Friday is my day: MyClayDay

Hello and happy Friday! Today we're visiting Barbara in Slovenia. Please check out her shop MyClayDay.etsy.com for stoneware jewelry, buttons, plates and other beautiful ceramics; but first, enjoy her day!

Little white with brown spiral stoneware earrings
MyClayDay

First I would like to say hi to all readers of this blog, I'm really happy and excited to have an opportunity to present one of MyClayDays to you. :) Actually this is a special Friday for me, because today I get to stay at home all day and do what I love most – work with clay. Here's how my day goes:

I wake up at 6.30 even if I don't have to go to work today, but I have a lot of work to do and I'm very excited to spend a whole day in my craft shop.

The first thing I do every morning are 5 tibetan rites, which I have been doing on and off for years now. I think these exercises are a great substitute for morning coffee, when I finish I'm wide awake and ready to go on with my day.

7.30 a.m. Breakfast/Etsy check time. No new orders for me today, but there are some views and new hearts for my shop.

After breakfast I go to my »warehouse« in the attic to bring down some raku vases and plates I made last year at the raku weekend with my colleagues from the school of ceramics. Found a lot of other stuff I almost forgot about too. I'll take pictures and put them on Etsy next week.

9.30 a.m. Postman comes with a nice surprise, a much expected little package from Turkey with beautiful handmade copper earring findings from NeSHEnJewellery. I immediately try some with my clay earrings and beads and I think they go together perfectly. I will wait for a new batch of beads and pendants to be finished and will use the new findings there. But I’ve put two pairs of earrings together immediately and put them on Etsy. :)


11. a.m. My friend Mateja arrives. She's a very talented photographer (check out her Etsy shop) and she kindly offered to take some pictures of my crafty day. Thanks to her my photos in this blog look so professional. :) She doesn't loose any time and starts taking pictures of me in action.

I'm preparing to fill my kiln today with various tiny things I have been working on for the last few weeks. Fish hooks and fish ornaments are for a friend who would like to have a unique looking bathroom, bells are for a girl who is getting married in May, I have tried some one-flower vases resembling sea urchins, I'm making trials for coasters and of course there is a lot of ceramic jewellery for my customers in Slovenia and on Etsy. As you can see my work is much influenced by sea and sea creatures. :)


Mateja is busy taking pictures of my raku collection while I'm finishing the items for the kiln.


3 p.m. I'm finally ready to load the kiln. This will be bisque firing at around 980°C. After that all items will be glazed and fired again to stoneware temperatures of around 1280°C. I set the programme of my electric kiln and now I have to wait until Sunday morning. The firing itself takes about 8 hours and then the kiln has to cool down to under 100°C before I can open it and take the items out.


4 p.m. Now we are really hungry and we start preparing lunch. Asian style stir fry with vegetables and wild rice, yummy! Bon appétit to Mateja and me after a hard day's work.

5.30 p.m. After some afternoon green tea and chitchat Mateja takes her last picture and takes off. This is a picture of me with my »biggest« work, my beloved stripy ceramic pear. The top of the pear comes off and I use it to keep my slippers inside. I call it my slipper pear. :)

Time to say goodbye, I have enjoyed this day very much, I hope you have enjoyed my clay day with me!

Friday is my day: Fingerprince

This Friday we're going back to Greece to visit Alina of Fingerprince.etsy.com. She makes the most adorable sterling silver jewelry, her shop makes me smile every time. Let's take a look at Alina's day!

Cute bird sterling silver pendant in black cord
Fingerprince

Hi everyone! My name is Alina, and I live in a suburb of Athens (Greece) with my husband and three daughters.

A regular day starts at 7:30. I wake up to prepare my elder daughters for school. I do try to steal a moment to check my Etsy shop for sales, messages and “hearts” in my i-pad.

I usually work in the kitchen table because lighting is perfect. So often you can find little hands messing up with my stuff...

I try to figure out a way to make a workshop for myself at home. I used to work at the marketing department of an international bank but a couple of months ago I quit my job to dedicate myself to a business of my own, related to handmade jewelry and painted porcelain objects. Due to a health problem I had to postpone my plans, so until things are back to normal I am fully dedicated to my etsy shop!

Ready for school!

A stop at the local super market...

...and quickly back home to prepare my orders...


11:30 My friend Maria is coming over to pick up a pendant she asked me to make for her. Looks great on her.

I am having a break and chat over a cup of coffee...

I check Etsy often during the day, and I renew my items to get more views.

13:00 Another break to make lunch. The kids come back from school around 14:30. I will look after them and work again during the evening.

16:00 My mother is coming over to see us. Great weather for gardening!


Well it seems I am not going to work much today...

I try a lot to improve my “shop’s” photos. I believe this is key for sales. So whenever a day is shinny I experiment with new photos.


19:30 My husband comes home from work. This is a time we have as a family... We play, exchange the news of the day and have dinner.

21:00 The children are asleep. I have a cup of chamomile to relax.

My orders are packed and ready to ship. I’ll leave them my the main entrance so as to take them to the mail tomorrow.

23:00. Its time for bed… A last glimpse at my Etsy store, and Goodnight!

