TreeBed Design

End of Summer... Look Towards Fall

This summer has been jam packed with beautiful events, travels, and new opportunities to lean into the creative journey of TreeBed Design. 

It is hard to believe that summer is over (although this week has brought the heat around here)! This newsletter will recap some of the highlights of the last few months, and hint at some fun things to look forward to in this new season. 

TBD Showroom Fall Dates 

TBD Coffee Class: AeroPress - October 5th 10am-noon

Mid-Autumn Festival at the Showroom - October 5th 3pm- til the last mahjong game is played! Join us to celebrate the Autumn harvest with community, small bites, mahjong, mooncakes, and the official release of our ceramic Mooncake Chopstick Holders!

TBD Coffee Pop Up at The Exchange - October 12th @ The Exchange 10am-1pm

Sound Bath with Shanese - October 15th @ TBD Showroom 6pm

We are open (most) Fridays & Saturdays now!
Mid morning til 3pm(ish)... stop in, and see what is new!

Spectacular!

In July I hit the road to Iowa, to teach ceramics at a giant camp for high schoolers where I went to college! This was my second year going back to teach, and it felt good to have a little better understanding of how to pull it all off! There were some hiccups (like fixing a kiln in the middle of it firing), but it all ended with lots of beautiful/creative work from the campers!

The adventure was also was a needed shift of gears for me to get out of my own studio (and head) to remember all the reasons I chose this creative path in the first place! Getting out on the road always helps clear my head, and spending time with loving folks is such a gift! 

The trip ended with a surprise visit from Kristin, and a travel partner for the way home. I was able to give her the five min golf cart tour of campus, and then race up to catch an evening of tunes with my good friend Chad Elliott. We had a lovely morning in Des Moines... complete with severe thunderstorm, farmers market, Des Moines Art Center(where Chad and I helped Andy Goldsworthy make a sculpture years ago), Coffee/Snacks, and then a long drive west. 

Micah holding a clay pot

Baseball Art Show in the TBD Tiny Gallery


Big thanks goes out to all the participants in our Baseball (Vallejo Seaweed) inspired art show to round out the summer! We missed July's Vallejo Art Walk, but loved knowing that Mr. Lee's Art Machine was representing us over at Alibi Bookshop. I loved seeing the art up on the wall (and in the machine) from all ages, and it felt like the perfect summer time show! We still have a few t-shirts with that baseball bird in the showroom... get one before they are gone!

Look for the art machine to make a return to Alibi Bookshop in October!

Micah and Kristin in front of TBD Tiny Gallery Baseball Art Show
Harvest of the New (to TBD :)
We have a bounty of new items in the showroom (and on the website), and can't wait to share it all (no really, some of it is supposed to wait for holiday release, but I don't think I can)! Not only have Kristin and I been working on some sweet ceramic collaboration pieces, but we have found new artists and items to include in the TBD Showroom community. I will be sending out a newsletter dedicated to all the beautiful finds soon!

You might have seen that our next TBD Coffee Class is coming up soon, and will focus on the AeroPress... are you asking what the heck is an AeroPress? Great! We are excited to bring this coffee cult favorite to the TBD Coffee Gallery, and have some fun brewing with it at our upcoming class! This is a great travel or home option to brew a single cup. You can even use it to make a more concentrated "shot" (like espresso) of coffee. Maybe you'll dive deep and one day compete in the AeroPress competition

Find it on the website, and in the showroom... keep an eye out for my new ceramic carafe for the Aeropress coming soon!

You help keep this small business dream alive when you purchase your gifts or unique finds with TreeBed Design. Even a small transaction (that means little to a big corporation) fuels infinite reverberations in my creative journey and that of my community!



As Summer closes out, it feels good to reflect on a very full season past... I am also excited as I look forward to the Autumn. I am still wrestling with how to honor 20 years of TreeBed Design (in one form or another), but we have lots in the works to make it a beautiful new season to celebrate what TBD has become over the last few years. Thank you for being a part of that (near or far)!

