The year 2021 is coming to an end and Christmas is coming up. I know you know what little value an item you received one year because it was mass-produced in a warehouse where there is one thousand more just like it. I honestly never really post on my blog but noticed that my recent post about a trip to Montana earlier this year got a few likes so I decided that it was a good idea to post about my ceramic business since the holidays are coming up :))
My ceramics shop is called Faunaray. I handmade ceramics of all kinds… mugs, dishwater, animal sculptures, pots and pipes. I also have future plans on selling plants and reviving customer plants. I sell my ceramics through Etsy which is great until someone says, “oh, I got it on Etsy!” and that’s it… I also post frequently on instagram and accept private sales through Venmo/paypal.
My instagram goes way back to my art in high school. I have 1/100 days of art and so so much more. you can see the improvements over the years and my confidence in new medias. most recently I have been exploring video and photography and a lot of ceramics. in 2022 I hope to add plants (small starters, seeds, propagated, and trees) and I hope my YouTube channel gets more recognition.
below are my most recent instagram posts <33
a few recent pieces ive made that are available. I am fairly cheap for the quality I offer. everything is handmade, decorated and painted by me. I purchase materials and make them start to finish.
If any of these pieces catch your eye please contact me
I also have a YouTube channel where I currently upload every Sunday. I post things I do in my art studio even week, ceramic processes, reviews, travel/adventure vlogs and a lot more :))
hello everybody :)) i hope my story is interesting to you!! if it is check out my instagram faunaray or my personal ladyrayylovesyou to be friends :))
As a kid I always knew that I wasn’t the type of person to work for someone’s business and sell their product or make income off of a big corporation. I remember being a small child and thinking, before I had really known what a job and a career was (tbh I still kinda don’t and i’m 21), “i will never have jobs like my parents”. I was probably 5 years old thinking about how my mom goes to a miserable supermarket everyday to get a paycheck that will get the necessities and that’s it.
I know that my parents worked their tails off to make sure my brother and I had a healthy, hygienic, positive childhood but they were always working. And I had always thought that working 40+ hours a week is just what grown-ups did. For 12 years we had 3 proper family vacations (with financial help from family) because together they couldn’t afford it. But I still loved being a kid living with my mom, dad and brother.
Fast forward now I’m 17. I just got my license and I needed a job. No interview, no questions, i just walked into the supermarket my mom worked at and they gave me a tshirt. I also started college that month too. So for a few months I was working 12:30-9:30 five days a week and driving to campus two days a week. At that time I thought I wanted to be a psychologist. After taking a psychology class and failing, I just kept on taking art classes because that what I was good at in high school.
I took a few ceramic wheel and sculpture classes as well as drawing classes. I hated it so I stopped paying for art classes. So now I’m 19 and I don’t know what I want to do with my life. i was still working at the supper market and Enough people had told me that art isn’t a career at this point and I believed it. So with a pit in my stomach I went only to college website and looked through offered classes that will sustain my lifestyle. A co worker told me about being an ultrasound technician and how it is only 2 years of school. I looked it up and read the requirements. I was eligible and it seemed foolproof. I had a last minute change of mind though :)) and that is ….. Plant Science.
My new found passion. On day one of soil science class I was all in. I soaked up so much information about the earth and plants and I only wanted to learn more. I became obsessed with plants. Before that class I had not cared for a single plant. Slowly I learned. Today I am only one class away from an associates degree in plant science.
February 2021 I was still working at the same supermarket and I had mixed feeling about it. I liked it because I was with my mom and I worked produce. It was quite easy and I knew what I was doing. But I hated it because I did the same thing over and over all day every day, (almost) all my coworkers were trash, 99% of the customers were sh*t-heads and the management was outrageous.
Real quick I’d like to say that in college for a Plant science degree I was required to take a few business and economic classes so I feel like I can say that I could run an ethical, successful and organized business.
Anyways after 4 years (on and off) at this business under the same employers who had also employed my mother for a decade, I had a problem with a new employee and confronted my employer about it. This new employee had sexually assaulted me when I was 13 years old. he caused emotional damage and trauma. When I confronted my employee and said, “Hello I just met the new employee and we actually have a past and I do not feel comfortable with him”. They did not like that. She screamed at me and told me to grow up. “grow up or get out of my store”. So I quit right there.
Now it’s July. I work for myself. I make beautiful art and let my creativity go to work as it pleases. Im gardening and experiencing nature. I had never done that before. I am still going to school and seeing my family more. I started a new hobby, youtube. Most important Im happy. Im available to live and not feel stuck in a 9-5. I am who I have always wanted to be.
2021 ceramics by my (faunaray)
If you’d like to support me please check out my links below 🤍🤍
we left central california at midnight wednesday morning.
our route
at 06:00 we arrived in truckee (under the o in reno ). i only point it out because i really love it there. we kept driving through nevada, oregon, and about halfway through idaho. after maybe 17 hours of driving we camped in sawtooth national park at pine flats campground next to the snake river.
sam the dog at pine flats the snake river near pine flats
in the morning we packed our tents and continued for approximately 6 hours to hamilton montana. we were at anglers roost. yes it is a trailer park… no we were not thrilled. but it’s okay because we actually got super lucky two days later to book an actual tent only campsite right by the bitterroot river. it was surrounded by trees and plants. other campers were nearby but couldn’t really see us.
montana campsite
we stayed there for a week, slept in a tent on the ground for a week, and we all loved it so much. a few night we were caught in a storm. it rained hard once during the day and two nights in a row the wind was so strong. we slept under cottonwood trees which are brittle when try and can break easily. i was kind of really afraid 2 nights in a row. i couldn’t honestly care less about what happens to me, i was worried about my dog and my dad and brother.
sam playing fetch somewhere on the way to twin lakessomewhere on the way to twin lakes
we kayaked and fished on a glassy lake called lake como. all 3 of us paddled a total of 7 miles to the end of the lake where we were told there is a waterfall… there were two.
lake como in the morning in the middle of lake comothe end of lake comotwo osprey we saw fishing for their babies
there are so many beautiful moments like this that i NEED to share so i encourage you to check out my video if you are interested :))
Yesterday was an average day. I stayed in town most of the day but when my boyfriend got back from work he asked me if i wanted to go out for a drive. This is our go-to outside adventure we do around here because it’s absolutely beautiful.
