PSST!!

I'm back, sorry if you missed me.  Call it hibernation. 

I will line up a few posts so there won't be such long silences again coz I know how you all love to drop by.  So there may be a wee bit of time travelling as we look back at what has been crafted since my last post. 

 Lets start with something recent:

This was a commission for a friend who was the bridesmaid of this couple.  I adapted the design from a wedding photo.



Detail of wedding bowl



And this piece was meant for a lovely friend and was a long time coming.  Almost broke my heart when it came out with a noticeable crack - back to the potting board...

Happy day people - the sun is shining

xxx

Fancy pants

Here is our fancy pants new stand at Palmers Hamilton.  Funnily enough pre-babies I worked at Palmers and now we are a supplier.  We think the stand needs to hold more product but this is just a trial lot to see how they go instore.  Quite a nice excuse for Mum and I to pop down the road for a browse - it really is just down the road, a five minute walk.

Also you can now get notified by email of new Garden Wench blog posts - enter your email in the box in the side bar.  Go on, I can see by the counter that there a few of you lurking about here.  Drop me a comment, I'd love to hear who you are and what brought you here.

Happy night xxx

March market

Tamahere was lovely this month.  It was a beautiful autumn day although there were a couple of random sun showers.  The leaves are starting to change on the oak tree which shelters our favourite site - 66 again thanks!  Families were out with their gorgeous kids, people with dogs all shapes and sizes, friends meeting for coffee or blueberry icecreams.  The morning started slowly but ended up humming along quite nicely.

The delightful Wendy aka Mum

Our neighbours didnt turn up so we took the opportunity to spread across two sites

 Its lovely to hear positive comments on our stall and that we have accumulated a small fanbase - several people were repeat customers, others wanted to know whether we had a shop or website (things we have on our "list").



Strawberries big or small are a best seller



Our cheerful letterbox numbers are proving popular too

In other brilliant news Casey is now nappy free day AND night!  A sad moment thinking that my baby is now a big boy but yay, a saving on the grocery bill.

Happy night xxx

Breaking the silence

Hi all. We havent disappeared!

The last two markets were something of a disappointment.  Tamahere just didnt seem to have its usual bustle although we took a couple of orders for letterbox numbers.

The Summer Arts Festival market at the Hamilton Gardens was really awful to be honest.  There were very few stalls and practising artists and people were just aimlessly wandering past.  The stalls either side of us were very disappointed with the atmosphere also.  It was a long hot boring day. The highlight was hearing the soundcheck from a couple of that nights musical acts - amazing vocal talents, James Reyne and Mark Seymour, and Will Martin and Lyrica .

And finally to top it off CraftMad was cancelled again this month as the school renovations are taking longer than expected.  Sigh.

On a lighter note we now stock Palmers Garden Centre in Frankton.  Look out for out flash blue stand (thanks Dad) showing off some of our stake creations.

And fresh from the kiln:



Creatures showing some of the new colours





Happy day xxx

A sneak peek

Of something we are concocting for this year. Stay tuned for progress.

 
The hard thing with ceramics is that it takes so long to complete something from start to finish.  Everything is fired three times and because we have to wait in the kiln line behind the studios customers it can be weeks or months before we see some things come through. 

We are slowly building up a supply of bisc again.  We have cut alot of plaque shapes to cover a bare wall outside in the studios yard.

And of course Mum is full speed ahead on flower production including teeny tiny blooms for mothers day - see what I mean, we have to plan so far ahead.

Something that finally got prioritised!

December wrap up

How sweet is this fella

New addition



Golden dogs



Cute hedgehog

Owls etc, the dragonfly is new

Garden signs

This is for someone special

 The last market for the year was Tamahere market.  We did really well but we werent really feeling the xmas vibe for some reason.  Nonetheless, the boxes came home much emptier so we will be brainstorming over the break for some new ideas for 2011.

Our faithful old Telstar finally breathed its last so here is my shiny new xmas present!

Wishing you all a very merry fun filled Christmas...

Love from us
Happy day xxx

My busy life

Slow down life!  So much has been going on, I barely get time to check my emails and beloved blogs lately.  So heres a quick snippet of things:

This is me with a huge dude at the Fort Takapuna outdoor sculpture exhibition. Many amazing artists show their work in this beautiful setting.



Jin Ling- terracotta woman with dove



Paul Dibble - one of three figures



Small birds on pedestals - sorry can't remember the artist



 

My beautiful dancing babe had her end of year dance school show (two performances) at Hamiltons Founders Theatre.  I was so proud of her, it was completely adorable.  She loved it, a stage, pretty dress and makeup - we have a performer in the making, no stage fright for her!  She made some lovely friends including Mila shown in the pic.

Pillowcase dress number two - this one is for my four year old niece.  The same red and white polka dot as Mia's but with a blue check hem and floral inverted pleat.  On to the next one for my 7 mth old niece - pink and purple this time.

I picked up this stylish mug from the Waikato Potters Society open day for FIVE DOLLARS!  Craziness.  Dad is a committee member and was helping out making and decorating tiles with children so of course my two had a go too.  Mia was given a tiny pottery vase made by the American potter-in-residence.

And as for the mugs... I have 46 handles to paint and label and 8 special ones to paint and I'm DONE.

Two markets this weekend - Tamahere Christmas twilight market on Saturday and Craftmad on Sunday.  See you there!

happy day xxx

Extreme exhaustion

Gee I'm not used to this work with a deadline type business.  I have been painting my butt off, and when I'm not painting the Opus mugs I'm painting The Garden Wench things for market and GardenArtStudio, or Wedding/Christmas presents.  I have the worst pins and needles at night from the stress on my wrists.

Some of the Opus mugs have started emerging from the kiln:

Womens Cupcakes

Womens beach scene

Mens snapper

Womens sunflower

Have over 60 mens beach scene mugs to paint.  There are two versions, one with beach cricket and one with a deck chair - stops me getting quite so bored with it

We had a brilliant market at Tamahere on Saturday.  The sun was shining and folks were out in masses with cash in their pockets!  Made us a bit worried as we have three more markets before Christmas and the kilns are going full tilt with customers work that takes precedence over ours being fired.  But if we run out, we run out!

 

 This platter is for close friends of ours who were just married in Taupo.  I merged several of their wedding photos to get this design.  I have my fingers and toes crossed that it fires perfectly because it took around four hours.

Happy day xxx