Hello all! It’s slightly-surprise shop update time!!

I have some wee leftovers from my last couple kiln loads of 2024 and I’d love to get them off into the world, so what better time to present my (physically - these sculptures are wee!) smallest shop drop yet than during the shortest month of the year?

I’m still working on getting all the info typed up, but you can head over to the shop now (heywitch.bigcartel.com) to see all the pictures & prices before the shop reopens on Sunday, February 9th at 4pm EST.

There’s a bit of a random assortment of small-to-tiny sculptures in the update - a couple raccoons from the summer, a herd of ancient horses, ravens, some funky fish, and a few other discoveries from the back of my finished-work cupboard (see: the four mothmen that I totally forgot I still had)!

I know it’s a bit of a Time to be trying to sell weird little beasts, but I hope they can add a splotch of joy amongst the stress? Fingers crossed?? I just want everyone to know that I extra-super appreciate you all (and if you can’t invest in funky little fellas right now, I 110% understand) <3

Studio Dude-ios
or, what’s going on at my pottery desk & beyond

When I sat back down at my pottery desk after the new year, I realized that I had a box filled with mystery brown clay. It turns out that my mid-red and brown speckle clays look almost exactly the same until their final firing, a thing I didn’t realize when I was doing my first big batch of mugs. I successfully kept the off-cuts separate, but didn’t label which ball of clay was which, so…yeah. Eight months later (maybe more?!) and I’ve got lumps of unknown clay languishing in a plastic box, getting dryer by the day.

My solution? To make a bunch of stuff where the final clay colour didn’t really matter that was also relatively simple to sculpt (eg. blorpy or slab-based), as the clay was all pretty stiff at this point. Sphinxes were a good choice, as their forms are nice and rounded, easy to achieve with carving & bopping the clay with my clay-bopping paddle.

Also, they’re a damn delight & I love making them!

The other main use of the mystery clay was on some bigger, wall-hanging flat fish, as I was so in love with the tiny ones I made last year (three of whom are available for sale in this shop update, btw!).

Finally, I’ve been wanting to branch out and sculpt some more tiny cave art-inspired beasts, so I created a wee herd of aurochs, bison, and woolly rhinos! Absolutely can’t wait to have these guys all done.

I just pulled all these guys out of the kiln on Tuesday after their bisque firing and am trying to get them ready for their glaze fire ASAP. With that in mind, I’m off to have lunch and then spend the afternoon glazing! See you on Sunday!

Thanks for reading :)