Patrons will find this journal very familiar, but for the rest of you...

Exciting Adventures for June!!!
So in the past few months I have felt a yearning to get back into ceramics. My very first job (which continued full time for years, and contract for more, for a total of 9 years) was in a pottery studio, and I loved it. It was a production environment, and it taught me a lot, from being my own business to various aspects of working with clay. My boyfriend and I have been visiting a local shop quite often recently, searching for treasures, and have certainly found quite a few. And this has led me to investigate what it would take for me to get back into the craft. It looks like this studio is going to be a pretty good fit with me so far, and I have some Grand Ideas that I would really like to execute, but it is going to start small. I'm going to start with a month.

The month of June is going to be a lot of head-down Clay Studio time. I am going to buy some bisque-ware to paint for bowls and things, but the largest venture that I am considering for this project is one to make hand-made clay species pendants. I want to experiment with stamping vs painting, play with various glazes, and shapes, and see what is the most successful and what has the best response.

Here's where you come in! Patrons get first dibs on all ceramics, as they get first dibs on all commissions, there will be kiln shots as I unload, as well as options for custom work. I'm also interested in knowing what you guys are interested in. So far I'm thinking cover the basics for pendants. Pawprints, spirals, headshots of wolves, foxes, horses, maybe silhouettes of big cats. I have to keep in mind that I can probably only make a few hand-carved stamps initially, but I can hand-paint more. Though eventually I'd love to have hand-made stamps of a great variety of species, as the stamping can interact with glaze in many fascinating ways. So what do you guys want to see? Send me an email if you are interested in something and I will let you know what the queue looks like and whats available. Art@LauraGarabedian.com I will be uploading some examples of the stylized symbols I am considering over the next couple days, I start in the studio Monday or Tuesday!!

If this all goes well enough I may start devoting a portion of my day to ceramics. Depending on what the response is will depend on whether this keeps up. If it does I have some larger plans that I am terribly excited about, but really don't want to get too far ahead of myself.