New Blog

I am starting to blog again! I'm starting slow with some short posts about being a mama maker. You can read here: http://lindajohnsonstudio.blogspot.com/?m=1

September

I love fall and September not only sends the kids back to school, it brings the cooler weather. There is nothing like a kiln warmed studio on a chilly day!

 

Above is a platter design I am very happy to share, I have been offering this quietly as I work out the details in making it. It takes quite a bit of time as all of the lines are drawn into it. I did make a mold to press it out but I still find myself cleaning up almost every line! The 6 colors are hand painted on in a random pattern so no two platters are alike. This platter has the feel of the direction my work is headed which makes it a favorite to make, use and admire.

 

If you would like to order one and help keep the studio toasty warm in the coming weeks, now is a great time! I am offering Free Shipping on my site for the entire month of September!
Enjoy!

Explora's

It's nearly fall, Labor Day weekend is close and I am busy in the studio. It's holiday prep time! One of the things I like to do each day (if I can) is take my daughter and our beagle on a long walk at the nearby trail. It is such a great way to take a break from the studio and to get out. Sometimes we go on a "family run" or we go off the main trail to be "explora's" We all enjoy the fresh air and being in nature. Sometimes we spot a blue herring or a deer and sometimes I scout out locations to shoot my pots! I feel a new look to my site coming.



finding this space again

hers and mine

Dear Internet,

I didn't forget you, I've been eyeing up this space to share again. I'm sorry I left for so long, I was distracted by facebook and instagram and a wee one wanting to play. But here I am, warming up for some sharing! I've been making pots, so many pots. And navigating the craft world as a mama maker. Which has had it's challenges, in the most heart warming ways. What used to come easy is now more meaningful and somewhat of a labor, but of course it's a labor of love. I plan to use this space, as well as instagram to share how we make it work for us. Little by little my hope is to create a place to inspire and to share our joy! How wonderful it is to be able to do something I love with my little one each day.
Happy 2014!

Mama Maker

(linda)

 

 

it's more than just clay

poppy-ish mug and chevron plate 2012

Behind the plates, cups and vases is an independent business run by one woman doing everything. It's something that I am proud to do and while it sometimes takes me a long time to get everything done. I am happy to do what I do. I am close enough to launching my rebuilt webshop that I can say it out loud! Coming this august, my web shop will reopen with fresh wares! www.littleflowerdesigns.com

Textiles!

pillow!, originally uploaded by littleflowerdesigns.

It has taken me quite sometime to pull this together. I am happy to finally and somewhat slowly be launching a textiles line! First up is this bold bird patterned pillow. It's a linen/cotton blend 20x20", designed and sewn by me. I am so happy, I hope you like it!

Figuring it out again.

It has been taking me awhile to get my studio and business back in running order. The wee lady is now 2, we are a year and a half into renovating our home. My studio is in working order but still needs a few major projects done. It's been a long hectic process. It feels like the craft market and community has changed quite a bit in that time and I'm trying to catch up. What are the good blogs, shows, networks to socialize in? It's become overwhelming! I also keep thinking I need to make some changes. It's an intimidating and scary time but I'm up for it. This little potter is diving back in! But slowly, I've got a lot on my plate this time!

happy holidays!

It has been a long and exhausting year but I am finally back in the swing of things! My studio is up and running, work is cooling in the kiln and I have a holiday show coming up on saturday! I am working on photos of my new work while the kiln cools and wanted to share my new Peace Cloud Ornament! I also made them to say "joy" and "hope"! They are now available in my etsy shop!

Come out to the Holiday Heap Show in Baltimore on December 3rd to shop in person!!! I'd love to see you at this super fun show! I just LOVE this show and can't be more thrilled than to be included!

