The Night of my Spider Bite

I have a message in my heart about this photo of me. You see, 2 days ago while worrying about my home in SC and stressing about some paperwork I needed to submit, I was bitten by what looks like it could be a spider. This happened after feeling drained and taking a nap. I woke up and noticed it itching and burning. I dressed and went downstairs in my cool basement and got in my massage chair to relax in there after finishing up some cleaning there. I later found a lump next to my ear. It started to swell. This morning, my eye is swollen more than yesterday and feels sore like you would feel when you have bad sinuses.

I have no medical insurance. NO I'm not going to talk about this, I just haven't looked yet, but will. To be totally honest with you though, Yeshua has always healed my body. I remember one time having panic attacks and telling him I was going to have to take my life if he didn't heal me as I couldn't take anymore. I got in the shower with those panic attacks and got out of that shower never to have one again. G-d healed me!

Some years later, I started having anxiety attacks in my sleep. I'd wake up with my heart about to beat out my chest, almost like something said BOO in my sleep. It took me a very long time to understand what was happening to me. I prayed and prayed for this to be taken away. It didn't go so quickly but I kid you not, I didn't lose faith because it didn't. I kept believing. Why? Because I seen G-d work, I seen him not only heal me of things but he healed others. The word of G-d says, he is no respect of persons. Eventually, I was removed from some things in my life, and having come to TN so far, I've not had them.

You see, I don't know who I am talking to out there but I have a message for you today. Sometimes, G-d will heal you of things and sometimes, he will allow that very thing to go on until you learn something or he gets your attention so you can understand. Sometimes, he will completely remove you from a situation and the healing process begins, or healing comes instantly. Sometimes, it's the very act of doing something you should have already done, like maybe ask someone for forgiveness, someone you may have wronged. G-d has his own way of cleansing us and he isn't afraid to take us through it. What we must understand is this. If he allowed you to go through something before and he took you through it and took care of you, please know he will take care of you again. Life brings on many disappointments, many trials and sometimes as soon as you get through one, you will go through another. When this happens, please know that the more you go through, the stronger your faith will be.

So back to my spider bite.. or whatever this is. G-d hasn't instantly healed my bite yet. However, I'm still here with child like faith, believing he will heal me because he always has. We must be like Job and remember that the enemy can do anything G-d allows him to do but he can not take our life. When our time on Earth has ended, it will be our time to go. There is nothing going to hold us down. So today, be of good courage and know there is nothing that befalls you that he did not already know about. He has the answers and sometimes it's his timing, not ours. Keep the faith, let no-one discourage or take that from you!

And do please, say a prayer for me. I do believe in the power of prayer. By his stripes we are healed!!!

Isaiah 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are.

John 14:27 27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

James 1:2-4
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Update on Muditis Pottery

Update on Muditis Pottery (timeline)

It's been a long time since I have written in my blog. So many things have happened since then. I want to keep this as brief as possible, so this is an outline of where I've been :)

Dec 2013 was the last firing I did and it wasn't so great. I had tried some Amaco Velvet Underglazes on my leaf mugs in this load and when they came out, the leaves were dark with some black in them like the UG's had burn't out or something. I was so discouraged. Mainly, because my family had been here just a little more than a year and we were about to starve to death. Nothing seemed to go as I had planned when we moved here. I had done the Farmer's Market about 30 minutes away. The town was poor sorta like my hometown back in SC and people weren't buying. I had built my hopes up so much to be able to sell my wares, but it didn't happen like that.

My next endeavor was the Flea Market. I even took my wheel in there and threw some stuff so others could watch me. However the foot traffic wasn't enough and I didn't sell enough there either.

So when my last kiln load wasn't what I expected and things were going downhill anyway, I decided I needed to do something else to help us eat. And then .. came the Extreme Couponing. One particular day I told my husband we were going to have to swallow our pride and visit the local food pantry. I had never had to do this. I cried and cried but I had an underage child in my home and I wasn't about to make him do without. However, my husband mentioned to two friends of ours that we needed the pantry addresses and they sent us the addresses via FB. When our friend gave me the addresses, I expressed how I hated to have to go there. She asked what we needed and I told her meat! I'll never forget it, her and another lady from the church brought us food that day.

