7) Blog

gagablog 090413: 2012 a retrospective: this year was a great year for me for new ideas, new patterns and a whole lot of pottery.  The opening of the pre-historic site of Akrotiri just down the road from me, meant more traffic into my store, for which i was very grateful. Please take a look at 2012’s creations!

gagablog 101212: It astounds me that I have not updated my blog/website here in almost a year. I really need to make the effort and time to sit down and keep you all current as to what I am doing and what my new creations look like.  Obviously I do not find it to be an easy task.  This summer was full of new ideas, some of which I have already put to clay, and others which are sitting and waiting for their turn.  I will provide you with photos of everything new I made this year, just bear with me.

gagablog 260112:  so it is finally happening!!! with the help of my friend Mike Spendlove, my domain name swaps are happening! my old website, http://www.galateaspottery.com which is a site that my wonderful sister created for me, now has a new name http://www.galateaspottery.eu.  This site gives you a look at my earlier creations.  This here wordpress site will soon take on the name http://www.galateaspottery.com, but this hasn’t taken place yet!! But it will, it will! very very exciting!!  The summer has been moving along quite nicely (phtou phtou phtou — as i spit on myself to ward of the evil eye). I have been very lucky that the prehistoric site of Akrotiri has opened after 6.5 years of it being closed.  I hope that you are all well, and that your summer is happy, healthy and cool! Take care.  I will keep you posted as to the domain name change of this site!

gagablog 180612: The 16 person dinner set has come round full circle and is complete! Hurray!  I am attaching some photos so you can see how the set looks.  It will be shipped off in the next week to its new home. Enjoy… 

gagablog 100612: The first pieces from the 16 person dinner set have come out of the kiln completed and i must say that they really look wonderful and colourful and lots of fun.  The second part of the dinner set is now in the kiln for the bisquit firing.  These pieces will come out tomorrow, be glazed and then go back in for their final firing.  Time-wise I am doing very well, as the set  must be complete and ready for shipping by the end of this month.  Tomorrow I will go and order the box in which they will be shipped.  For something the size if a dinner set I do not use regular post, but rather use shipping companies.  This is a safer and more than likely cheaper way to ship a large amount of pottery.  Pictures will follow once the entire set has been completed.

gagablog 060612:  First batch of the 16 person dinner set is in the kiln for the first, bisquit, firing! It is very exciting!  Today I will continue to paint the rest of the pieces for the dinner set and then I plan on throwing some more pieces!  I wish everyone a wonderful day!

gagablog 030612:  OMGoodness! i just removed a wedding platter from the kiln and it looks marvelous!!! I am not at liberty to post it yet as the bride and groom know my site and the platter is a surprise! I cannot wait to post it for you all so you can see it.  I have also been working on two different dinner sets.  A four piece dinner set for 6 people and a 5 pieces dinner set for 16 people, which is the largest dinner set that I have made so far! I am very excited about it.  I will definitely post photos for you when the pieces are ready!

Here are a few new pieces that came out of this kiln:

gagablog 040512  Dear reader I am terribly sorry to have not been true to my words of the other day.  I had promised to upload some pictures of the things that came out of the kiln, but alas, have just gotten around to it now.  Please forgive me. The kiln came out fine and since then i have put in another kiln, a bisquit, which came out today and will go in again tonight for the final, glaze firing.  The pictures that follow are the pieces that came out of the kiln two days ago. These pieces are part of a wedding gift that I will be shipping to England.  I hope you like the pieces.

gagablog 020512 Today is the day that the kiln comes out with the first pieces towards an order for a wedding gift.  The wedding platter will be going in the next kiln! I love and hate opening a kiln; i love opening a kiln because I enjoy seeing pieces coming out finished, I hate opening the kiln because the truth is, anything can happen in a kiln.  I have fired a piece that survived the first firing, or bisquit firing, only to have it come out severed in half in the glaze firing!! Ugh, not a nice feeling at all.  I will try to post some pics later on today to keep you posted!

300412   Today I smell of smoked pork after a wonderful evening of Raku firings with fellow potters Marina and Yannis.  I enjoy Raku firings because they are fast and dirty, well perhaps more smoky than dirty.  My chores for today, apart from a shower, are to unload the kiln, glaze and reload it and to continue to paint my tattooed ladies.

040412   I became a potter out of need rather than a calling.  Working in front of a computer for 8-10 hours a day had had its toll on me.  My salvation had been to dabble in various night classes; batik, photography, ceramics.  The last had stuck like a fly in honey. I LOVED it from the start; loved getting dirty, loved how my entire body rotated and shifted as I tried to learn how to centre the clay on the wheel.  I would giggle with myself, not worried about what other students or the teacher would think.  This time was for me, a release, an ecstasy, a true joy.  I looked forward to the one three hour period per week like no other.

The money I made while I worked was very good, and I am grateful for those years.  I bought a gorgeous little cottage house and a year to the day of purchase, I sold it.  I might say looking back now, that that might have been my one regret in all this, but well what is life without a few mistakes?  What happened to me?  Quite simply, I panicked.  I knew that I would need to continue to make the same money for the next 15-20 years and just couldn’t see myself in front of a computer for that long.

So as I said, I sold the house, but I also sold my car, quit my job and moved to Greece to study pottery in a school just on the outskirts of Athens.

310312  After years of talking about it, I have finally gotten around to creating a site that shows my new(er) work.  Even the task of getting started seemed too much.  With the help of one of my lovely sisters who guided me to website/blog sites and the help of a close friend, not only did I get started, but well, you can see the result.  Thank you Antiope and an anonymous friend for your time and efforts