Anyways we ended up at Moonstone beach in Cambria California. It’s a beautiful beach because the beachfront is really steep and the waves roll and crash almost in the same place. They were violent and huge too… taller than me. I think it’s funny that I always find myself in situations that I have literal nightmares about…
On our walk back up the beach to the car, the sun was about to touch the ocean and become nighttime. valls ( boyfriend) pointed out a baby seal. It was so small i thought that it had lost its mother. We watched it giggle straight down to the water and went headfirst into those huge waves. It was beautiful. Someone came over and explained to me that he was with some marine wildlife organization and had been watching the seal all day and protecting it from dogs. The seal was only six months old. they leave their mother at about four months. It was the cutest. Like a sea doggie, It looked like it wanted scratches.
You know how they (whoever they are) say that dreams prepare you for real life situations? Well for about a year or so Ive been having dreams about the ocean. These dreams are not calming they are stressful!! It is usually the same… a short beach at the bottom of a cliff, with big and loud waves that sometimes I have to run away from (literally try to climb the cliff) or completely swallows me.
think of cliffs kinda like this. except in my dreams the waves are way more exaggerated as well as the cliffs… I took this picture at a local beach. https://youtu.be/OoAi-njJ22I
Now yesterday my boyfriend and I went to a place called The Bluffs in Los Osos California and… I am quite adventurous and i’ve lived in the area for 20 years so I did a bit of rock climbing and found myself trapped on a rock!! surround by large waves!! I was so scared and the video looks terrifying!! after watching the video by boyfriend was taking (from safety!!) i was very calm… just standing there for maybe a whole sixty seconds before i stated moving… I was very calm even though the waves were getting bigger. The tide was already high i noticed when i got there but the waves were just looking bigger and bigger!! Thank god i made it back safely… I didn’t realize how much like my dreams that experience was until i sat down and got a massive stress headache.. (i’ve actually had a migraine for 3 days but it got way more intense once i got back to solid land) Since then i’ve been traumatized… I feel stupid for being so cocky just because i’m a local… The ocean could have taken my life and potentially my boyfriend if me came after me (he would have) and it went wrong.
screenshot of a video i was taking as it happened
if you want to see the whole video i’ll link my youtube video here ❤ thank for reading
One week ago I walked away from my job without giving notice… and I feel amazing!! Every morning on my way to work on my own business, I remember what it’s like to feel free. As an child in American, the words “free American” is stressed. Looking back it seems brainwashing the things that they tell us when we are kids. Just before I turned 18 i got my first job at a grocery store where I remained until last week. It was a really good job. But it made me feel like I wasn’t progressing and overtime it just became toxic. Yes I still think it’s an amazing place to work but i dont know maybe im just the type of person who wants to work for my own benefit instead of the “mans”.
Inspired by Paso Robles
The video above is just a small clip from my most recent Youtube video https://youtu.be/2AC2veVCKyw. Since quitting my job I have been able to do things like finish this Paso Robles inspired paining that I started months ago. I also have been on the pottery wheel (my therapy) and I even got to dry out an entire bucket of store ware clay I had soaking for over a year.
Wedging Stoneware
video making has been a hobby of mine since 2018. It wasn’t until last year that I decided that I want to grow my channel. It had been really slow ummmmm I don’t get very many views and that’s kind of discouraging sometimes because I put so much work into my videos but I always realize that I am making these videos for me mostly. I have always had this urge to document my life. Maybe I just know I’m destined for great things.
Happy Yellow Boii
I had also just glaze fired some of my old pieces and every piece is going to be re-glazed except this one because I think it’s adorable!! I’m thinking about a Happy Boii series. What do you think?
This is such a weird thing to me. I feel like im writing in my journal but i know other people may read this. Anyways hi my name is Winter i just quit my paying job as a produce clerk. gosh… some people are just too heartless to run a business and handle employees. So i walked out… now im doing what ive dreamed. Im working on my ceramic and nursery business!!
I started doing ceramics when i was 15 years old as a sophomore at Templeton High Califonria. I continues to take ceramic classes every year of high school and three more in college.
some things i made in college
Putting the years and years of ceramics aside, i also drew all the time as a kid. then i started painting with acrylic. So i decided to take basic drawing class in college.
some drawings from college
I hated taking art in college. The teachers seemed like they were just telling us the right way to draw or do ceramics… Then i got my own ceramic wheeland a kiln. A small one about $300.00. this meant that I didnt need to drive 45 minutes to school three times week just do presue my passion.
Now, still in college but not taking one art class, i feel more artistically free then i did when i was in a classroom full of supplies. even though i still have only a fraction of the tools.
I quess thats all i have for today. Thank you for reading if u got yhis far. If you are intrested in more i have a youtube channel linked below
This is my first vlog-type video. I will make more as I continue to build my business. Remember that clicking the link and liking the videoo as well as subscribing will help me get out there :))
Welcome!!??!! question marks because i dont know what im doing. i just started this business after walking away from my job as a produce clerk. i hope my artwork and creativity attracts lovely people <33
faunaray 