Elements

Today I did something that I am EXTREMELY proud of: I replaced the elements in my kiln. All by myself.

The kiln is the piece of equipment in my studio that would be most expensive to replace. The type of kiln I would use starts around $4,000. I fixed mine for under $200.

What feels coolest to me is that I am so much more a “real” ceramist; I can maintain and repair my own equipment. I know how to make the stuff to put in the kiln, how to fire it, and now how to fix it.

It’s okay if you’re not as excited as I am.

My next bisque fire will be on the 28^th of November, and the corresponding glaze fires will be on the 5^th and 8^th of December. Now is the time to make custom orders. I will be using two new glazes: Rovin's Bright Ice Creamy Crimson and Grape Fizz.

Snowflake buttons based on the artwork of Wilson Bentley will be available in limited quantities on December 10^th.

For February, I will have “special edition” heart buttons based in part on the artwork of Jon Collier.

These buttons will be available for sale on January 11^th.

Buttons will also make an appearance in the January Phat Fiber box. Samples in the October box were a single Mighty (larger than 2.5 inches) button. Samples in the January box will sets of two Bitty (less than 1 inch) buttons. The bitty buttons are my favorites, just so you know.

Eastern Market Artisan Village is winding down for the season. We will pick back up mid-April on the south side of the recently-renovated Shed 5.

You don’t have to go to Eastern Market to gaze upon my ceramic splendor. Most items are available for sale through my website, thedelicion.com. In a recent shop critique, many people said that they wanted more specific dimensions. The process to provide that information is a long one. In the meantime, please contact me with any questions at shine@thedelicion.com.

With regard to the buttons, items will be individually listed instead of just by price, size, and glaze. I currently have 26 glazes and an average of 26 buttons per glaze, though, so posting each individual button is not a quick job. The effort has been worthwhile. Thank you for that.

In summary:

1. I am awesome.

2  Custom orders placed by November 23^rd will be available for shipping or delivery on December 10^th.

3. Snowflake buttons go on sale in December and heart buttons go on sale in January.

4. Detroit Eastern Market Artisan Village winter recess is nigh, so do your shopping online at thedelicion.com.

5. Improvements continue on the website. Do you have suggestions? I could use them!

all of zen wants you to shut up (o:

This past weekend, my new button search feature went live. Gaze in awe upon its design glory.

Marty has done the code for my website as well as a good amount of the design. He makes *me* look professional. He also undercharges, but I can't guarantee he'll do that for you. If you need any web work done at all ever you should get in touch with him at Starkiller Interweb Design.

The buttons that necessitated the search function are for sale, and you should buy them! They are completely functional. Each is unique. Every fingerprint is mine. The leaves all came from either my yard or my parents', and the sea shells came from the beach by their house.

For the snowy seasons, I will make a stamp based on the intensely impressive work of legendary Wilson Bentley. Ideally, these will be for sale early November.

However. (huge sigh) During a recent bisque fire, my kiln released a fantastic haze. We suspect that the elements are consuming themselves. We had already planned some involved renovations to properly vent the kiln, and now we plan to include replacing the elements. Replacement elements are surprisingly inexpensive, but removing several yards of coiled-- electrified-- metal wire from firebrick is not exactly a quick job. I'm less intimidated about installing the new ones, in large part because they will be less brittle.

I had planned the October / November firing sets to start two weeks from today. There are custom orders delayed, actually, already. The sadness.

I'm not going to take custom holiday orders until I have that all sorted out.

On a more positive note, in terms of holidays, I'm making globe ornaments.

They are a long way from perfect, and so I have about a year to get them down and ready.

 In summary:
1. Marty of Starkiller Interweb Design made a really cool update to my website.
2  My buttons are neat.
3. My kiln wants a lot of my time and energy.
4. #3 briefly precludes my willingness to take custom orders.
5. For the love of cupcakes, I'm throwing SPHERES.

name dropping

Donald Calloway, Jr., a friend and very talented artist, has started using my buttons in his work. Pretty neat, huh?

if you haven't been by my booth at Eastern Market, then you have not seen how beautiful it is.

Tuesday, September 27th is the last of Eastern Market's Tuesdays for this season. You should come by and get some delicious food.

