Handmade Gifts for Dog Lovers
Happy December! I hope this post finds you enjoying the season. There are two people who might be a little happier this day, as they are the winners of my November Dog Pottery Giveaway. Congratulations to Denise W. and Gina F. who will be receiving my dog breed Christmas ornaments, just in time to hang on their trees.
I will be putting my December giveaway up this coming week and will be sure to post again when I do. Enjoy your weekend!
October has come and gone and we’re now rolling into the Holidays. Somehow the month went by so fast that I didn’t get my Giveaway up and running or send out my newsletter. But I did make a bunch of my base pottery and will continue trying to stockpile it so that I can more quickly fill orders as they come in. Anyhow, my November giveaway is live as I type this.
In honor of Christmas being just around the corner, I thought it only fitting that I give away my new dog breed Christmas ornaments this month so that the winners will have them in time to add to their trees in December. And yes, I said winners. Because I didn’t give away a piece of pottery last month, I will be picking two winners this month.
The contest works the same as in previous months. Click the big red button, enter your email. Then share, share share when prompted to do so after you enter. The more you share, the greater your chances of winning. Enter now and good luck!
Just a quick post to let you know that my new English Springer Spaniel design is now available on my website’s English Springer Spaniel Gifts page. I’ve put up listings for all of the available pottery shapes in two color variations – black and white and liver.
I’ll be posting soon about next month’s Giveaway so check back!
Have a good weekend,
A customer asked if English Springer Spaniels were available on my dog breed pottery. Well, I didn’t have that design done yet so I remedied the situation and made a couple color versions of this very pretty breed – black and white and liver. I’m in the final color testing stages – in fact, I just did another color test over the weekend. The design part of my work is the most time consuming for me because, as with most art, it’s hard to know when to stop.
Given that every breed has a range of body conformations, even within the breed standard, but especially outside of it, it’s hard sometimes to nail down an outline sketch that will work for most people. Then there are all of the color variations within breeds, not to mention the huge variation color patterns between dogs of any color. Once I settle on an outline and do the color work, I print my decals and fire them on a white test tile.
I usually fire 2 or 3 versions of the same artwork, applying different manipulations to my artwork, such as a slightly darker version, an even darker version, etc. The reason for this is that it’s difficult to tell how a printed decal on paper will equate to a decal fired on a finished piece of pottery. This is partly because my printer prints in ceramic pigments which look very flat when printed on the decal paper. Their richness, or lack thereof, doesn’t show up until a cover coat of flux (basically glass) is applied and fired onto a ceramic piece. Its much like how the color of wood color is enriched by applying laquer. So it sometimes goes that the first test tile comes out revealing that my artwork needs some alteration because it’s either to light or has an “off” tone.
The tile shown represents two different firings. I did the top group of 4 English Springer Spaniels (2 black and white, 2 liver) in the first firing. I liked the liver color of the left dog but thought it and the two black and white dogs were a little flat looking. They actually would have been ok but I wanted to make them a little better – this goes back to that part about not knowing when art is done. So I worked on them a little more and refired. The two dogs at the bottom with red arrows were the second test. I think the liver might need a little more vibrance however, there are liver colored dogs that are really dark, so maybe not. What do you think?
Anyhow, I’ve decided that my English Springer Spaniel artwork is done and will add them to my website. Of course I’m always open to revisit my artwork should a customer advise me to do so. Such recommendations usually result in a different version that I’ll ad to my website.
I’ll make a quick post once I’ve listed all of the English Springer Spaniel items to my website.
Until next time,
The beginning of October already? I feel like I was just announcing my September giveaway and now it’s over. It was a busy month in the studio getting ready for the approaching holiday season and that made it go by that much faster. On to the results:
The winner was SaraLee E. and she will be receiving one of my dog breed ornaments to hang on her tree or gift to someone special. She chose a black and tan Chihuahua ornamet. Thanks SaraLee and everyone else who entered!
I’ll be coming to a decision about this month’s contest in days and will post about it then, so check back.
This post fits into the “killing two birds with one stone” kind of post (though I hate the reference to killing birds). I have a new product, dog breed Christmas ornaments, that I’ve listed on my website. In honor of this occasion, I will be giving away an ornament as the prize for this month’s giveaway.
Some of my customers are familiar with the ornaments from my Etsy shop (where I tested the ornaments out), and from special requests. Until now I haven’t made them readily available. But now I’m in ornament-making-mode and they are listed on my website and available for all of my dog breed designs. There may be some glitches with my ornament listings, which seem to happen when I add a new product. Please forgive them and, by all means, let me know if you experience any problems using my website.
So, on to the giveaway. The instructions are the same as with previous months. Click the big red button below and you’ll be taken to the giveaway entry page. After you enter, you’ll receive notification to share the giveaway. Do so as much as you can in order to increase your chances of winning. Good luck!!!
I hope you had a great Labor Day weekend. I spent the weekend at our cabin with family, friends and pup, Zeus. It was fun for all but I will admit that being away has left me a little behind. Which is why this post is a tad late. So on to the the results.
And the winner of my August dog pottery giveaway is……Caitlyn B! She will receive a pair of my dog breed salt and pepper shakers. Congratulations Caitlyn 🙂
Thank you all for taking the time to enter and share my contest. Stay tuned for this month’s giveaway. The prize will be something I haven’t offered as a prize before. Super suspensful, right? I’ll get my act together and post in the next day or two so check back.
A quick post to let you know that this month’s giveway is up and running. The prize this month is a set of dog salt and pepper shakers with your choice of dog breed. These will be great on your tabletop, or you could gift them to the dog lover in your life.
I was so happy that a customer requested that I make salt and pepper shakers because they have been very popular. I use mine all the time. And yes, that is me in my kitchen using my German Shepherd shakers 🙂
Click the big red button to enter the giveaway – Good luck!
Audrey S. was the winner of my July dog pottery Giveaway! Yay!! She will be receiving a dog breed dipping bowl and wine stopper with her choice of dog breed, and her choice was Boston Terrier.
I’ll be posting my August giveaway very soon so check back!
If you would like to win a cute little dog breed dipping bowl and dog breed wine stopper, then enter my July dog pottery giveaway. Both pieces exude happiness as they perform their functions. The dipping bowl is great for serving olive oil or sauce, holding rings or spare change. And the wine stopper, well, it’s pretty self explanatory.
If you win, you’ll choose from over 40 dog breeds and can have the same item on each item or have a different breed on each item. Your odds of winning improve greatly by sharing the contest, and once you enter, you’ll receive information about how to share it. So share, share, share 🙂
Good luck!
Shepherd's Grove Studio 