Back in my very first studio when I started Porcelain and Stone in 2012.

This week is a big week since I have had to pretty much pack up shop and be ready to move out of my beautiful, sky-lit studio space in a couple of days. I have loved this space since I moved-in last December. For one thing... it has heat! Even a couple of bathrooms for the building occupants, natural daylight... and many, many other artists of all types. Joy Street Studios is home to musicians, painters, sculptors, sewers, photographers, even a vintage home collector.

Thankfully, I'm not moving far away from my first studio in this somewhat new-old warehouse building. I'm just moving right upstairs. The only trick is I'll have to move on a day when I'll be attending a conference in NYC (yeah, early-bird pricing). Heh! But, guess who is a lucky girl? My husband happens to be switching start-ups in the Boston area, so he conveniently has this week off to help me move. So, guess who has a horrible wife?

With the new move there are a few things I have been excited about expanding on. I have been working on a number of new products over the course of this year. Many of you who have seen some random posts of things over on Instagram and have yet to see it in my shop may have a gentle clue about what it may be already. The new space will help me to softly launch this new line of products and you'll find them in the shop here later this year. (Yay!)

Being in this new space will also create a more friendly working environment since I will have physical, direct ventilation with operable windows in the unit. Naturally, the new space will also be bigger! Which means [drum roll] it may be lovely enough to hire one or possibly two part-time friendlies. But! Let us not get ahead of ourselves. I am much more looking for that special someone who has a vision for Porcelain and Stone as much as I do. Also, they most certainly should be prepared to work with their hands... for all eternity. :)

Personally, I happen to be experiencing a bit of growing pains, right in my left hand to be exact. I only have my supportive wearers and buyers to thank for this so I am really not complaining. It has been a fantastic two years thus far and I guess the constant grind (sometimes, literally--I physically grind things) is trying to tell me to slow down. But like most obstacles that arise, I love a challenge. So I say, bring it on motha-cluckah! 

The big secret that my husband and I have been sharing --without sharing-- is that he has been amazing helping me in the studio every now and then over the past two weeks. Especially when I am having trouble holding a piece. He has been watching me for years in a variety of studios --be it an architecture studio, a 3D animation/graphics space, or even a small design atelier-- he knows how I like to work. He also communicates really well with me and has allowed me to show him a few ways in which I make certain pieces. Trust is probably the most important thing I have found to be a priority for any company I have worked for and this is no different. I trust my husband --we'll call him Fez, because our two-year-old niece used to have trouble pronouncing his name and would shout out, "Fezder!"-- trusting Fez hasn't been hard to do. The change to trusting him with my LIFE'S WORK ... has been my own personal... "take a deep breath because here we go!" type-of-challenge. He has been simply grand and very flexible, though. Super-folded-knee-bowing over here from me to him.

If you didn't already know, ceramic work has many stages before it reaches completion. Hence why teaching and sharing the reigns of a piece can be worrying. It can sometimes take weeks (for others, months) to finish a piece. I remember a long time ago thinking about working in ceramics full-time and laughing to myself. Because THAT IS CRAZY. Who works for a living in ceramics? (Actually, many of my friends do!) Being crazy is what mama likes now. Crazy in a professional sense just means you may have some vision behind that madness... or maybe you are just flat out, crazy, friend. Hugs!