Gettin' it done.

It's amazing what you can accomplish when you have a deadline and a very specific to do list mapped out so there is no time for distraction.

I got tons of photos taken.  So many that I overheated my camera.

Many of these pieces will be in the show at the Matador this weekend.

I had a lot of fun making these little cups.

So much delicious contrast on these pitcher.  

We made it over hump day and were on the downward slide to the weekend.  Keep smiling.

Photos, Show, and Packing

Today I am trying to catch up on photographing all my pots from the last two soda firings.  I am feeling waaaay behind and just a wee little bit stressed.  I need to add these pics to my website, make a power point presentation for Penland

, where I am going in a little less than two weeks.  I need to pack for the trip.  I also need to start packing for my big cross country trek to grad school.  Plus, this weekend I will be showing and selling my work at ChiVAA's Art Fiesta.  Thank goodness I have friends and family to help me out with display equipment and set up!

I love the way the pots have turned out in the last couple of firings.  I have learned tons in the last year of my soda experimentations.  I finally reduced my soda amount by half and really pumped up the reduction and I think I am starting to get the feel of how this works.  I am loving the forms of these bottles and I think I will work on some more of them when I am in North Carolina. Bye for now. Gotta try to get on top of stuff.

Come on down and see me this weekend!

Clay Rocks!

So much clay, so little time to blog about it!  Here is a little recap of last weekend's Chico State exhibit at CCACA clay conference in Davis, CA.

Rick Barnett

Kara

Chaz Jay

Chaz Jay Detail

Toni

Amanda Swede Detail

Mallory Russell

I'll update with proper names and titles after I come back from the university tomorrow.

Drink This!

Life is moving on a pretty rapid clip as my semester as teaching assistant at Chico State is coming to a close.  I am so excited that I have been accepted to two great shows coming up very soon.  Here is the poster for the first show, Drink This! The Workhouse International Ceramic Cup Show, juried by Linda Arbuckle.  Linda is a wonderful ceramic artist who shares so much information with the ceramics community.  I am truly honored to have been accepted into this show.  Thanks Linda and Workhouse! 

Sunshine Cobb Visits CSU Chico

I have been a teaching assistant this semester at CSU Chico and one of the added benefits is getting to know about the visiting artists!  On Monday and Tuesday we were honored to have the talents of Sunshine Cobb as she gave a ton of amazing demos.  I first learned of Sunshine about a year ago and have been a big fan since.  In May she was featured on the cover of Ceramics Monthly so we felt pretty special having her visit.  She squeezed us in between having just returned from presenting at Utilitarian Clay VI at Arrowmont  in Tennessee and just before leaving for her residency at the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana.  Phew!  Great job, Sunshine.  Thank you so much!  It was wonderful meeting you.

Lidded Boxes in progress.

Showing us how she uses a cheese cutter to trim the tops of her boxes.

My sweet score is this delightful garlic storage vessel which now sits on the shelf in my kitchen.

The Bird Has Landed!

Long time no bloggy!  Life has been crazy, as usual, for the last couple of weeks in preparation for my trip to Penland School of Crafts.  So much so that it seemed hard to bring my mental capacity around to blogging.  But now I am finally in Asheville, again at the lovely Sweet Peas Hostel.  But little did I know that it was spring break here!  There is lots of youthful energy around which I actually kind of like.  It keeps me young, ya know?  I did manage to forget the power cord to my laptop so my posts may be a bit sporadic until it gets mailed out.  For now here are a couple of images of the teapots that I was working on.  The came out of the kiln shortly before I left.

I'm off now to get some grub and start my adventuring around the city and surrounding communities to explore lots of great pottery and art.  Yippie!

Dreams Realized!

In the last couple of years, but in the last 5 days specifically, I have learned that if you want something bad enough, work really hard and put yourself out there that mere dreams can be turned into reality.  Before I turned in for bed last night I checked out my Kickstarter project, "Fly Me to Penland," and found out that I had reached my funding goal!  I set the deadline for March 3rd but I reached my goal just five days after launching my project!  The outpouring of love and support from friends, family, acquaintances and total strangers (who I hope will soon be friends) has been tremendous.  I now have everything I need to get out to Penland and buy my clay and pay for firing.

I am still accepting and encouraging support for the project which will continue to accept funds until the deadline of March 3rd.  I figure while I am there it would be a great opportunity to drive around to surrounding communities such as Asheville, Bakersville, Seacreast, Raleigh, and more to do research one the rich ceramic history of the area and to visit the studios of potters and ceramic artists.  Extra funding will also allow me to pay for shipping to send my work out to galleries and and for those pieces that I would like ship home.  I've tried packing it in my luggage before and believe me it doesn't work so well and there is never enough room!

I got some clay work done last night.  I threw some porcelain tea bowls that I will do shellac resist and water erosion techniques on.  I had quite a few pledges that offered these tea bowls as a reward so I figured I had better make some more.  I also got into some Great White, cone 5-6, from IMCO but it was way to soft.  I managed to get a prototype square bowl done and a little lidded jar but I have to let the clay sit out and dry for awhile before I can really get anything done with it.

Happy hump day y'all!

Kickstarter Launch at Last!

Well everyone, I finally did it!  I got my video done and I officially launched my Kickstarter project, "Fly Me to Penland."   I can't say enough good things about Kickstarter.  This is such an incredible platform for all creative people to get their projects started by attracting funding through a rewards based program.  If you haven't been following my blog I was recently awarded an assistantship to work with ceramic artist, Kathy King, out at Penland School of Crafts.  I will be there for eight weeks and I am so excited I can hardly contain myself!

