Kiln Tetris

All potters will understand the need to get "just one more piece" in the kiln. You have a deadline: a show, someone's birthday or Christmas presents that have been ordered. The problem? You have a small kiln, or a full kiln, or too many things you are trying to get done. I played this game with my last bisque firing and that makes a difference too. If it is a bisque kiln you can stack and lean and invade the personal space of every piece in there. If it is a glaze fire, you need to have gaps between every piece, nothing is allowed to touch and definitely NO STACKING!

My deadline is a show and I had a new product I wanted to add in at the last minute to my already full kiln. I unloaded everything I had loaded and stacked more pieces in wherever I could. Here are the pictures of each shelf. (Minus one, I realized I forgot to take a picture as I took out the last piece. I got too excited to unload!)

Top shelves pre-fire.

Top shelves post fire.

I had an extra half shelf with short items on the top.

 Here is where I missed taking a picture. This shelf included all the new items plus some small things stacked and piled in.

Bottom shelf, I added items inside each mug. Minis and baby bowls got stacked
and leaf ornaments and pendants added wherever they fit.

Leaf ornaments and pendants. There were a couple casualties here that
could have happened anytime from making to loading or even in the firing.

Bud vases (new item), dishes, mugs, minis, and baby bowls.

Beads, pendants, kids' items, whistle, soup mug, wine trivet/plates
and a spoon rest, and some stemless wine glasses.

Here is the tally of what I got in this kiln:

• 17 mugs
• 42 baby bowls
• 9 minis
• 12 dishes
• 13 bud vases
• 5 cups
• 1 whistle
• 1 soup mug
• 2 wine trivets/plates
• 1 spoon rest
• 13 pendants
• 98 kids' items
• 17 beads
• 149 leaf ornaments
• 85 leaf pendants

Making the total of pieces fired: 465! This is my new record. I've done just over 200 in this little kiln before, and it does make a big difference when you add in all the little items and do pretty much all small pieces as opposed to having one shelf dominated by a serving bowl or some taller pieces. Now to glaze it all...

Happy Fall Everyone!

With fall in the air I return to the studio. The end of my summer shows means I have a little break to make a few things in anticipation of my fall season and open studio time for the year. I'm refilling small items, playing with ideas that I might want to work on this winter when production demands drop off, and getting those last few items together for my renaissance faire.

Fall colors came early this year!

I did work on some Kritters to take up for restocking at Artistree. I may try to get a couple more done before I go up on Sunday, but since I have returned to the clay studio, that is where my creative energy is going at the moment.

Making leaf ornaments.

In my last post I told you about Stamp, Paper, Scissors where I now have work and of course the other shops around the area where you can purchase my work. The next three weeks or so I am once again having my open studios at home. So if you want to see all that I have, stop on by when my signs are out, or contact me through my Facebook page to make sure I am going to be around since I will be starting my hours at Artistree again now that my shows have come to completion.

More kids sale items.

I had fun this summer. I don't remember a lot of it, it becomes a blur when each week consists of making work, packing, shows, and unpacking, but I do remember meeting some great new people, seeing friends and acquaintances from previous years, seeing family and going on some small trips. I also know I have been trying to be more positive. Trying to figure out just what it is that I want for myself and who I am. It's more than being successful, more than knowing I am an artist with a soft spot for animals. It's finding contentment even in the painfully slow times, being at peace and problem solving when things get a little tight and being ok with it. Because as long as I can keep doing the things I love, and as long as I have family, friends, fans and customers who cheer me on, I really have no reason to be disappointed in this life I've chosen. I just have to keep reminding myself of that!

I love zinnias! And lucky for me they keep blooming into the fall.

And in the vein of family, friends, fans, and customers who cheer me on, if you've ever wondered about or wanted to be a patron of the arts now is your chance! I have started work on a Patreon page. It is a place where you make a monthly pledge and get exclusive access to patron-only videos, photos, and posts, and possibly receive some cool stuff that I'm making. You can view my preview page here and offer any suggestions for improvement of it before I launch. It is still a work in progress so you can't become my patron just yet, but thank you for looking, considering and if you feel moved to do so, thank you for sharing this far and wide!

