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     In 1974,with an infant and a 2 year old, I did not have much time to work with clay, even though 

I had installed a kiln and a wheel in my basement.  This frustrated me at times, until I realized that when I was cooking, washing the dishes, or carpooling a group of tots to the nursery school, I was still thinking,planning and designing.  I was also very involved with The Michigan Potter's Association becoming their delegate to the local chapter of the American Craft Association . Through the MPA I was able to maintain my contacts with friends I had made at Pewabic.

     To give myself some uninterrupted time, I hired a sitter for about 3 hours two afternoons a

week.  My basement workroom, which was about  8 by 8 feet was far from ideal.   I used to joke that when I was doing laundry, I couldn’t work and when I was working, I couldn’t do laundry because the tops of the washer and dryer were used for pieces in process, but actually it was not a joke.  I had shelving in the furnace room which meant that, until I learned how to prevent it , pieces dried unevenly and too fast, leading to cracking or warping.

     TRANSITIONING  FROM REDUCTION  FIRING TO OXIDATION 

   Nonetheless I was making progress with my work, entering some shows, selling a few pieces in local galleries and even doing a couple of art fairs.

    I kept in touch with my friends  at Pewabic and joined the Michigan Potters Association. This was an organization of about 100  people from all over the area. John Glick was the program chairperson and he had starting bringing in well known potters from all over the country to present two day workshops which were held at local colleges and were sometimes attended by over a hundred people. The MPA also had a yearly  juried show at Pewabic.

   I had a lot of concerns about the safety of the basement studio for my family.  I worried about exposing them to fumes and dusts.   Fortunately, we had an extra deep garage and with the help of a friend we constructed a little wheeled angle iron stand for the kiln so that it could be pulled out when when needed  and moved back when not in use. 

    Finally I found a small inexpensive building not very far from the house that was being sold on a land contract. I was confident that I was already earning enough to pay for it.  This was 1976 . Married women could not even have credit cards in their names. I found to my chagrin that even though I had lived independently before my marriage, bought a car, etc. I would not be able to buy the building without my husband putting his name on the contract. Of course, I went ahead.

    In the back, it had a yard which became a playground for my children and a small concrete lean to where I  installed the kiln. The main part of the building was about 900 square feet which gave me ample space for shelving and glazing. By this time, my youngest child was also in nursery school, so I had three short days a week that I could devote to work. Even with basically the same amount of time, I found that I was producing a lot more, because I was no longer tripping over myself in a cramped space.It was safe now for the children to come with me to the studio occasionally, though I tried not to overdo it, so that they always thought it was fun to go there.   

   I stayed in that studio for about 6 years until we decided that the school situation was not serving our kids needs. We  had tried Friend's School in Detroit which was excellent, but there were always rumors about lack of funding.  We were left with the choice of moving or having our kids ride long distances to a new private school. We decided to move,our first choice being Ann Arbor.  We spent two years looking there. In the mean time, I was able to sell the studio and set myself up in a temporary loft space. Finally, finding nothing in Ann Arbor, we  ended up in  a modestly sized mid century modern home in Farmington Hills ,a suburb of Detroit. 

  THE DREAM STUDIO.

It took almost 9 months to build but when it was finished it was beautiful.   It was  about 900 square feet with a vaulted ceiling ,skylights and a sliding glass door that looked out on the wooded back yard. There was plenty of space for storage of ware at various stages, a glaze mixing area and storage for a ton of clay and glaze chemicals.   

   As I have reviewed my photos from the 1984 to 2005, I could see that this was my most productive period, not only in the number of new designs I was developing, but the amount of work I was producing and exhibiting.