Holiday giveaway to all of my wonderful customers, followers, and friends!

Last Saturday, December 14, I started listing one item in my Etsy shop for $1.00. I have so many wonderful customers, and followers on facebook, twitter (@lesperancetile), and pinterest that I just wanted to take this time to say THANK YOU!!

My first $1 tile was a tile I call an ornament tile, because I've taken one of my little ornaments and pressed it into the center of a tile after I've pressed the clay with a carved decorative motif, an Angel and Star pressed on top of a funky 4x4 called puffballs.

Congrats to Carrie!!

Sunday I had 2 winners (why not?) and they both got the $1 tile that was a reproduction for a home on the west coast that I call Daisy 3x3.

Congrats to Jenn and Kathy!!

Monday's tile is one of my favorites (it's really hard to say that - we love all of our children the same, don't we?), A raised line tile that depicts Horus, who is one of the oldest and most significant deities in ancient Egyptian religion.

Congrats to Alexis!

Yesterdays tile was one of the oldest in my tile catalogue....and that's saying a lot since I've been making tiles sine 1979!! A Celtic knot design, actually inspired by a book of Celtic images I received as a gift from someone who loved me (sorry, but who could remember who gave them a Dover book 30+ years ago?).

Congratulations, Dyani!

What will I list today? Hey, I'm not even sure yet, but since I think my holiday rush is over, it might be something really special. Follow me on facebook and twitter (@lesperancetile) and be the first to find the $1 item (plus the cost of shipping, which I try to keep as close to the actual price as possible) and it's yours!

Thanks again and again!!
XXLinda @ L'esperancwe TileXX

The Kiln Room at L'esperance Tile

It's not always pretty, or completely organized, but the kiln room is certainly the hot spot of our ceramics studio. We love the heat source in the winter, but aren't as thrilled with the added temps in mid August.

Seven kilns rotate firings, depending on the size of the orders in our shop.

We have two separate electric services to our building, one is on a demand meter. We rotate our firings in the hopes of keeping it at only one - demand meters can add a substantial cost to the electricity that we buy.

We have kiln logs for each kiln, in which we write down the date, the cone or program it's firing to, what's in the kiln, and the end time and temperature of each firing. When a kiln takes overly long it's notated in red and gets a check-up and band-aid for what ails it.


For really large orders it's important to plan ahead to keep the kilns firing to capacity in an organized system.


Each kiln is vented and we have a large exhaust fan at the top of the windows to pull out the heat and fumes when needed.

A movable metal shelf holds kiln furniture, but most of our tiles fire on tile cranks. We cut up old kiln shelves and tile cranks to create stilts for the shelves for bisque firing.

And I love my welders gloves - I can pull tiles out of 350• kilns with those babies!

Any questions? Ask away!!

How to successfully accessorize with Sharpie markers!

Here is my third and last Thanksgiving Sharpie post. This, I think, was the most creative use of my Sharpies of the whole evening. Where did it all start? With my husband, Don, of course!

Cooties for sure......that's his Sharpie now.

Pete gets just the right position for his Sharpie.

I see a new fashion trend, a bit painful, but that's the price you have to pay sometimes.

My, my, looks like Jody has the style all figured out. And - nice choice of colors!

Yes, it was a great Thanksgiving. We ate our fill, laughed a lot, decorated cookie containers, doodled, drew, and came up with a jazzy new fashion style.
Thanks Sharpie!

Etsy Mud Team Tile Challenge

The Etsy Mud Team is having a Tile Challenge, and I've entered a hand-carved tile that I've titled "Homage to a spider that I squashed".

This hand-carved tile measures approximately 7 1/2" wide X 9 1/2" high, and about 3/4" thick. It was carved in a tan stoneware clay as homage to a spider that I squashed. In all fairness to myself, it clearly crossed the personal space boundaries posted in my studio policies. AND, it came upon me without notice, and JUMPING at that, so it wasn't pre-meditated squashing, but it was well deserved. I don't make it a habit of squashing spiders, and when they appear near or on me when I'm outside, I usually just brush them away. I admit this one gave me quit a start. Hey, even Miss Muffett, who I hear was known for her calm, collected manner, reacted in a poor fashion when surprised by an arachnid. The tile is glazed in a gloss black on the spider body, green shino on the "web" border, and glossy clear in the background and spider markings.

You can vote for my spider tile HERE and find out more about who the Etsy Mud Team is right HERE.

Vote for your favorite tile created by the talented artists of the Etsy Mud Team. After you vote, go to any of the shops listed on the main page and receive 20% off your purchase -- you'll need to type TILE20 into the notes to seller and they will refund your discount.

ENJOY!!

Some July Treasuries

Is it really August already? Wow!

Anyway, I've been having a lot of fun with Etsy's new treasury finder and thought I'd share just a few of the wonderful treasuries that feature some of my tiles. Thanks to the creative treasury makers, and Enjoy!

Here's one that by ravenspaperjewelry titled
"The World Traveler Unpacks at Last"
which features my Trilobite magnet.

This one by quinncorrinne is titled
"Show Off Your Riches"
and features my sunflower ornament

I love this one by fishprincessdesigns
It features my Tied Fly 4x4 tile and is titled
"Fish Flies"

And one more for your viewing pleasure...mcrdesigns made this treasury titled "A Hint of Turquoise"

Making Ornament Bowls

Last month I spent a very pleasant Saturday afternoon creating almost 4 dozen of my "Ornament Bowls". Finally, they've made their way through the bisque kilns and are slowly getting glazed and fired. I'm really pleased with the results, and I decided to post the photos taken that day as a short video. Quality control was closely monitored by Abbey the cat.




More bowls are on their way shortly.
Check them out in my Etsy shop!

Health Care Reform Now!

Handmade tile

Mr. Health Care Reform Now has a very important message for us all. We need to get on board to make this happen, NOW!

This handmade tile addresses a most important issue. It's time to get serious about the health care we provide in these great United States.

50% of all sales of this tile will be donated to
HEALTH CARE FOR AMERICA NOW!
Please visit them at
http://www.healthcareforamericanow.org/

The other 50% will be used to pay for my family health care.

Carving the things in my life

4/6/09 "3 pm tea break....chai tea please"

I'm having great fun with my newest tile series....."A day in my life".

These tiles are one-of-kind, carved directly into a blank slab of clay, titled, dated, and signed on the back. Don't expect to find images of daring adventures and impossible feats......just stuff from my every day life.....unless, of course, I have a daring adventure....

This is actually a style I'm revisiting from way back in the 1990's, when I was carving in terra cotta clay. So why, you ask, are you carving directly into clay again??? I'm blaming it on the Etsy Mud Team's April Fools joke of adding toilet paper to the background photos for the day. I decided to quickly crank out some actual tile representations of toilet paper......and as soon as I picked up my old tools I was inspired!

"cat scratched toilet paper"

Just in case you have no idea who (or what) the Etsy Mud Team (EMT) is.......please visit www.etsy.com and search "emt etsymudteam", and you'll find some of the most beautiful and well crafted clay work around. And, this is a wonderfully supportive and creative group, too. So thanks, etsy mud team, for inspiring me back to the future.

"I run with scissors" 4/4/09