With the new year upon us, it's time for a new blog post!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful and creative day (week, month, year...life!).

We have had some new members and several posts made since last blog entry, so I thought I would touch base with you again. I spent a LOT of time writing out these concise, thoughtful guidelines, and would appreciate you taking the time to read (and follow) them.

Please, new members READ THE RULES! It grieves my heart, but I just don't have the time to personally message everyone who has questions about why their work wasn't approved (I'm basically the only person running this community right now). In all likelihood, your artwork was denied because you neglected to read the community rules and/or did not follow our guidelines.

So, as a reminder, here is the run down of our rules:

1. We humbly request you join our ranks before requesting to add your artwork to our galleries. Membership is OPEN to all, but you have to be a member to submit to our galleries! ALSO, in the upcoming month, I will be selecting "Contributors" to help with submissions and answering questions (as it's just lil' 'ol me that runs this joint).

2. We ask, graciously, that you limit your submissions to only three (3) a week.

3. Your submissions MUST be mostly ceramic in nature. While we will accept mixed-media work, if there is a question of whether or not the main element of the piece is ceramic, we will reserve the right to refuse adding it to the gallery. Also, there has been recent changes made to the gallery layout (we now have a gallery specifically for WIP's and Test Tiles and Glazes, etc. Use it!)

4. Please make sure your picture is clear and shows off your artwork, not your photoshop skills! If the picture is blurry, or really off-color (and thus we can not clearly see your glaze colors), it will be denied. Take your picture OUTSIDE in DAYLIGHT and eliminate and competition behind and surrounding your artwork and you will have an acceptable (and often exceptional) photograph of your work!

5. Please make sure the work you are submitting to the group gallery is yours! This is not an arena for showing off painted pottery you snagged from a local "Paint your Own Ceramic" shop, we expect your piece to be entirely created by your hand, of your OWN molds. We get excited about finding new artists we love too, so if you would like to add a comment or a tweet with a link to a gallery, that is acceptable.

6. If your artwork is a WIP, a test tile, or anything that isn't a finished work, PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT IT TO FEATURED. You are requested to submit it to the WIP/Glazes folder. If you have a question, please contact us!

7. Periodically, the featured gallery will be archived into our two sub-galleries: "Sculptural" and "Functional."

As of today, "Featured" works will be archived periodically into the group galleries marked "Sculptural" and "Functional" (most likely on a monthly basis). This is intended to keep our featured artwork newly submitted and fresh. I spent a great deal of time going back through the entire list of previously submitted works and, while I feel I entered them into the mainly correct category, I am only human (and a tired one at that). If you note your work in a category you feel is unwarranted, please alert me to this and I will do my best to get it changed in a timely fashion (ie. when I am home from my paying job).

If you are a new member, and your work was denied, please review the rules and determine if perhaps you skipped a guideline somewhere. Otherwise, feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns (we prefer in notes).

And unfortunately,  it was made necessary to include this addendum: MAKE SURE THE WORK YOU ARE SUBMITTING IS YOURS! This is not a community to post photographs of cute trinkets or ceramics that you have FOUND, the work needs to be entirely YOURS (we do make exclusions to this rule for those artists who make and use their own molds). Also, PLEASE, make sure the photograph of your work is CLEAR AND WELL THOUGHT OUT. If we can't tell the difference between your work, and the mess around it, or if your photograph is so blurry it can't even be determined if it is clay or not, your submission WILL BE DECLINED. This community is FULL of talented, hard working artists, and we have a certain level of expertise required of our submissions. Please adhere to our guidelines, and respect the other members of this community as well by not submitting work that isn't yours (ie. thriftstore ceramics) or poorly photographed work (ie. blurry, messy background, poor image quality). We are here to ENJOY ceramics, not question them!

Also, it has been brought up numerous times that some members wish to submit polymer clay creations in this community. While I love kitsch and whatnot just as much as the next person, this community is devoted solely to ceramic clay art. We appreciate your understanding, and if you would like any recommendations for a polymer clay group, I have several I could suggest for you! Thanks!

And as a final comment on the group, we accept ALL levels of artists in our group, and appreciate the opportunity to learn as well as teach about ceramics! I have learned much from all of you in the past year as well as handed out a few pointers myself.  Please be respectful in the way you hand out criticisms or suggestions. We are ALL here to learn and grow from our experiences in this community, and if you can not be respectful or pleasant to others, I will deny you access to our little family.
Feel free to FOLLOW ceramic_maniacs on twitter, but it isn't really updated a whole lot lately, although that may change in the future!

Happy creating, everyone!