change?)
Oh but this story does not have a happy ending. Much like my ancient Dell, I also have an ancient (by graphic software standards) version of Adobe Photoshop 7.0. That version is no longer compatible with Windows 7, and has not been compatible with any Windows since Windows XP. After numerous calls to Adobe Tech support in India, I discovered that Adobe will not upgrade me to the New CS4 photoshop unless my version was Adobe Photoshop 8.0 or greater. So until I cough up around $700, I have no photoshop.
Then came the Eggs. The fool proof blue/brown color combination that satisfied my need for both contemporary and traditional styles. After the arrival of the Robin's Egg, my pottery took a turn for the more refined, feminine style that is very much reflected in my pottery today.
A short while later came my trip to Paris and my discovery of hand-carved and still very much color contrasting Poppy. Shortly after came the Sprout. I still have to be perfectly relaxed and in a great mood to successfully throw those little suckers. The sprout teapot is yet again a perfect example of the modern/contemporary in me.
Today's trip to the Getty was no help. I was yet again torn between the 1600's decadent, French gold and robins egg vases on the interior of the Decorative Arts Section and the museum's overly modern, clean-lined architectural exterior. But if they can live together so beautifully, why can't I?
I wanted to share an update on the bust. It showed 
When I first discovered pottery, all I wanted to do was throw. I had no interest in learning anything having to do with hand-building and was fully consumed by the spinning and lifting of the clay. I have continued to create wheel-thrown pottery until this spring when I had enrolled in a hand-building class and became in awe of what I was missing.
I can't help but feel a strong connection between clay and the human condition that we call life. It all started when I was attaching a spout on a teapot. It was surprising how it's personality changed each time I repositioned the spout. Then I accidentally nicked it, and immediately began to rub it to make it better. I imagine that love for pottery is very much like the unconditional love a parent might have for a child. When a woman gets pregnant, she may wish for a boy, but in turn get a girl. She might think her child will have blond hair with blue eyes, just to give birth to a green eyed red head due to some recessive gene no one knew she had from her great great grandmother. But the child is loved all the same. Each time a kiln is fired, I find something unexpected, even thought it is so different from what I was hoping for.
I have always wanted to sculpt a bust, but was always hesitant to take on such an endeavor. However, this semester I am taking a hand building class with Biliana Popova, and as part of the curriculum were asked to hand in one hand built piece of my choice for our final project. So I thought - Just Do it! - This is the piece I've been working on. Now anyone who knows anything about clay will tell you that it is still very early in it's stage to get excited. But I don't care! I have always enjoyed painting portraits, but this was so much more satisfying. To be able to run your fingers across the bridge of the nose or placing your palms on the shoulders is very different than staring at an image from a canvas - No matter how life like it looks. At the moment this piece has not been fired and is still its leatherhard stage. I wanted to photograph it just in case something bad happened during firing. I hope that the kiln Gods have mercy on this humble potter.
Etsy Mud team comes through again with their good, clean, fun for everyone April Fools Joke.
and a half, then we went on vacation for another week, and I find myself wondering where did the time go? I have certainly been engaged in more pottery so that's been simply awesome, and it is nice to be on your own time for a change, but that may be the problem. I no longer have to get up at 6:30am, so ev
en if I go to bed at my usual 10:30pm, I still feel the need to sleep in until at least 8:30. Then I get up, feed Mopsy, pick out the mug to drink my coffee out of, and head into the garage. Several pottery pieces later, its 2 o'clock... and I didn't even eat lunch! Not working in an office has done wonders for my figure, so I am not really complaining. It's amazing how preoccupied with food you are when you're stilling still for eight hours. Days and weeks have been flying by, and I am so grateful to be swooped up in it. 