I never ended up going to the pantry. The next week I was invited to a coupon class by a friend of mine I had known for a long time. We went and I went crazy for couponing. It now only allowed us to buy stuff for free, but at a much lower cost and... I got to do something I had wanted to do ever since I moved to TN and that was, "Give back". I thought about the times when my house was burned in 2009 and the boy/girl scouts went door to door and collected food for us and how I wanted to give back so badly. So I joined a Pay it Forward group in the same town that Farmer's Market was in.

It wasn't long and after this, I was going through a hard time with our house back in SC. (if you don't know this story, we probably aren't close friends) . Instead of sitting here depressed, I decided to go on Youtube to find videos I could laugh at. There, I would find a girl coming out of a dumpster, with the store manager catching her. I laughed so hard I wet my pants!! So when we were in town the next time, I asked my husband to pull around to one of the corporate stores and let me have a look. However I had him go look. Long story short, that day I became a dumpster diver (no I don't get in).  That day, we pulled out a 400.00 jewelry box that stood up. I think they call those a jewelry armoire. I was hooked needless to say. It was brand new, the packing was still in and no broken glass mirrors on the outside. Needless to say, I was hooked from that day forward.

After this, I learned to sell on Ebay. Designed a line of shirts which are very popular today and we sell alot of them. Yea, G-d did supply my every need. Although I gave up my pottery for a time, I feel so blessed G-d allowed me to find these adventures and he took care of us. Because of this trial, and because he truly took care of us, I know I don't have to worry about how I will make it because he will continue to provide as he has.

I'm back in the pottery... I'm happy to be in there now. I just completed my first job. I'll be posting the results of that job. I appreciate you reading my update. Hope you will join me on my Youtube channel www.youtube.com/muditispottery or you can find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/muditispottery .  

Update on What's Going On?

Hello Friends/Potters-

I'm so happy you have stopped in. It's been a while since I have posted on my blog, but with all this integrating with Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Google+, Etsy and Pinterest, I thought I would get in here and start trying to keep up with my blog. Besides.. there are some exciting things happening in my future, at least I'm in hopes of that excitement. I'll be talking about that much later.

~ETSY~  Are there really others who don't know what Etsy is? I'm amazed that there are plenty of people who do not know what Etsy is, forgetting the fact that I knew nothing about it myself. Well... Etsy is a place where you can open up a store, IF you have a hand made crafted item to sell. It also allows you to sell  Back in August I decided to start trying to seriously sell some pots on Etsy. I have a friend Nicki @Raviolee Dreams who convinced me that Etsy would be a great place to sell my pots and she sure talked me into it. I had opened the account though back in Sept 2011 but only listed one item. I had no idea how it worked. So as I got going, I realized if I was going to sell on Etsy, I was going to have to spend time on Etsy. Well.. you have to favorite other's products, Add people to your circle, Add shops to your favorite shops, and.. Favorite some Treasuries. What I have found that works the most is creating a treasury yourself. You get so much more exposure. I was trying to figure out why it worked that way and the reason is, people click on the favorite button to favorite those treasuries, and then from there, everyone who sees them does the same thing.. It's hard NOT to click and go look to see who was featured in one. It's so exciting to be featured too I might add. I've been featured quite a few times. I think things are going to be slow for now with Christmas gone and the Tax Laws up in the air for now. It's like people are bracing for it. I'll continue to list my products though and work it like I have been. I'm going to be optimistic and believe there is at least ONE who wants a yarn bowl that might have not gotten one for a Christmas present? Ok, so now you can find me on Etsy. Here is the Link to my store until I can figure out how to get a store of my own, or a blog using a store button.  
My Store

