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)!

Welcome to the (end of) Fall TBD Seasonal Newsletter 2024

We have had lots of new folks stopping by the showroom, and added many new names to the newsletter. Thank you for being part of our community! Whether you’re our next door neighbors in Vallejo, or half way across the world… we are grateful for you joining us! 

This newsletter will highlight a bit of what TreeBed Design has been up to, take a look at all the holiday additions (there is still time to find a beautiful gift), and look towards the new year! 

Classes & Workshops! Kristin and I have been busy this past year playing with a mix of different classes and workshops. From kids classes at the local library, taking Open Clay Table to our friends at the senior housing down the block, Monday Night Mug workshops, and some of our first one on one classes/creative coaching! The goal has been to find our lane for being creative while supporting others to do so as well! Thank you to everyone who has joined us, and we hope to see more of you in the new year! I'm excited to introduce a couple of new classes that could make great holiday gifts. One of those offerings is coming up Sunday 12/22... Coffee Origins: Honduras. I will be talking about my opportunity to visit coffee farms in Honduras in 2014, and I will brew you coffee from those farms offered by Ritual Coffee. There will also be a fun Intro to Coffee Class in the new year, or schedule a personal class to learn what ever coffee skills you are looking to know more about! Are you making ceramics at home and need a place to fire your work… we can help! Check out our kiln firing service form on the website, and see if we can finish off that creation of yours!

The Fall/Winter collaboration mugs are back in stock! These are a limited run... so get them while you can! And check out all the new items up on the website and in the Showroom!   Reflection The end of the years lends itself to lots of reflecting, and I'll be honest... this year has been pretty tough as a creative/small business owner. Nobody said this path would be easy, but geeeesh! I said earlier in the year that I was going to "go all out" to try and make things work... I wanted to make sure I was DOING the things I was dreaming up, and not just waiting on the sidelines for "perfection" to arrive. I feel like Kristin and I have been working really hard to try lots of things to keep all of our creative and community efforts moving forward! I am really proud of that... and REALLY tired. The new year will bring some evaluation of all that hard work. Time to look at what things still feel alive and what parts may need to be let go of... However, I am grateful for all of the connections we made in our community (near and far). My hope is that whatever direction things take, we continue to deepen our roots in all the parts of our work that feel nourishing to ourselves and the communities we are a part of.  With heaps of gratitude, - Micah/TreeBed Design

Catching up from Winter... Into Spring!

I began the new year on a adventure to Guatemala (more on that later in the newsletter), and thought I would have a pretty quiet rest of winter to reflect on the past year... as well as plan for the new one ahead. However, things took a different turn, and I found myself hustling through the "slow months". I am grateful to take a few moments now to reflect, refocus and share a bit about what's on the horizon for TreeBed Design!

2024 didn't waste any time getting busy... As soon as I returned from Guatemala, things had to ramp up in a hurry with multiple projects! 

There was a rush to supply a slew of dishes for Compline to host a guest chef event with Diego Isunaza Kahlo (yep... as in Frida Kahlo's great great nephew)! He put on an amazing tour of Mexico City through food, and my dishes got to be the canvas for much of it! This was a quick turn around during a (rainy) time of year where clay wants to go slower than usual, but I got (most) of it done... what an honor!

Kristin had the sweet idea to make little clay medallions to celebrate Vallejo Art Walk #100, and hand them out to all the creative folks who make the art walk happen! We knocked out 100 of these little gifts, hopefully to be given many times over to show love for our little Art Walk community. 

Also in the mix, was a big production job for Love YAAH More. A series of beautiful little bud vases to be featured in the offerings of our friends, Events By GS! 

Oh... and did I mention we had 4 weeks of kids class going on during all of this!

Winter Solstice... Slow Down/Reflection... Returning 

We have come through the Winter Solstice, and have made the very first steps towards the returning light. This particular solstice feels potent for me. As the dust settles from my holiday push... I am sinking into what feels like a more natural rhythm for this time of year: slow, dark, pulling in the warmth I can find, and looking back at the past year. How did this (ever faster) unfolding year fit into the larger arc of my life, and the growth of TreeBed Design? It was a big year for TBD, and there is much to celebrate in recounting what has been accomplished! 

2021 began with Covid surging (again), and this felt especially hard after getting a taste of things starting to re-open up in the fall of 2020. My body processed this return to isolation with a great deal of heaviness and anxiety. I realized I would need to make some changes in order to dig out of the darkness I was slipping into. So I asked for help. This was the first big move of 2021 (not something I am always very good at). I checked in with my doctor (I thought my heart was failing, before I realized anxiety was getting the best of me), who pointed me towards different support options for my health. I share this mostly to normalize asking for help (the more I remind myself the better), and to maybe encourage anyone reading this who is struggling to reach out as well. Soon after taking this step I had the thought, "what if I had help with TBD... what could I accomplish?" That very day I saw an Instagram post by Camila (someone I started following by way of coffee connections) talking about the virtual assistance work she does... so I reached out! Camila was sharing on IG in a way that resonated with me, and I instantly felt supported in moving TBD forward. Check out her website, art, and the Pause Project (so awesome)! 

With Camila's support, I began creating many new aspects of tending an ecology for TreeBed Design to grow from. There was a consistent social media strategy... sharing my story, process, and products. The first TBD newsletter went out in the Summer. I opened my doors for the return of the Vallejo Art Walk (as well began volunteering to run their IG account), and I did my first intentional holiday release! 

The first full year of returning to self employment was no easy road, but 2021 was the most productive TBD year yet! I made more pieces this year than ever before, and all of that in spite of supply chain problems that created major headaches to production. Along with hundreds of plates, bowls, growlers, mugs, tumblers etc... I tackled a new skill: mural making! In August I got to translate the 90 year old blue prints of a boat built on Mare Island into a giant wall mural for the new Mare Island Brewing Co. Whaleboat Room (click for a video of the making). 