With heaps of gratitude, - Micah/TreeBed Design

TBD Showroom Sign

Winter Recap and Spring Preview

This newsletter will take a look back at some winter highlights... like Ritual Mugs, Mahjong Night, new writing projects, and look around the corner at what is shaping up for Spring (There is lots)!

Micah trimming clay in the studio for Ritual Collaboration Mug
pink and white mugs in the process of being glazed before firing
My one big project of the Winter (besides the holiday push) was a sweet collaboration with my friends at Ritual Coffee Roasters! If you have been in the showroom you have seen their coffee in the Coffee Gallery (and maybe even enjoyed a cappuccino ;) You might not know that I spent over 10 years working with their coffee, most of that time in the Oxbow Market in Napa. However, my connection to Eileen Rinaldi (the founder of Ritual) goes way back to 2007-ish when I sent her an email to see if I could meet up, and ask her some questions about starting Ritual... She graciously said yes, and a few years later I ended up working for Ritual!

So when she texted and asked if I'd like to do a collaboration mug with Ritual... of course I said YES! I had already worked out a red glaze a few years ago that felt pretty close to the iconic "Ritual red", and I was excited to see it come to life with this project. However, this is where the ease of the project ended... anything that could sneak up and go wrong... did (sorta unusual these days for the clay end of things). There were mix ups with the labeling of glaze ingredients, and then scarcity of the actual red color I needed to make the glaze! And then a kiln malfunction! Then I got sick. It was all a little ridiculous! Thank goodness for Eileen's patience and calm replies to each crazy thing that happened. 

Ritual Red saten glazed mug with white inside and light blue dot on the top of the handle
In the end, I pushed through all the set backs, and I am very happy with these limited edition mugs! The project feels like a beautiful collaboration between a former chapter of my life and a current one. You can get your hands on one of these mugs (before they are gone) on their website!

March Madness!

Lots of fun to be had in March around TBD...

We have Vallejo 2nd Friday Art Walk on 3/14! There is rain in the forecast, but we often have some magic weather protection for the event... either way, we'll be having fun in the TBD Showroom hanging with our community. We have some special guests coming down, and we are going to attempt to make some wild flower seed bombs with clay! 

Sunday will be the second TBD Coffee Class, and we'll be focusing on upping our pour over game! Come learn hands on techniques, tips, and bring plenty of questions to put Micah's 20 year coffee career to work for you!

Have you been to one of Shanese's sound baths? Don't miss the intimate Wednesday night version at the TBD Showroom (upstairs)! The vibes are just what you need to move with grace through the week! Tickets for this event are limited (March is sold out).

SALE! That's right, we are having a Spring Equinox Sale... time to do some spring cleaning and make room for new items coming in! This will be a chance to score deep discounts on stragglers, seconds, and probably some random stuff I pull out of the closet! This will happen in the showroom on Friday the 21st (10am-6-ish) and Saturday the 22nd (9am-3ish)! I am going to also figure out some online sales as well for those not in Vallejo!

There are spots left for our Open Clay Table on Sunday 3/23... we have a seat for you to slow down, sip a coffee (or tea) and get your hands in clay! The table is set for you, whether you are totally new to clay or a pro! This is about creativity and community (the coffee is pretty good too)!

We'll finish off the month with Coffee & Collage over at Autonomous Gallery!

I started TBD 20 years ago in my Vallejo garage... I moved back to Vallejo 5 years ago to open the TBD Showroom (after a few pandemic years)... who is Micah/TreeBed now? I am going to try my best to start writing again on a regular basis, and push some of my more personal/artist thoughts towards this Substack. My hope is to allow both the business side of TreeBed Design, and the artist side of me... to thrive! You can subscribe for free, and if you have the capacity there will also be content to access for monthly contribution (wouldn't that be neat)! 

Read on Substack

Hope the coming Spring finds you well.  Thank you again for reading!
With heaps of gratitude, - Micah/TreeBed Design

Categories

Recent Blog Posts