Thank you!!

Well, competition is finally over, thank you so much for all your love and support. We conquered the 14th place out of close to 1,000 nominees. The official number numbers are not yet on the American Made website, but the last time I looked I had 12,140 votes. That number still amazed me, thank you so much for helping me. I am a very blessed girl with many true and loyal friends, I am a winner after all!!!

Monica

10,295 votes and 4 more days to go!!!

With 10,265 votes we are ready for the 4 days left of the competition. We are number 14 from 1,000 competitors in the craft category from all the USA. The competition was open to everybody from the beginning, which means that small artist like me will be competing with big business. One, for example had 35K Likes in her FB page, before the competition started. Its kind of crazy even dreaming to compete with that, and however here we are #14. She is currently #3. Another good example is #7, she is a jeweler and her work had been selected to be display on one of the characters of Vampire Diaries Show, also her jewelry has been part of the gifts for celebrities in the Golden Globes Awards, Emmy Awards, etc. Number 9 is a well renowned basketry artist, she teaches as numerous workshops all over the US. Of of her baskets is right now property of the Smithsonian Museum. Numbers 10 to 15 are small artist like me. You can find here, soap makers, bags makers, painters,illustrators and a potter and glass artist: Me. I know it has been hard and tedious voting everyday,and the the website has been itself sometimes impossible to work with. But we have come so far, I really think that among all the top 20 I am the smallest, the one nobody will have bet on it...and here we are #14, so please, please vote again for 4 more days, share it with your friends, we can finish it in 10 place, Martha Steward and her team will have proof of what can truly and loyal friendship can achieve, making the impossible possible. I am just a girl from Lima with no connections no budget to give presents in exchange of votes (except for my mom's alfajores), no studio, no wheel... I may be just a huge dreamer who look for opportunities and hope for the best every time. Thank you for being there with me, supporting me. I don't have many things, but I do have friends, exceptionally good and amazing friends!!! Let's keep voting. To be in the top 10 is possible. Si se puede, si se puede!!! Gracias!!

http://www.marthastewart.com/americanmade/nominee/80557

7,503 votes and Only 9 more days left!!!

I don't know how many more votes I will be able to reach, and everything ends on September 22nd. Right now I am in the number 16 out of 1000 people. Amazing, isn't it?? I really, really want to get into the finals, finalist will be interview in Martha Stewart Living Magazine, and that will give so much exposure, it will really help me to start the foundation of a real business. But the competition is soooo hard!!! Right now the number 3 has 28,745 votes, how can she got all those votes??? oh, yes perhaps because she has 35K fans in her FB page! My God, this is an insane competition, why would someone like me would dare to compete with such big nominees, oh yes, I remember, because I am a dreamer! I always do that, I must be a very, very crazy girl. I don't know how many will pass to the finals, I don't quite understand if it is 6 per category, or 6 total, one per each category!

Oh, but there is hope, just the hope that someone from Martha's team would look at my artwork and decided to fallow my projects, and then maybe one day, they will need some pots for an article in the magazine and they will think: I know someone whose pieces will work perfect here....ahhh, dreams!!! What do we do for our dreams? Everything !!!

So in case you don't know much about this, just go to the link below, register and vote for me, you can vote up to 6 continuous times every 24 hours. Thank you!!

http://www.marthastewart.com/americanmade/nominee/80557

5,063 votes!!!

Yes, we have made 5,063 votes yahooo!!! I am so happy and so excited! When the competition started I though that 5,000 will be all that I will need to get into the finals, I read an article about another nominee who had that and pass into the finals, but lately I also discover that last year there were a total of 1,000 nominees, this year there are 1,000 only in my category!! This is a very stressful competition, and it is only online, I can not imagine how it would be to be a politician, fighting and begging for votes. I guess that is why they have a big campaign team, a marketing team and so on. I am doing it by myself, at home in my computer.

