Dear Friends, 

First of all, I would like to thank you for your support for my sale in early October. It was wonderful!  You are the Best! As I said, then, I would not be having the usual studio sale in early December, which Margaret Mazur http://www.playoflight.etsy.com/, and I have been doing for many years.  We are all adjusting to the covid climate which seems to be worsening, now, during the colder months.  I hope you are staying safe!  My December Studio Sale, however, has, of late, made an attempt to support the Sylvania Area Family Services.  In the past, I offered a 10% discount on your pottery purchases if you brought in any of the non-perishables listed on the SAFS website. https://sa-fs.org/  (Or, if you had forgotten, you still received the discount, then made the donation on your own—thanks!)  

     This year, I would like to go a little further.  I, with the encouragement and help of my son, Pete, have begun listing my work on an internet sales platform called BigCartel. I have a 3-part plan:  

1. If you are interested in buying something from the BigCartel site, you will receive a 15% discount.  If you are local, please choose the local pick-up option.  (more on this, later.  Truthfully, the reason for the 15% discount is, in part, to get you to use the site, and then, to give me feedback!) (and did I Mention how much I don’t like to package pots to be mailed……). I trust you to make the donation on your own, either to SAFS  https://sa-fs.org/ or to an organization of your choice.  If you wish, and are picking up your purchase at my studio, you may also leave whatever non-perishable items with me, and I will deliver.  
2. In addition, I have found that I have 14 small plates, thrown in the fall, which I worked into a final bisque firing.  They turned out to be slightly too small.   I have decided to glaze them as “poco piatte”, and I have put the image of an even smaller plate into the design.  Many have a depiction of a tiny dish with the Eiffel Tower and “Paris” on them—-a little dish Edith Franklin gave me many years ago.These plates will be identified on the Big Cartel site as “Small Plates”, https://anntubbspottery.bigcartel.com/product/small-plates-and-the-50-donation-to-sylvania-area-family-services, and are $40.00, each.  For that amount, you will receive a plate, at 15% off, and I will donate 1/2 of the original amount to SAFS.  In fact, in anticipation of these sales, I will be making the donation next week. And, just as a head's up, I called SAFS today, and was told that they are 40% above last year’s needs!  

I hope not to be too confusing, here.  (was there a third part/  Never mind~) As you know, my letters are usually short, with details of the sale (dates, times, location), but since everything is different, and because I know that times are, for some, quite desperate, I am proposing this slightly different plan.  

Does this make sense?  Do you have questions!?!? Have I left any thing out?

I have work, now, on both Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/anntubbspottery—-mugs and 4” tiles, and on Big Cartel…https://anntubbspottery.bigcartel.com/   The 15% discount will apply to both sites. And it will last until the end of December.

But not everything in my studio has been listed. (perhaps this is part 3.)  If you want me to photograph the studio stock, let me know.  If you live in a state other that MI or OH , I will run the sale through the BigCartel because they will pay the sales tax. (Pete’s such a whiz!)

If you come to pick up, here are my Requirements:

1. Wear your mask.  I have hand sanitizer and extra masks, if needed.
2. I will bring your purchases to an outdoor table. 
3. you may pay with a credit card (on the big cartel site—)
4. or at the studio, with Square. Prepayment is preferred. 

I will not be inviting anyone into the Studio during these winter months.  I do not have a new, H-Vac furnace, or adequate ventilation.  Only Bob, the Cat.  It will be safer for all of us if we are outside. 

Be well!

Fondly, 

Ann Tubbs

a new site for sales: My Big Cartel

 With the help of my son, Pete, I have been setting up a sales site.  This year, as most of you know, there were no fairs, to speak of (all my big ones were cancelled, due to the pandemic).  And, yet, she persisted, in making pottery.  Well, I had accumulated orders.  So over the summer I began to photograph work and add it to the site    https://anntubbspottery.bigcartel.com/    I still have a lot of work to post, and need to do a fair amount of tweaking, since I don't fully understand all of it  (a little different from the Etsy site). 

 I hope all of you, out there, are staying well, and safe, and are finding interesting things to do, and are helping each other.  

As my old friend, Richard Zakin, used to say, at the end of each letter:  "Be Well!"

Leatherhard pots, my favorite time to handle the pottery!

For me, the best time (and most efficient, as well) to handle pots is when they are 'leather-hard' (some people call it the cheese-hard) phase.  Enough of the water has evaporated from the body of the pot, yet the clay is still not to the dry stage. I can stick a fingernail into the surface, or, more importantly, I can smooth, with firm pressure from my fingers, any areas which will be rough after the bisque firing.

smoothing around the handle

 I really like to handle the pots at this time.  There is something about the cool, smooth surface It is firm, but responsive, and not dry or scratchy.  And it is when I make sure that all defects are fixed before the next stages.  Here are some mug forms, --being made for an order---, in two of the stages.

the foot, trimmed

A tray of finished, leather-hard mugs

  The first few photos show the leather-hard stage which is the final wet stage.  The last is a photo of the thrown forms, having dried overnight under a plastic wrap, now continuing to firm up so that the bottoms can be trimmed. 

mugs drying out so that the feet may be trimmed

Winter Vases

a vase for winter flowers

Vase shapes have a variety of requirements:  they can't leak water onto the grand piano; they shouldn't tip over; they should show off the flowers in a way that doesn't overwhelm.  My thoughts for this form were along the lines of displaying an arm full of chicory in bloom, along with the queen Anne's lace that blooms in the same ditch along the roadside in August.  Our vegetable garden has lots of French chicory, planted by our son about twenty years ago.  Its ephemeral blue blossoms are a rare blue during the yellow summer. 

The larger vases are thrown in parts, with the first section removed from the wheel so that it can be footed before the more delicate top areas
are added.

 Handles are added last. 

Then, after the group is finished and photographed, I begin to pick out the aspects I felt worked well, so I can make more, and build on what I've learned.