Another pleasant surprise

Just got my acceptance for Anacortes Arts Festival. That's four acceptances of six applications, one of which I had to decline because of scheduling. Two more pending, one of which was a back-up for Salem, so I'm more curious than invested in the outcome, as I'll have to decline if accepted.

Meanwhile, time to hit Priceline and find a place to stay...

Paws that refreshes

While sorting pots and loading up the van, we discovered I was low on cat-handled mugs. Since I had a couple days before I had to fire my last bisque on this production run, I thought I'd do a few.

My animal-handled mugs are one of my oldest products, going back pre-painting-on-pottery. The critters started on my story tiles in graduate school, migrated onto the sides of mugs in my early Craft Center days. Initially I literally did story tile animals: cows, pigs, dogs. Added sheep as a request from a hand-weaver who also taught at the Center, added cats on a commission referred to me by another resident potter. The original cat mugs had a small mouse in the bottom, but he was a bugger to position, and it's more fun without, because with a full mug, it looks like the cat is paw-dipping in your beverage.