Picture Pieces!

It seems like every family has classic family photos. Our family favorites usually involved us kids and include pictures from a Halloween party when I was four, what has become known as the "rice cake picture" when I was a toddler, and among many others a photo of the three of us at the beach.

We can now put all those pictures on pottery! Forever immortalized on pottery. How fabulous is that? My mother was very excited. I chose the beach picture since I could think of some fun shells to put around the rim.




I also chose to make a box with one of the photos my friends refer to as "world's greatest," and although some of us are in our pajamas it's still one of our favorites.




All you have to do is bring in a picture or email one to us and we have special photo paper that can be fired. Although it only fires black and white, you can bring in color with the paint. It takes us about a week or so to get them back to you since they require two firings.

I had a customer who was in today and mentioned that a picture would be perfect for her parent's 55th anniversary. Seems like a fabulous idea and there's still time to make a unique and creative gift for Valentines Day!

I met up in Ashland with some of my good friends from California on New Year's Day. It was a very last-minute trip, but on my way out of town I was sure to stop by the studio to check out a paint kit and grab some 6" tiles. My friends have the most adorable little girl who was born on Jan. 13, and I wanted to get some hand/footprints done for them for her 1st birthday. Lucie picked out the colors she wanted and was so good while we painted her cute little hands and feet.

I brought the tiles back to the studio, added her name, age and the date, and fired them. I was initially planning on framing them--we have some really nice little frames for 4" and 6" tiles. However, on the drive home I remembered that we have stools that fit two 6"tiles.

I finished the stool with a really nice walnut stain (thanks, Laura, I'll remember to get that back to you at some point!), glued the tiles in, and then added a little grout to fill in the small gap between the tiles and around the outside of them. I couldn't have been happier with the end result. My friend received the stool yesterday and loved it. She said Lucie likes it, too :-)

Happy 1st Birthday, Lu!

The reviews are in!

As mentioned previously, the holidays were such a busy time for us, it was hard to know which way was up sometimes. Customer service is so important to us, and when there is a studio full of people all day long, it can be difficult to feel like you're giving everyone the attention they deserve.

Well, I got the validation I needed from some of our wonderful customers who reviewed our business on yelp.com. I love Yelp. It's a great way to learn about local businesses and share your opinions about them. I was so stoked to discover two recent reviews (besides my own...) that had such wonderful things to say about us. It totally made my day, and I couldn't wait to share the info with my fellow employees. Thanks, fellow Yelpers! You guys are fabulous!

To read the reviews, click here!

New Year, New Brushes

As always, we're working to better things at the wonderful world of BrushFire. It being a new year and all, it gives us the opportunity to have a fresh start and make some changes and improvements. On that note, we have new brushes! They are so lovely and they paint so nicely. It makes me very happy. We are also planning on selling some brushes so that you regular customers can have your very own that don't get the wear and tear of all of the other customers. Stay tuned for that.

Also, FYI, we have changed Clay Club hours. Based on customer feedback, we've changed from 2-4pm to 3:30-5pm, every Wednesday. 2pm seemed to be too early for a lot of families, so we're hoping that this will be more accommodating to your busy schedules. Please keep us posted so that we can better serve you.

And finally, thanks so much to all of our wonderful customers for their continued patronage and support. The holidays were a crazy time at BrushFire, and we wouldn't have it any other way. We loved seeing the beautiful masterpieces you created for your friends and loved ones, and I'm sure they loved receiving them! Just today I spoke with a customer whose daughter was so touched by the handmade gift her mother had made for her. Hand-painted pottery truly is a labor of love.

Hope to see you in the studio soon!