And to all a GOOD night!

Happy Holidays from Big Dog Pots. We thank everyone who supported us this year. We thank our clay ladies of the Wednesday studio tribe. We thank our family for their continued support. We thank our new pups for their loving visits to the studio.

As we head into 2012 we are thankful!

Check our new show schedule in January for some new locations, and new dates.

Wishing you and yours a VERY happy holiday season and a VERY muddy new year!

Heading Into the Holidays

WOW! Time and mud have been flying here at Big Dog Pots. We are now officially into the November CRUNCH! I have been working quite hard this month and have a LOT of pieces to show for it.

Due to the economy, I have decided to add a few more smaller items so that customers will have plenty of lower prices pieces to choose from for their holiday gift giving.

Hopefully, the new additions will be a big success! So far the response has been great and sales have been brisk.

Wishing you happy holiday shopping, please stop by my next show and say hi.

A Fungus Among Us!

New to the Big Dog Pots neighborhood this fall are these fabulous looking mushrooms. They have flourished this year due to all the wet weather we have had over the past few weeks. These beauties are growing at the base of a large tree right outside a window in my studio. They have been lovely to look at. I have enjoyed their layering, and their asymmetrical growth pattern. The color has been magnificent!

Thanks Mother Nature, we appreciate your dropping these little wonders in our neck of the woods.

WARNING: Do not eat wild mushrooms! Even though they make look wonderful, or even just like the ones you can buy in the store, don't!

In The Pink

Daisy and Max are enjoying some explore time on the second floor of the house. Potty training has gone fairly well, and every now and then the gate is removed from the stairs. The other day when they were "free" they went to explore my daughter's room. I think they like the "fuzzy" bed.

Later that day, the gate was back up. You can see the smart cat in the house likes to snooze JUST beyond their reach, but still in plain sight.

Haymarket Day Festival Pictures :)

Haymarket Day Festival

Well, lost of lessons learned yesterday at the Haymarket Day Festival. Thanks to everyone who helped to make the day a success. Haymarket put on a wonderful parade including fantastic police motorcyclists and fun unicyclists! Very fun to watch from our prime vantage point.

We got there VERY early and set up in the gray morning sky's. All the vendors were hoping that the clouds would burn off and the sun would come out as the weather had predicted. But it was not to be.

We were quite chilly for all but the last hour of the day when the sun finally came out.

Haymarket citizens never let the weather dampen their attendance. Even during the brief rain on and off, there were a steady flow of people coming by to check out our tent and see all the new things for the 2011 season.

Very new this year was a visit by the UBER puppies! Max and Daisy made their grand entrance around 2pm and stayed until the last box was packed away. It was so wonderful to have them there. After they made their rounds of all the vendors and got some much needed snacks, they stayed in a portable pen right next to my tent. I have to say, they were a bigger draw than I was! EVERYONE wanted to know if they were "for sale". "Absolutely NOT" was my standard answer :). They also wanted to know what kind of dogs they were (schnorkies); their names; and if they could be petted.

We were so proud of their them. They were wonderful. Calm, affectionate, wonderful letting LOTS of kids pet them, and just all around PERFECT!

We enjoyed the show. The lessons learned were BRING MORE LAYERS! We were frozen most of the day. Otherwise, it was a great day and we hope to be back.

Thank you Haymarket!

Much Needed Maintenance

Well, as I prepare for the fall rush, it was time for some much needed maintenance in the studio. Besides regularly vacuuming and cleaning the floor, it is also very important to keep your kiln running well. A part of the kiln's day to day operation is applying a coating of kiln wash to the shelves and floor of the kiln. Kiln wash provides a separator between the pottery pieces and the shelf board. Kiln wash is also used in kilns which are fired for glass fusing. It works in much the same way, providing a barrier between the fused glass piece and the kiln shelf, a separator.

The best part about maintenance at Big Dog Pots is that it is rarely done all alone. One animal or another is always walking by or through to see what I am up to. It was a great day today, perfect for applying kiln wash to my kiln shelves.