a new year, a new chapter

I remember hearing of a friend's resolution on the first day of 2012 to "stop talking about doing things, and actually do things."  That struck a chord with me.  Not that I'm one to sit around for extended periods, but there were some major things I really wanted to do this year.  I really didn't want to just talk about doing them. Very high up on that list was finishing our kiln.  It had been two solid years of building - much longer than anticipated, on my part anyway - and we were scraping by, using friends' kilns (some of them in other states, yeesh) to fill orders and get ready for shows and commitments to galleries.  Not to mention we'd be telling people we'd be done with the kiln for what seemed like waaayy too long.  It was time. to. be. done.

Well, long story short, we did it.  We finished the kiln in May, and fired in June.  And again in July.  We even got beautiful pottery!  We took our new wood-fired pottery to our biggest Maine show, and our nine-day show in New Hampshire over the summer.  The response was very very positive.

These successes alone were almost momentous enough to make for a complete year.  But we kept doing.  We added ten more feet to the kiln shed, keeping the weather off the kiln and us a little more cozy.  We closed it in, and added a wall for storing pottery (yeah, we haven't mentioned that yet here- but we did it!).  We moved wood in, keeping it dry and ready for our next firing.

I built a chicken coop!  We'd wanted to have our own laying hens for some time, and the urge to build a home for them was so strong it kept me awake at night.  (True story, albeit weird.) Design ideas and calculations filled my head until I pulled out some old barn boards and my hammer.  And we got those chickens, as chicks, actually - and we're so happy to finally be getting fresh eggs from our happy flock.

While building said coop, I decided to put the siding on a diagonal, so it would be stronger when we skidded it around the field with our tractor.  That led to a Google search for tips and tricks on how to do this.  That very search pulled up something much more consequential than chicken coop photos, as it turned out: in one fell swoop, I found the blog that found us a studio builder.

In a single, gutsy moment of intense craving for a studio-of-our-own, I emailed Mr. Abetti to see if we could even consider one of his beautiful barns.  (Maybe we could be his crew for the project?!)  This was in June.  He wrote back almost immediately and we began a correspondence, including meetings on each of our summer birthdays, that resulted in an incredible building marathon that ended in a shell of studio, roofed and closed in (mostly) before this end-of-the-year snowfall.

We broke ground in September, did complicated footing layout in October, and our very own insulated concrete foundation in November. (Yeah, I still kind of can't believe this part.)

Two days before Thanksgiving, we began working on the studio structure.  On the winter solstice, we had the roof on, the windows in, and the wrap on.

We're amazed, giddy, delighted, and gearing up for what looks like a lot more doing in 2013.  We just moved out of our rented studio in a nearby town, and put our pottery making tools and supplies into storage.  Woah.  Yup, we're making a big leap : we're very hopeful banking on the fact that the next pottery we make will be in our new studio.  (Say hello to buckets of water, unfinished walls, and extension cords!)

On this New Year's Day, however, we are enjoying reflecting and giving thanks for all of YOU who helped us get to this point.  (OK, let's be honest, we are also working . . . by starting to put siding on our studio building!  We might not be able to match 2012 in productivity and excitement, but we'll sure try. ;)

Here's to a wonderful 2013.

Cheers,

~Becca