A Month of Catching Up

It's coming up on a month since I last wrote anything. That's not completely accurate since I did write an entire post but I deleted it instead of posting it. I decided I didn't want that post on here.

So here's what's been happening. I've had several art shows and all that that entails. The making of work, taking photos of work, pricing my work, packing and then loading it into my car, then unloading and setting up my booth, taking down and repacking my work, then unloading the car once I get home. I've done that seven weeks in a row now and I have one more show this summer on Saturday. After that I have my three day Renaissance faire in September and at least one Christmas show in November, plus any open studios I do. I have won two ribbons this summer so far and I'm very excited about that!

Minocqua Island Art Walk

Three Lakes Art on Main

I haven't needed to make any pottery the last couple of weeks, I will be making some after the show this week, but instead I have been crocheting. I need to get some Kritters made, they seem to be pretty popular and I finally picked up the yarn to work on my temperature afghan again. I made it to July 28th before I ran out of another color and now have to take another trip to buy yarn. Considering I was stuck somewhere back in May, July 28th is pretty caught up, at least for now.

I ran out of orange about 10 inches from the end of the row.

I also took some work to a friend's store, Stamp, Paper, Scissors in Minocqua by WalMart/Trig's. She has a little of my pottery, scarves, Kritters, paintings and cards. So a little of Katlyn Koester Designs and a little of Katlyn's Bohemian Designs. If you need some of my work you can check it out there. (I also have some of my old style pottery at Chocolates and More in the boardwalk shops by Save More, Kritters and sweater monsters in the Three Lakes Center for the Arts, and as always a selection of old and new style pottery and Kritters at Artistree Gallery in Land O' Lakes.)

My display at Stamp, Paper, Scissors

Along with all the shows and art I actually had a little time to be social this month. I spent a couple days hanging out with some family that came to visit, went to a friend's birthday party and made new friends, went blueberry picking with my family and went for a hike with a friend. In essence that amount of socializing is what I usually do in a couple months and I had all of that in about 10 days.

Now the end of summer is near and isn't that odd? Where did it go this year? I feel like just a couple weeks ago I was hiking the Ice Age Trail. You can read about that adventure here: Day 1-2, Day 3-4, Day 5-6. Of course a lot has happened this summer, some good, some not so good. But you can't stop time no matter how much you want to, just have to take notes, pictures, and enjoy it while it happens. And the more you enjoy it, the more it stays with you.

Where in the World is Katlyn Koester's Work?

I am not a world traveler, but my pottery is becoming so! Just this week a friend told me my one of my pieces will be going to Norway and last year I sold some work to a woman who lives in Afghanistan. I believe there was one other piece I know that went overseas and hopefully others that I don't know about.

This is of course in addition to all the places I know my work has gone in the United States. All over Wisconsin, also to Massachusetts, Colorado, Louisiana, Washington, California, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota and possibly and quite probably other states. Some people tell me where my work is going, some I know because of mailing addresses when I send something out, but it is always fun learning where my work is going or has gone. I just wish now that I had kept a list or a map.

Do you have some of my work? Or have you sent my work somewhere? Please share! Maybe I'll finally get a map made of "Where in the world is Katlyn Koester's work?"

Dear Customers, Art Shoppers, and Patrons

When you purchase a piece of my pottery you are not buying clay and glaze.

No.

When you buy a piece of my work, or work from any artist or crafts person, you are buying years of experience and learning. You are buying time and effort; passions, creativity, ideas and inspiration. You are buying trials, mistakes, failures, successes and surprises; tears, sweat and sometimes blood. You are buying late nights, early mornings; fatigue, frustrations and stress. When you buy a piece from me, you are buying a piece OF me; a bit of my mind, heart and soul.

So when you put a piece of my pottery back because it is too expensive, or ask me for a deal or discount, or tell your child (grandchild, sister, brother, friend, etc.) to make one for you, please remember EXACTLY what I have put into that piece. And it isn't just clay and glaze.

