WALLYWARE

You have just a five days left to place your custom orders for the holidays!!

The clock is ticking.  Can you hear it?  It’s telling everybody out there that there are just five days left for you to place your custom orders for the holiday season.  On Friday we will load up the last kiln of the year, so if you have any intentions of placing a way-cool custom order or two, you had better do it soon.  Over the past couple of years I’ve been actively encouraging my customers to submit these orders because I know how much fun it is to give someone dear something that was specially made for them.  And due to the “anything goes” nature of my artwork, we have gotten a lot of strange requests over the years.  One of my all-time favorites is a mug we did for a guy who was in charge of getting all the mold out of his lab/workplace after Hurricane Katrina:

Good ideas yield good custom orders.  Another mug that was particularly fun to do was one we did for a woman named Sharon.  I really like the affection the friend who commissioned the mug must have for her:

And last year we got an order that was a holiday gift for one of my all-time favorite musicians in the whole universe:  Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead!!  Take a look:

Do you have someone on your gift list who you would like to give something like this?  If so, get over to the “Custom Orders” section of this website and read through the tips on how to place an order.  It’s really pretty simple and it can yield some great gifts if you go for it.  Don’t forget, anything ordered by Friday, 12/02 can be shipped out on Tuesday, 12/06.

Wally goes to Oregon, California, Washington, Indiana and Maryland!

Good news!  We just had our biggest shipping week of the year so far and there are five new venues to add to the growing empire of fine craft galleries that carry my work. It’s always great to get new accounts and I’m excited about the big orders we just shipped out to these stores.  Here’s a roundup of Wally’s new digs:

Blue Heron Gallery and Gifts – Located downtown in Ashland, Oregon, Blue Heron features an eclectic mix of styles and media from more than seventy artists including an impressive collection of art glass.  Ashland is the home of the world-renowned Oregon Shakespeare Festival, so Wally’s possibilities with Shakespeare jokes are endless:  “A coffee mug! A coffee mug! My kingdom for a coffee mug.” Me thinks thou dost pun too much….

Art for the Soul – This is a pair of stores located in Laguna Beach, CA and Balboa Island, CA.  The Laguna Beach venue has been carrying my work for years, and now the Balboa Island gallery will have a display of over forty pieces on their shelves.  Their selection of fine craft emphasizes bright colors and fun.  Perfect!

Crow Valley Pottery – Established in 1959, this working pottery studio/gallery is in the breathtakingly beautiful locale of Orcas Island in the state of Washington.  This is truly one of the prettiest places on earth and Wally gets to go there.  I’m jealous.

Arts A Poppin – Wally makes his Indiana debut in this unique gift shop that is located in the heart of the Art & Theatre district of Indianapolis.  A.A.P. features a great selection of jewelry and clothing with a nice whimsical vibe.  And just one week from today, their shelves will have over fifty of my pots that are sure to take that whimsical vibe up a notch!

Mutt and Joe – The owners of this establishment describe it as “a cozy neighborhood dog wash and coffee bar dedicated to caring for you and your dog in an enjoyable environment”.  Dogs and coffee? Man!  This place and my pots are a marriage made in heaven! I urge anyone out there in the state of Maryland to drop by and see the coffee bar that cleans your dog.  They now have an impressive display of my mugs, and we even did a custom design for them.  Check it out:

“The Agony and the Economy”

Here’s a timely new Wally adventure!  With the economy and the debt ceiling front and center in the news today, it’s only natural that Wally should be riffing on this theme.  I love the fact that now, when someone asks me what I do for a living, I can say, “I recreate The Sistine Chapel frescoes on pottery.”  This minor masterpiece is available in mugs, plates and bowls at my online store.  But wait!  There’s more!  This week’s firing also yielded a bizarre mug for the Mitt Romney camp.    I just found out about the whole “magic Mormon underwear” phenomenon and I couldn’t help but make a commemorative coffee mug about cosmic undies.  I’m thinking that I could do a mug design for each of the presidential candidates in next year’s primary elections.  Have you seen the pic of Michelle Bachman on the cover of this week’s Newsweek Magazine?  Inspiring!!!

On the other end of the pottery spectrum, I pulled some really lovely red pots out of the kiln this morning.  The glaze surfaces are amazing!  They are just a little darker and “smokier” than usual, and the way the glaze pools in the cracks is truly dazzling.  Here are two unique red serving bowls that are for sale for $55.00 each in the Ohata Kaki Red section of my online store.  The one with the altered rim was a bowl that flopped while I was throwing it on the wheel.  I liked the odd undulations in the clay so I kept it and trimmed it.  Then it sat on the shelf unglazed for years, and the ohata red glaze was the perfect way to finish it.  If you like this ten inch diameter bowl, you should snap it up in my online store, because I won’t be making another one like it!

BBQ tools, bummed-out birthers and drug-crazed air traffic controllers!

This week’s post has a trio of odds and ends from the world of Wallyalia.  First up: an item that’s going to make all you Wallyheads out there drool with envy because it’s not for sale! This one of a kind Wally BBQ spatula was created by my assistant Kelly Clements for her college metalworking class.  No news yet as to what grade she got on it, but I give it an A+!!!

NEWS FLASH! The president of the United States effectively rendered this joke null and void this morning so I’m putting these pots on sale today.  Thanks a lot Barack Obama! Groan.  Some of us were making good money off of that whole birth certificate thing.  To snap the last of these historical collectors items up for cheap, take a trip to “Wally’s Bargain Basement”.

And last but not least, here’s a brand new design about something big in the news these days.  I really like the graphic on this one and it’s interesting to note that this is the first Wally cartoon that doesn’t have Wally in it.  I guess he’s off at the meth lab cooking up the payroll.  You can purchase these right now at my online store.  They will be ready to ship on Monday, May 2nd.