However, I have a huge support system, I have family and I have amazing friends, I don't have a big fan base in my FB page, because I don't have a big business, I haven't being doing for many years, I don't even have a studio. All I do has been made in the city community studio and in the little room of my house, I call it the "room of requirements" I only wish it work the same way that in the Harry Potter's books.

I am in this competition because I want a studio, I want a wheel and some tools, I am so small that I can not think of getting my business bigger I am in the getting a business stage. However, even when I am that small I am leading (at this moment, things change so fast with online voting) the Florida nominees, yupi!!! I am still processing that,that will put me in the number 20, I am 20 among 1000!!!!

Few days after the competition started, I took the time to look to all the nominees in the craft category, there were close to 1000, perhaps 998 or something like that, and I was the number 54, a week later I look again to all those 55 again and I was the number 24. I didn't look to all of them, because there was a big gap between them and the rest, so my thinking is that they will keep running behind, I can be wrong, of course. But it is so tedious to look to all the pages, that I am just concentrating on those 55.

I have noticed that even when there are some who keep increasing the votes (the leaders) most of the people with big number are now decreasing, and I think is because even when you have a big group of fans at the beginning what you need is a loyal and constant group who vote everyday, and that is what i have, very, very loyal and caring friends, there are not hundreds, but they made their voice heard, and it is show on the constant number of votes I have every day. They are truly amazing friends!!!

I have to say that if I want to win the competition I need more people, and that its very difficult, I need people who can sit in front of the computer every day and vote, and that's a lot. I think that in order to do that I have to increase my number of fans, so my page can be show in more Facebook's news feed. But how to do that??? I really need some marketing lessons.

Anyway, if you, whoever you are, wherever you be wants to contribute with the edification of my studio please go to the link below, register and vote. You can vote up to 6 times every 24 hours until September 22nd. Thank you!!

http://www.marthastewart.com/americanmade/nominee/80557

You can also go to my FB page and click on LIKE, that way it will help me to get to more people

https://www.facebook.com/BarroyArena

Thank you for all the help!!

Monica

Almost 4,000 votes !!

Yes!  We are almost in 4,000 votes in the American Made contests sponsored by Martha Stewart. As I told you before, there are 5 categories and I am in the one named "craft" there are almost 1,000 participants and some of them are running again for the second time. It is a hard competition, a couple of them already have 16,000 votes, but there are many who will pass to the finals. For what I have read, last year were 1,000 nominees and 1000 pass to the finals, I guess that if only in the craft category are 1,000 more than a hundred will pass to the finals, so I still have a chance.

Maybe you have been wondering why I am putting myself into this stressful competition, and the answer is easy, to have more exposure, to increase my fans and to have money, of course, the prize is 10,000 dollars!! With that money I will be able to build my dream studio in the garden.

I have been collecting photos in my Pinterest account, and there is one that I really want. One surrounding by flowers, with big windows, and since it is in the garden it will allow me to go back and forth to my house in no time :). In the studio i will have shelves and a potter's wheel, that will be great since I only can use it while in the studio. If you are a potter or have you tried one you will know that there are good days, when everything runs smoothly, those day I would have been able to make more than 4 mugs or bowls, but there is no time for more. And there are the other kind of days, when nothing works, everything I tried on the wheel collapsed, too much water, to fast building the walls, bubbles... argghhh! everything that you can imagined happen, those are horrible days. Wouldn't it be nice to avoid those days and just work more hours on the good ones? With a wheel in my house I will be able to do just that :)

Here is the studio I want, you can look at more images in my pinterest board, or here

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/an-urban-chicken-coop-turned-c-134711

Don't you think it is beautiful, don't you fight for it if you have the chance, well I am doing it, and I am sure I will have it some day, if not winning the prize I will build it anyway, it will just take some years, but brick by brick I will build it.

If you like my work please vote for me, wherever you are, it is an online competition, so you just have to register with a FB account or with an email and any password, and you can vote for me up to 6 times per day everyday until the 13th. Thank you!!

