Northfield Arts Guild

You can now buy any of these lovely houses at the Northfield Arts Guild.

New Houses

I took a crazy departure from my usual brown houses and added other colors as well.   I wasn't sure if I would like the new color scheme - but it turned out really nice.

You can't tell from the picture, but this one is also a bit bigger than the houses I've made before this.

The most unnerving thing about all this is that I glazed them and then they came out of the kiln only one day before the ArTour I was participating in last weekend. 

This spindly tall guy also came out better than I had hoped.  I used a copper glaze that turns to bluish green when fired to cone 6.  The roof is this really metallic bronze colored glaze that adds a whole new level of shiny to everything.

Carving and Glazing

It's a butterfly!  I spent a lot of my time last week and this past weekend trimming lots of little things: magnets, ornaments, and pendants.  It;s really one of my favorite ways to lose myself in something.  Smoothing out the rough edges and adding decorative details. 

Of course, now that I have a bunch of those finished and bisque fired - it means that I have a couple hundred little tiny things to glaze.   

 

There are probably about 40 things in that little green bowl alone. 

It would probably be a lot faster to glaze with one glaze per piece.  It would also be boring and less satisfying overall.

A little village where tiny people live.  Their houses are whimsical, but the residents' home maintenance skills are also highly questionable.

Tall and skinny house

Studio Cat

I've been MIA from the blog lately.  I have been doing work still - just not posting it.  We have  a small house and the garage is my studio among other things.  Although oddly enough - it hasn't been used for car storage since we officially fully moved into the house in 2004.

Sometimes - Tricksy joins me in the garage.   I don't think she is much help though.  It looks like she is demonically contemplating my little house in this picture.  That's because she was.  She is kind of a destructive force and so must be watched closely when she is around anything you might care about retaining in the future.

Back to Work

No - I haven't gotten one of those "real job" things recently. But I did get back in to the studio to do some work in clay. I've made a few fairly simply (construction wise anyway) tiles and pendants.

Most excitedly, I started on a new house. It's bigger than most of the houses I have made in the past. Considering most of the houses that I have made in the past were under 3 inches tall - "bigger" is a relative term.

Meditation and Drawing

Meditation and drawing are two things that just don't come easily to me, but that I find rewarding when I make the time for them.

I've never felt confident about my drawing and this led me to stop doing it at all for several years. My fear of someone saying they didn't like it or that it wasn't good enough paralyzed me.

I've decided that this is silly and I am not going to persist in such a really stupid habit. Do I still need to work on my actual skills? Yep, but that doesn't negate enjoying the process - in fact it is the only way to get better.

I've taken up meditation lately and realized that when I can get to that great place of awareness - it feels the same as when I am swept up in the creative process. I let go of myself and get absorbed by the moment.

My friend Mika posted a Rumi quote that inspired me to let go of my all my pain in seeking perfection and just enjoy where I am today. I started doodling and thinking about spring and this picture is what came of that.

"Very little grows on jagged rock,
Be ground, be crumbled,
So wild flowers will come up where you are.
You've been stony for too many years
Try something different
Surrender"
~Rumi

Scary Stuff

I've decided that I really need to do things that might be a little scarier than I have grown accustomed in the past year. This includes getting my ideas and artwork out into the world.

Today I spent a few hours trying to get some decent shots of my ceramic works to submit for an art tour application. Some turned out well and other not as much, but I am glad to be moving forward and hopefully out of this rut that I have fallen into in the past year.

In addition to applying to be a guest artist on the art tour there are a few other things in the works: Etsy site, new blog (this one), and I am committed to getting back into the studio and working several times a week. I think the winter and arthritis have really made me not want to leave my little house and so inertia took over for a while. Once the weather warms up a little bit then I will also be working a lot more in my studio/garage at home, but before that happens I need to make a habit of stepping outside of my metaphorical and literal comfort zone.