For a GRRRRREAT night’s sleep!!

I’ve always been a sucker for those Lunesta ads.  Seeing that psychedelic neon green butterfly floating above the rooftops and fluttering in through the open window totally piques my curiosity every time it magically appears on our flat screen TV.  I suffer from insomnia from time to time, but the warning labels on those sleep drugs scare the heck out me so I’m never going to try any of them.  Thank goodness Wally can do the things I can’t do.  This latest adventure is both silly and serious.  I just can’t believe that we live in a society where powerful psychoactive drugs are pedaled like breakfast cereal! Were we all asleep when this legislation got approved?  I guess so.  At any rate, I’m pretty sure this new design is going to be a hit as the artwork and concept are spot-on.  Mugs, plates and bowls with this design will be out of the kiln on Wednesday and I’ll have them for sale in the online store that afternoon.  Sleep tight, and don’t let the bed bugs bite.  Hmmmmm… where can Wally go with that one?

BRAIN-EATING SPACE MONSTERS!!

FINALLY!  A new Wally cartoon!  I’d been beating my head against the wall for a long time, trying to come up with a good Tea Party joke and nothing seemed to hit the mark. This weekend I was brainstorming ideas and setting goals for the week.  I simply had to have a new joke on the pots for this week’s firing.  I’d come up with a pretty good one with Sarah Palin and Ted Nugent winning the 2012 Presidential ticket, but it didn’t seem quite right.  There’s an old saying in the cartoon world, “When you wrestle with a cartoon, the cartoon usually wins.”  So the next thing that happened was a minor miracle.  I woke up at 4 a.m. on Sunday morning with the perfect joke in my head.  The basic idea, composition and words “brain-eating space monsters” were all in the dream.  How cool is that?!!  A good Wally cartoon is like an entire movie in one panel and one sentence.  What I love about this one is the series of multiple ironies: Wally is using his smarts to act stupid to stay alive, the guy about to get eaten works for a government agency that loves outer space, the slogan “Don’t tread on me” is getting a whole new meaning, and even a few more if you think about it.  I think this one is going to be a hit!  If you wish to purchase a mug, plate or bowl with this design, head on over to my online store and place an order.

Here’s a great last minute gift suggestion: a Wallyware gift certificate!

If you’ve got a total Wallyhead on your gift list and you aren’t sure which design to choose, here’s the perfect way to thrill them: a Wallyware gift certificate!  I just added some gift certificates to my online store and I’m going to throw in FREE SHIPPING for everyone who tries this bold new venture.  My online store has a few limitations in that I can’t have them use it as store credit when they buy something,  so they will have to just email me with what they want and I’ll throw in a free Wally pin if they have  a small credit amount.  In other words, if you give them a $30.00 gift certificate and they buy a $28.00 mug, I’ll pay the shipping and add a Wally pin to boot…. good deal, huh?  Be sure and enter the gift recipient’s name and shipping address into the “ship to” field when you place the order.  We are a bit low on stock in some items right now, but our next kiln comes out on 01/15/11.   If you still are looking for items for us to ship, be sure and take note of the “IN STOCK AND READY TO SHIP” notices with each item.  Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good deal!

Artists Only.

For those of you out there who are shopping for a gift for an artist, let me offer some suggestions.  I just scanned the shelves of our factory showroom and we have some darn good artist gifts in stock and ready to ship right now! Just blast on over to our online store, place an order and these lovely items will be on put a UPS truck as soon as is humanly possible.  For starters, the cup and saucer above and below is a great little item for the creative hot beverage drinker.  We have just two of them in stock and they can be found in the “deluxe funny mugs” section for just $32.00.

Next up, a time honored classic!  “Wally wanders into Jackson Pollock’s studio” has been a staple in my line for over twenty years and it’s still a beloved favorite.  Plates are $33.00, mugs are $28.00 and bowls are $28.00.  And yes, we have them all in stock!

And how about a Wally pin to go with that Pollock plate?  They are only $12.50!  Check out the splatter pin and the blue dot pin:

Last but not least, a design that is near and dear to my heart because it pretty much sums up why I’m compelled to make this stuff.  Do you have a potter on your gift list?

Wally goes to Hollywood!

Here’s a nice little artifact from the 1980s: Wally and Demi Moore sharing a scene in the apocalyptic thriller, “The Seventh Sign”.  When I used to do craft fairs in Los Angeles, people would come up to me and tell me they had seen Wally in this movie and I was dubious.  But lo and behold, it’s true!  Wally got a ride on Demi’s raincoat during a suspenseful scene in a church, and rumor has it he suggested to her that she play a potter in her next movie, which turned out to be “Ghost”.  Finding this photo inspired me make more Wally pins and add them to my line.  My assistant and I came up with a slew of new colors, and they are all for sale at my online store.

Wally goes to college.

The basic premise of Wally is that he can go anywhere and do anything.  Over the years he’s gone to hell, interacted with countless celebrities and done things you and I can only dream of.  This week finds him in college at CU Boulder.  Woo-Hoo!  And he’s found his true passion in life: beer pong.  I’m drawing this design on oversize mugs (14 oz.) and they are for sale in our online store for the same cost as the regular mugs ($28.00).  And yes, we can customize it for whatever center of higher learning you desire.  Just place the order online, and tell us what college you want Wally to go to.  Please allow 2-4 weeks for delivery.  It’s the perfect gift for that kid that is costing you $40K a year for a bachelor’s degree!

And as if that weren’t enough, here’s a new deluxe funny mug about the future.  It’s based on that great Arthur C. Clarke quote, “The future isn’t what it used to be.”