Fairies in My Garden

I have random pottery everywhere. I have things from every stage of my pottery career from my first pot ever from when I was 12, up to something that came out of my last firing. (Which was a couple months ago.) Every now and then I repurpose something from early in my pottery development.

Today my mom and I visited three of the greenhouses in our immediate area, I picked up plants that could belong in a fairy world. Small leaves and flowers and fun textures. Then I needed just a few more things so I gathered some moss from our backyard and some small flowers from one of our gardens.

The bowl is actually the base of a fountain that I made at my first pottery job. I apprenticed for a few years around the time I got my driver's license. This was a collaborative piece with my mentor and I got to bring it home when it was done. It had a very short life as a fountain.

I also raided my trinkets and dug out some marbles.

The little pots and figurines are also from that time, or perhaps from before the apprenticeship when I was taking lessons in pottery from my mentor. The glass filled leaf was an experiment for ornaments and I kept several for myself. Stones that we have collected from various trips to Lake Superior became a path and the gravel is actually chicken grit.

The littlest frog lives in this pot with his "water" filled leaf pond.

It's my first fairy garden and I'm rather proud of how it turned out! I'm already thinking about adding a few things. I may need a dragon for deep in the shadows or a little hut for my little guy. Maybe another frog or two...

Dragonflies

Do you believe in signs from guardian angels, spirits, your creative genius, or whoever or what ever you believe is watching out for you? Do you know what to look for? Some people have a personal symbol, something they identify with. I always look for feathers when I'm out walking, but beyond that I haven't noticed any real significant signs.

Until a couple weeks ago.

My dragonfly painting.

When I started my painting for Katlyn's Bohemian Designs, one of my favorite images was a dragonfly, I hoped I'd be able to use it for my new business cards. Then a potter I follow on Facebook posted an image of a small platter she had made with a labyrinth, a symbol of walking or finding your path, surrounded by dragonflies. And she described dragonflies as "bringing positive transformation" and being associated with "courage, strength and happiness." That struck a chord with me as that was/is what I am hoping for with my new work.

A dragonfly pocket stone.

Then there was mention of a dragonfly in the book I was reading, and an over sized dragonfly balloon at the grocery store. One of the other pages I follow on Facebook posted a dragonfly inspired basket. I also found a little dragonfly pocket stone I had made a while back and just tossed in a dish and the dragon whistle I had decided to keep in my personal collection has dragonfly wings.

My "dragonfly" whistle.

Last week I went to a friends house to pick up some art and craft supplies she thought I might like and there sitting on top of them was a little box stamped with a dragonfly. I told her the whole story about seeing dragonflies everywhere and how I was hoping they were trying to tell me I was on the right path with my new art. When I got home I opened my "suggested pins" on Pinterest and two of them were dragonflies. Up to that point, I hadn't looked at anything dragonfly related. Now I keep getting dragonflies there too.

The little box that was "right there" on top of the art supplies.

I always considered the butterfly my personal symbol. But maybe it is time for a change there as well. Whoever or whatever is sending me these dragonflies, I hope they are looking out for me. They are telling me it is time to adapt, change, transform. Which is what I have been doing with my art, I hope, maybe I really am going the right way with my work. Time will tell, but I do believe there will be more dragonflies in my artwork.

I painted this little stone after seeing so many dragonflies.

Katlyn's Bohemian Designs

My new Facebook page has gone "live." I've decided after much mind changing to call this new venture "Katlyn's Bohemian Designs." In any art path I take, I've not been able to keep my focus on one medium. I started in pottery and branched into crochet and now with this new business branching off of Katlyn Koester Designs, I'm expanding on the crochet and adding painting and beading. And maybe some other things, I don't know yet, but everything will have a more bohemian and gypsy vibe.

To me that means pattern, color and texture. Bright bold paintings. Vibrant and/or luxurious crochet. Fun, a little funky, and little additions that make each thing just that much more unique.

I realized after unpacking my pottery this spring to set up for open studios, (which I am now in the midst of doing each day I am home) that the patterns I've been painting on my pottery have started going that way too. So all of my work is becoming bright, bold, fun, and hopefully worthy of the gypsies. I can picture many of my items being right at home in a gypsy wagon. And I can't even count the number of times I have wished to take a caravan and go exploring like a gypsy and just sell my art along the way. Just one of those fantasies that sounds very appealing when the winter snows start to cause cabin fever.

I still hope to get my Etsy shop up and running, but each time I look at it again I get frustrated by the steps I have yet to take to make it look professional and work as a store. For right now, my work can be viewed and bought on my Facebook page as I get it posted. I hope to have greeting cards before June. The printers have some of my paintings right now to turn into cards, so I will have those soon and I'm pretty excited about that. I also discussed with a friend some other options of things I could do with my new work, but that's still down the road a little bit.

Spring Renewal

Spring is in the air!

I mean it has been in the air for the last month or so, but the last couple weeks the daffodils have been blooming and to me it isn't really spring until the poplar trees start putting on their bright spring green leaves. And I noticed yesterday that they are definitely doing that now in my neck of the woods.

Spring is a time for renewal, reinvention, revival, rebirth. And this spring I am holding true to that. I have my new business venture well under way. New products being made, a friend is busy working on my new graphic design needs, and I have had (and turned down) a couple new offers. The offers were teaching opportunities and I still have no desire, interest or passion for teaching. Some people are born with it, some find it along the way, and some, like me, are very unsuited to the role of teacher no matter how much other people think they would thrive in that role.

But, anyways, a little off track there. I will soon have a new Facebook page with my new mediums of work. Or my new medium and new products in another medium, all hopefully falling under the same style. I will hopefully begin listing to an Etsy page to sell the new work, my pottery is still available but will not be on my Etsy page, unless I make something specifically for this new business and then it will be something small and easily shipped.

So things are still coming to fruition, I just haven't shared much because it is small steps, important steps, but not really blog worthy until I have some final products.

Our one and lonely tulip, it got nipped off by a chipmunk shortly after I took a picture.

As always, stay tuned!

Ramblings

I started writing a post this morning and realized I was just trying to fill up space without really saying anything. I'm not quite ready to share my new plans in full so here's what's up.

My first four months of my temperature afghan. I'm marking
family birthdays with special rows, and up toward the top you can
see the orange rows where we've had two days of 70 degree weather.
Immediately followed by 30 degree days.

This week has been quiet. I have spent a lot of time painting and crocheting. I have thought a lot about some options and things I am working on, but it is all still pretty new, so I'm not sharing it with the world just yet.

Some of our daffodils that got 3 inches of snow dropped on them.
And then rain, and wind, and some blazing sun. Briefly.

And it is being a fairly typical northwoods Wisconsin spring. Meaning the weather is trying to fit winter, spring, summer and a little fall into one week, sometimes into one day.