*Win a Free Pair of Blue Mugs*

I feel the time has come for another mug giveaway.
You must be a subscriber to be eligible for the drawing.
These are the two lovelies being given, basking on the porch in the first cloudy, faint glimmers of Spring:

You must be in the U.S. to be eligible. Otherwise there are no rules. Oh, it would help if you were attracted by handmade mugs, so light to hold, so happy to make your acquaintance. Because these are that oxymoron, cheerfully blue mugs, just for you.

How do you subscribe? Option One: Allllll the way down to the very bottommost bottom of this page, there is a link that reads Subscribe Now. Click it. Choose from the options how you want to subscribe- do you want notice of new posts to come to your Yahoo? Your Google page? Or-? Then just follow directions. Easy shmeezy. Option Two: In the URL box at the top of this window, you will see a blue (mac) or orange (PC) squarish shape with some curved white lines in it. Hover your mouse over it. It will say Subscribe to This Page. Go for it, same as in Option One. Still easy shmeezy. (Oh yes- subscribing does not mean I will somehow invade your personal computer space. Your privacy is yours alone. I don't collect or use anyone's data in any way for any reason. I'm just glad to know you read my blog.)

I will give you until March 31st to subscribe. Then I will put your name in a hat (a very nice felt and velvet hat, by the way) with the other names. I will put my right hand in, right hand out, right hand in and shake it all about, and say the magic words, Duo Muggulus Winnus. Your name will probably fly to my hand, as to a magnet.

Why not post a link to this on your FB page? It would be so nice of you! Nice people deserve a chance at a couple of new mugs! Your friends are most welcome to visit my blog.

Previous subscribers and winners are already in the pool. Subsequent mug drawings will always contain all U.S. subscribers who are still with me. If, perchance, you do not win, there will be another drawing eventually, and another...

I Took Out My Camera & They Started Mugging

They have been proliferating in my studio. They are lounging on the shelves. They are snooty, not talking to the bowls next door. Worst of all, they are incredible hams. As soon as I cranked up my camera, they started mugging all over the place. They can just move on out, as far as I'm concerned. Someone might like to pay their moving expenses...

The cutie pie mugs double as espresso cups. They hold about 6 oz, and they are a friendly lot, varying a little in height and color but looking like siblings. First they were just standing around... then they did a stack. Little showoffs. ($12 each)

Then the small mugs hurried over. At a little over 7 oz. capacity, and about 3 3/4" high, they think they're pretty cute. They're kind of a diverse crew. ($15 each)

They begged for a closeup, being pretty vain. I obliged.

(Note: The top left small mug has been sold. Thank you!)

The quite-a-bit-bigger mugs (which I think of as Medium) were asking to be handled next- they intended no pun. These ambled over a little slower, as they are built to contain 12-13 oz. At 3.5"-4.75" tall, they swagger a little, too. There were 8 of them, some related to each other and some just friends of the family. They thought they were the biggest, but they weren't. ($22 each)

Then the Muggi Jumbissimi arrived in a pack. They are quiet for their size, gentle giants, but the other mugs shrank back in respect. At 16 oz capacity, they know their own worth, but never brag. ($24 each)

(Note: One of these Jumbissimi has found a new home. Thank you!)

Four shy ones had to be coaxed into being seen. The cream ones hold 8 oz and the green ones hold 10 oz. They are self-conscious, because they are the only ones with 2-finger handles instead of 3-finger or 4-finger handles. They don't need to feel inadequate, though. They're really very sweet. Some people love the 2-finger-handle types and these were just made for those folks. The cream-colored ones ($18 each) can hold 8 oz, and the green ones ($20 each) 10 oz.

(Note: The upper green mug has been sold. Thank you!)

mimi@mimistadlerpottery.com
You can give these characters a new home and give me room for the next group!

Raised-Leaf Tall Bowl; Only on Sunday group

Chinese Blue-Green is strong enough to stand on its own merit. It pools into carved lines and is thinner on raised areas, making it interesting on this narrow-footed, triangular-profile bowl. Third in the tall bowl series, although shorter than the others, this one is 6" tall, 8" at the mouth and 2.5" at the foot.

It's interesting inside as well as out, because the raised areas on the exterior were formed by carefully and gradually pushing out places in the interior. (It is $45 from my studio, plus shipping, and tax if you're in NJ; e-mail me at mimi@mimistadlerpottery.com to purchase.)

In other news, my website is being worked on and should go back up, fresh and robust with a new look, sometime in the pretty near future. Rena is the graphic designer we needed, and Web-a-Deb and I are back, armed with method and madness to get this sucker rolling.

More on the piggy-toe of a dream from a previous post: I am looking to talk with artisans who are in NJ and can't do the regular weekend shows because they don't "do" Saturdays. I don't have a plan in place, just a few ideas, but would like to talk about forming a traveling group of artisans who would like to put together home and community center shows on Sundays now and then. My reason? Besides the Sabbath thing (no commerce on Friday evening/Saturdays), there is the 50% galleries often take to make it worth their while to show our work. It's not that galleries don't deserve a decent cut- they deserve a profit for showcasing artists' work, and their rents are high per square foot. Besides rent, it takes plenty of work and overhead to keep a gallery going. But it's a difficult line for me to walk to keep prices accessible without radically shortchanging myself, and at the same time adequately compensate the gallery.