I am still working to raise money for my Art Prize project via Kickstarter. Your pledge can make this work possible AND buy you cool goodies.

Earlier this week, I sent in $350 worth of buttons to Phat Fiber headquarters for the October box. The ideal outcome for this effort is a retail placement. Also awesome is if you and your loved ones buy the buttons through my website. The button-purchasing-dealie will be improved very soon. Your feedback as to how you would like it to work would be greatly appreciated.

so... my garden....

This garden is in the yard of an abandonned house in our neighborhood. The individual who owned it died something like four years ago, and no one has lived in or cared for it since then-- with the exception of a lawncare service hired by the township to mow lawns of abandonned properties.

This spring, I planted a vegetable garden. Within a matter of days, said lawncare service mowed it. A reasonable amount survived, but nowhere near as much as if, you know, it hadn't been mowed. Several weeks later we had a nasty storm that knocked down a tree. The majority of the weight of the tree was held by the power lines, and so I did not give up hope!

Monday, when I went to dig up some delicious Detroit beets, I discovered that my garden had been completely crushed. A huge limb of another tree fell, and this one brought the phone, cable, and electric lines with it. They actually seem to be tangled in the branches.

so no beets. no tomatos. no carrots. no fennel. no peppers. they are now part of an eight twelve-foot row vegetable casserole. maybe once the wires are moved I'll be able to find some survivors.

*sniff*



In summary:
1. I totally get to brag about my work being a part of another, more widely-know artist's work.
2  The last Eastern Market Tuesday of the season is this coming Tuesday.
3. Please back my Kickstarter project.
4. My buttons will be included in the October Phat Fiber box, if you are able to get one. They are also available for sale on my website.
5. My vegetable garden, mighty in spirit though it may be, is not strong enough to handle this second tree's weight.

is it worth it?

Having money means having the ability to spend it. Having the ability to spend money means having the ability to acquire goods or services. Are we all together here? Within a closed system (that is, there is no more or less money), when an individual or collective has more money, that individual or collective is able to acquire more goods or services. To put it more simply and a way that is much easier to misconstrue, having more money means being able to buy more.

In the field of medicine, having more money means being able to do more research, produce more medication, and maintain and staff expensive equipment. Sports medicine is a perfect example. Because so many people are eager to see a player back in the game, most parties involved are willing to spend exorbitant amounts of money to make that happen. Kevin Everett may not be back on the football field, but he can walk.

Let’s not worry about whether prices are reasonable—money has gone into medicine to such a degree that people can *expect to* recover from severe injuries and illnesses. Many diseases that used to be as life altering as common, like polio, are considered third world. Most Americans who get influenza take some time off work, eat some soup, and move on with their lives as if nothing happened. Infant mortality is less than a third of what it was 50 years ago. As a society, we have shown with our dollars that medical technology is worth paying for.

We would not have these advancements if we didn’t have the money to put toward their development. You want lower premiums, lower copays, and more coverage—a bigger slice of every pie, as it were. The questions are who will pay for these miracles of modern medicine, and who gets to have them.

I’ll be your example, because in most respects I’m of a demographic that a lot of people like. I am a 28 year-old woman. I’m married, and we have a 10 month-old infant. I “work from home” as an artist. I don’t make a lot of money, but I love what I do. My husband has been employed in a skilled trade at the same employer for the past seven years. One of his benefits is health insurance. Like most families who are insured through an employer, we pay only a portion of our premium.

My husband and daughter are healthy enough that they only need regular check-ups. Our insurance plan covers all but $20 for these routine visits.

I have brain damage caused by a series of transient ischemic attacks and possibly a full stroke. These neurological events, as they are called, were caused by a lack of oxygen and possibly a blood clot. I had a 14mm hole in my heart (a patent foramen ovale) that we didn’t know about until significant damage had already been done. The diagnosis for the collection of symptoms I have, including a resting tremor and aphasia, is Parkinsonism.

The –ism is important; my condition is not degenerative. It is, however, chronic, and so it can’t be cured and won’t go away on its own.