Here is the link: http://www.marthastewart.com/americanmade/nominee/80557

Almost 1500 votes

As it right now 11:13 pm I have 1392 votes!!! I feel excited for the enormous support from my family and friends. I feel like a politician promising things to my followers, I have promised alfajores for my classmates if I win. Way back when I was in high-school I had a clandestine businesses. I used to sell sweet treat during school hours. My mother used to have a catering business and I sold some of her treats. My classmates looove alfajores, they were their favorite. So if I win I think I can deliver some alfajores to them :)

 Anyway, it seems that if only 18 people vote right now, I will have 1500 votes!!! If you, wherever you are, like my pottery and/ or my glass, please vote for me, you will be contributing in the construction of my studio, a place where I finally will be able to work anytime I want, I will be able to produce more and be more relaxed without the constant worry of staying longer than I should, which is my "normal" at the Hyde Park Studio in Tampa.

Please vote for me, you can vote 6 times everyday until September 13th.

Here is the link:

http://www.marthastewart.com/americanmade/nominee/80557

476 votes and counting

Hello,

Well, the competition started on Monday and let me tell you it has been very exciting, counting votes and asking people to help, I am not at the bottom  but I am not at the top either. There is one excellent craftswoman in Massachusetts who already has more than 2,000 votes, there is another in Palm Harbor, Florida who has 800. So I guess for being my first time I am not so bad. I hope more friends find out and start voting. If you like my work, wherever you are, you can help me to. You can 5 times a day until September 13th. With your help I will be able to buy a wheel and start building my studio. I know it is very hard to get more than 5,000 votes but I am willing to fight for it, would you help me?

American Made

Hello,

As some of you may have notice I am applying to Martha Stewart American Made 2013. This is a online contest and the "only" thing I will need is 5,000 votes. Yeah, right! Where on Earth am I going to find 5,000 people who will vote for me!

Anyway, the contest is free and I will give it a shot, I can not imagine any bad scenarios coming from this, so why not, right and maybe, just maybe I can gin the money and I now exactly how to use that money :) A potter's wheel, a wedging table, some glazes. The beginning of my studio, maybe only the floor and some screen in the garden, but its a start, don't you think?

So, please vote for me, there is no money involve, just a click, perhaps there will be the option to vote everyday during the 19 days of the competition, I don't know, the clicking features on the "American Made" website will be open on Monday. Competition starts Monday, August 26th  through Thursday September 19th.

Here is the link, ah, by the way if you click on the like button as well, that will be awesome too :)

Thanks a lot,

Monica

Here is the link, you can also just click on the badge of American Made in the column on your right.

http://www.marthastewart.com/americanmade/nominee/80557

Mugs!

A selection of 4 mugs, the photo with the 8 will come soon!

Bowls for food

I am trying to keep my first big order. Its from a dear friend, it will also work as an experiment and learning process of shipping. She wants a set of 8 pieces, but all of them different. Currently I have 7 designs and I am still thinking and working on my 8th. I tried leaves in yellow, but I am still not happy with it, although I like that new  technique very much.

I work very slow, I don't have a wheel at home and I have to throw, trim and glaze at the studio, it takes time. Also I am making a set for myself as well, so I will have a model for photos, shows, etc. I have to make 16 bowls, 16 mugs, 16 big plates, and 16 medium plates. This will mean nothing for a professional potter that make wholesales orders, but for me is a lot. I feel bad specially when I am at home after a day or relaxing, there is nothing I can do to accelerate the process, I have to wait until Monday to start again. Perhaps I can work on recycling my clay in order to feel more productive.

Here is a collage I made with my designs. The yellow is there just to complete the 8.

Coo coooo, coo coooo!

Burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia) tea pot. 

I am trying new forms, and something I wanted to do for a long time is a tea pot. Tea pots are a bit complicated, there is a lid and a handle and a spout and many things that can go wrong at many different stages. But still, I want to do that, and later a tea set, tea pot and cups that will matched. 

This is my first one, the lid came out a bit weird looking so after a lot of thinking I found that my lid and the head of a burrowing owl are very similar hahaha! You have to imagine that the head is coming out from a hole in the tree, at least that was my thinking. 