My project went live on the internet at about 9:30 pm.  Between now and Friday, March 3rd I will be working hard to raise $1150.  Kickstarter is unique in that is an all or nothing program.  So if I am even one dollar short of that goal I won't get a dime!  Yikes, and super yikes!  The great thing is that if I go over my pledge amount that is perfectly acceptable.

So I need your help to pass the word along to as many people as possible.  Thanks in advance for any way you are able to help out!

Heart Tile Wall Hangings

When I first started back to college in the fall of 2007, my first ceramics class was intermediate mold making.  One of the projects was a multiples assignment involving tiles that needed to be 2" high.  I started by making a clay positive and then cast it in plaster and used it as a press mold.  Being fall, I wanted to use plant materials before everything fell off the trees.  I used maple seed pods in this one and rubber stamps for the lettering.

Returning to school was a stressful change and I found myself doing whatever I could to remind myself of peaceful, happy things.  These tiles were direct reminders to me of what was important and what I needed to do for myself.  I created about 30 tiles, all with different impressions and wording.  I was told that the hearts brought to mind the work of Jim Dine and the many heart paintings and sculptures he created.

Most of the tiles were finished in 2007 but I recently unearthed a bunch that I was still doing some tests on and had not finished.  The completed tiles had been fired at cone 04.  The above tile had a wash of purple mason stain and I glazed it up with a satin clear and fired up to cone 5.  I am quite happy with how it came out.

 

This last one also had purple stain and I applied a combination of commercial red glaze and a crackle glaze that fluxed into the red and added some color variation.  This one is also fired to cone 5.

I have had so much that I have needed to catch up on since graduating and then I am really trying to keep myself focused on making sculpture for my portfolio and grad school applications.  However, these tiles keep sneaking into my mind and I feel like making a few more. I better use them as a reward for when I get the sculptures finished.  They are a nice relief project. Pun intended.

In the meantime I have listed these in my Etsy store.  I can't keep everything I make no matter how much I love them or there wont be room to make more.  Sigh...

Have a delightful weekend full of peace, stillness and love!

New work in progress.

This past week I have been distracted or rather my brain has been all over the place and I was busy. I'm just not really sure what I got accomplished.  

The week before that, however, I spent quite a bit of time making some new work.  I am interested in the process of opening up on a personal level and also I am interested in architectural structures and how those relate to my inner thoughts.

I am still fleshing out ideas and working to figure out where this is headed.  Am I leading this new work or is it leading me?  Perhaps we are working together.

Next week I plan on refocusing my efforts and making three or four new pieces that will be larger.

I learned an exciting thing yesterday when the mail came.  Some of my work has been accepted to "It's Only Clay" at Bemidji Community Art Center.  I am very happy. Actually, I started jumping up and down when I read the letter.  Yay!

New Terracotta Work

New work going on in the "studio," aka basement right now.  I had been without a place to fire any of my work since finishing up over at the university and I was starting to go a bit insane.  I even let my fingernails grow and was starting to polish them!  First time I've had long fingernails in the past twelve years.  I hadn't been sure how to solve my lack of kiln dillema until a little over a week ago.  While I was having a garage sale with some of my older work, a potter/student came up and we got to talkin'.  He told me of a studio he new of where I could work and get some stuff fired.  The only problem is it is really far away from me.  I mean REALLY far!  As in four whole blocks away!  I couldn't believe it.  I went and visited the studio with a bowl of fruit in hand for a potluck lunch they have every Friday.  It was awesome and I have been jumping for joy for the last three days.  Has it only been three days? Only?  I came right home and went to work.  Strange thing though, even though I consider myself more of a potter I really didn't feel like making pottery.  I've had these sculptural ideas that have been taking up my thoughts for the past month or so.  So this is what I have been up to.  I'm pretty happy with this first piece so far and I have another one started. Not sure if this is complete or if I might combine it with some other "part" or perhaps some mixed media.  Ah, excitement!  Now if I can keep on track and get my grad school applications in I will be doing great.

Tiles and Pedastal Bowls

 

 

I'm not entirely certain how a whole week went by without a post.  Maybe it has something to do with my slow internet connection.  I just haven't felt like dealing with it.  Here are some quick pics of what I have been up to.  Making progress on decorating my tiles and working on some cone 6 pieces.  I love these pedestal bowls.  I'm thinking ice cream!  Ok, got to be to class in ten minutes!

Portrait Study

Ann, this post is for you! Thanks for goading me into finally updating my blog. These are the kinds of things I have been so busy with that have kept me from updating like I have so adamantly promised and resolved to do. Well, maybe next New Year's resolutions will go better.

About the drawing. We had an assignment to do a colossal portrait that had to have one prop and one hand in the drawing. It was supposed to be on 30" by 30" paper but I accidentally cut mine at 28" by 29". Go figure. This project took me about ten hours to complete. The only thing I don't like about it is the bizare horizontal and perpindicular lines that show up in the background and on the shoulder. Hmmm. I think I'll try to remove them from the shoulder and emphasize them in the background to provide some visual interest.

Winter Garden

Nothing is blooming in the garden except the crazy pod sculptures I have been experimenting with. This one got frosted last night and I thought the texture of the ice crystals looked great with the turquoise glaze pattern. I've got to go help the men batten down the hatches. We've got some pretty hairy storms headed our way tonight and they are getting impatient for me. I'll have to write some more when I am snuggled up for the onslaught.