~FACEBOOK~ Ok, I've been on Facebook for quite a while now. I can't say enough about how much Facebook has helped me get my business off the ground. I have met the most wonderful friends as well as potter's who I share the same interest with. I belong to a few clay pages on there and love being a part of a potter's community. Everyone is so helpful. I never in my wildest dreams ever thought I'd find so many nice people in one place. I am so thankful that many of those friends I met on Facebook became my customers. If they weren't my customers, they passed along my name to their own friends and helped me get some sales. My wonderful friend Lisa who wanted a yarn bowl from me showed my yarn bowls to her friends and I've made quite a few sales from that. I appreciate her so much, although the few bowls I have made so far are NOT her color! I have been looking for a purple color and I've finally found one. I'll talk about that later too. So Facebook has been very good to me. I need to clarify here that I set up a Facebook page called Muditis Potteryandgifts and set it up so it was like a friends page. I wanted to control WHO could be on there. So if you are a friend on there, you know what I am saying. I just recently started another page. The name of that page is Muditis Pottery. I have it set up like a business page so people can just like the page. I will have most of my content dealing with upcoming shows/markets I will be at and my plans are to put my photos on there from now on, IF it's as easy to manage as the other page. Trying to move everything will be quite a job, so I am not sure I'll move it all.. I just might start from here and go on. I'll definitely be moving my "For Sale" folder over though. Ok, so my new Facebook page so you can run over and like my page is Muditis Pottery
I would appreciate having you on there so much and please click the Share Link under the Tool Icon over there so your friends will Like my page too. Thanks so much!


~PINTEREST~ Ok, for about 2 years I ran from this application. I kept hearing how addicting this application is. Well... after a while, I kept hearing, "Oh Sonja, you need to join Pinterest so people can Pin your pots and share them". I thought, "yea.. that's a great marketing plan"... So.. I fell, hook, line, and sinker! lol.  Actually, it's a great little application. When you are selling on Etsy, once you post a new product on there, they give you an option to post to Facebook, Pin It (on Pinterest of course) and Twitter! (We'll talk about that one next) So I am able to pin my pots straight to Pinterest for others to pin and share, and it provides a link back to my Etsy shop to purchase that item. How cool is that, huh? Another thing I really like about it... Like tonight, my son wanted to know what we wanted for dinner? I told him I had seen a recipe on Pinterest I thought would be good. It was a Chicken Parmesan Recipe I had re-pinned from another friends pin. I got that recipe for him and that is what we had for dinner tonight. It tasted truly like authentic Italian! He is a great cook too by the way. So.. if you want to find me on Pinterest and view my boards (and by the way, you can create as many as you'd like with whatever subject you choose... pin away everything on the net you want to save)you can find me here Muditis Pottery on Pinterest

~Twitter~ Last but not least... I had no use for this application.. at least I didn't think so. UNTIL... I met a sweet friend on Etsy who told me if I was going to really market my products, I needed to get Twitter and TWEET everyday, at least once a day. When I first signed up, I laughed because there was no-one I could think of that I wanted to know about! I told my friend.. "Who other than you, can I follow"? I don't get into too many movie stars and don't really watch TV much, as I'm always looking at clay videos and trying to learn how to make more money. She said, just pick a few people and then warned me about who I followed for fear that I may pick someone who pins porn links.. So.. I've been on the lookout on there to make sure I don't. I just pray I don't accidently follow someone who follows that stuff! And with all this social networking going on, you wonder how long it will be before someone hacks into your account and then posts something you don't believe in and totally embarrasses you and you are then left to hope and pray everyone knows you better. Well.. lets hope that doesn't happen!!!  So far, I've been trying to TWEET my products once I list them on Etsy. I don't have many followers yet but in case you are on Twitter, you can follow me and I'll follow you :) You can find me here. Muditis Pottery on Twitter

Well... How's that for a blog post? I am sorry it's so long. I think I'll save some of this for another day.. I don't want to bore anyone.. Oh yea.. at least my 2 followers :) Thanks you two!!! Love yall! I hope I get more soon.. I'll work on that too. There is so much time involved in Social Networking!!! Love it though! I'm looking forward to growing my business... One post, at a time!
 
Thanks for reading,
Sonja @ Muditis Pottery

~Muditis Pottery~ Last Kiln Opening of 2012

What's going on in the Pottery?

Hello Friends/Potters-

I'm so happy you have stopped in. It's been a while since I have posted on my blog, but with all this integrating with Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Google+, Etsy and Pinterest, I thought I would get in here and start trying to keep up with my blog. Besides.. there are some exciting things happening in my future, at least I'm in hopes of that excitement. I'll be talking about that much later.