Why a burrowin owl because it is a Florida owl and I live in Florida and after seen a wonderful documentary in PBS about the Forida Wildlife Corridor I am more into nature than never before, the documentary open my eyes... it seems that wildlife were closer than I thought.  If you have the opportunity to watch it, don't think it twice and watched you will be amazed!!

Here it is, what do you think?

Pottery and Photos

I am trying new photos, since I had found an important fact. Photos of my pottery have more traffic on FB when the pottery is set as it will be used in a everyday house. Pottery portrayed in a white background appeal more to people who frequently buy pottery and/or art pieces or at least wanted to buy it.

I was also looking on big companies websites and FB pages, Pottery Barn for example, show their furniture and table ware in a very nice environment, nice houses, retreats with great food and sometimes good looking people, it is all super well produced. I wish my friends who work in advertisement were here to help me, but they are in Lima. However, since I myself had also studies advertisement and had work briefly for them I should have some clues. It is not really a fun thing to do, at least for me. I have to find a great location, get some props and take the photos.... to do that take some time, time that I rather use in making more pots, drawing or writing.

Anyway here is my first attempt. My mom made this delicious lemon tarts and I thought I better used them before I eat them. I don't have to much light in my dinning room, perhaps I should get some extra lamps or something. Any extra ideas?

The pieces were hand thrown as always and decorated with the slip trailing tool and later glazed with Magic Glow, fired c. 6

Blue Jay Nest

I have been lazy lately, I haven't take photos and posted in a while. I was working on making plates and mugs, I was hoping to have a set to post but the studio kiln was in a terrible mood and kind of exploited with my pieces inside, so I have to start all over again.

Here is one of my carved pieces. This particular one I don't feel so attached. It gave me so many problems, I tried to use a different technique in order to make the process faster and ended up working even more. I applied latex to cover the design in hopes that later will be easier to remove but no, it was horrible, I had also manipulated the piece so much that the blues in the piece faded. I am not happy with the colors but I do like the carving, I think I had to do a new version of it. I like how the nest is coming and leaving it without glaze it  adds more character to the piece.  I have to try it again SOON!!

Henna Pots

I have been very busy lately, I haven't write in a while. Here is an update. I have been playing with the slip trailing a lot, I have made some tumblers, some vases and bowls.

This green glaze is called Ayumi and everything was fired at c.10. I also tried a red color, but it looked more pinkish. The design was inspired in Henna motives I found on the internet, I like the flowers and butterflies, that can be created with the slip. 

I took all this photos in my back garden and since we live in Florida there are all kinds of wild life everywhere . Here are some animals that were dying to have their Kodak moment, hahaha. In the first photo you can see Sssssinforosa, the snake. She is everywhere, luckily she is shy, when she is aware of my presence she hides very quickly, which is good because I don't like reptiles. My garden has many insects, I am not very fond of them, but I know they are good for my plants so I let them be, as long as they are not so close to me. However I love butterflies, everyday I see a new kind, we are having more and more everyday, I guess my flower selection is working. Now I hope someday to have hummingbirds to keep me company at the garden, just like the Blue jays and cardinals. I will post photos will all my garden visitors soon.

Black Racer Snake

Gulf Fritillar Butterfly

Octopus's Garden Bowl

This is a B I G bowl for me,  as you may know I always have a hard time centering the clay. Anything beyond 3 pounds is such a challenge, sometimes I can, sometimes I can not, nowadays I am practicing with close to 4 pounds. This bowl will have had required at least 6 pounds, so I did something different, I made it with a slab of clay that later I slumped it on a mold. The process is slow, very different from the fast spinning wheel.

I did it because I have an idea on my mind, I wanted to make a big bowl with the "Under the Sea"  or "Octopus's Garden" theme, something big than can make people look at my table in future shows. Before I started the decoration process I realized than I have never had so much space for drawing, empty spaces scare me. I start thinking on my regular characters, jelly fish, octopus, fish, somehow it didn't seem enough for so much space,  I started to think on marine images and one image came to my mind, a turtle!!

