Vases, Toothbrush Holders, 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......$25-75

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 into diamond or parallelogram in cross-section, then bottom and handles attached. I make them this way to give me plenty of surface to paint on. Smaller vases sell for $25; larger, elaborately patterned ones can go for as high as $45-75.

With their straight sides and crock handles, vases also work well as kitchen tool jars, brush holders, even pen or pencil cups.

Toothbrush Holders......$17

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.