Pretty Pottery

I collect pottery and can always find beautiful pieces from Design Style Guide potters. As a quilter I may be partial to artwork that is also functional, but that's one of the things I love about pottery: I can indulge my collector's whims even while obtaining useful tableware. Here's a small sampling of the pottery offered by Design Style Guide members. Click any link to see a detailed description of the piece, or to make a purchase. Happy collecting!

Medium Batter Bowl in Colorful Tones by Miss Pottery

Sassy Funky Salt and Pepper Shakers Dancing by Creative With Clay

Salad Days by DBabcock

Retro Sushi Dish Set by Colorado Pottery

5-Piece Nesting Bowls by Hodaka Pottery

There are hundreds of additional pottery items by the Design Style Team, to fit any style or budget. Visit the Team's website for full access to our listings.

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Tracy Selmer Gordon, Etsy Artist from Virginia

Before she answered these questions for me, here's what I knew about Tracy Selmer Grodon: She made cool stuff out of stone; She was a member of Design Style Guide; She had a cool name for her business. Now I know a lot more, and so will you, after reading this...

1. What is your shop name and what do you sell?

My shop is called New Dominion Blues. I sell nature-inspired home décor with a pinch of vintage home décor items as well. I currently have a large selection of stone coasters and trivets, some with designs painted on the surface. I am working on some larger scale stone pieces that can be installed as kitchen backsplashes, focal mosaics, or countertops. I also have a variety of beaded garlands and curtain tie-backs, and other small accent pieces. I started taking pottery classes in August of 2008, and I am thrilled to report that my skills have started to catch up to my aspirations, and I am able to offer some wheel-thrown pottery. I just recently added a vintage element to my shop, giving Etsy shoppers a more complete opportunity to browse through my interior décor aesthetic.

The origin of my shop name: My husband and I love blues music. We try to visit Chicago as often as possible, especially for the annual blues festival. We even got engaged there. While our hearts may often be in the Windy City, we live in the Old Dominion. Over the years, we have accumulated a large volume of blues music and memorabilia in our Virginia home; enough that we have created our own personal blues bar that merges the blues in our souls with our geographic location - New Dominion Blues.

2. What long series of events led to you doing this?

I grew up running through the woods, building forts, and collecting anything and everything that I might possibly be able to use for a future “project.” That meant rocks, wood, bits of trash abandoned in the woods, you name it. Once a utility worker made the mistake of leaving a specific tool under a bush next to the large green box it was created to open. My friends and I gathered all the loose wire out of the box, and kept the tool so we could go back when more would be left behind. The wires we took weren’t connected to anything – they must have been left as extra for future work. My neighbor and I made a lot of jewelry from these colorful plastic coated wires, and set up shop on her porch. I’m not sure we ever sold anything, but we certainly were ready.

I have always had an interest in art, and a certain level of natural skill that I haven’t spent much time nourishing until recently. I have always been very driven to succeed – in academia and my career. That left little room for “fun,” and I haven’t really had the necessary space to spread out and create, either. I am fortunate to now have plenty of space – having recently finished building an in-home studio – and the experience of a number of home improvement projects that have honed my practical skills and inspired new ideas.

Another insight into my creative process: I have one pretty bad dog and one pretty good dog. I believe in decorating for real life, meaning that you work with and around your circumstances. Having dogs means worrying about dog hair, mud and drool. And that’s just for starters. It also means accidents, unexpected regurgitation, and, in the case of my bad dog, mischievous stealing. A table is right at eye (and mouth) level for my mastiff. His favorite game is stealing objects and hoping I will chase him. I have lost many, many items over the years, and coasters were out of the question due to their typically light construction. One day it occurred to me that he would be less likely to steal a stone coaster. I now use slate coasters identical to those I sell in my shop, and he has not once stolen one. Good design, practical use, problem solved.

3. Who taught you the particular skills you use in your work?

I have to say that my mom is the biggest influence I have in terms of creating. She and I work in different media, and her abilities range from quilting and sewing to basket-weaving and mosaic work. But I have certainly inherited my can-do attitude from her, and nothing is more fun than when we find opportunities to combine our crafts. She also has an Etsy shop at loneweever.etsy.com.

My second biggest influence is probably trial and error. I will dream up some crazy idea, and give it a whirl on a prototype or two.

I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention Fran at Manassas Clay. Everything I know about pottery I have learned from her in her classes there, and I cannot even begin to thank her enough for opening up the world of clay to me.

4. How long have you been selling online?

I joined Etsy on March 13 of 2008, and began listing items within a week or so of that date.

5. What is your favorite thing about Etsy?

I love the atmosphere, the palpable creativity, and the opportunity to find that perfect one-of-a-kind item.

6. What is your favorite thing about what you sell?

What I love about my shop is that I only sell things that I would use to decorate my own home. It is very much a reflection of my own style and aesthetic. More often than not, I made an original to solve a design problem in my own home, and decided to create more to sell in the shop.