So I also need to have some other options in addition to galleries. Maybe you do, too. If you want to talk about perhaps forming a NJ group of artisans looking to show and sell together, (for this moment and so far only in my mind called "Only on Sundays"- not really the name to end up with), e-mail me and put "Only on Sundays" in the subject line. We'll discuss. Remember, talking does not guarantee inclusion, assuming this puppy ever gets off the ground, but I'm game to talk and look at your work. The only promise I am making is that I will be opinionated, and this request is not a guarantee or even offer at this embryonic juncture. Let's just dip a little toe in the water and see what the temperature is.

Maybe something artsy and interesting will begin to come together.

Mezuzah Cases Delivered! 3 Available

I delivered 20 of these yesterday to a very nice nursing home/rehabilitation facility in Edison, NJ. Here is a sample, just set up against a board in my studio:

I have only 3 of this batch left right now. (I will make more after I get finished making the little plates to go under the seder goblets I just made.) The mezuzah cases are individually handmade from clay I roll out, cut and form into tubes with a side flange for style. Color involves both brushing-with and dipping-into my homemade glazes. At $35 each (plus shipping, and tax in NJ) these can be bought by e-mailing me at mimi@mimistadlerpottery.com, or by stopping by the studio. These mezuzah cases fit beautifully on a standard doorframe.

Tall Bowl Series

Here's a quick update on the tall bowls.
The second bowl, taller than it is wide:

and a little closer detail:

The nutmeg glaze is a truly satin matte. It feels as soft as silk. And the leaves? I love leaves. They are the most common motif in my pottery.

I was asked for more information on this bowl. It is made on my potter's kickwheel, hand carved (very contemplative and enjoyable) and hand dipped in glazes. I made the glazes, as I do with almost all my glazes, from recipes using various powders with lovely names like dolomite and bentonite and nepheline syenite and spodumene. It doesn't get much more handmade than this in the contemporary pottery world.

The bowl is 7.5" tall, 6.5" wide at the mouth and just under 3" wide at the narrow foot. It was fired to 2,290 degrees F in my electric kiln. It is currently the only one of its kind (I plan to make somewhat similar ones, but these can never be exactly alike- they are freehand). If you're interested in owning this tall carved bowl, it is $60 plus shipping (& tax if you live in NJ), and you can buy it by way of an e-mail to mimi@mimistadlerpottery.com.

Feel free to pass on the link to my blog! In the absence of my ailing website, it is the best way I have to keep showing the pottery I am making as fast as I produce it. Thanks! And thanks, you guys who buy my work!

Tall Bowl with Narrow Foot

Recently, visiting my daughter, I noticed a bowl I made and gave her when she was in grad school. It is on a corner étagère in her living room, not in a kitchen cabinet. I liked the form, and the decorative brushwork on it.
“It’s not a useful shape,” she said, “but I like it.”
My byword at the studio has usually been “function” over the years.
This is theoretically a functional object, but the narrow profile, taller than it is round, standing on a narrow foot, makes it fairly impractical.
I thought I would have another go at this form. As long as it is impractical anyway, I altered the round rim to three-sided, and impressed it with a couple of wave stamps I made a few years back. I made several, altered, stamped and carved.
The first one to be glazed:

I like the surprise of a red interior, contrasting with the cool green exterior.
There’s another, taller, narrower one with deep carving on it currently in the kiln. This is fun. Not too functional, but fun.

Some info about this Chinese Blue Green and Red tall bowl: It is 6.75" high, 7" across at the mouth, and just 2.5" across at the nice neat raised foot. It is fired to 2,290 degrees F in my electric kiln. Like all fine stoneware that is not too thick, it has a nice ring when tapped; this one is fairly low in tone. I know because I went around tapping pots today- a kind of studio music! It is $60 (plus shipping, and tax if you live in NJ) from my studio, and can be bought by e-mailing me at mimi@mimistadlerpottery.com. It is currently the only one like it I have. Each Tall Bowl I make will always be somewhat different from the previous one.

Mezuzahs, Goblets, Mugs, & the Piggy-Toe of a Dream

It’s back to the drawing board for Mimi Stadler Pottery. I am down one website, and the DebMaster is beginning to create the second. The first was “too broke to fix.” It was better to start again with a new template. Stay tuned for the further Adventures in Website Building, a rollicking tale…or not...Some plain hard work and a dash of creativity oughta get it done.

Meanwhile. mezuzah cases are awaiting the bisque kiln. These are decorative casings in which to place rolled parchments with a special prayer on them. They go on most doorways in a Jewish home, only missing the bathrooms. I have an order for 20, for a nursing care facility. They’re nice mezuzahs, I think.

The one on the right is just dry clay with some underglaze on it. When some clear and some green glazes are applied, and it is glaze-fired, it will look like the one on the left. Notice the difference in size? Raw clay shrinks when it is glaze fired. They will end up pretty similar. There are two other design toppers, a heart and a flower, on other mezuzah cases.

I will be glad to make more of these as called for. The best part of this lot is they’ve been pre-ordered, which means they are paid for even as I make them. This is a nice way to work. I should do this all the time.

With Passover not far away, there are simple goblets to get ready to sell. I will sort them for sets with similar capacity (between 4.5 and 6 oz., I think) once they are fired. Next week, between making website decisions and thinking about a kitchen renovation (yahoo!), I want to make little plates for each of them.

I was asked to make mugs that show the color of the tea that will be drunk from them. I faceted two mugs, and made two with soft throwing rings visible under subtle glazing. Two glazes layered over each other gave this nice cream color, with a hint of rust speckle here and there:

Meanwhile I am dipping my toe in the first little wavelet of a dream that might go somewhere. I have an idea for marketing handmade artistry with a group of like-minded individuals who are not able to take part in the available Saturday shows. More on that as this dream pool begins to gain some depth.