Rising Star Pottery

You will absolutely love your visit to Rising Star Pottey http://www.etsy.com/shop/RisingStarPottery1 where you will find beautiful decorative and functional stoneware pottery.

My name is Karen O'Lone-Hahn. I am a potter, painter and children's book author/illustrator. I am blessed to be able to work full time at these crafts in my studio in beautiful Southern Chester County Pa. I'm a little embarrassed to show it in such a mess but this is what a working studio looks like when you are creating in it and taking things in and out for shows.


 I have two shops on etsy, one featuring my pottery which Kerry is kindly showcasing here. The other is my painting shop, grampa1. I have been a painter for 20+ years and decided last year that I needed a new challenge. I was hanging out at the pottery studio where my friend teaches and spent some time fooling around on the pottery wheel. As they say, that was it. The bug bit me hard and I kind of got obsessed with making pottery and quickly opened my etsy pottery shop. I bought my own wheel this summer but still make some pieces at an outside studio. I like making functional pieces like yarn bowls and jewelry bowls but have fun creating things on a whim as well.


I guess the thing I love about pottery is the surprise element. I can put two pieces in the kiln with the same glaze and depending on certain factors they will each come out different somehow. Also, every piece I make bears the mark of my hands and no two pieces ever come out exactly the same. I still paint but not as much as I make pottery. When you are an artist and the whole shebang rests on you, you also have to spend a lot of time marketing your work as well as making it. Being kind of a three headed artist, I have to divide my time a lot. Right now I am running an indiegogo campaign (indiegogo.com/gomillicent) to raise funds to market my children's book and cover the cost of giving 75 away to sick and needy kids.


 I also have a blog which I hope people here might want to visit as I chronicle my life as a creative person (karenolonehahn.blogspot.com). I have a great life being an artist living in the country surrounded by horse and cow farms and wineries. I am also blessed to have a very supportive husband, an awesome daughter and 3 sweet kitties...

www.karenolonehahn.com
www.millicentthebluecow.com
facebook.com/risingstarart
twitter.com/@cowgirl1959
www.etsy.com/shop/risingstarpottery1

Blue Sky Pottery Company

Handmade Pottery and Ceramics by Deb Babcock

http://www.etsy.com/shop/blueskypotteryco

Enjoy a visit to Blue Sky Pottery where you will find fabulous porcelain and stoneware creations, one of a kind, functional pottery including whimsical teapots and tea cups, bowls, casseroles, plates, tumblers, platters, vases and tiles.

 

I'm a potter (aka ceramic artist for those who like more elegant titles :-) ) and I make mostly functional items for the home and office. This includes dishes, cups, bakeware, colanders, vases, pencil holders, serving pieces, and some decorative sculptures.

Most creations are made on my pottery wheel where I take a lump of clay and spin it to create a shape like a cylinder for a mug or a rounded form for a bowl. Then I often alter the form, carve a design on the exterior, add color through stains and glazes, add feet, handles, lids, etc.

My pottery goes through two firings in a kiln - one to dry it out enough so glaze will adhere and a second firing to 2150 degrees F to turn the glaze and clay body into a durable glass-like finish that can be used in the oven, dishwasher and microwave.

In addition to a pottery wheel and kiln, I also use a slab roller (a really fancy rolling pin to get my clay slabs of a consistent thickness) as well as carving tools, ribs for smoothing and shaping, brushes of all sizes for design, and all the measuring and mixing tools needed to make my own glazes.

My studio is 1000 sq feet located in an office building between a dentist's office and a doctor's office. Half the space is dedicated to a gallery where locals and tourists can come in and see and buy my work; the rest of the space holds my pottery wheel, kiln, slab roller and tools, clay and glazes. Generally people who come in to browse my work will see me working at the wheel or glazing pieces for the next kiln firing.

I'm located in a popular ski destination in Colorado (Steamboat Springs) -- home to around 50 Olympians who have competed in events such as downhill skiing, ski jumping, cross-country, etc. We get a lot of visitors both winter and summer because of the great hiking in the mountains here.

I've been an etsy seller since August 2006 and get a kick out of sending my work (over 3000 pieces of pottery so far) all over the world to be used in homes where I'm sure I have never heard of the food and or drinks being served in them.

You can tell from my work that the inspiration comes from where I live. You'll often find aspen trees, flowers, grasses, mushrooms and other flora and fauna of the area depicted in my designs. And I LOVE color, so browsing my shop is like traveling to the end of the rainbow.

Gorgeous!

Check out Amanda's gorgeous designs and her wonderfully, amazingly organized studio space!

It looks like a great place to create.

by BellaRhysDesigns

My name is Amanda-or BellaRhysDesigns on etsy.com. I have always been involved in the arts one way or another. From painting scenery at our community theater and earning a few awards for watercolors in my school days to my last 16 years dedicated to being a hairstylist and salon owner, each day has seemed to carry an artistic outlet for me in some form. Besides acrylics and watercolors I’ve also enjoyed creating w/ oil pastels, black and white photography, mixed media altered art, pottery and scrapbooking.

In 2002 I started making jewelry after being inspired by pieces I had seen in Greece on vacation and was frustrated and bored with the components I was finding locally. I started shopping around on Ebay and ran across some very cool glass beads by Cassie Donlen called lampwork. I immediately started researching them and was excited to incorporate them in my work. I found a local class and dove right in, completely mesmerized by the colors, styles and techniques used to create these little works of art! I found that they totally changed an ordinary piece of jewelry into an endless array of possibilities.

I have since taken metalsmithing classes to enhance my work by making my own forged or custom stamped pieces.I find inspiration in my children’s books, fun material, change of seasons, pictures in magazines,some of the treasuries on Etsy or even let my 6 year old daughter to come up with a fun color combo.I hope you enjoy the tour of my studio! If anyone would like to look at my blog for ideas of pieces I make that haven't been listed on etsy please feel free to come by for a visit!

http://bellarhysdesigns.blogspot.com (An amazing blog! I love it ~Kerry).

http://www.bellarhysdesigns.etsy.com/