Vases, Tall Mugs/Travel Mugs

We loved picking wildflowers as kids. We'd tramp the woods in May, hoping to find a sheltered, sunny spot where spring beauties and violets could be found in time to make Mother's Day bouquets for Mom and Grandma. Later there'd be branches of apple and plum blossoms from the orchard, lilac and wild tiger lily. Dandelions, of course, and daisies and Black-eyed Susans. We didn't bring home chicory, after the first couple of tries--the fragile blue flowers wilted away to nothing almost before we got them in the vase. And Grandma wouldn't let us bring home devil's paintbrushes. She had a superstitious dislike of their black, hairy stems and leaves, no matter how gorgeous the red-orange blossoms.

Vases......$33-45

These days I don't bring flowers in the house much--the cats eat them, you see. I compensate by making my Vases as beautiful as I can. They're wheel-thrown and reshaped, some flare, some are straight-sided. I don't do them often, and when I do, I play around with the shape, the cross-section, handles or not. The one thing they have in common is plenty of surface to paint on. Smaller vases sell for $33; larger, elaborately patterned ones can go for as high as $45.

Tall Mugs/Travel Mugs......$22

Back when I started making pottery, everyone made travel mugs with big wide bottoms, suitable for balancing on the dash, passenger's seat or other big flat surface. Nowadays, of course, there are no big flat surfaces in your average vehicle. Every available space is crammed with dials, lights, levers, stereo system and GPS and cup-holders.

And the cup-holders are nearly useless for actually holding cups, being very narrow and requiring either no handle or one set very high on the cup. When we bought our last pottery van, not one cup in our substantial collection fit in the cup holder.

So I made some that did. Tall, slender, with a graceful handle and the usual painted decoration, we loved taking them on the road to art shows. Where everybody wanted to buy them. So I've made more, and we're taking them on the road with us, just for you.

Patterns vary, depending on my inspiration. Look for bears, chickens, hummingbirds, herons, robins and maybe even the occasional tiger. If they're really tall, you might even spot a giraffe...