7. What is your favorite item in your own shop and why?

It’s hard to pick a favorite, but I am really excited about the new vintage items in my shop, and I will have a hard time parting with several of them. One of them is the vintage House & Garden magazine cover from June of 1937. It depicts a tree stump covered in blooming blue morning glories, and beautiful in its natural simplicity.

8. How does your work differ from the work of other artists in your field?

There are several shops on Etsy that offer stone coasters, but I have yet to see another shop that takes as much care to photograph the stones with as much detail as I show. Most of my competitors will list a set of coasters and indicate that the coasters they send to you will be similar to the ones shown. I find that choosing stones is a very personal thing, and I want my customers to be able to select the stones that speak to them. I try to select stones that go well together, but I want to leave it to the customer to choose the exact pieces that they want. I haven’t seen other stone coasters that have metallic leaf designs painted on them, nor stained images. I have also noticed that many shops cover the entire bottom of their coasters – which seems unnecessary to me, and unfortunate, since the beauty of the stone is a 360 degree experience.

9. What teams do you belong to and what do you like most about them?

I only belong to the Design Style Guide, and I love that it is such a broad base of creativity and artisanship. I also love that the team is focused on interior design, a subject I find interesting and dovetails well with my shop.

10. What is the most fun thing you do to promote your shop?

The most fun, and most labor-intensive, thing I do to promote my shop is my blog, New Dominion Blues. I try to give insight into my shop, my studio, and my creative process, but I also spend a lot of time featuring other artists, things that inspire me, and related subjects.

11. What are some of your favorite finds by other sellers on Etsy?

I have many, many favorites, but I will share a few that I have bought, and a few that I will someday buy…

I swoon for alinahayes’ robins egg pieces.

I bought one of these salt shakers from StudioElan, and I still keep coming back to gaze at it online.

everyeskimo is one of my newest favorite shops.

I have several of these vintage skeleton keys with borosilicate glass beads, made by Venbead.

12. What do you do in your spare time?

I’m not sure I have much in the way of what I would call “spare time,” but I do tend to fill my time working on my Etsy shop, my blog, working in my studio, throwing pottery, home improvement projects, training and wrangling my dogs, and preparing to write a number of books that have been rolling around in my brain.

See also: Our Exclusive Interviews

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If you make Handmade Home Decor Items, come and join our team by clicking on the image below. Not only will you be able to network with us, but also you will have the ability to post your listing on our team website.

If you like this blog entry you'll love my blog, jn3 Hand Crafted Woodworks. Check it out. I'll be glad you did.

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Kristin Love: Etsy Artist from Washington

A few weeks ago I noticed we had several new people joining Design Style Guide. One of those people turned out to be Kristin Love, one of the most enthusiastic people I've met in quite some time. You'll see what I mean...

1. What is your shop name and what do you sell?

First off I’d like to say "Thank You!" for choosing me to be interviewed for the Team Blog. I am honored.

My shop's name is Love Art Works, which is also the name of my business, and I sell my hand made and painted pottery here. My website is www.loveartworks.net.

2. What long series of events led to you doing this?

Wow!  I think I need a literal nutshell for this question!  I've been painting, drawing, taking ridiculous pictures with whatever camera and writing since I was teeny weenie, and when I was at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston I had a double major of Illustration and Photography.  I'm a gypsy soul at heart, (thanks in part to being a Marine Corps brat and living all over the country ....), and I worship Georgia O’Keefe, so I after college I moved to Santa Fe for awhile, and then my boyfriend at the time suggested we travel down to Mexico and Guatemala, and that's when the Foreign Country "travel bug" bit me.  I wandered abroad fairly extensively over the next 10 years or so and here in the States I found myself tooling around with the rateful Dead for awhile, selling woven Guatemalan bracelets and making enough money to keep me in airline tickets.  But nomadic lifestyles usually come to an end, as mine did, and I settled in Missoula, MT for a few years, dabbling in different art mediums (making hats was one!) and even owned a little Organic Cafe named "The Black Dog". Ooooops!, forgot to mention that I'm a pretty good, self taught "chef", after years of working in Restaurants when I wasn't "on the road". Now I'm living in Seattle with my husband, Kane,  2 year old rescued German Shepherd named Indigo and almost 16 year old "grumpy grandma kitty", Cosmo.

3. Who taught you the particular skills you use in your work?

You probably noticed that I didn't mention clay once in that long last question/answer!  That's because I had never touched a piece of clay until about 5 years ago.  I went to a "paint your own pottery" shop for a friend's bridal shower and I was hooked!! I loved the whole process of painting on a 3 dimensional surface, it was like a puzzle, and feeling the weight of the bisqued clay piece in my hands as I painted, whether it was a mug, vase or plate, was like connecting to the earth itself.  It took me less than 6 months of painting on store bought bisqueware pottery before I wanted to learn how to make my own clay pieces.  I sought out a studio space with other potters, took some classes, learned an amazing amount through many instances of painful trial and error, and here I am, playing gleefully in the clay and then spending joyous hours painting it!

