Getting Ready For Studio ArTour

 

I've been spending quite a bit of time in the Northfield Arts Guild feverishly glazing a few dozen ornaments.  It's not just a colorful turn of phrase, unfortunately.  I picked up some kind of bug either at the hospital while waiting for CJ to get his tonsils out OR at the TedX Conference at Carleton.

Studio ArTour weekend!

It's that time of year again.  This year I am at The Northfield Arts Guild with Rafa Estrella and Lucky Rimpila.  Rafa is another ceramic artist who does work at the Guild.  Lucky does some really beautiful stained glass works that I will hopefully be able to save up and buy someday soon.

I have some really fun Christmas ornaments that I am selling.  They are really fun and allow me to play with texture and color more than some of the smaller things I do. 

Here are some fun winter hats.  Enjoy! 

And here is a close up of some of the detail on a snowflake ornament.

Red Hot Art Festival

I will be at the Red Hot Art Festival with my sisters, Melanie and Cherish.  Red Hot is a two day art and music fair that happens every year.  This year it takes place on Saturday July 27th from 11am to 7pm and Sunday July 28th from 11am - 5pm.  Thankfully, looking at the long range weather forecast - it looks like it won't be as brutally hot as it has been.

You can find directions and more information about the festival on their website www.redhotart.org.  One of the interesting things about this fair is that most items for sale are going go be under $75.  I'll have lots of pendants for sale - both strung and unstrung.

Lion-o is picking out the best pendants for me to bring next weekend.

Northfield Garden and Art Tour

This weekend I will be participating in the Northfield Garden and Art Tour.  It's going on both Saturday 10-4 and Sunday 11-4.   I will be at Lynn Vincent's house at 414 Riley Drive.  You can find more info about the rest of the tour at the Northfield Garden Club's Website. Tickets are $10 a piece and can be purchased at either EcoGardens or Knechts.

 In preparation for this I made some new little houses!  I really like some of the new textures and shapes I've been playing with recently. 
I didn't realize how overwhelmingly I was relying on a blue green palate of glazes until I looked at them all in a row.  Hopefully, there won't be too many people out there who were really hoping for more yellows or browns.  I'll try to expand my color palate in the future. 

Although the houses are similar, none of them are exact replicas of each other.  I like for them to have their own unique personalities.  When a deadline looms, I always think that I will just go in and quickly glaze them all the same way and move on.  Apparently, that isn't the case with the houses though.  They are like my little pets and I hope each one will go to a good home where someone will care for them as much as I do.  That's pretty sappy, but it's who I am.

FYI:  These pictures were taken in my own garden.  Lynn's is much nicer!

Fun with Underglazes

I've been having a lot of fun with underglazes on my little pieces - magnets, pendants, small tiles, and buttons.  It takes me as long (or longer) to do the decoration on my little ceramic pieces as it does for other people to do a couple of pots in the studio where I do my work.

 Here's a small sampling of some recent work.

Leaves!  Perhaps for a mobile or just some nice fall decoration. 

A finished piece with turquoise and red underglazes that are covered with clear and a white glaze. 

Piles of pendants!

Buttons! Buttons!  Buttons! 

Feeling a Little Two Dimensional

 The end of 2012 and beginning of 2013 have been kind of a jerk to me so far.  I was having trouble finding the energy to be creative.  I mentioned this off hand to a friend and he thought doing work might be therapeutic.   So I pulled out some small slabs the other day and basically started "doodling".

He was right.  I had forgotten how meditative and relaxing it is simply focusing on the clay in front of me. 

I didn't want to have to plan anything for this first time doing work in two months.  (HOLY COW Two months?!?)








So I worked on some simple things.  Making flat things has the additional benefit of being easier to keep the cats from destroying if I work at my kitchen table.  Also - since it is winter, flat things are less likely to tumble and break if it is a little slippery on the way to the Arts Guild where the kiln is located.

Wall hangings, tiles, pendants, ornaments, and magnets -  that's what I ended up working on that day.  I was spent most of my time on the intricate decoration and carving rather than construction.  This was also great because I got to use some nifty new tools that my sisters gifted to me for my birthday!  Thank you, Melanie and Cherish!

As usual, the cats took an interest in whatever it was I was doing at the table.  I was using those little dessert cups you get from fancy sweets at Byerly's for water with my clay.  This confused Lion-o.  When he was a kitten, I would place those in his room and all over the house for him to  quench his little kitten thirst.  So, yeah, that came back to bite me in the ass.  I constantly had to shoo him away when he would try to drink from it every time I got distracted.  Perhaps I should just use a different dish for clay water.

Northfield Arts Guild

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