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...

Assorted Happenings

My mom and I took a hike on Wednesday so I could wear my pack with everything but my food and bathroom items ready. I had taken off the lid pockets, because it is removable and would take away a little weight, but I have to put it back on after taking this hike. Without it, too much weight gets shifted to the outside of my pack so that my food bag would fit and it hurt to carry the weight like that. So the lid will go back on. (I also lost a marble and if you are interested in what that means go to The World's Biggest Marble Hunt on Facebook and join the group and have some fun.)

I have found several blue, black, and white feathers during my walks and hikes.

While we were talking about some of the details of my hike I looked down and saw what I think is a blue jay feather. It is blue, black, and white, and according to the meaning of feather color page I use that means a change is on the horizon. (Read about my mystical mind.) Well it certainly is. In just a couple more weeks (really I could be counting in days now) I will leave for my attempt at a thru-hike of the Ice Age Trail. I'd say that's a pretty big change.

One of the bowls I donated.

In other news I attended an Empty Bowls event at my elementary school, the same event I went to last year. The kids made bowls that they got to keep and several local potters donated bowls to be raffled off. All the money raised and canned food is to be donated to the local food pantry. I won a bowl again this year in the raffle. My donated bowls went missing some time between when I dropped them off on Monday and the event last night. All the teachers were trying to figure out where they went and hopefully they'll find them and be able to raffle them off among the staff and teachers when they do. Raise a little more money for the food pantry.

The second bowl I donated.

And a handled soup bowl.

Yesterday I sorted through my pottery that I boxed up at the end of the season last year to make sure I have enough for my show tomorrow. I loaded my car today. The first show of the year is always the hardest. I'm not sure where everything got stored for the winter, I can't remember exactly what pottery I have or want to take, and this show is actually a craft show so I am also taking my crocheted Kritters, my new sweater monsters, and the beaded sun catchers I made this winter. This also poses new problems as I have to work out how to fit these items into my regular display and much of that tends to happen when I am setting up at the show venue.

One of my new sweater monsters. He is a specific variety
I keep calling "Pocket Monster."

I don't know how many more times I will get to writing before I leave. I will have at least one post next week and then we'll see!

My Own March Madness

This month has been crazy for me. Not because I set up a basketball bracket and cheered on my team, I've never been big into sports of any kind, but because I have spent the last three weeks making pottery, grocery shopping for my hike, planning my hike, packing for my hike and thinking about my hike. I only have a little while longer to get ready for my thru-hike of the Ice Age Trail and I've got my first art show of the season thrown in for a little added extra fun stress.

Glazing everything, little by little.

I believe I have mentioned this before, but I plan to be gone for two months. That's two months I would normally have to get some extra pottery made for my summer show season and since I won't be around I had to do a little extra early and hope I have enough to keep my shelves stocked until I can get making again. I should be fine, especially with this last week I have gotten three glaze firings done. Add that to everything I have left from last year and everything I made earlier in the winter, I will be fine for at least a few shows.

The first firing of the month.

I have a show next Saturday in Phelps. It is actually a craft show and so I will be bringing my crocheted Kritters, my new sweater monsters, and my beaded sun catchers along with my pottery, but then I won't have another show until July, and I won't be available to mail out anything if anyone is looking for a Mother's Day present or shopping from my Facebook page. I do still have work at Chocolate's and More in Minocqua and a larger selection at Artistree gallery in Land O' Lakes.

The second firing.

Between making pottery and sweater monsters I have also been preparing my food packets for dinners on the trail. I have been testing assorted meals and making lists of the last few things I have to remember to buy. I've also been in contact with several of the chapter coordinators for the Ice Age Trail, getting some information about the trail itself and any tips and contact information that care to offer. It is appreciated, but however many tips and heads up I get I will still need to "hike my own hike."

The third firing.