~ETSY~  Are there really others who don't know what Etsy is? I'm amazed that there are plenty of people who do not know what Etsy is, forgetting the fact that I knew nothing about it myself. Well... Etsy is a place where you can open up a store, IF you have a hand made crafted item to sell. It also allows you to sell  Back in August I decided to start trying to seriously sell some pots on Etsy. I have a friend Nicki @Raviolee Dreams who convinced me that Etsy would be a great place to sell my pots and she sure talked me into it. I had opened the account though back in Sept 2011 but only listed one item. I had no idea how it worked. So as I got going, I realized if I was going to sell on Etsy, I was going to have to spend time on Etsy. Well.. you have to favorite other's products, Add people to your circle, Add shops to your favorite shops, and.. Favorite some Treasuries. What I have found that works the most is creating a treasury yourself. You get so much more exposure. I was trying to figure out why it worked that way and the reason is, people click on the favorite button to favorite those treasuries, and then from there, everyone who sees them does the same thing.. It's hard NOT to click and go look to see who was featured in one. It's so exciting to be featured too I might add. I've been featured quite a few times. I think things are going to be slow for now with Christmas gone and the Tax Laws up in the air for now. It's like people are bracing for it. I'll continue to list my products though and work it like I have been. I'm going to be optimistic and believe there is at least ONE who wants a yarn bowl that might have not gotten one for a Christmas present? Ok, so now you can find me on Etsy. Here is the Link to my store until I can figure out how to get a store of my own, or a blog using a store button.  
My Store

~FACEBOOK~ Ok, I've been on Facebook for quite a while now. I can't say enough about how much Facebook has helped me get my business of the ground. I have met the most wonderful friends as well as potter's who I share the same interest with. I belong to a few clay pages on there and love being a part of a potter's community. Everyone is so helpful. I never in my wildest dreams ever thought I'd find so many nice people in one place. I am so thankful that many of those friends I met on Facebook became my customers. If they weren't my customers, they passed along my name to their own friends and helped me get some sales. My wonderful friend Lisa who wanted a yarn bowl from me showed my yarn bowls to her friends and I've made quite a few sales from that. I appreciate her so much, although the few bowls I have made so far are NOT her color! I have been looking for a purple color and I've finally found one. I'll talk about that later too. So Facebook has been very good to me. I need to clarify here that I set up a Facebook page called Muditis Potteryandgifts and set it up so it was like a friends page. I wanted to control WHO could be on there. So if you are a friend on there, you know what I am saying. I just recently started another page. The name of that page is Muditis Pottery. I have it set up like a business page so people can just like the page. I will have most of my content dealing with upcoming shows/markets I will be at and my plans are to put my photos on there from now on, IF it's as easy to manage as the other page. Trying to move everything will be quite a job, so I am not sure I'll move it all.. I just might start from here and go on. I'll definitely be moving my "For Sale" folder over though. Ok, so my new Facebook page so you can run over and like my page is Muditis Pottery
I would appreciate having you on there so much and please click the Share Link under the Tool Icon over there so your friends will Like my page too. Thanks so much!


~PINTEREST~ Ok, for about 2 years I ran from this application. I kept hearing how addicting this application is. Well... after a while, I kept hearing, "Oh Sonja, you need to join Pinterest so people can Pin your pots and share them". I thought, "yea.. that's a great marketing plan"... So.. I fell, hook, line, and sinker! lol.  Actually, it's a great little application. When you are selling on Etsy, once you post a new product on there, they give you an option to post to Facebook, Pin It (on Pinterest of course) and Twitter! (We'll talk about that one next) So I am able to pin my pots straight to Pinterest for others to pin and share, and it provides a link back to my Etsy shop to purchase that item. How cool is that, huh? Another thing I really like about it... Like tonight, my son wanted to know what we wanted for dinner? I told him I had seen a recipe on Pinterest I thought would be good. It was a Chicken Parmesan Recipe I had re-pinned from another friends pin. I got that recipe for him and that is what we had for dinner tonight. It tasted truly like authentic Italian! He is a great cook too by the way. So.. if you want to find me on Pinterest and view my boards (and by the way, you can create as many as you'd like with whatever subject you choose... pin away everything on the net you want to save)you can find me here Muditis Pottery on Pinterest

