New Adventures Await Part One

I am sitting in the Atlanta airport waiting for a connecting flight that is one leg of the journey that begins a new chapter in my life. To say that my emotions are a mix of excitement and trepidation is putting it mildly.  I have been quite busy since finishing out the semester back at the end of May. 

Two days after the semester ended i jetted out North Carolina to be a studio assistant in back to back workshops. This a pic of me stoking the new wood kiln at Penland School of Crafts. After five weeks at Penland I headed home to spend the next three weeks packing up and moving out of my apartment in preparation for a cross country move.

This was the last view of my little apartment as I mopped myself out the back door.

I spent most of that time trying to get rid of all my stuff when it finally sunk in to my head that none of the stuff I had was worth the cost of paying to move it. I sold, thrifted, gifted, and threw away stuff until I ran out of time. What was left got stuffed into my mother's house so that I would surely have something to do when I come back to visit.
To be continued...

 

 
 
 

 
 

Art Success!

Tonight finds me super, duper exhausted.  For the first time in many years I have taken my brand new soda fired pottery out to a small local art fair. By local, I mean four blocks away from my house which was great so could run home quickly for the things I forgot.  I think I went home three times.  The best part about today was seeing and hearing everyone's positive response to this new body of work.  I think that has been more valuable than the sales.  I was really crossing my fingers because I wasn't sure that very many people would be familiar with the look of soda fired pots or that they would appreciate the neutral, earthy peach and orange hues.  I think most people around here are more familiar with the cobalt blue and rutile combos.  Well, I was quite surprised at just how well received the work was.  Not a lot of sales yet but there are two more days to go.  Thanks everyone who came by the booth today!

So if you are near Chico, CA come on over and say hi and tell me what you think of my new work.

I'm going to go flop into bed now.  Have a wonderful weekend and stay cool and hydrated out there.

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.

Big Update and Instagram Link

Hey Folks!  Life has been crazy or something like that.  I recently got an iPhone.  Yay me!  So now I am having fun taking quick pics and I am finding that I am sending updates frequently to facebook and forgetting all about my little 'ol blog.  Sorry about that.  At any rate, I have added an Instagram link to the right there at the top so that you can so what I am up to on a more regular basis. And with that, here are some photos of what I have been up to in the last month.

I went to NCECA in Houston Texas.  

At the La Mesa Exhibit

My toes in the Gulf of Mexico

Seashells from Galveston to be used in the wood fire at Penland

Galveston, TX

Firing the soda kiln

Unloading

Yee Haw!

So excited about this most recent firing.

Making pumpkin pancakes.

Now I am making more soda work.  I will probably only have time for one more soda firing before the semester is over.  Plus, I will be making work for the wood fire at Penland where I will be from the end of May until the end of June.  Besides all that, I will be packing for my cross country relocation for Grad school.  No rest in sight!

Soda Fired Pitchers and Mugs

Here are the results from my soda firing last week.  I've been having fun pairing them up and seeing how nice they look in good light and on the nice backdrop.  I think I am going to be ordering some business cards soon so these photos will be great for that. I love to order my business cards from Moo.  They are my favorite! I still have a lot more pictures to take before I'm done so that's what I will be doing this weekend when I am not lounging in the sun.  I am so excited for daylight savings.  Yippie!  Next week we should be putting in another soda firing.  Have a delightful weekend.

Comfort Food

So, I am feeling pretty bleh today.  We have had unseasonably gorgeous weather here in Northern Ca. Last week it got up to about 77 degrees F.  Phew, in February, no less.  It has been truly wonderful.  Now there is a storm blowing in and who knows?  Maybe it just has me in a mood.  On the up side.  A friend of mine has ducks that have been giving him more eggs than he knows what to do with.  Who knew ducks keep producing eggs durring the winter?  So, I cheerfully agreed to take some off his hands. Now, people who know me will have their eyebrows lifted in a question mark.  Because when I think of eggs, I usually think, EEEWWW YUK.  Yea, I am not a big fan of eggs.  Unless, that is if I am baking with them.  I will eat them, though for protein when I am tired of tofu.  But it has to be like, a little egg with those veggies, please.  Like that veggie scramble up there in my delightful little Erin Paradis bowl that I got at Crimson Laurel Gallery in Bakersville, NC last spring.  Can you see any egg in there.  I didn't think so.  One egg and a whole lot of veggies, spices, salsa, and olives just to make sure.

Now, eggs are eggs are eggs.  But try as I might tell myself that they were just bigger, fresher, better versions of chicken eggs I was a little squeamish about using them.  So I figured it would be best to try them out in brownies first.  Yup.  I killed two birds with one stone.  Comfort food and new territory, albeit, a teeny tiny challenge.  Now they were scrumptious, but I don't think nearly as beautiful as this Sharon Virtue tile I picked up last summer at the ACGA show in Palo Alto, CA.

And...don't you think these images are fun?   I got a hand me down iPhone 4 so I could finally play with iPhone photo artistry.  Alright then, I am going to pull up my big girl panties and get out of the house!

P is for pots and photos!

I've spent most of this past week shuttling pots back and forth between studios and prepping for a firing that I want to do next week, weather permitting.  I might get delayed a bit on that since a storm is rolling in Monday afternoon.  We might have to push the firing back a bit, oh well.  More time to catch up on my throwing.  

Last summer I took a photography class at CSU Summer Arts.  One component of the class was iPhone photography, taught by Dan Burkholder.  There was only one problem.  I don't own an iPhone.  That is until a few days ago.  Yay me!  Now it isn't a new phone, but thanks to a certain, special someone, I was gifted with an iPhone 4 which is just fine with me. So when I haven't been working on pottery, I have been trying to figure out how it works and pouring over my copious notes from Dan's lectures and demos.   And of course, downloading and trying out photo apps.