Friday is my day: ColoursandTextures

This week we're going to the UK, where Tessa of ColoursandTextures.etsy.com will show us what her day looks like. Enjoy her Friday and don't forget to go see more of her beautiful work in her shop!

Pink Lilies, Limited Edition print from an original silk painting
ColoursandTextures

Hi, I am Tessa. I live on the edge of South London. From here it’s quick to get into London or out into the Surrey countryside. I paint and love textiles, painting on silk combines both.

I teach watercolour and silk painting to small groups of adults as well as write for art magazines.

My Etsy shop is coloursandtextures.etsy.com and my blog is colours-textures.blogspot.com.

My day starts around 6.30am with a big leisurely cup of tea ( or 2) made by Mr Colours.

Breakfast is banana, orange, natural yoghurt and fruit and nut muesli. That keeps me going till lunch.

My laptop usually goes on about 9 o’clock. I check for emails and look at google analytics. During the day I look in on my etsy shop and pop in on my team threads.

Today I went to my studio next to choose and prepare some work for submitting to an exhibition. (my studio is a hijacked ex dining room)

It is tidier than usual on a Friday as I teach a class in there on a Thursday afternoon. It can very easily get like this!

I searched on my laptop through some images of my work to decide which to use for prints.


Making the prints took longer than expected as I have a new printer to get my head around and boy was it complicated. I got 3 done, then mounted them, attached labels and packed them in cello sleeves.

When I looked up at my clock I saw that it was already past 12.30 and time to go for a swim.

It takes about 10 minutes to drive to the swimming pool. It’s nice to have a change of activity. I swam for about half an hour then went to relax in the steam room, bliss!

Back home at about 2.15 I had a quick lunch. Mr C and Stella were out for a walk. He makes home made bread with our bread machine. I usually have it with soup or make a sandwich or a toastie. The soup in the photo is lentil, carrot and chicken left from a bigger batch that I made.


When Stella got back in I took her in the garden to play with her ball. She’s ready now to take it to her bed.

Then it was back to studio to get the paintings together. I had to choose five. One of them needed framing. The others were already framed but needed checking for labels d-rings etc. One of them had acquired some specks under the glass and in trying to dislodge them the glass broke so I chose another painting to take instead.

I prefer days when I am painting or out gathering ideas as sketches or photos.

At about 5.30pm I started to get the meal together. Mackerel fillets with a homemade salsa, potatoes and peas and a glass of red wine. I enjoy cooking and making up my own recipes.

We ate at 6.15pm. Stella watched patiently and got a bit of fish skin and a plate to lick.

We had a quiet evening. I watched a TV programme called Extraordinary Dogs, wrote a post for my food blog and chatted to Mr C.

An eagerly awaited parcel arrived on the doorstep. Three new designs of cards had been printed from jpegs I sent to a local printer earlier in the week. I am really pleased with them and will package them up over the weekend and take some of them with me when I submit the paintings on Monday. The exhibition will be from April to September at Pashley Manor, an Elizabethan house and gardens in Sussex.

10.30 Bedtime

Friday is my day: Tuuni

Happy Friday and welcome to Finland! Yes, this week we're visiting fellow Finn Tuija. Her shop Tuuni.etsy.com contains "treasures from the past, upcycled to you with love"; a lovely description of these beautiful home decor items.

linen and lace -storage bin, large
Tuuni

My day starts at 6.30 when our daughter comes to wake us up. Sometimes it's hard to get up so early, but it's also convenient: there is more hours in a day when you sleep less.

I tend to check my e-mail and Etsy Teams forum while sipping my morning coffee.

After breakfast I take Helmi to daycare. It's located around the corner, we are very lucky to have only 5 minutes walk there and back. It has been a very cold winter, around -20 C for week after week.

After 8.30 I take our dog Vilma for a walk.

Our route goes through this picturesque little village that has its origins in Middle Ages. There is a wonderful rock church, grain fields and river with an old mill in the area. Can you believe it's only 15km away from Helsinki?

9.00 I check my e-mail again and try not to spend too much time at the computer. I get carried away sometimes. Better start working now. Today I'm sewing couple of fabric bins in custom size for a lovely customer.

Around noon it's time for lunch. Today I'm having creamy chicken soup with rye bread (soup is ready made, but so good!).

Then I take some photos of the fabric bins and also of myself. I was told to :)
Hi there!

After a cup of coffee I usually continue sewing, but today I drive to Helsinki to see my retailer Eija, who is owner of a lovely little boutique called Mereija.

They focus on recycled and eco friendly accessories and also clothing repare. She can turn any old piece of garment into most fashionable outfit. I brought her some of my frame purses.

While in Helsinki, I also visit my old friend Jaana. She's a goldsmith and I will collect a babyspoon I ordered from her. It is a gift to Helmis' little cousin who is having his christening soon.

The day goes by so quickly. It's time to pick up Helmi.

Then I make dinner and spend some time with the family. Her favorite game is hide-and-seek, but she allways runs out from her hiding place before we find her, that is so funny. She goes to bed around 8.30 and we finally have some time together with my husband.

Nighty night!