d invited me to come visit him when he was working here. I stayed for two weeks, and while here sent out my headshots to a couple of agents. I got a really favorable response from one, who suggested that I stay here and pursue acting as a career. Oh I wanted to so badly, but I was 18, and when I called my mom to tell her, she was begging me to come home. So I did. What did I know, I was 18. I was bit by the acting bug for a while after that, but supporting yourself in New York and trying to be an actress is even less glamorous than it is in LA. So needless to say, rent and bills took priority over a dream and soon I had to accept reality. I somehow became a medical biller/collector
. After a few years, I met my husband and endlessly talked about how I would love to move and live in Los Angeles. We were married on September 17, 2005. Two weeks after we returned from our honeymoon, he was offered a job in Los Angeles, CA. We packed up our clothes, threw out all the furniture, put our Weimaraner in the back seat of a 1997 Jeep Cherokee and headed west. I quickly found out that I was no longer the cute 18 year old with no responsibility, but a married 26 year old, and that is like being 45 in show biz years. I needed a job. So I went back to doing what I did best. Being a medical biller/collector. This job did not lend itself to a flexible schedule required to audition, and so yet again, my acting dream fell on the back burner. One of the women who worked with me had a daughter who took pottery classes at the Burbank Community Cent
er. I’ve always wanted to try the wheel and enrolled in the next available class. I was hooked. Today is the day that has been ten years in the making. Everything in my life for the past ten years led me to this place, to this moment. When during casual conversation, people asked me “ and what do you do?” I always cringed at the moment when I had to reply “I do medical collections”. You certainly did not reply “an actress” because everyone is an “actress” in LA, and then you just sound stupid and shallow. Somehow what you “do” sums you up to the person asking the question and I was soooooo not a medical collector. I wanted to scream “No look at me, I am creative and I am so much more and…” Today I can proudly say “I am a potter”, and if the faith allows, I will have acting as a hobby :)
During a time in our country, where one is lucky to even have a job, I find myself trapped inside mine. I work at a retirement community for actors and do medical collections there. It is a job that is so un-stimulating, that to call it boring would be an understatement. In case you do not know what a medical collector does, let me tell you.I speak to disgruntled patients that don’t want to pay their medical bills, I peruse patients medical records searching for additional diagnosis and in turn read about STD exposures, their stool quality, the detailed descriptions of their genitalia on the daily basis. I also call insurance companies that come up with every possible excuse not to pay patients medical claims.
So while I whine and complain about this awful day job, it allows me the time to do all the things I love, but at what cost I ask you? I have been keeping an eye out for something else for the last two years, but I am still here. Still in this half cubicle, still staring at the computer screen in a micro-managed environment. The reason for this is that our economy is in the shitter, and I have not found another comparable option that is as convenient as this. So here I sit, while my mind wonders through Robins Egg valleys and Poppy jar meadows.
I did not create a single piece of pottery in the past month. December was the month for selling. As my shop became bare, I took a much needed break from 
pottery. I had a few distractions. The Twilight Series being one of them. I had no idea what all the hype was about, and went to see the movie before I had any desire to read the book. After being swept off my feet by Edward Cullen – the handsome vampire, I simply had to read them all starting with the first. Now I know I’m not much for a critic, and always give even the worst of films/books a warm review. I should start by saying that I found Twilight the movie to be a pleasant version of the book, and was happy when all the little gaps left by the film were filled by the book. Book two – New Moon was painful, Book three – Eclipse was excruciating, and I was looking forward to Book four – Breaking Dawn to relieve me from the repetitive, crawling writing of Stephenie Meyer, all the while hoping that I will once again find the same innocent sweet romance between Edward and Bella that drew me into this swamp in the first place. It never came! I suppose it serves me right reading books written to high schoolers. Although I have been doing a survey and the teens are not too thrilled either.
always a treat. I love returning to New York to enjoy it, but leaving before it leaves its dreary mark. I used to be completely in love with that city. After living the easy life here in Los Angeles, NYC just seems like too much work for me. It’s absolutely true that if 
you make it there, you’ll make it anywhere. I do not know any other ci
ty where it’s inhabitants have more resilience than New Yorkers. I was really glad about the chance to hang out with my sister. She is away at school and I only get to see her a few times a year. We did all the necessaries. Saw the tree, turned the cube.