~Twitter~ Last but not least... I had no use for this application.. at least I didn't think so. UNTIL... I met a sweet friend on Etsy who told me if I was going to really market my products, I needed to get Twitter and TWEET everyday, at least once a day. When I first signed up, I laughed because there was no-one I could think of that I wanted to know about! I told my friend.. "Who other than you, can I follow"? I don't get into too many movie stars and don't really watch TV much, as I'm always looking at clay videos and trying to learn how to make more money. She said, just pick a few people and then warned me about who I followed for fear that I may pick someone who pins porn links.. So.. I've been on the lookout on there to make sure I don't. I just pray I don't accidently follow someone who follows that stuff! And with all this social networking going on, you wonder how long it will be before someone hacks into your account and then posts something you don't believe in and totally embarrasses you and you are then left to hope and pray everyone knows you better. Well.. lets hope that doesn't happen!!!  So far, I've been trying to TWEET my products once I list them on Etsy. I don't have many followers yet but in case you are on Twitter, you can follow me and I'll follow you :) You can find me here. Muditis Pottery on Twitter

Well... How's that for a blog post? I am sorry it's so long. I think I'll save some of this for another day.. I don't want to bore anyone.. Oh yea.. at least my 2 followers :) Thanks you two!!! Love yall! I hope I get more soon.. I'll work on that too. There is so much time involved in Social Networking!!! Love it though! I'm looking forward to growing my business... One post, at a time!
 
Thanks for reading,
Sonja @ Muditis Pottery

What I've been up to

It's been a while since I have updated my blog. Just not enough time in a day it seems anymore. I'm trying to get myself on a routine, so I have a set schedule as to when I throw, trim, bisque fire and then glaze fire. Then that doesn't account for the time it takes to video, or take pics of my work. I'm not really complaining though, I LOVE what I do.

I moved my Pottery Wheel to our sign shop so now I can throw there. Not only that, but I also went ahead and got myself a business license. I guess if you are going to be serious about it, you just as well get serious! I can now display my work in my sign shop and sell from there. I have plans to create a sign for myself but haven't done it yet. I also plan to change my makers mark, or Chop Mark as it's called. I made a simple one to get by with in the beginning but it never was something I was totally satisfied with. So that will be in the works, along with business cards and also some flyers of some of my work, Once I get some good pieces out the kiln.

For the past few months, I've been concentrating on forms. I am still trying to get a better bowl form. Here is a pic of one I just threw and then did some chattering on.

                                                                                   
Here is the inside of the bowl

                                                                              


Here is the bottom where I did some chattering. I love the way the chattering looks on the bowls. It was mentioned by my friend Don Goodrich that Celedons look pretty good on textures, so I'll be using something like that, or a stoneware wash. I have some plans for this bowl :)








Here is the bowl standing up. I like the way it looks standing up too :) This is a 3 pound bowl and it was the first 3 lb lump of clay I have thrown :)

Then I decided I'd throw my first Trinket Keeper. The bottom was thrown using 1lb of clay. I made the lid 4 times before it was a suitable lid. YES alot of work goes in to throwing forms. But there is nothing like looking at the finished product and being at least pleased with it, knowing how hard you worked on it.

And... here is the inside... looking down at the gallery.

Here is the bottom of it where I did some chattering. I can't wait to glaze this one. And... this one is MINE! lol









I've been working on my Mug Forms as well. I don't have any pictures of them but I do have a video you can look at if you want to see them. It's a bisque firing.








 Well... that's it for this post. You can catch me on Facebook
and friend me if you would like. See ya in the next post :)
And... thanks for stopping by to read my blog :)

Coyote & Potter's Choice Glaze Firing

Here is a video I did on Dec 12, 2011. I was just starting to use the Coyote and Potter's Choice Glazes. I have a few good pieces which came out of this bunch. I especially like the Red and Shino bowls. They were purchased from a quilting friend of mine out in Australia. I was happy to know they were going to a good home. I really think someday I'll make myself a stacking set of these bowls. Loving the colors. Then there is the Shino bowl which is a Cedar color bowl and it has some blue in it. I really thought this one turned out pretty.

Well have a look and see which pieces you like as well.

Please subscribe to my blog and catch me on Facebook as Muditis Potteryandgifts. Thanks for stopping by.