I've heard this phrase from blog posts, magazine articles and a couple of the chapter coordinators have mentioned it. I can take everyone's suggestions for what I "need" to do, or what I  "should" do, or what I "should" bring, but then I'm not doing this for me and how I feel about what I need. Yes, I've asked for help, suggestions, tips, ideas, but ultimately I have to decide what is best for me and *MY* hike. If I took every suggestion for gear I should have (here is a partial list of what I'm taking), I'd have at least 5 more pounds of gear. If I hike the distances that have been suggested (part of my distance planning can be seen here), I'll still be walking in August. And if I take a hiking partner like has been suggested, the whole point of the trip will become null and I might as well not go. I'm sure I will want socialization at some point and welcome some chance encounters or people coming with me for a day now and then, but you know what? I am really looking forward to seeing what I am capable of on my own.

Getting dinner packets ready for the trail.

Surprises and Back to Work

My yarn rainbow. The fuchsia color is for below zero, but
if we don't get much of that I may also use it for above 90.

It's begun! Just letting you all know I got the yarn for my temperature afghan and I caught up on the first few days. (My first post about the afghan is here.) I think it is going to be very pretty. Except I may record the temperatures for a few days up to a week at a time and then sit down one day and do them all at once. It wasn't very fun doing the first row, it never is, it's the hardest row in my opinion, but I was very happy to do four rows at once instead of stopping after one. So I think I need to do a couple days at a time.

The first four days, I'm going to be continuing on with purple for
the next few days, not supposed to get out of the single digits here.

I also had a surprise yesterday. It isn't very often that I win something. And most times when I do the prize is something I might like to have, but never would have purchased on my own, but if I could win it that's great! So I signed up for an art supply giveaway over the 12 days of Christmas and then completely forgot that I had won. A box came for me yesterday and I had no idea what it was. It was the paper I had won. I thought I was only getting three pads, I got six and one is the kind and size I was planning on taking hiking with me so I could paint pictures on the trail. This giveaway was for things that I was going to buy eventually. I almost got myself one when I was at Hobby Lobby yesterday, glad I didn't!

The littlest pad will be coming on my hike of the Ice Age Trail.

On Tuesday I got back out into the studio, the pottery studio that is, my painting and bead studio is just a folding banquet table set up in my bedroom and I crochet wherever I feel like it. Anyway, I haven't made any pottery since November and with shows starting again (read a little about that here) I needed to start working on some things. I have plenty of work left over from last year, but I always try to have something new in the works for the new year. Today I will hopefully be trimming this work and getting ready for my first firing of the year later this month.

First work of 2017.

I always have new ideas floating around in my head, is it my Creative Genius whispering for me to get back out in the studio? (A little about the Creative Genius here.) Maybe, maybe I needed the break from pottery, maybe I needed the time to work only on crochet, beads and painting. Maybe it has now been enough time for me to want to get back in the studio. Whatever it is I have work in progress and things to do. Onward!

Musings

It's been a while. Sorry.

I think I have been trying to play catch up in my day to day life. I honestly don't know all that I have done in the last two weeks. I did get a bisque firing done with all the work from demonstrating at the faire, and it took me three days to glaze all that work. I didn't get to do a glaze firing until this Monday and I unloaded Tuesday and took pictures today.

One of the pieces that came out of my glaze firing this week.

I did a show in Waupaca. A fall festival type thing, I'm not sure I'll be able to go it next year because the organizers of the Renaissance Faire are talking about changing the weekend, and I'd rather do the Renaissance Faire.

At the end of the festival, tired, a bit sunburned and ready for bed. We didn't get there for another 2 hours and then had to change rooms at the hotel because our toilet wouldn't flush.

This weekend I went to the big Renaissance Festival at Shakopee with my sister-in-law. We had fun, but it was very overwhelming and we got stuck in the parking lot for an hour and a half after the faire was done because of a train. We decided not to go back for the second day and instead visited the biggest candy store in America and we went to an REI store. The candy store was awesome, every type of candy you can think of and other things as well. Including a tardis, yes, we were geeks for a bit and played in the tardis. I think it is required when you come across one.

