Handles and All

Last night I stayed up pass midnight to trim and put handles on four mugs and a pitcher. This is what happens when you have a full time job making websites all day, come home to tend the garden, feed the cat, eat dinner, clean the kitchen, hang out a bit with your honey, and then do some pottery. Needless to say, it took all of my will power to get out of bed this morning at 5:30am. In fact, after the alarm went off, I must have dozed off again because I dreamt that I was in the shower only to be awaken thirty minutes later and found myself still in bed! I rushed through the morning rituals, but skipped the breakfast, and jumped into the car with my hair completely wet (*sigh*). I'll tell you what makes all of this madness worth it, the sight of those milky white porcelain greenware on the kitchen counter where I left them last night to dry. I don't know what it is about ceramics but it makes me crazy, crazy happy that is.

The "peppa studio" stamp you see on the base of these pieces was hand-carved by a kid in Vietnam. I bumped into him at a street corner in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) this past January. He was no older than fifteen. He occupied the entire corner with a display of all sorts of wooden stamps he had carved by hand. I asked him if he could custom make a stamp for me. I then attempted to draw this chili logo on a napkin. He gladly took on the job for a mere $4 (U.S.) and told me to come back that evening. True to his word, the stamp was an exact replica of my drawing. I wish he had a business card. I would post it here to share with you. To this day, I don't know how he carved those tiny little letters. Maybe he had some automated tools in a shop somewhere?