Happy 5th Birthday Blue Rochelle

Blue Rochelle started with just a name. Blue, my sons’ favorite color. Rochelle, my middle name. I had not the slightest inkling of what I wanted to create, what I wanted to share with the universe. I just knew that I was meant to use my hands to make pretty pieces, words to tell stories, and photography to capture it all.

I took ceramics in high school but never pursued it any further. It wasn’t until many years later (many, many, many) that I walked into Locust St Art one Saturday morning with my son and I instantly fell in love with the material. When you open a bag of clay, it smells of earth. That is because it is part of the earth. It reminded me of the hours grandpa would spend in his gardens, and the longing of wanting to grow my own beautiful gardens. It’s so squishy to touch, and beautiful to form into anything that I could dream of. Turning a lump of the earth into a vessel to drink out of and tiny pieces to wear is just a delightful feeling. I absolutely love adding a dash of color and luster to create unique pieces for you.

Porcelain. It actually can be tricky to work with. It’s affected by the humidity of the day, the extreme cold, or even the warm days can affect how porcelain can be handled. But yet, I love working with it, rolling it, shaping, smoothing, sanding, and opening the kiln like a little child on Christmas morning, awaiting gifts with such excitement. Porcelain allows the glaze colors to shine perfectly on its almost translucent body. It’s the perfect base against the precious metals that I use to create special pieces of jewelry, and little trinket dishes.

Porcelain is elegant, and yet playful depending on what I choose to create, what I’m inspired to manifest into reality. It’s fragile before firing, but surprising strong once fired at such high temps at 2000 degrees Fahrenheit.

It all started with a name and a desire, a passion and has blossomed into something absolutely beautiful.  Blue Rochelle brings me joy, and tears, but mostly joy and I cannot believe this is year 5 of running my small handmade business. I’ve grown alongside you, and we have so much more growing to do together.
I have so many grand ideas, and pieces I want to create out of not just porcelain, but more precious metals, textiles, gemstones. This is the lovely thing about creativity. You just simply create with you heart, with whatever that calls to you and it will always be a part of your soul.

Thank you to every kind kindred spirit that has shopped with me, gifted my work to a dear friend or loved one. Thank you for keeping me company at craft shows, and letting me bounce ideas off of you. Thank you for helping me get through the growing pains (still there), a million thanks and gratitude for the support. I deeply appreciate you.

The happiest of birthdays to this part of my life that allows me to share my creativity with the universe.

Sending you love and gratefulness,

Tisha

My homemade brownies with walnuts were actually still very hot, so it's more like a mound of brownie goodness with a candle in the middle! Still, very delicious!