I have a thing for water towers and Chico has quite a few good ones to photograph.  I decided to spare my poor kitty and hit the streets around my neighborhood.  The weather has been incredibly warm and very much like spring is upon us.  Oh yeah, I had fun!  So if you don't see pottery here just know that I got deeply distracted and lost in photo land.  

A Speck of Sun

After yesterday's post I headed over to my friends studio to hang out with the Claymates and work on some of these fun mini vases.  It was mostly an ugly day yesterday but the sun came out just long enough for me to run these outside for a pic.  After I got home the deluge started up again.  I'm not sure why but the rain really bugged me yesterday.  It made me sort of anxious and then I realized the water was dripping loudly on a bucket outside so I moved that and it was a little better.  I also looked up the weather report for Massachusetts and Rhode Island where they are predicting a historical blizzard.  Suddenly, I didn't feel quite as bad.  I finished off the evening by cleaning up my studio so I can have a fresh start on some more work.  Now if I can just keep up the momentum I will have enough new work that I wont keep missing out on calls for artists.  Have a great weekend!

My Micro Ceramics Studio

You really don't need a whole lot of space to make your art or craft.  My ceramic artist friend, Jenny Mendes, has a very small studio.  When I moved into my small duplex last summer I was inspired by Jenny to convert a corner of my tiny kitchen into a micro studio.  The space I am working in is only about 5 by 6 feet, or so.  I haven't actually measured it.  The slab roller just barely fits into the space between the refrigerator and the window.  My pottery wheel slides under the slab roller when not in use which also makes it easier to get out my back door which is right next to the window on the right.  On the wall opposite the wheel I have a shelf to hold work in progress but it is usually covered with tools, supplies, slips and random junk, causing me to occasionally spread out into the leaving room or out on the back porch in good weather.  I try to keep it really clean by mopping and wiping my shoes on a rug so I don't track clay throughout the house.  So far it is working great and I am getting a lot made.  Plus, I think everyone should have a great big refrigerator right next to the work space to post all sorts of inspirational material on.  The close proximity of food does not seem to distract me but I do enjoy sustaining my practice with the frequent consumption of dark chocolate!

Unfortunately, my studio does not have a kiln so I fire my work in a variety of places from friends studios to places like Penland School of Crafts.  I've often thought it would be fun to have a mobile studio on wheels since that's what my car feels like when I am transporting supplies, tools, and work in various stages around town.  But I actually really enjoy this chance to get out and be with other people and not be holed up in my studio like a hermit all the time.  I frequently make work in the studios of my friends which is great for socialization as well as inspiration and feedback.  

This is the most recent batch of work that has been happening in the micro studio the past couple of weeks.  These here are still wet today.  I was up until about 1am happily working away on these and watching movies on Netflix.  These will be going into the first soda firing of the 2013.  I can't wait to see how they turn out.  I am aiming to get the firing going next week or at the latest, the following.  

I just decided to incorporate some sgraffito into these pieces inspired by the tutelage of the fabulous Miss Kathy King when I was at Penland last spring.  I can't believe it has been almost a year already since I was there!  But not to fear, I am going back in May and June for a month to do some more studio assisting and I can't wait.  I am going to get to wood fire!  I will be working with Richard Burkett and Joe Molinaro in the first two week session and then I will be assisting Marc Leuthold in a second two week session for beginning and intermediate wheel throwers.  Both of these classes can be found on the Penland website.  I encourage everyone to take a class a Penland.  It is a blast!  

But wait, that's not all.  I will also be assisting Jenny Mendes in her workshop, Surface Navigation, at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in July.  It is going to be a very, very busy, busy year as I will also be traveling to Houston for the annual ceramics conference, NCECA, and I will be packing and moving across the country to go to grad school.  Wish me luck and lots of energy!

Soda Love

Remember a couple of posts ago when I was working on my paper stencil patterns at my computer table?  Well, here are the beauties!  Yes, it has taken me almost a month to get them photographed.  The firing was right before Christmas!  I think I have an aversion to my somewhat bulky photo shoot set up.   

Time to tackle that problem and make a mini version that doesn't take over my tiny living room.

But all that aside, I am really excited with the progress I am making with these.  It was a crazy long firing because the kiln door bricks and furniture got wet in a wild downpour so we had to "dry" out the kiln first.  It went for sixteen or eighteen hours or so when it should have only been about 12.  We did finally get the kiln firing much more evenly but I messed with the flew damper enough to knock a bunch of junk down into some of my pieces.  I've ground out a bunch of it and will try touching up the glaze and re-firing them in another cone 10 firing, or even cone 6 electric to see how that might work.

I'm busy making more work so that hopefully I can get another soda firing going by the first of February. Keeping my fingers crossed about that one.  I'm not exactly sure if I'll have access to the same kiln but if that doesn't work out I can always take some work out to Penland!  Yep, I'm headed out there again in May for a month to do some more studio assisting.  I can't wait!  And I am also going out to Arrowmont for my very first time!

Side A

Here is another one of my favorite pieces that I made last fall.  I stuck this in with my besties and started using it right away.  Somehow I just forgot that I wanted to document it.

Side B

I actually made two of these and the other one was fabulous also, that is until I sacrificed it to the soda kiln.  I was so positive it would come out great but I was not at all happy with it.  The underglaze fumed and bled and the clay body went very grey.  It's interesting and I'm sure someone would like it but me?  Not so much.  I'm glad I took this photo.  Something about seeing them in the right light on a nice backdrop has freshened my determination to make a few more.