4. How long have you been selling online?

I've had my own website for over 2 years but I have only been selling online for about 7 months.  I hooked into Etsy with my shop name almost a year ago but out of intimidation I didn't list anything until last August.

5. What is your favorite thing about Etsy?

Freedom and Friends and Phenomenal Art! The freedom to have my own shop and not have to drive all over the place for Art Fairs.  Lugging mass boxes of pottery and setting up a booth and working an art show is something I have done extensively in the past. I have a lot of fantastic memories, put many miles on vehicles, seen and own some intense art and now I can say "Been there. Done that." The friend’s part of Etsy is amazing!!! I have met so many incredible artists through conversations and threads ...it's an intense social network and I can be as much or as little a part of it as I want to be. And the ART!! With tools like the Treasuries (which I love to make), Shop Local and that cool "Color-wheel" thinga-ma-jiggy....It's all just mind boggling and very uplifting to know that art of all shapes and sizes, price ranges and talent level is getting out into the world.  What great positive energy!

6. What is your favorite thing about what you sell?

My pieces tell stories.  I'm in love with words, one word or a 1000 page novel; it's all beautiful to me.  I try and incorporate text into some of my pieces, but even the ones that are strictly pictorial, my desire is for them to whisper stories to the viewer, whatever that may be, through the use of the shape of the clay and the colors and images I choose to paint.

7. What is your favorite item in your own shop and why?

This isn't easy, because they're all pieces of me and I feel a bit like Judas, betraying the others, but... it would have to be "EARTH'S MIRTH". Why? Mostly because this pitcher/vase combines all the variety of my art "vision" into one cohesive and joyfully functional "theme piece":  the clay was a blast to manipulate into the "watering can" shape; the quote, "The earth laughs in flowers" by Emerson, is one of my favorites; and I love to paint big, colorful blossoms!! This piece is so blissful and I smile every time I look at it....an ecstatic watering can!

8. How does your work differ from the work of other artists in your field?

I'm not sure how to answer that as clay artists are all so different. I guess I'll just say that I approach my clay pieces as a painter, if that makes any sense. The first thing I think of when I'm working with clay is "Where's the image? What's the story?" For me clay is a big, bold, super fantastic 3 dimensional canvas, whether it's just a tiny simple trinket dish or a convoluted pitcher that's taken me weeks to get the clay shape right. It always ends for me with the pictorial tale, even if that's just black line doodles and big solid colors.

9. What teams do you belong to and what do you like most about them?

I belong to the Esty Mud Team and Design Style Guide. I love the interaction between members on the threads, the sharing of knowledge on all sorts of topics and the overwhelming support that we give each other in our art and in areas of our lives outside of our creative adventures.

10. What is the most fun thing you do to promote your shop?

Fun? Self promotion is fun? I'm horrible at it, but I love making Treasuries and chiming in occasionally on threads and talking up Etsy to all my family, friends, and strangers, so I suppose that's self promotion. I'd much rather be reading other peoples self promotion than trying to do mine!

11. What are some of your favorite finds by other sellers on Etsy?

Oh my, can I have 2 pages?  There is just so much great art!

Everyone on the Etsy Mud Team.

I want all of these amazing beads [by] kerribeads.

And I'm absolutely in love with every single painting in this shop: Krystyna81.

And  the Linoprints in this one: littlebirdesigns.

And the sculptural "stories" of oatmealcookie.

And I adore these baskets and soaps: thekeepershouse.

I won't even get started on fabric arts and it goes without saying that I'm loving all the artists in Design Style Guide!!

12. What do you do in your spare time?

What is that? Does sleep count? Indigo has massive amounts of energy and so I take long, vigorous walks with her.  I love to read, write and watch movies, when I'm not painting or playing in clay. Oh, and cook!

13. Do you have anything else you would like to share?

My husband is building me a small "art shack" studio that will be ready soon (my communal pottery space isn't very conducive to painting and such) and I'd like to go back and explore 2D work again....I have a gazillion negatives/prints/slides from my travels and I think it would be fun to try and incorporate those images somehow.  Who knows, maybe they'll end up being 3D clay photographic collage paintings....I could start a whole new genre on Etsy…..although there probably is work like that, I just haven’t seen it! Mostly though, I'd like to say....GO FOR IT!!! We are all creative channels in this world, so let's all create...with peace, with joy, with love....and bring hope, laughter and light to our world, one piece of art at a time!

•••••

If you make Handmade Home Decor Items, come and join our team by clicking on the image below.

Not only will you be able to network with us, but also you will have the ability to post your listing on our team website.

If you like this blog entry you'll love my blog, jn3 Hand Crafted Woodworks. Check it out. I'll be glad you did.

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