A new addiction and form of therapy

I'm like a kid in a sweet shop at the moment. I've found a new addiction...wheel thrown pottery!

I've been going to a class again for my ceramics primarily as a way to meet others who share my passions. Of course, I am also there to stretch myself and experiment outside of my comfort zone, I've still got a lot to learn! I am also very limited in what I can do in my garage due to lack of space so this way I can use tools and equipment that I either cannot afford or don't have space for. This is where the wheel comes in.

Using a wheel is a very messy business, at least it is for me! I definitely need space and a splash zone. However, I think this is why I find it so attractive. I tried a wheel a few years ago but gave up as my arthritic hands were seizing and painful from doing it. I didn't have the fine control required. Anyway, while I've been back in a class I've found myself looking at this lonely, unused wheel and I'm sure it's been calling me. Over Christmas I was talking to Mr Ty Siriol about it and I decided that I'm going to give it another go, only this time I'm going to use warm water instead of cold to keep my hands moving freely. 

I've now had two sessions on the wheel and the first time pretty much all I made was a mess! It really is hard to do. This week I was so pleased because I have 2 items that look vaguely like vases and 2 more that are tea bowls. I was so disappointed when class was over as I was just getting into it. I'm annoyed that I forgot to photograph them for you to see. I'll have to remember my camera next week so I can show you. They are not pretty but they are getting better with each attempt.

I discovered an added bonus to using the wheel, even if all I make is a mess. By using warm/hot water with the clay and having it running through my hands I actually felt that I had better movement and less pain in my joints. When I got home I quickly peeled all the veg in case I lost it again! Maybe I need to bathe in the stuff! 

I am now feeling so obsessed by the wheel that I am trying desperately to think of a way that I could fit one into my garage. I think L'il Miss' bike and my wheelchair will have to find another home because I NEED a wheel. *wink* It is therapy for both my mind and body, and I might eventually be able to make something we can recognise. Until then I'll keep going in class and hopefully remember to take some pics for you.


In the meantime, take care!

Cathy x
www.facebook.com/TySiriolCeramicsandCrafts
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I said Owl be back!

As you can probably guess today I'm featuring owls! Sorry about the really obvious pun in the title but it really did have to be done! 

After chatting to a friend online before Christmas I set about making her a family of ceramic owls. I'd never done them before but she was happy to experiment with me. So out came the clay!

First I made 2 pinch pots and joined them to make a bubble. This was roughly squeezed into an owlie sort of shape taking care not to burst the bubble. 

An owlish sort of shaped bubble of clay. You need a bit of imagination at this point!

Next I needed to refine the owl features so the clay was smoothed off and some features were added. Now it starts to look like a lump of clay with attitude!

Looking a little perplexed maybe?

All she needs now are some wings and feathers. She looks like a she to me, all snuggled with plumped up plume.

Mrs Hoot!

As my friend wanted 3 owls to represent her family I pretty much repeated the above process to make Mr Hoot, who looks to be giving a lecture and baby Hoot who is smaller and has her wings out asking for a cuddle, awww. There is an extra one *just in case* as Kenny the kiln could throw a fit!

The Hoot family before firing.

This of course is what the owls look like before firing and glazing. So I begged Kenny to be good for me and set them cooking. Once they came out of the kiln they were all white as that is the true colour of the clay I use.

After the first (bisque) firing. If you are wondering, the other one is a mushroom house!

 My next task was to glaze the owls and my friend told me what each family member's favourite colours were so that their owl was definitely theirs. We went for black, purple and silver. I also painted one turquoise as I thought the glaze would work well. The colours don't show up before the second firing so it's a bit deceiving unless you are really familiar with them. For instance, the black one here actually ends up being the silver one and the grey one turns out black!

Painted with glaze and looking a bit dull before firing.

 After the second (glaze) firing it's cross your fingers time! This is when I talk very nicely to Kenny and hope he's behaved as he does have a tantrum now and again. On this occasion I opened Kenny and was horrified. The bottom shelf had cracked in two during the firing and everything stacked on the shelves above fell. The owls were on the bottom shelf so I couldn't see if they survived but you know what, they are tough l'il guys and survived intact. I was at least expecting a broken wing.

The owl family 'Hoot' after their ordeal in Kenny!