Why a turtle, well, I should have started by telling that I have a friend, her name is Rhonda, she is a marine biologist and most of her work consist on  rescue turtles, of course there are more, something about the marine currents, the waves, the weather, the tide, the wind... it is quite embarrassing but sometimes I can not fallow her, I blame it to my lack of English words concerning marine biology, but perhaps I would not even understand it in Spanish either. Marine Biologist, get so passionate about their jobs, that I feel bad to interrupt them to ask silly questions, I get the big idea and I am happy with that. When I talk to her I feel a renew optimism, not everyone is evil, maybe not everyone has sold their souls to devil in exchange of money, prestige or fame. I am a pessimistic, I have no faith in humans.

However, I do remember a time when I was younger and really wanted to make this world a better place, I worked and volunteer in a couple of organizations back in Lima, but then, I found out the corruption, the personal interest and get into the conclusion that we are doom. But when I see Rhonda, and read her daily post on FB I feel better knowing that there are still some people working for us, protecting living creatures and their environment, Rhonda is one of them, isn't she the best!!

She works very early fallowing turtles paths, saving their nest, and much more, if a turtle needs help she will never  say: "Too bad, its 5 pm, I am out of here". Bad thing is that this wonderful people are badly paid, even worse than teachers, they don't receive paid vacations, or sick days, or retirement money, nothing, just good bye was nice to have you here, isn't it horrible!!

Thank you Rhonda for being there for the turtles, and for be my friend!

Mata and friends

I think I lack of discipline, I get distracted so easily and with the most absurd things, I mean what kind of person would prefer cleaning to take photos??? I have so many things unfinished, my paper, a canister, my closet, etc, etc. Today is cold, very cold for Florida, so I think I will stay inside and perhaps try to finish something, wait, no, I can't... today is Thursday, I will go to St. Pete in couple of hours to spend the day with my mother, oh well, tomorrow I will finish all the projects :) Sometimes I feel like Scarlet, from Gone with the Wind, that was her answer for almost everything: tomorrow!

Anyway, I did took some photos the other day, before it started to rain. However it does not have a name yet, Betsy said "Mata" but even though that will fit the name of the ardilla (squirrel) it doesn't holf the name of the whole bowl...Brian has been very lazy lately, he is not fulfilling his job as a cerrajero (locksmith) hahahaha! In Lima a cerrajero is a person that put locks and also nicknames - chapa can mean either lock or nickname.

Awakening Cacophonie

Yes, morning are very noisy in the mysterious guy who lives in the tree can not sleep because baby birds are crying, and the rest of the neighborhood is busy on their diverse affairs.

Spring Twilight

I took me so long (well, I took Brian) to figure it a name for this little vase, but finally he got it. Spring Twilight, it evokes flowers, bird, nice and warm weather.... it is a perfect match for the cherry tree and the birds.

Birds on Trees (carved pot #2)

This is the second pot I carved, I tried something different with it, after I stained it with red oxide I painted only the high relief areas and left the background bare, no glaze at all, The red oxide will give it an antique, woody look.This one is different that the first one, that was totally glaze. However,  I am still trying to find the right combination, I am carving like crazy, I will post more photos later.

In the land of purple trunk trees

Well, this is the final product, I had never play with underglazes this way although I do had use some before, for sgraffito purposes, 4 layers of one color and that's it. This is different, I was trying to paint with them the same way I paint with water colors. I did not turned out how I was expecting. However the result is fascinating, the greens are so psychedelic even when I only use a little and very, very watery. The brown turned purple, the orange/red turned out really red. Kiln does do magic!

I still have one more to paint, I will try something different and perhaps I will try a whole new set with this decoration, oh the future  what magical things will they have prepare for us.

I still need a title for it, some people had called Alice in Wonderland imaginary, some others psychedelic, and some kind of putrid (!!) What do you think?