Hello potter friends - this is Danielle writing to you from beyond... the Boston metro area. In April, I relocated to Maryland and had to part with Indigo - I really miss the studio, my classmates, the familiar faces, the Indigo staff (Sarah, Peter, Jared miss seeing you guys!), the glazes, and oh just everything! I have a new studio now and while I continue my potting journey I can honestly say Indigo was an amazing place and I hope to come back sometime when I'm in the area.

You may remember seeing A LOT of vases earlier this year- I was throwing them for my wedding and then when we found out about our move I had to FINISH very quickly. Well we just got married on September 3rd and I wanted to come back and share how amazing they looked and our wedding guests (as predicted) were elated to take them home with them. (I am still getting messages from people complaining how they didn't take enough, etc, etc. Jessica you were 100% right.)

I wanted to share some things I learned for those thinking of undertaking such a project!

• Throw test tiles - this was a great tip from Zainah- I threw a bunch of tiny vases to decide on the combo. Be aware that the glaze will look a bit different on a smaller form than a larger one. But it was extremely helpful and fun! And teeny things are so cute!

• Choose something simple - I threw with speckled clay and egg + nova white glaze combination. I love to get lost in decorating surface design but I'm really glad I didn't give in to that urge because it always takes longer than you think and may have killed me on top of everything else!

• Start slow and then plan. I worked up to (out of necessity) a plan to throw 6-8 vases in a sitting. Pay attention to your body and the stress you are putting on it with production pottery.

• Then plan for things to go wrong. Glazes will be out when you need them. Freak weather events. Deciding to move from the area and taking 5 months off of your schedule. Add buffer.

• Be sure you want to commit and know you will have to give up other projects for a while. I needed 60 vases and during that time I had to forgo throwing cute teapots with my classmates and other projects that I've wanted to do for about a year. It was easy to know why I was doing it since it was my own event - but I think the commitment may have been harder if I had promised it to someone else, even someone I really, really love. (I can barely get a mug out to people I promise them to - 60 vases would have been a stretch!) Understand the commitment whether it is to yourself or someone else and scale accordingly.

• After safely hauling a lot of pottery to your wedding - you may think to yourself - everyone can take them now I never want to see these again! They are someone else's problem- woo! :) BUT only a day later you may have a change of heart. So if you see some leftover at the end of the night - have someone collect them for you because people will be asking for them even after the wedding. Otherwise assorted very happy strangers who work at your venue will gleefully make off with your work. 😅 Which is nice until you realize you wanted a few for yourself and that aunt that couldn't make it.

Best of luck with all your big and small projects. I'll lurk here from time to time. And keep in touch - I'm @danglingtangles on Instagram! Here are the photos! :)