Zizziba Studio’s Etsy store is back up and open for business! I added a few items today, and will continue adding inventory over the course of the summer. It’s great to be back into the swing of things!

If you’re interested in seeing what’s in the store, click the Shop! link to the right ——>

I’m having a lot of fun with stamps and surface textures. I’m also getting better at applying these glazes that break into different colors depending on thickness. The examples shown below are a sampling of my new “fish line” (or should that be fishing line?? haha - OK, that’s a terrible joke, I know) - I like the depth and color the glazes give to a piece.

We had a wonderful turnout for the First Friday Art Walk. The CSA was packed wall to wall the entire night! We had a plethora of delicious food inside and out, samba drums and live bands out front, and a lot of great artwork on display. It was great fun to tell people about the CSA and raise awareness of this wonderful local resource.

I am especially grateful to the folks who stopped by my table and talked ceramics with me. Thank you for admiring my work, asking questions, and telling me about your favorite mugs. Thank you for restoring my self-confidence and reminding me of how much I love to watch a person pick up a pot, feel its weight and the texture of the glaze, examine the colors. Thank you for the reminder that we all have unique tastes in size, style, and color. And, thank you for loving the new fish pieces! I hope those of you who took them home will enjoy them for years to come.

I will be showing a few pieces at this week’s First Friday Art Walk, at the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) storefront, 116 W Cottage, Flagstaff, located in the southwest corner of the Beaver St Brewery Parking lot.

The CSA is a fantastic program! I have been a member for years and look forward to my farm share each week, all winter long. We’re going to have food, music and entertainment for the Art Walk - plus, CSA volunteers will be serving homemade goodies at several downtown galleries. Try them all and let us know what you liked best!

From the CSA website:

Flagstaff Community Supported Agriculture’s Housewarming feast of food, art, music and more will be celebrating at 116 W Cottage Ave. for First Friday Art Walk May 7 from 6-9pm. Fill your souls and your bellies as we share a collage of art and yummy recipes from our own CSA shareholders, Flying M Ranch, Cottage Place, Satchmo’s and Local Alternative Inc. Sample locally brewed Kolsch Bier, Doña Ella Stout and Ginger ale by Matt Oldham and homemade lemonade made with fresh ingredients from Arizona. Come south of the tracks where Anna Ramsey will be painting faces with her creative and unique style. Sambatuque, Acoustic Soup and Eli and Scott Katz will be entertaining our ears.

Fired the kiln yesterday and got a few nice pieces. I am still having issues with temperature variations with this kiln. Researching the problem helped me realize that many people who fire this Olympic 2327g kiln have the same problems as I do - too cool at the top when the bottom reaches temp. One of these days, this kiln will be for bisque only, and the temperature variation won’t be quite as important as with a glaze firing. Many items that were in this firing will need to go through another to get a better maturity on the glazes.

Here are a few pieces that came out OK:

Medium Salad Bowl	Large Dip Bowl
Plant Pot and Tray	Soap Dishes

I suppose these results are OK considering I haven’t fired the kiln in months. I am going to get intimately familiar with my materials and tools again this year. It has been too many, many months of dabbling about here and there. I am ready to try out all of the things I have in my head, and to deveop a body of work that I can consistently produce. I need to get my whimsy back.