Handmade Christmas

A handmade Christmas should start around July, not November. Here are some of my nativities. I had 6 people on my list that I wanted to make the standing nativities for. I made 2 extra big ones and 3 smaller ones and several nativity tiles- but when you work with clay you have to expect surprises. Here is a sample of my work. I was so rushed that I forgot to take pictures before i gave them all away. Hopefully i won't be too excited to give the rest away and can get Sarah over to do a photo session of them.
I plan on making these until each family member has one- and when I get them again I will begin making the additional figure- or make them dish sets if I have a wheel- what ever they want.
Nativity Tile. (Sorry, blurry) Terra cotta clay with celedon glaze (first glaze fire) and then black wash (second glaze fire) .

Earthenware nativity with iron saturate wash. Love it
nate thought it would be good to have a dark backdrop- so they held up jake's jeans.

Here is my experience this year. Much is to be learned about this stuff.

• One nativities broke too much to be recovered while being driven to the kiln at my Mother's house. The Joseph is still in tact and can be used in another nativity.
• Next time I need to transport them while still leather hard and not brittle- or better yet..GET MY OWN HOUSE WITH KILN SPACE!!!!
  
• One whole nativity has been glazed 2 times and is still ugly. It will be glazed again in the next firring.
• Did not make a baby Jesus for one of my smaller nativities (not pictured)
• Broke the 2 other babies for the 2 other small nativities while loading the kiln
• One small nativity lost a mustache- i think i need to toss that Joseph- but not until i make a replacement.
  
• put an ugly celedon glaze on 2 of the nativities. One is a larger one that no one took- both will be re glazed.
• Need to make a custom nativity including elements of other nativities minus the ugly celedon glaze for one family member (happily- i want them to love it and i like making them)
• need to make another Mary for a nativity that crashed to the tile floor after being opened on Christmas Day.
  
• need to make one more nativity for my sister in law that gave me an i-pod- after realizing how much they cost i told her i'd pay her back with pottery- she can pick exactly what she wants.
  
• Made some ugly nativity tiles. I won't make them again, just the pretty ones shown

Things I have learned:

• Start earlier much much earlier.

I plan to sell these on my etsy shop and at Bohemia in Tuscon. But if they are to be priced the same as my other pieces the larger nativities will be around $100. So I think I'll make a few of those and then a lot of Tiles. I think they can be around $15 or so and then I'll make some smaller nativities that are not so labor intensive and sell them for less than $50. (umm...there is a family/friend discount- very generous discount for those who have been asking about buying nativities).

Christmas 2008

Christmas Eve ended at about 3am for Nate. I was out long before that- but apparently I was still giving wrapping directions in my sleep. I imagine that just as Nate and his brother and girlfriend were finished wrapping the kids gifts from us that Santa arrived and asked Nate to help him assemble a train set for Jake and a Singing Barbie Head for Maes.
This is what the kids looked like before he went to bed.
Then, around 5:30 am Maes woke up to go potty and she passed the living room and saw this:

Then we heard:
"Nate! Heidi! LOOK!" She waited by our door for us to come and then ran to her Barbie Head. She could not believe what she saw. She could have stayed awake and opened the rest of the presents but she agreed (without argument) to come snuggle in bed with us until Jake woke up...at 8am. What a sweet girl. I on the other hand was so excited it was hard to fall back asleep.
Here they are, hard at work opening gifts.

At Grandma Anderson's and Grandma Garner's there was more loot.


Nate was happy to get "Hot Rod".
Here is the run down:
Maesyn:
From Santa. Barbie Head, Scooter, Webkinz pony, nail polish, lip gloss (mommy needs to talk to Santa next year about giving things that Maes cannot have yet- like nail polish and webkinz)
From Mom and Dad: Oodles of boring cloths like socks and panties (because she is growing out of her old stuff) boring bed sheets. Barbie pony that walks. Art Easel, Baby Basket, Card games
From Jake: Webkinz
From Grandma's: Books, lip gloss, Cinderella head, big wheel
From Aunt Christina: Converse

Jake:
From Santa. Thomas train set, Scooter, Webkins doggie, lots of little frogies, bugs and army men.
From Mom and Dad: Oodles of boring clothes like socks, and undershirts, Camping Tent with sleeping bag and flashlight, digger truck, and Art Easel, bubble maker
From Maes: microphone
From Grandma's : Vacuum, books, keyboard
From Aunt Christina: Converse

Christmas Eve at the Garner Home 2008

Our Christmas Eve tradition includes Homemade Pizza and Family. This year after making 8 crusts and throwing up a few times we headed over to my Parents to talk to my Sister, her husband and their Grate Dane in Korea. It was Christmas morning there. Then we headed home to finish up the pizzas and enjoy family.
This year's pizzas included:
veggie: Italian eggplant, red onions, olives, bell peppers, and mushrooms.
Bacon and Pineapple
Peperoni and Jalapeno
Salami and Jalapeno
Everything above (but the pineapple and eggplant)
I (and some of my sister in laws) had some sort of stomach bug. Thank goodness Jake was willing to do all of the work for me. He sometimes bakes with his shirt off so that we can see his manly muscles.
Regan is 9 months younger than Jake and almost the same size. It is fun to watch them fight.
We sang Christmas Carols. Maesyn led us all while she and Jake jumped on the mini tramp.
Christmas PJ's were put on, scripture stories read and forts made so that they could all settle down for their Christmas Eve slumber. Maes was all set to get to sleep so that Santa could come. Jake would not have any of that nonsense. Nate usually puts the kids down, but I was so sick I agreed to lay down with them while Nate and His brother and brother's girl friend wrapped the rest of the gifts from Nate and I.

Handmade Christmas

This year we (and by "we" I mean "I"**) are doing a

Handmade Christmas

well for some of our gifts.

Now that I have a kiln I am making some Nativities that I've been thinking about for years. Some of them are based on a Nativity from Venezuela and others are just my own ideas. I have found out that if you are planning on doing a nice handmade Christmas you should start in July.

If you have a big family.

These pieces shown are in progress and the 2 people we have on Nate's side don't know who they are until Christmas.

It is a sort of Secret Santa sort of deal.

So any family members that look at my blog and see the progress can just hope that I have their name .

(hopefully they want my nativities... I hope they don't think socks would be a better gift!).

My sister knows that I'm making her stuff and has said it is ok, she does not know which one of these she is getting, and it could be one that I have yet to make. And, besides, these will look very different once they are glazed. So I don't feel guilty for posting pictures of gifts.

I'll post final pictures.....after....Christmas....maybe.

This is what my house, or at least the couch, looked like on Friday,and I still had about 3 more loads of laundry to wash, but I wanted to get a bunch of stuff glazed as well.
**I should give Nate some credit in the gift making. He watched the kids so that I could make the gifts. It is hard to do a good Nativity with a 2 year old crawling on your back.

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I know. I know. This is totally materialistic. We really need to make sure that we make some more Christmas focus on the real meaning of Christmas. I kind of get all caught up in the lights, and food, and carols. I promise that we will do better. I just remembered doing this as a kid. And Maesyn knows that Santa is only bringing her one gift. Now if Mom can hold back.