So on this winter solstice... I slow down, and go inward to reflect on how the journey of the past year has fit into my longer story. I can see reminders that my asking for help... is helpful. I can feel the support of that help, and celebrate new structures in place to make moving forward easier. I can honor the struggle and resistance that I had to move through in order to make those things happen. A big part of 2021 was just the simple act of starting. After the trauma of the fire (or pandemic, or loss, etc) it can feel incredibly hard to start (or re-start) anything, and I spent much of the year wobbling between survival mode (patterns long engrained)... and choosing the sturdiness of success (which is still an evolving definition). I am so grateful for all of YOU who have been a part of this process, and the support I have felt while I wobble. I am not totally sure what 2022 will be for TBD. There is a lot in flux, but it feels like in 2021 I gave myself a foundation to grow into something beautiful!

- Micah

Things have been a little quiet on the site for the last few weeks of winter, but there has been a lot of movement underneath that silence. The light is getting brighter with each spark of new energy and SPRING!

I was nudged to write a poem last week, and it proved to be a sweet little spark of a song... that has come to be a bit of a meditation for me on the last few years. It feels like I am beginning to come out of a darkness that has needed a LOT of little sparks to return to the light, and I'm grateful for all of those who have been "sparks" along the way!

There are lots of things churning behind the scenes right now... I hope you stay tuned (subscribe/follow/etc) as things begin to fly!

2020 is coming to a close, and winter is now officially upon us. Always a time of year for many to reflect, but this year has been especially... well, you fill in a description!

Perhaps one ending gift of this year is that for many this holiday season will be very different due to COVID-19... yes, a gift. Along with all of the struggle, grief, and uneasiness... perhaps there will be a bit slower pace, and more space to slow down, go inward and reflect (which lends itself to this solstice season naturally... despite the normal holiday craziness we are used to). 

For me it has been the year of landing, and planting myself in a new way. Since the 2017 fires, I have been scrambling to find my footing. In March (2020) I moved back to Vallejo to do just that, and give my full attention to TreeBed Design. A week later... everything shutdown due to the pandemic. At first this felt like a continuation/escalation of my disrupted life, but now looking back... it was actually the beginning of the "pause" (plunged deep into the soil) that I needed to look at myself, the world (and how I participate in it) differently. With each new layer of 2020 that unfolded I was given the opportunity to slow down again, and re-evaluate what is important in my life... how I need/want to show up for myself, my community and beyond. This wasn't easy. It still feels pretty uncomfortable... and yet, there are glimpses of the beauty found in turning towards creativity, towards healing, towards racial justice, towards standing up for better ways to take care of each other. These are the things I want to find my footing in, and my "work" will grow out of that. At this transition of the solstice... that is the light I am stretching towards. 

 It was a year that brought me back to projects that I was about to start on right before the fire... a second growler for Mare Island Brewing Company, more TBD Tuesday Tumblers,  and new recording projects have taken shape this year. For the first time in 3 years I have the space to paint (hooray for Stripes!), record music, have hands in clay, and relax/recharge! I am so grateful for that space and feel incredibly privileged to be re-connecting to my own creativity. Thank you for being a part of all of this... with orders from the website, support of places that use my work, following/liking pictures posted along the way, and cheering me on! I hope there is more of all of this to come.

I can't say I know what 2021 holds... However, I do have the sense that I am ready to press "play", and emerge from my "pause" with new creative energy. I hope to collaborate more, make space for more creativity/healing/beauty, and connect with my community in deeper ways. I want to celebrate more joy as I grow into the light ahead... oh, and hopefully hug (everyone)! 

- with lots of love and gratitude... see you in 2021

I am welcoming in 2016 by looking back... way back to my college days (Graceland University). Specifically the days working in the ceramics studio. I created a small body of work that leaned against the idea that as a "potter/ceramicist" I was destined to make mugs and teapots. I didn't see anything wrong with creating this type of work, but I didn't like it to be assumed that this is who I was as an artist. So the worked referenced functional ceramic pieces, and had a metallic/machine fabrication aesthetic. I had big ideas for this work and where I would take it... However, I didn't really understand how to tackle these ideas, in order to make the body of work a reality. I got overwhelmed, and the ideas sat on the shelf.

Fast forward to about this time last year (yes, fast forward... backwards)... I had been getting my hands back in clay. As I dipped my toes (well, fingers) back in the clay... I found myself leaning towards making simple tumblers. These items were something to use, and compliment my life in coffee. I had never seen my skill set matching up very well with those of a "production" potter, but there was something intriguing about tackling that notion... and turning it on its head.

Then, out of the blue... I was asked if I, "could make custom ceramic growlers". I had never thought about such a thing, and had no idea how to go about fulfilling that request... so I said, "yes, I think I can do that". I had also just recently made a challenge to myself to "try and fail" at as many things as possible. This meant, instead of shying away from things that I thought I could not do, or might not be good at... that I would GO FOR IT!!!

So... in the last few hours of 2015... I delivered growlers number: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 (out of 250 to be made). All were sold before the doors to Mare Island Brewing Co. was even open for business (and there was still a line of people who would have to wait for the next batch). The reason I write this post now, is to highlight the fact that these growlers are tied to that work from long ago. The work I was doing then is present now, both in aesthetic and concept. I had to lean into what I bucked against as a young college student... just now am I learning how to be myself. Letting the work flow out of me, and not simply just pushing against the box that others (or myself) might want to put me in. I can now look back at the patterns of my life, and see that the things people now often say that I am "good at"... are all things I was quite sure I could never excel at. What a wonderful thing it is to be proved wrong... and learn something new!