March Open Studio Schedule

Here's your March open studio schedule. The main change is that as we head into spring and 'the season', I've changed hours on the first Friday of each month to 12-6pm. This is a temporary change, to motivate and encourage studio members to join in the First Friday gallery strolls that are starting in the area. As we move into workshop season here, the schedule will change again, and this Friday change only affects the first Friday of the month.

And as always, it's subject to change! I will try to keep the schedule here up to date, and if you'd like to visit the studio outside these posted hours, just get in touch with me and we'll schedule.

There are a lot of exciting things in the works at Crazy Green Studios - stay tuned here for updates...the website is finally undergoing its long awaited rebuild, workshops are scheduled and more being planned, the 2nd Saturday Artist Market is in development ... keep an eye here, join the mailing list or stop by the studio!

Gay Smith Workshop in Italy!!!

SO! If you're not going to be here or getting ready to be here for one of the wonderful workshops at Crazy Green Studios or to visit the monthly Artist Market, you should consider this ... or you can send me for my birthday, which is nestled nicely within the workshop dates:

Gay Smith will be leading a pottery workshop series at La Meridiana in Tuscany, Italy, from May 17-23 &/or May 24-30. Choose to attend for one or two weeks. Accommodation, many gorgeous Italian meals, tours to Florence and surrounding area, and tuition, materials, and firing are included in the very reasonable cost of 900 euros for one week or 1600 for 2 weeks. (The euro is currently a little over a dollar, less than it's been for some time). To sign up, or for more information, contact La Meridiana

new friends and studio members...

...well, they're temporary members, but still new friends! The camera is turned now on Brooke and Greg - they're the daring duo who came to the studio to include me (and Lissa!) in their "Our Next Thing" documentary project. It seems they've become quite fond of Asheville, and are basing themselves here through the end of the month, and even better, they've decided they like the vibe at Crazy Green Studios enough to come hang out while they're still here!

Greg's making great strides on the wheel...

Brooke, exploring textures on the clay

2nd Saturday Artist Market!!

East West Asheville, who brought you the very well-received Holiday Art Walk, now brings you a monthly Artist Market. What makes this Market special? It's like a Tailgate for Artists - a monthly venue to mix and meet with the artists in lovely and sunny West Asheville (yes, it's always sunny in West Asheville!).

The 2nd Saturday Artist Market will take place...can you guess?...the 2nd Saturday of each month! The Market begins April 11, and will continue through December, when we encore the Holiday Art Walk, which expands the Artist Market to include holiday events and promotions with surrounding businesses.

Crazy Green Studios is one of the sponsoring producers of the 2nd Saturday Artist Market, which will take place in the lot adjoining my studio to my neighbor and co-sponsor, Mimi Strang Design. We'll have a booth outside the studio each month, and for the most part, our booth will feature either demonstrations or hands on participation in events that will support Empty Bowls. Those events will include throwing and/or decorating demos, bowls for patrons to decorate, and always bowls that will be for sale, with all proceeds going to Manna Food Bank.

The Crazy Green Booth will also feature some of my own work, and during the season I plan also to invite studio members and assistants to display their own work.

In addition to the Empty Bowls activity at our booth, one booth per month (out of a total of 20) will be donated to a community organization for their use.

So if you're an artist interested in taking part in the Market, follow the link on the logo (which is temporary...a much nicer one is in the works!) to the 2nd Saturday blog.

AND...if you're a business interested in becoming a Market Sponsor, we'd love to have you! There are a number of levels of sponsorship available, all the way down to donating a tent and table for the Community Booth. If you go to the 2nd Saturday blog, you'll find a link for all Market forms and information.

I'm very excited about what's going on around here: studio members are doing very cool work, new glazes are in development, the summer workshops are already getting good feedback, new and exciting work for clients and galleries, and now the Artist Market. I'm excited yes, but I'm cross-eyed from being on the computer a LOT over the past week, so I'm stepping slowly back to the wheel for some much needed catch-up work and a little muddy therapy!

puppy alert!!

Subject: Free Puppies in Asheville

This came from a friend here in town - anyone who knows of good homes, please contact the email at the end of the post:


Scott (my friend's friend) rescued 6 black lab (mix) puppies out of the middle of the road on Saturday.

PLEASE help me find them homes - otherwise, it's Animal Control - which means they only have 5 days. We've bathed them, sprayed them for fleas and wormed them....but we can't keep them.

They are currently in a kennel in my basement since I don't have a fence.

I've lost count of the number of rescue groups that I've contacted, only to be turned down due to no room.

Please check with every dog person you know to see if they need a puppy.

Just wanted to forward this to everyone to see if I could help. If your interested please email luckiegrl2003@yahoo.com

2009 SUMMER WORKSHOPS!!!

I'm in a bit of a mad administrative rush to coordinate various announcements and launches, but watch the side bar for more details on each workshop, instructors, etc. coming soon. For now, you can see the mini-brochure below and/or click the link to the email announcement. Sure does feel like Spring here, so we might as well start gettin' busy!

click for larger image, or click here to see the newsletter version

textures on tiles

I've had some requests to show more of the textures I've been playing with on tiles, and while I'm working on a new series of samples, I thought I'd put some of the others up for review.

My tile line is focused on unglazed tiles, using slips and oxides alone, along with iron in various clay bodies, to bring out depth and tone. These tiles can be/have been used for fire places, back splashes, details among commercial tiles and even in collaborative mixed media sculptures.

A variety of textures and tones. Textures made with stamping and
with couscous, colors from iron rich clay, oxide washes


sgraffito carved, stamp garden & burlap pressed and oxide washed

My tiles are hand cut to create an organic, soft-edged uniqueness to each tile. By themselves, you see the wonky edges and signs of being hand made. In a grouping and in grout (which I'm trying to get good pictures of!) they take on another life, not quite mosaic but definitely not commercial cookie-cutter.

Back to the clay...

snow day!

I used to hate it when a 'snow day' happened on a weekend or holiday, took all the fun out of it. But today I'm really happy it was as much of a snow day as we get around here, and it's also on my 'day off'. It made it much easier to decide to actually take the day off!

No snow pictures of Lissa rolling in the snow - I had the camera, but it was too cold to take off my gloves, so that will wait. But we did walk down to the studio so I could open the cool kiln to take a peek at our latest glaze firing. Several studio members did some interesting combos and tests, and hopefully they'll be as pleased as I was. And if they're looking here, they get a sneak peek!

I also got my tax info sent away and am waiting for questions and requests from my tax bwana, so I lounge a bit, read a bit, watched a movie a bit, took Lissa for a long walk in the snow and even got a few more boxes unpacked.

Tonight I'm going to my friend Libby's birthday dinner, and I'm taking a gooey, chocolately dessert delight with me.

So much to do at/for the studio...gotta get some sample pieces done for a new product push, got commissions to finish, work to throw to fill a kiln, marketing, marketing, marketing...but today was a good day to take it easy. And with a snow day, it's nice to know there are others who just had to take it easy too!

February Studio Schedule

click on image for larger image

As always, subject to change, but pretty much the same as last month, less the holidays of course!

The late spring/summer workshops will be announced in all their glory very soon, and there is one schedule note advancer - starting April 15, the Monday schedule will change to 4-10pm.

And if anyone wants to come by the studio to check it out outside these hours, just let me know, I'm usually there anyway!