Do you have a favourite? I'm quite taken by baby Hoot but I think Mr Hoot and his deliberations make him my favourite. Here they are after a photo shoot!

The family 'Hoot' inspired by Georgia.

I hope you enjoyed 'the making of family Hoot'. I love to share my process with you. Also, a big thank you to Georgia who inspired me to make these and push me out of my comfort zone. 

I hope to see you again soon!

Cathy x
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Let the Christmas festivities commence!

I haven't posted for a little while as I've been so busy with craft fairs, coffee mornings and the usual online side of my business. However, I can now breathe... The last fair is over and the final posting day is today so I can now turn my attentions towards the family for the next couple of weeks. 

My stall at the Abergavenny Art & Craft Fair.

L'il Miss finishes school tomorrow and Mr Ty Siriol only has to work Christmas Eve so we'll have plenty of quality family time. Instead of playing with clay, I'll be making cookie dough. L'il Miss is a dab hand at rolling and cutting the shapes for me. Every Christmas Eve we bake cookies for Santa, and of course extra for ourselves!! It's something I've done with L'il Miss since she was a year old and something I hope that she will carry on when she has her own children. This is L'il Miss aged 1 just before she dunked Rudolph's carrot in Santa's milk! We don't encourage drink flying in this house so Santa gets milk!

The other little tradition that I started after L'il Miss was born is new pyjamas on Christmas Eve so that we are looking out best for Santa. We stay in them all Christmas morning until we have to get dressed for Christmas dinner. This year L'il Miss is going to help cook dinner with me. If I train her up maybe she'll cook it for us in a couple of years time. :-) 

In her new pjs for Santa.

As my health hasn't been very good this year we are having a peaceful Christmas with just the three of us and we are visiting all the family on Boxing Day. This way I get to spend more time with my daughter and we extend the excitement of Christmas by another day. 

It doesn't look like we're in for a white Christmas this year. It was lovely a few years back to see the snow falling on Christmas morning. There is something magical about being warm and cosy indoors with all the decorations up while watching the snow gently falling. Then of course, they young ones have to go out in it and freeze themselves. Just have hot chocolate waiting for when they need it! This pic of L'il Miss is a few years old now but I love the look on her face.

L'il Miss in the snow.

So you can probably tell that I'm starting to get excited about Christmas now. Most the gifts are wrapped and I'm only waiting on one more to arrive, hopefully today, and then I'll do the food shop on the weekend, then let the festivities begin! I love my family and I love the opportunity to have everyone together. 

Finally, I'd like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Yule Blessings, and look forward to seeing you all in 2014 for another fantastic year together. 

Cath xx 

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Christmas on a budget

In recent years I've thought long and hard about what Christmas means to me. I am not a Christian so I feel that really I shouldn't be celebrating it at all. It really wouldn't bother me too much if I didn't have a specific day to worry about. All the build up and hard work that goes into planning and cooking for what feels like the 5 thousand! I'm sure every mother can relate. 

On the other hand, my family ARE Christian and Christmas Day does mean a lot to them. I should point out though that it doesn't have any material meaning to my family, it's about celebrating the birth of Christ. I admire my family for focussing on what Christmas is really about. As a result I have never given up Christmas. I certainly don't feel that I can now that I'm a mother. Instead, I treat Christmas more like Thanksgiving. I don't celebrate Christ, I celebrate family and friends. I am thankful for the wonderful people who I have in my life and I like to give them a token to show my affection for them. 

I don't know if you spotted the word 'token' just then but that is the right word in my mind. In our materialistic world we really don't need lots more stuff. What we, especially our children need is more love and to know that we are appreciated. So this is where my Christmas comes in. 

I work really hard to find the right gift for each person. It's not about expense, more about showing that you really know them. I much prefer hand crafted gifts and have made many for my friends and family over the years. It's so much more personal and special, not to mention that no one else will have the same thing. I have two gifts on the (crochet) hook right now but of course I can't say any more about them just yet. I like to make something new each year for the tree as well. These are quite a few years old now and one has my daughter's name on it and the other says 'My Sweet' which is my fiancés pet name.  

Hand crafted Christmas tree hanging for my daughter.

Christmas tree hanging that I made for my fiancé a few years ago.

