As I was looking through photos on my computer last night I came across some of the ceramic bonsai pots I made in 2007. I thought this would be a good place to document my progress through various creative explorations in bonsai ceramics. 2007 was the first year I started to seriously produce (and sell) pots in some volume. Last year was a frenzy of hand building and I will post some 2008 pictures separately. I've pretty much settled into my comfort zone of mame, shohin, kusimono, and accent pots.  Despite many requests for larger pieces, smaller pots are a good size for my fingers and my kiln (and everyone knows you can collect more small pots than big ones, they also weigh less to transport, and require less soil to fill).

Highlights of the year include my 'gelato' pots (made from a mold of a plastic pot intended to contain gelato); the 'tomato' pots (the molds taken directly from heirloom tomatoes, not pictured); the 'eggplant' pots (made on commission from Janet Wanerka); the tiny but highly detailed 'mollusk' pots (the dried, empty mollusk somehow arrived in my garden, where I discovered it, even though I live 17 miles inland from the ocean); the 'hand pot' life-cast directly from my husband's hand - appearing in the upper right corner of this blog (which taught us quite a lot about the nature of plaster on skin); and many little itty bitty mame pots I free sculpted (which were somehow thwarted from reaching the market, as most were immediately purchased by Shirley Kavanaugh as quickly as I could make them, thank goodness she uses them so often in her exhibits).

The best seller was definitely the 'hand' pot and I am glad that I committed to only making an edition of 15, because I am not good at repetitive work. The meticulous details required a great deal of concentration. I think in the future I would restrict the limited edition pots to 5 or 10. All the simple pots, on the other hand, offered endless possibilities for glaze combinations, surface textures, wall thickness, color variations, and experiments and no two are even remotely the same.

Plans for future pot designs include a 'dragon' pot, a 'koi' pot, a 'lotus' pot, painted pots, and a bunch of 'abstract' pots. The glazes are evolving and I am closer to having a few that capture the subltle age and matte surface that so elegantly compliments bonsai and works for accents in traditional displays. And yes, I will make more mame pots without giving Shirley first dibs.