Winds of Change

Winds of change are coming to my family. My husband is a wonderful artist in the medium of ceramics. He had started a small business down in Southern California making and selling lamps before I met him. When we had been dating about a month, he made me this awesome lamp and put my favorite scripture on it. The scripture is on the header of my blog. That was the last thing he worked on as he had to move and there was no place for his shop. Fifteen months later we married and then moved up here. He does heating and air conditioning repair. He has done this for years. In fact he grew up with it. His dad did that line of work and was president of a heating and air conditioning company for many years. Rich is really good at what he does but it is a very physically demanding job. The company he has worked for here has been very good to us, especially after Mary was born. They gave him several substantial raises. When we moved into this house, Rich was able to set up his ceramic shop but had no time or energy to do it. The job has afforded us the ability to get completely out of debt and build up a good savings account along with the help of his folks giving us some money a while back. The only thing that was holding up the ceramic business was that there was no end in sight with his job. The slowdown in our economy has hit this area very hard. His boss has had to cut way back on his hours as there are fewer repair jobs to be done. What a blessing! Now he has got everything set up in the shop and I will begin to learn how to do a working web page for Internet orders and we also want to try and sell his lamps in local gift shops. They can be custom made with artwork and scriptures on them. They are functional and beautiful. The light in the base shines through the design and makes a wonderful night light, when the upper light is turned off. We know that the economy being slow cuts into people buying gift items, but I feel that his design is unique and will fill a niche in the market. We don't want to get rich, just have our needs met. Rich wants to be able to be home working on something he enjoys and something that is much easier on his body. Being older parents we want to stay as healthy and active as we can for Mary. Also the job he has now gives him no time off in the summer. It is way too busy. So with having our own business we can go camping and fishing and be more active in the church that we attend. We have done a lot of prayer and we would appreciate your prayers. We feel the Lord is leading us in this direction and we are very happy! Here are a few pictures.

This is the lamp that he made for me when we were dating!

The kiln

work bench

plaster mold


drying shelves



supplies



beautiful designs!