Yunomis, and getting back into the groove.

Well, I guess vacation is over.  That's ok.  I'm all rested up and ready to make some pots.  I took the week between Christmas and New Year's off not only to clean the house, but to work on much overdue house projects.

Last year (back in August! See the HH post HERE) we ripped out all our living room carpet.  It was old, shredded, and ready to go.  Since then, we were just walking around on the plywood floor.  In hindsight, it was awful.  At the time, it was better than the dusty, pet fuzz riddled stinky carpet we tore out.  The project I spent that vacation week working on was the floor.  Our living room is pretty big, and it was going to be a *major* expense to either A: put down carpet again (I was very much against this, it will just get trashed again) or B: put down some other type of flooring (omg.. so expensive).  So I resorted to my original flooring plan. I painted the floor.  I know, I know, it's not fancy.  It's very trendy-loft-painted-sub floor with all the imperfections that go along with plywood, and I love it!  It's easy to clean, it's a nice neutral color, I hope it looks great with rugs (so far, no rugs, but we're on the lookout).  It took three full days of prep work, priming, painting, and sealing, but it is industrial which is great for a country farm house with cats and dogs.  I won't make this the longest post ever with all the photos, so click HERE to see the Hippie Homesteader post for all the pics from start to finish.... and if you have the urge to do a floor in your home like this, feel free to ask me any questions, I'm almost an expert (almost!). ;)

Yunomis!
  At the very last minute, I made a bunch of little yunomis for Christmas gifts this year.  I think I mentioned in my newsletter that I pretty much sold out my entire inventory.  All that is left is pottery that is going to get the hammer. So the little yunomis came out better than expected (well, what I expected for last minute items, that is).  They're a great size, they have the dents which seem to be very popular with customers and friends alike.... and of all the pots I've made in the last few years, these little yunomis just 'feel' right.  I actually hoarded a few of them for myself because I enjoy drinking tea out of them every day.  Not only the yunomis, but the new version of the eggshell glaze is really getting me excited about making some pots.  It came out different than I thought it would.  The eggshell glaze has a chemical that skyrocketed in price, so I went on the hunt for alternatives and what I came up with made a beautiful (imo) semi-matte glaze that fits the clay well and has a subtle color and texture.

Little yunomis, trimmed and drying. 

Some with one dent, some with two... tall, short, fat, skinny.  I'm vowing to spend more time this year on individual design of each pot, and not as much time on cranking out pots that look the same.  People aren't all the same, and our pottery shouldn't be either. :)

The dainty foot rings.

This is one that I swiped from the Christmas yunomi group.  It has the bone glaze on the inside, and the new Eggshell on the exterior.  It has a foot ring and a single thumb dent on two sides.  I'm working more with texturing with the rib.  It took me a long time to realize the interesting pottery is not so much 'perfect' pottery, or what we think of as perfect pottery (perfectly centered, perfectly smooth, perfectly even in every way).  If it's made by hand, it's going to have marks of the maker that might seem imperfect... but after living with a piece and using it every day, you'll learn to love those marks.  They signify that a human made this pot with their hands, not a machine in a factory.  Look for the finished little yunomis in a few weeks. :)