Of course, there are some who I know would prefer gifts other than what I am capable of making. My next port of call is for local (British) hand made crafts that are produced by fellow artisans. I still much prefer to steer away from big companies and mass produced things where possible. I have to accept though that Santa will use some of these stores. ;-) 

I have found some absolute gems over the years and know of lots of very talented people who make all sorts of things. Facebook has a wonderful crafting community and many of these talented people have become friends as well.

Christmas is however becoming an increasingly difficult time for many and lots of people start the new year in debt as a result. This is a very sad thing indeed. Even though we are officially out of the recession most households are still feeling the pinch as the cost of living is sky rocketing and income is stagnant, not to mention those who have lost their jobs in recent years. We are very lucky in that Mr Ty Siriol has kept his job throughout the recession but we are still not immune to the squeeze as our household bills continue to go up disproportionately to income. In real terms we are all worse off even though the recession is over. 

I've been doing craft fairs this year as a stall holder as well as a customer. What I've noticed is that less people turn up to these events let alone buy anything. I think many are staying away simply to resist temptation and I can't blame them. I am also buying less than I used to. 

Last year I had my shop sale in January. That doesn't seem strange as there have been January sales since I was a child. But seeing how everyone is struggling, including myself, I've brought my sale forward this year. I'm giving 20% off everything over £8 for all of November in my Etsy shop. My hope is that my gifts are now more affordable to others and that we can carry on promoting local hand produced goods. Of course, I will also benefit as I will then be better able to buy gifts that have meaning for my loved ones from fellow artisans. 

So for now I will carry on celebrating my family and friends at Christmas time and will endeavour to find them meaningful gifts that are sourced locally wherever possible.

Thank you for reading,
Cath xx

www.facebook.com/TySiriolCeramicsandCrafts
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Business overheads

This is getting annoying. Everywhere I look I find more business overheads. They are seriously eating into my meagre profit margin, but what do I do?

Most people would instantly think, 'Put up your prices.' but that doesn't work either. We are in a recession and I am struggling to make ends meet just like the next person. Believe me, I DO understand. So I must try to find a balance between the two sides. 

Firstly, let me point out some of the overheads that consumers don't generally think about. Material costs are higher than most people think. My glazes are between £6 and £10 each for a 4oz (tiny) pot that doesn't last long for instance. That kind of cost is fairly obvious but what about the indirect costs? For example, the electricity to run the kiln at least twice for each item made, the fees that we have to pay to list items on sites such as Etsy and Folksy before we even make a sale, the commission that these sites take when we do make a sale and of course PayPal want their cut as well! Craft fairs charge for tables and I need a car and petrol to get to them. Let me continue, I need equipment like Kenny, my kiln, a computer and internet connection in order to advertise, a decent (not great) camera for photographing my stock and so on. Then I need a place to work. I work in my garage for the dirty work, in my spare room for the painting and on the sofa for laptop work. The list goes on but I think you get the idea.

So as you can see I need a way to try to cut down expenditure so that I don't have to put up prices. This is something that's never far from my mind. Just yesterday I was looking to order more business cards as I'm down to my last dozen or so. Last time I had a good deal from a well known online company using one of their vouchers so I went back to have another look. I was gobsmacked when I saw the new prices, and before VAT and postage! The prices are now 3 times what I paid before for half the number of cards. I felt very disappointed and quite simply can't afford to pass that price on or absorb it myself. 

My solution for this one is to print them out myself and sit there with a guillotine trimming them all. Yet another task that takes time away from creating. Anyway, as all the design work for the cards and the branding has been done by me I really didn't think it was worth paying silly prices for. I have the design and have set up the template for printing. I know that I will have printing costs. I bought thicker, better quality paper for the printer and I will have to reorder ink quite soon as well. But, and here's the genius behind my thinking, I only have to make as many business cards as I need and not bulk order. This way I only need to pay for the costs of the number of cards that I know I will use in a given time. I was so pleased with myself. So here it is, the new branded version of my business cards. 

The new branded design of business cards for Ty Siriol Ceramics & Crafts.

So as you can see, I am doing everything that I can to try to keep the business costs down but without compromising quality to the customer. It's a constant juggling act but on this occasion I feel that I have come out on top.

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think of my new design. The back is always blank as I like to hand write a personal message to each customer. 

Thank you for reading and please buy local this festive season and support your local economies. 

Cath xx

www.facebook.com/TySiriolCeramicsandCrafts
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TySiriolCeramics