So where do I begin.  Perhaps how did I get into this crazy, mixed up, colorful existence...by accident.  

After blowing out a few discs in my lower back, I needed something to do, while I recovered.  I had always loved to play in the mud since I was little, oh, wait, I was never little, but younger, which is hard to believe I was ever younger too.  Anyhoo....I decided to entertain myself with clay.  Odd, but true.   I made a few items, and loved the colors and how they would come alive after being fired, it was like Christmas.

After sharing a few items with family and friends, I had a few surprising requests !  As I have always said, 

"I'll give it a whirl", and I did and it suddenly and unexpectedly became a business.  I was totally unprepared for that, but did as best as I could.  Then came shop owners and a couple galleries that wanted my "Grandma Moses" art, as my relatives called it.

Fine.  You want it, I'll make it, and I truly enjoyed it, for a few years, as it made people laugh, some cried, and I tried to put my heart into it.   Until I got slapped down by an Art Professor that told me that "cute" doesn't sell, so stop now.  Really?  I felt like I was betraying the art community, and slowed down to a crawl, trying to figure out how I could reinvent myself.  Then there was a moment when I realized, that was only one opinion, and since he wasn't paying my mortgage, I would go back to cute, and it paid off my house. 

Then we had a dog die.  Raizin.  Funny little guy.  He didn't deserve to die that way, and it turned out, it was the lead in the dish that I had purchased at a big Pet store.

They didn't much care, and still don't, of what their products contain.  Some stores are getting better about that, but it is still not up to my comfort zone.

So, I swore, I was going to make lead-free dog and cat bowls, for every animal on the face of the earth.  At this point, I think I may be close to that number.   I love each one, because I know, some little soul will be safe at last, eating and drinking and not worrying if they will survive their next meal.  I continue everyday to make these bowls, and they will be on this website soon.  So come back for a visit.

I'll bet you are wondering how I went from dog & cat bowls to yarn bowls.  I know, seems a bit odd.  Matter of fact, I didn't even know yarn bowls existed, until I blew out my Achilles Tendon, had surgery and parked my carcass in a wheelchair for months.  I was going nuts, and my friend Laura, a wonderful knitting teacher, as well as a friend, taught me how to entertain myself with yarn and I have been hooked since.  As a thank you to her, I asked what I could make her, and her reply was a yarn bowl.  Okay...let me figure that out.  It didn't take long before her other students were ordering them, then they told two friends, and on and on it went.  Suddenly, there were stores calling, and then more stores and on and on.  You get the idea.   So, if I can come up with colorful, fun things to paint every morning, as I suck down my coffee, and the dogs (6 basset hounds, 1 terrier) are curled up on the floor of the studio, I will paint until my hands hurt and my back screams.  But I love it, so I do it.  Now, I am lucky enough to have some wonderful yarn stores in Southern California that want them, and I am thrilled to be there.  I can say one thing, those groups of women and some men, are a fun bunch !  There is nothing old, stodgy or granny like with these new knitters !  They are pretty cool, and amazingly talented.   Oh, by the way...I am not a good knitter, can't purl my way out of a paper bag, and have no idea how to read the patterns, so I paint. 

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.