...Well ya know it's been a long, long time...

Ok, ok: Yes, it's been about 2.5 years (!!!) since we've written anything in here - But we do update, I swear - It happens on our Facebook page. Just easier, especially for quick, relatively brief newsbits. But, so much is going on now that we felt it would be best to write a bigger chunk of info here, rather than on FB. [And we do still email a quick blast of info but usually it's just for events - Short and to the point, more like reminders.]

Now that we have The Peanut as our third member, we have seriously trimmed down our art/craft fair schedule. Last year we went on what we think of as literally a tour of the country (no regrets, lots of adventure!) and went from coast to coast, coming back to finish off the year and catch up on a lot of missed studio time (that type of tour is NOT feasible if you make all of your product yourself and you need a lot of it for shows & wholesale & online retail) and home time. We will look forward to future road trips for purely pleasure and not work, for sure :)

So far, we have this as our Spring/Summer event schedule:
- The Art Girls Spring Pop-Up Shop in May
- Wells Street Art Festival in June
- Bucktown Arts Fest in August (still waiting to hear jury results)
- Renegade Craft Fair in September (still waiting to apply)

That's it :) We're sorry about not coming to Wisconsin or Minnesota this year, but when it came down to it, we realized we needed to just focus on a more simple studio-forward game plan (that didn't require a lot of travel). We are keeping ourselves plenty busy with wholesale (thanks to them and the people who still buy our ware and request us) and more new shape design. Last year there was simply no time for it (and you all know more or less how we do it, you know it takes a bit of time)! Sugar & Creamer set? On the list. Butter Dish? On the list. Salt & Pepper set? Whoa there, it's on the list, but for next year. We also have a new press we want to make, new graphics, new glazes. So onward to our wholesale/shop news...

Nordstrom & Fab production work

Nordstrom work continues, huzzah! We're going online with a couple handfuls of ware, soon - and we're working on their first reorder for the Woodfield location. Can I just say how THRILLED we are that our ware is doing its thing and charming people? And that the sales staff likes our ware too and sells it? Soooo, so nice.
Our second Fab sale was a success, and it caught us a little off-guard [who knew black cats on an aqua/blue-green would be crazy popular?!] We probably won't be doing another one (which would make it our third) for a while due to conflicting interests, but that's ok. We'll have our Cyber Monday sale like we did last year and that was actually based on our Fab sale prices (and it went great!)

Our new tumbler, which debuted at our Fab sale in February

 Speaking of sales...It's April which usually means either an open studio/Slightly Unsightly Sale. This year, because of all the work we're doing, we're holding it off until October (which is when we usually do our Fall open studio & the Slightly Unsightly). And we'll continue to have it online as well. I have a few ideas to make it even cleaner & easier that I'll try out prior to launching it!
What else...

We're working on stocking up our local brick & mortar shops The Coffee Studio, Virtu, Sacred Art (mostly our *that which is not* image-kissed commercial white-ware) & Ipsento (they use our ware in their coffee shop, not for retail), and some special projects that are slowly getting worked on, like these two, which are pretty dang rad imo:

Remember this? We'll be working with WMSE again, w00t w00t! This work will also be for a pledge drive, and these will be of course special edition, catering to one specific show though - So they won't look like the one pictured here. I'll post the info once they've shot it; we're sending over a finished piece for their photoshoot soon (the drive is coming up in a couple of weeks!

And remember that Bake&Destroy ware we made for our friend Natalie and her upcoming cookbook? Well, the book's out in August, and we will be making most of the pieces seen in there available for sale. We'll launch them in conjunction with her cookbook, and I heard tell that there will be a giveaway of some kind, and oh, yes! We will be one of the giveaway items :)

photo by Celine Steen

And lastly, we just wanted to acknowledge some really nice mentions we got over the past 2 months:

Refinery29 added us to their Chicago Etsy Makers list TWICE (awesome!) one for Circa Ceramics & one for That Which Is Not.

Our friend and fab photographer Erica Barraca who came to us at the last minute to shoot pictures of us (press release images? Wha?) wrote a sweet follow up of our shoot :)

A great little Instagram pool from Martha Stewart Living called American Made (@americanmademsl) added us to their photo pool of makers (always nice to get a nod!)

So that's our update. It's difficult doing what we do and trying to keep all of our media outlets updated (you know - Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Tumbler) when everything you do has you in dust, water, or some other messiness; the last thing you have with you at your work area is an electronic device (and especially now that we have a toddler. Yeah, uh, NO) - But we'll keep trying! The Instagram has been pretty awesome, and we have that shoot off posts to Tumblr & Facebook & Flickr. Maybe here too? I haven't looked into that...yet. It's on the list.  -Nancy