So yellow! Everything outside was yellow. 

I had hoped to get a backpack while at REI. But the first woman who helped us spent more time lecturing me on tents, pots, stoves, and planning ahead of time (unlike her nephew). And then we had very little time to look at and try on backpacks, and the guy that ended up helping me there didn't offer up any information. I had no idea what to ask in regard to picking out a backpack and he wasn't very helpful in offering me tips. I left without buying anything. Yesterday I got a notice about a sale on the tents that the woman had been suggesting through a different company and it was a bigger sale than what I would have gotten at REI so I bought a tent from there. But not the exact one she had recommended. I went with a one-person instead of the two-person in order to save on weight and some money. It is bigger than the one I borrowed, so I hope I don't feel too cramped.

Playing in the Police box. 

I don't know how much of my inner thoughts I should share on here. I've spent the better part of the last six years focused on getting property and starting a farm. I haven't done that. And because it has taken so long to get there, I'm not sure that is what I want anymore. I have no idea what I really want out of my life. When I become so focused on one thing, everything else stops existing for me. I'm so focused on my hike next year that I've forgotten about finding property, a farm, for a while I forgot about pottery. Instead of going out to the studio, I would research gear and food. I would read blogs and peruse Pinterest. I wasn't making any work. Now I have many of the things I need for a hike so I have started making work again, including my crocheted animals which need some restocking desperately.

But I'm still unsure. I don't want to decide on my life because I don't know what I want. I feel like I am in school again and my teachers expect me to pick a field of study, except that was easy for me, back then I knew I wanted to be in art. I can't change careers even if I wanted to, there isn't anything else I am interested in doing. And I don't want to go back to school. What I really want is to not have to make a decision, ever. Maybe I can just not decide until after my hike next spring. Maybe I'll figure out what's next while I'm hiking.

New things, New goals

Bowl, front view with new stains and old glazes.

Over the last week I have made pottery in a half new, half old style. I still haven't gotten my new glazes mixed so I used some of my old glazes to play a little and see what I could do with my new stains.

Back view

I'm pretty excited about the new work, even though it still isn't what I was planning on doing. That is still coming and I will be doing that as well.

Another bowl, I'm playing with patterns.

I have also been training for a long distance hike. I don't know when I will actually get to do this hike since my summer and fall are currently all booked up for shows and some personal events. Over the last 10 days I have hiked carrying a 15 pound backpack, or walked, 46 miles. And that is just my morning routine or an afternoon walk with my mom. I still have things I need to be doing during the day that prevent me from walking all day.

Trying some different color combinations on cups.

And supplies to gather before I have everything I would need for a multi-day hike.

My life, interests and this blog are changing. I never know what will catch my attention or what I will be most interested in over the next few months. It may come to pass that I don't go on a multi-day hike simply because I couldn't get organized while the idea was still fresh in my mind. That is how my interests go. If it is something that requires my daily attention, my chickens for example, I won't just walk away from it. They are my pets and I will take care of them until the end. But projects and ideas and trips don't require constant care in the same way that an animal does and therefore I don't feel bad for setting aside some things.

In my bag I have stand-ins for supplies I need to get; an overweight tent is
taking up most of the space and weight, and the green bag is a one-person tent I borrowed.

They do require care, I'm not saying they don't, but a living being won't perish if I walk away from an idea because I lost interest in it. I'm always looking for something new to try: musical instruments, a type of art or craft I haven't tried yet, a new experience or place to see, a new big dream or goal. Does this make me a seeker of novelty or just someone with a short attention span? Or maybe I have to try all these new things in order to figure out who I am without anyone telling me otherwise.

I got a couple of books from the library today to keep me interested.

(And since I wrote this two days ago, I have ordered the Ice Age Trail Atlas, which is the book I will use to plan my trip and navigate the trail, so I'm excited about doing the hike again. I lost a little interest this week over a small hiccup.)

By the way, do you know how small a one-person tent is?! I may have to get an ultra lightweight two-person tent simply for my own mental health on the trail.