Keep an eye out midweek for a photo update!
<3 Linda

nature and gifts

Summer has been so nice, we are in our new house, still renovating (endlessly) but enjoying living more in nature. I'm not sure how I'll pull two thoughts together to share but I want to try. I recently ran into one of my old sculpture professors from Tyler, we both often walk the same trails in a nearby park. I spoke with her briefly and was amazed at how she always has something so valuable to say, and how the information always feels like a gift. She suggested I read a book called "the Last child in the woods" a wonderful suggestion since I had my wee lady on my back and I was walking our beagle. I kept thinking about the book and how a simple hello turned into me really needing that book! I just started reading it but it is just perfect for me right now, how amazing is that? It talks about the value of nature in child development. And having just moved to a home that is immersed in nature (large windows, big yard, deer, fox, trees, birds, etc) so that our daughter could grow up in a nice place surrounded by these things, it felt good to have someone I admire make such a nice suggestion. I've also been watching my daughter discover her surrounding. She looks at everything very carefully, every detail, and she likes to share these "new" things with me, also an incredible gift. This has me thinking about how to continue on with my art. I think it's become more of a job for me lately, which luckily it is a job I love but how wonderful would it be if I could turn it into something that felt like a gift, a well thought out gift inspired by nature, now that would be amazing!

Open!

My Etsy shop is now open! and may I say whew! as in I'm wiping the sweat off on forehead for having reached this goal today. I just sent out my e-newsletter and hope you all receive it. I have decided to do 5 emails per year unless there is something extra special going on. So it will be 4 seasonal newsletters, plus one for the holidays. You can sign up here ; ) To celebrate the re-opening of my etsy shop and beginning to work in my new studio, I am offering 20% off, just visit my facebook page (and "like" it) to get your special coupon code.

Next up for this Little Flower Lady is to begin working in clay again! and hopefully packing up lots of pots to send out to new their new homes!

Happy Summer!

prepping

I am preparing to open my etsy shop and the online sale portion of my website. The task is ever growing, and with small bits of time to pull it all together I keep changing the opening date. And now it is such an undertaking that I am gearing up for a GRAND re-opening! The studio is in pretty good shape, I can now work and I am finding more and more time to be in the studio. Today I wanted to pop in to tell you I am here, I am working and will be open in the coming week or so. Right before a holiday weekend just doesn't seem like good timing ; ) Thank you all for your patience and for following along. It truly means everything to me.

day one

Monday, and my first day back to work in the studio. As you can see I have some unpacking to do. The kilns are still stacked on my work tables mainly because one of the kilns needs a new stand and because we ran out of time. But my summer sitter is here! Day one for her and day one for me in my new studio. I will be working part time this summer, 20-30 hours a week (spread out with the sitter, naps and evenings). I am quite excited to finally be a working mama! No more long extended breaks, no more wondering when I can get back to Little Flower, no more running back and forth between houses and how nice to have my entire studio in one place again. It's been a long hard 7 months, and I haven't even told you about our home renovation and all of the problems we've been fixing. I think I need a separate blog for that! But here I am, settling in and gearing up to reopen my etsy shop!

slow studio

The process of setting up a new studio is pretty serious business. The picture above is of my shelving project. I am using the Gorm shelving from Ikea. I had a nice section of this from my old studio and decided it worked so well that I would build onto it. And I am quite pleased with how it is turning out. I was able to extend the height about 2 feet so I now have 8' shelving which in person is quite impressive! I ran into a slight delay last night and need to take a 3rd trip to Ikea (oh darn!) to pick up more shelves. But the space is coming together at a good pace, we still need to move my kilns in and run the electric lines, as well as have the heater/ac unit installed and dare I hope for new windows and doors sometime soon?! But I will be back to Little Flower business on monday! Monday!!! I am excited!!! I will be working a limited schedule to start but I should be able to open my etsy shop. I'll do a more detailed post about the studio soon, for now, take care!

Show weekend!!!

Dear Friends! Come on out for the 8th annual Art Star Craft Bazaar this weekend at Philadelphia's Penn's Landing! It is sure to be a great weekend! Great art, great craft, great music and great people (you!!) Come on out and say hello, I'm in booth #125 just off the main parking lot on the lower level. I will be set up with my nature stories collection. This is my first show in a very long time and my ONLY summer show.
Saturday & Sunday from 11 -6

Hope to see you there!

xo, Linda

back in the old studio

Time has not been on our side lately. I had planned to blog about setting up my new studio but here we are 2 months later and my new studio is still a garage filled with construction materials and laundry machines. My temporary work area in our new basement only got me so far in prepping for the Art Star Craft Bazaar. Oh! Yes!!! I am doing a show, and a great one! Please come out to say hello May 14 & 15! I managed to make an entire kiln load of work and moved back to my old studio where my lonely kilns still sit. It's a bit strange to sneak away to a nearly empty studio but I'm doing the best I can. The above work is about to be overglazed and fired. I will have a very small collection of wares to test and sell at the ASCB, but I am very happy with the work I will have. And with 3 weeks left to prepare, I'm doing very well! I am half packed and organized. And dare I mention that I might have textiles! I have a little side project going that is shaping up quite nicely. I will share some pictures soon, I have a bit of finishing work to do!