Miracles of modern medicine have provided treatments that make people like me able to function almost normally. One medication is the reason I am able to function. Without it, the communication between my brain and body happens slowly enough that several minutes pass before I am able to react to things that I see or hear. I’ve been on it for several years except during my pregnancy and intermittently since February.

My insurance company won’t cover it any more.

UnitedHealth has a bright-line policy against the medication specifically, actually. It was the reason cited for not covering the drug in the first place and the only reason the appeal failed.

Over the course of a year, we pay about $1,000 more on our premium than this one pill per day costs. The retail value of all of my medications is close to $20,000 per year. That number does not include appointments, tests, and other treatments.

I’m young, too. It’s not unreasonable for a mother who had a child before she was thirty to hope to live long enough to see that child graduate from high school. Over the next 18 years, assuming no change in price or dose, my current medication cocktail will cost $355,762.80. Within a matter of a thousand dollars, that money could buy an apartment in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City or a 2,560 square foot home near the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard and Hollywood Freeway in Los Angeles-- and you can get a 30-year mortgage for those.

If the insurance company pays it, other people who are insured contribute. If the government pays, then really the taxpayers are the ones paying. If the responsibility is on me to pay, I will bankrupt myself and anyone else who would like to keep me on the anti-epileptic for one more month. So who pays?

Do I deserve it?

a lot!

hm. Clearly a post that should have happened did not. How have I not written about my Kickstarter project?



The plan is a series of 13 porcelain nesting bowls. Each bowl will be decorated in such a way that it illustrates 13 levels of life: the atom, cell, organ, organism, family, community, population, habitat, biome, planet, solar system, galaxy, and universe. I plan to display the project for the 2012 ArtPrize competition.

Yes, I am working to raise money so that I can upgrade my kiln. I'm not asking anyone to give me money for nothing, though. The "from the atom up" project is something I wouldn't otherwise do-- I certainly would not have the means to do otherwise-- and hopefully I will bring value to the lives of people who support me by exhibiting the work. I'm also giving out good "rewards," and so people who support me will get an actual product. the prices on these products aren't much different than what I would charge just to have them at my table at Eastern Market.

Speaking of Eastern Market-- there are only three Tuesdays left! Unlike Saturdays, where it is hard to move, Tuesdays are very laid back. Most of the vendors sell prepared foods and baked goods. The artisans are between Sheds 2 and 3 for your pleasure. Come see me! Lucia and I will be there each of the next three upcoming Tuesdays.


I have buttons! Fifty of the sixty most fabulous buttons from this load are going to the Phat Fiber box. More details to come on that part.

I still haven't 100% sorted out how to sell buttons on my website.


This is a custom work I have in process. It is a wedding bowl for some people that I love very much.

I want to make custom work for you! I can do names, dates, pictures, and all kinds of fun glazes. I do cups, mugs, bowls, plates, wine bottle chillers, jewelry bowls, yarn holder bobbin bowls, buttons, beads, magnets, and many other things. The biggest challenge I've faced yet in terms of custom work-- and the piece I am most proud of-- was a 1 gallon dutch oven. People who have custom-made pieces tend to say very nice things to me about them.

email me at shine@thedelicion.com for more information.

Super awesome:

I am now selling Ally's yarn. It is beautiful yarn hand-spun by a beautiful woman that I love very much.





In Summary:
1. please consider backing my Kickstarter project.
2  Eastern Market Tuesdays love you.
3. BUTTONS!
4. Now is a good time to place custom orders for the holiday season.
5. Ally's yarn is awesome.

Happy Tuesday!

who's got the button?

I do!


I used about fifty pounds of clay making buttons and magnets recently, and I just unloaded my kiln a couple of hours ago. I still haven't entirely figured out how to sell such unique items on my website without having to photograph and list each one individually. NONETHELESS! An upcoming beloved Phat Fiber box will be loaded with my buttons.


I decided to sort my stuff by color.

Very neat thing:
As soon as the USPS delivers it, I will be selling Ally's yarn at market and possibly also on the website. She gave me a 41 yard sample that will be a part of my sock yarn blanket. This sample was out on my table, and a yarn-store employee wanted to buy it. she said, "this is good stuff."

I agree.

Spending so much of my time making things that people will want to buy is... well, it's that: it's spending my time making things that people will want to buy. I love being able to spend my days in my studio and with my daughter. she is awesome. see exhibit A.


