I'm a Featured Artist!!

So proud and pleased to be the Featured Artist for the Cara Mae Skin Care blog, and grateful to Cara Steinbuchel for her love of community and supporting fellow artists, not only with her incredible Potters' Skin Butter (seriously, you need some!), but with her desire to celebrate those around her, in both word and deed.

You don't need to be a potter to benefit from this lotion (also
an unscented version, not pictured) - gardeners, chefs, new parents,
construction workers, teachers, office wizards, really if you
HAVE HANDS, you will benefit from this lotion!

Cara and I had a wonderful interview, and she even agreed to run around with me on a delivery day. Seeing my world through her eyes only increases the extreme gratitude I have for all that I do, and for all the incredible people I work with - Cara saw a portion of both the work and the people, and I love how she reflects it back in her lovely writing.

Click here to read the full blog!

Thank you so much, Cara!

happy asheville-versary!

I just noticed that this weekend marks three years since my arrival to Asheville, and every day I've been happy and grateful to be here. And to celebrate, what better thing than spending the day in the studio! Granted, it's the way I celebrate just about every other day, which is probably why I'm so happy and grateful!

Today was a mixture of some computer updates, some picture taking, a wee bit of bookkeeping, fun with studio members coming in and time on the wheel and in cleaning up work. And yummy leftover catfish/succotash stew for lunch, hot out of the ol' rice cooker.

This is a pretty good representation of most of the day. It was beautiful and sunny (stay tuned, snow is projected for Tuesday!), which was great for throwing bowls (for the Empty Bowls event here next week, in case you haven't been tuning in!) and then trimming them an hour or so later. The table holds vases that were cleaned up, a few straggling mugs that got handles, trimmed bowls getting another sun kiss, a couple of member bowls and the early stages of what will be 'Carolina Wren Houses', for the Bountiful Cities Birdhouse Auction.

Oh, and against the wall of the studio in the back is my make-shift photo studio, taking advantage of the natural light. I shot pictures of the work out of the last kiln, but shot them too quickly and only now that I've posted several do I see how out of focus and rather icky some are. One of these days, I'll make it to one of the digital photography workshops and I shall then be the master of my wonderful camera!

The pup will soon need a walk and then out to get her some food, so I'd better get back to the table, the wren houses are just about ready to be transformed. I hope everyone is celebrating the day, for any and every reason. If I may borrow from friend ht's voicemail: Happy Holiday of Your Choice! peace.

Happy Everything!

Whether it be Hannukah, Yule, Christmas, Solstice, Kwanzaa, Bohdi Day or any other seasonal festivity, I hope you enjoy it surrounded by love and filled with happiness!

I'm feeling very grateful here in my studio, looking back on an incredible year and looking ahead to growing the studio into the community and building a place for all sorts of creative discovery. Lissa the Wonder Dog is thankful for the cooler mornings so she can roll around on the frost cover grass, and for the growing stream of friendly folk who come see her at the studio.

The studio will be open in and around the holidays, and I'm here in town if anyone has a last minute gift need (or just needs to come in and commune with the clay!). During the relative calm of the holidays, I'll be rearranging furniture, testing new glazes, planning some fun workshops and making a few pots, so in the new year there will be all sorts of new excitement here at Crazy Green Studios! As always, stay tuned to the blog for all the updates, but if Santa grants me a little extra time, you may also see (dare I say it!) website updates as well!

A very happy holiday-of-your-choice to all. Peace - Lori

Art Walk Rocked!

It was a chilly day, but what a wonderful sight to see people walking up and down our little stretch of Haywood Road, and finding their way back to the little red building on Domino Lane! Thanks to all who came out, it was great to see the familiar faces, and even better to meet so many new ones! In addition to having a good holiday sale, our hope in putting this all together was to bring more attention to our growing group of businesses and the incredible talents that have been hidden in plain view for all to enjoy. I think the day went a long way toward bringing that focus to East West Asheville, and now that more people know we're here, I hope they tell several friends!

Here at the studio, 'Santa Bunny' was our welcoming beacon, and Shane, Jennifer (and Lissa and Shane's dog Ladybug!) and I had a nice stream of friends old and new into the cozy and unusually clean studio. I am as always extremely grateful to all who came, for their friendship as well as their support.

I'll post more about the days events soon (gotta get some pictures of Santacon!), and if anyone missed the Walk, you can still come by Crazy Green Studios and take advantage of my Recession Busting Prices for the rest of the month! More on that soon too, for now Lissa and I are calling it an early night. Thank you, and Good Night!