And about that new studio, well, it is coming along, we are ready to paint and as soon as a few things are moved out we're going to spray the entire space white! Then attempt to do something with the wonky floor. My dream of french patio doors is on hold for now, but will happen this year. It's funny how my plan for a simple space has turned into such a big project. And we didn't even get into the electrical issues. I have been posting updates a few times a week on my facebook page, like me if you would like to follow along. I also chat in the comments : )
Happy Spring!

insulated - slow progress

The wall is finally insulated, and the insulation is wonderful! I am told it was easy to install, from cutting to hanging. We used a stone wool product called ComfortBatt, made by Roxul. You can read more about it on their website. I had to special order it from Lowe's. I tried to find the denim insulation you always see on those home improvement shows but it turns out, this product is better suited for a garage/studio. We'll hang fireboard drywall, since our township has a code on what you can hang in a garage. We also had a friend/contractor come by to look at the floor and yikes! It will be a big expensive project to fix. I didn't allow for that kind of expense when I made my studio budget so I think I'm going to have to live with the slope. There is a section across the space that is level, everything else will have to be shimmed or leveled and bolted to the walls. My main concern was my wheel since I can't see shimming that. The laundry area is in the level section so now we're looking into moving that back into the basement when the septic system is fixed or to try to convert a small unfinished powder room into a laundry closet. I guess you can say I'm taking one for the team/family. We're still a couple or few months from having the new septic system installed due to design, permit approval and waiting for the ground to dry out so what's a few more burdens?! I'm trying really hard to get back to work as soon as possible, my studio is packed and ready to move. I'm cleaning up an area in our new basement to use. Nothing is easy here, the entire floor is covered in silt from a previous flood. So now I need to rent a floor scrubber to make a clean area to work. It's looking like our rough couple of months is going to be one long hard year. We put ourselves in this situation which makes it hard to complain, it is what it is! I'm now spending my days going between our new and old houses with a toddler and a dog, along with laundry and bathing items. It's sort or comical! I set up a pack and play in my old studio so the little lady can hang out with me while I organize things and clean, she's such a good sport. And in our new home, I'm trying to finish our new bathroom (not that we can use it) to get the giant vanity out of my new studio. I'm to the less intimidating part of covering the new tile floor and priming the ceiling and walls. Much to do, much to do...

much to do

Look at the beautiful job my sweetie did framing out the studio wall! I had to special order the insulation which I believe is made of wool so we had a slight delay. I'll fill you in on the insulation after we pick it up. I'm hoping I made a good choice.
I started with something positive because I'm pretty upset about the state of things with our house and my studio. I mentioned that the laundry is now in my space, well, another problem is pictured above. We haven't figured out how to deal with this just yet. It's quite a slope... We have a lot going on and really don't need another expense but, shimming everything from kilns, my wheel, tables and shelving just won't be realistic. If anyone has experience with this, I'd love some input. How did you deal with a sloped floor? We're going to get some quotes on having a new floor poured. Our other issue is why the laundry is in my space. Our septic system is filled with ground water. And the ground just won't dry out. We found out we're months from having a fancy new system installed and we're a good 1/2 mile from the nearest sewer, so close yet a zillion dollars and a lot of bureaucracy away. We're going to move forward with my studio conversion, new septic systems don't pay for themselves! Once we figure out the floor I can move, I am pretty much packed and more than ready to get back to work. Most of the summer show applications are up and I'd hate to miss show season. I do have a small collection of wares ready and a few bins of seconds and older pieces to sell. Not too bad ; )

Here's a picture of our new neighbors, I want to leave you with something positive! Taken from inside our house! There's a little red fox that runs around here too, he's my favorite to look for, but quite shy, I'm hoping to get his picture too.