(exhibit A)

I would like to do more than production pottery. I want to get some more use out of those 0/5 brushes. I have a project in mind that has been brewing for quite some time. Actually, my plan was to do it for the first year of ArtPrize. Life doesn't always care for plans, does it? Over the past few years, I've been able to nurture the idea and, more importantly, improve my skills.

Because this project won't fit neatly under my 10'x10' canopy tent-- especially its price tag-- I'm looking to raise money up-front. I've submitted the basics of the project to the Kickstarter people. I will probably do the project regardless of whether I'm able to raise money through Kickstarter, but it will be all the more fabulous if I am properly funded. Importantly, I would like to upgrade my kiln. Yes, Kickastarter people, I do intend to spend some project money on a kiln upgrade.

In the meantime, I have hundreds of buttons to glaze. I have a new glaze, frit for my steel grey shino, and aftosa's black wax resist. Next week I will have two glaze firings. On Saturday, September 10, I will have more stuff than will fit on my table and it will be AWESOME.

In summary:
1. Phat Fiber is going to get Full of Delicion! very soon.
2 I'm experimenting with new layouts for my product at market.
3. The product line will soon expand to include Ally's delicious yarn.
4. I want to do a project that doesn't have to be an easy impulse-purchase.
5. Lucia is awesome.

Presumptions in Detriot

I didn’t accidentally misspell it as DetRiot. I was speaking to the particular type of lawlessness in which I take part: urban farming. I was not speaking to race wars. I did not mean it as a token of survival for those on ruin tours. And no, I did not just make a mistake. Guh.

Eastern Market is now open on Tuesdays. I’m there most weeks. Give me your cash money so I may continue my oh-so-worthwhile endeavors.

Recently, while browsing my booth, a woman explained to me that she is an artist, too. Except, unlike me, she is a real artist because she only does it when it comes to her. I love this formula: I am a real [job title] because I only [primary job function] when [I really want to].

For the sake of argument, I’ll gladly grant that the whole Eastern Market thing is me having gone crafter.

I’ve been filling the blanks with various titles and functions, and I’ve decided that the only other one who could get away with saying it is a student. A person can be a real student and only study when she feels the need.

I used to be a real taxi driver, and I picked up fairs even when I was not deeply inspired. I used to be a lender, and I reviewed loans regardless of whether I was particularly moved. Somehow, though, I am not a real artist when I get up at 4am to start my kiln.

When people say stuff like this, I am grateful for the parkinsonian delay in my response. My brain fires off a million responses but my face and mouth do nothing.

Speaking of the Parkinsonism: I’ve been capable of transporting what is in my mind out into reality fairly successfully lately. If you really want to get into it, check out some of the research on creative and emotive skills of people who have aphasia. If not, just take my word that the process from pattern to product involves a great deal of modification. I have a new AMAZING granola recipe. I am also knitting an octopus inspired by the blabla knit toys. I plan to make as many of these toys as I can and sell them for way expensive.

Bad news, though! I scratched my cornea. The experience is less awesome than traipsing about the Badlands nude. Because my vision is already so compromised, I thought I had relinquished a great deal of dependence. As it turns out, large print and text to audio do nothing when it comes to the glint of light coming through the window at the top of the staircase. The light from my husband’s computer screen was more than I could really handle.

I’ve had to take a break from pretty much everything, but I’m still on track in terms of firing.

As I’ve written before, my kiln is getting too small. It is three cubic feet. I am doing a cycle of bisque and glaze firing every four weeks. Having the product turnover is nice, but the inability to fire more than one large piece per batch is downright obnoxious. I am currently in search of a larger kiln. My husband and I are evaluating whether it would make sense to erect an outbuilding. I’m looking in to kickstarter projects.

I have a cute picture of Lucia that I will post soon. She is awesome.




In summary:
1. Starting on August 5th, you can buy magnets that have Detroit spelled correctly.
2 Detroit Eastern Market is now open on Tuesdays from 11am until 4pm.
3. This whole pretend-artist gig is a racket.
4. I make awesome granola and knit goodies.
5. I am human and have needs. One of those needs is money.