squished- a studio update

Packing is in full swing, there are my supplies, tools, equipment, old stock, wonky pots, 2nd's and then the smash box. I'm purging as I go. This process is going so slow because I am doing it with only 2-3 hours each day dedicated to this. The above photo is from this morning... It's a big task but now it's under control. Almost all of the pots are packed and all of them are sorted, finally! I do realize it looks like an episode of Hoarders in there, but in my defense, everything is out and 3/4 of my shelving is already empty and ready to move. I closed my etsy shop today which is a little sad, I need to have a moving sale but things are not working out that way. Our new home is turning into a bigger and bigger project. Hence the below photo of my still unfinished studio. Oh where, oh where will I move my studio to?! I'm trying my best to have a good sense of humor over this but, the laundry area that we moved to the basement is now back in my studio space. My new studio is 480 sq. feet. That's not tiny but it's small for a pottery studio. So to give up an entire corner to a washer and dryer and leave room to do the wash is far from ideal. My excitement over this new space is quickly getting squished. We were supposed to be working on the walls and floor this week so I could start to move in. So here it is February and still no studio... we knew this would be rough... and it is.
More pictures on facebook.

it takes work

Being creative comes naturally, honing that creativity into something tangible takes work. More work than most would think is truly possible. Small and large interruptions can happen and that starts and stops then restarts the creative flow. My creative outlet has been my business for the past bunch of years. 2010 was such a life changing year for me that my work needs to change. I spent it mainly out of my studio; having a baby, taking time off to be with her, buying a new home and studio, renovating the home, and organizing my wee family's life for this move. 2011 is sure to bring new designs. I know it will be some time before I am up and running, my new studio isn't even close to being ready. This seems like a good time to reflect on what has happened since I launched Little Flower Designs way back in 2004. I've been cleaning out my studio, pulling out work like the above tea set, the Just Friends pattern that brought me a lot of attention from the press and more orders than I thought I'd ever keep up with. Thinking about this makes me wonder if it's something that I should still be making. How long should I produce a design, how do I decide on a number I should cap it at to make it a limited edition. I do everything by hand from scratch so after I've made something a few hundred times I need to move on. My work and process has changed. I feel like I am about to create a new and exciting body of work.
The Nature Stories collection I started to work on over the summer felt like me. The platter above is from that collection. After having a baby, and being out of the studio I was feeling a little out of sorts. Once I started designing, with my daughter's little smiles to tell me what worked, I started to feel like myself again. It's a hard feeling to describe but being an artist for me is similar to being a mother. And now that I actually am a mother, I realise just how much care I have put into my wares and business. And all that care is hard to just set aside, so, while creatively I want to produce new work. The mama in me wonders if I should be taking care of all my old designs in some way. While I do sketch all the time, I work hard to make a design work across a range of forms. Should these designs be moving off the clay and onto paper or cloth? When I launched Little Flower Designs I wanted to be able to work in different mediums, clay has been so time consuming that I haven't had a chance to explore that properly. Anyhow, 2011 is sure to be a year for fresh starts and of course more hard work.

tick, tick, tick

sigh, the holidays are here...
I do hope you had a wonderful time and are planning something splendid for the new year. We had a very nice first Christmas with our wee lady, she's 11 months old now! We've been renovating away on our new home and my new studio keeps getting filled with construction materials for the house, hence the sigh... I still haven't packed up my old studio and feel like I just might sneak in there and start making pots again. The plan for my new studio is to do a bit more demo on the walls before we put it back together again. My wish list is to insulate and finish the walls, switch out the garage doors with french patio doors, paint the floor, install new lighting, and new electric, then at long last move in and get to work. Oh, I also need a sink and a heater and I'm sure many other needs will pop up. It's been slow going as many projects like this are. I just might settle for the bare neccesities until spring. We just had our first snow to remind me that putting in new doors (which we have no experience doing) might be a cold difficult project and can wait until nicer weather. We thought we had the demo done until I figured out that the electic on one side of the house didn't work and our unwelcome house guests (mice) just might have chewed the wiring. That paired with a curious buldge on my studio wall have us wondering what's inside it (yuck!!!! I really don't want to know) So demo we will. The nice thing about a studio is that when we put it back together the walls don't have to be perfect like they should be in a house. Especially since there will be shelving in front of it. Anyhow, I wanted to update here since it's been quite some time since I've uttered a peep. The above picture is from just after the demo and it's a bit cleaned up and not filled with things that shouldn't be in there. I'll snap some new pictures once we actually start working on this. But for now, I'm still closed and thinking about having a moving sale.