Saturday, November 14, 2009

Silent Night....Long Night

My daughter had a few days off of preschool this week so we went over to my parents. Of course I took all my clay with me because I had an idea for a grand cane. So while the kids rode in the tractor with Grandpa and Uncle Jake, I went to work on what turned out to be the biggest cane I have ever made. By the time all was said and done the honker weighed in at around 7 lbs (about what the real baby Jesus must have weighed)!!! Most of it will be used for Christmas ornaments for my up coming shows but I am selling some pieces of it on Etsy if anyone is interested.
Here are my pictures of the process, all together it took about 10 hours to construct and reduce.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Gris Bleu


I just wanted to quickly share with you one of my favorite blogs. GrisBleu. Its all in French so I have very little idea what it says but a picture is worth a thousand words and this site is LOADED with pics. So much fun and so inspiring! Enjoy!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

M & J Art Gallery

A local gallery is now carrying my work. The M & J Art Gallery in Ottumwa is focusing on the art work of area artists and I get to be one of them! One of the owners (Chris) who is a fabulous artist, told me yesterday that they have out some images of my work up on their website. Go check it out, and while you're there take a look at all the other fine artists featured on the site. Here is one of Chris's paintings to get you started.

Monday, September 21, 2009

They're back!



After an absence from my Etsy shop, the canes have returned. I have lots of new designs and a few left of some old favorites! Stop by my shop via the link on the sidebar!

Monday, September 14, 2009

My Babies!

Every once in a while I like to show off my kids. This blog is primarily for my clay stuff but I'm a proud mama too :)


Here is my 4 year old Magdalena (Lena) on her first day of preschool and My 2 year old Santiago sampling my mocha (no, I don't give him coffee on a regular basis!)

Victory!

After 2 days, 11 containers, many cups of coffee and 14 lbs (!) of clay i have finally gained victory over the scrap pile(s). I don't know about the rest of you, but I tend to collect bits here, pieces there, ends of canes, projects that were, well... ugly. All of these get tossed into a container to be sorted later. I also don't actually have a set place to work on my clay so I tend to wander around the house to where ever the light is the best or where my kids are playing. So I found little bowls of scraps in my bedroom, in the basement, and around my kitchen table. Because of this I also tend to open a pack of clay, not use the whole thing and later, in another location, open more of the same color. So I end up with many half used blocks floating around my 3 areas too. I don't like wasting any clay so what I do when I finally get around to dealing with the pile is sort the scrap by color and blend the groups together into new colors. Any clay that is too muddy already or maybe got dusty goes into the "crap clay" pile. This will become project bases and bead guts. This time I documented the scrap adventure and I'm pretty pleased with all of the good clay I discovered in the process. After two full days of my family having to eat at the coffee table, I think my husband is glad to have his table back :)
Here are my containers full of canes, partial blocks of clay and scraps

Moving through the piles - cell phone ready, and I think that is the second cup of coffee...
Here I have my color piles which I will sort into smaller piles based on shades. (or is it hues?)

Half way there - I've switched to a new coffee cup, BTW that blue and brown mug is my favorite mug! It was made by a local artist.
Look at all my pretty new clay!
Nicely organized canes - but looks like I'm running a bit low. Next project massive cane building with my new colors!
Alas, not all clay can be saved. Looks like I'll have enough bead guts for a lifetime!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Still holding on to summer

What day is it? Can it really be true that summer is over? Days seem to just fly by recently. I just had my last show of the summer. It has officially been one year since my first solo show. Once again the "Walk on Art Street" was a tremendous success. I had a few new items that seemed to go over well. I made beaded wine bottle stoppers, key rings and tiny delicate necklaces specifically for this show. This show was held in the town where I live (Ottumwa, Iowa) and to make it even more special, I was a featured artist in the local paper! A reporter came to my home the week before the show to interview me. I think the added publicity really paid off too, many people came to my booth because they said that they saw me in the paper. I didn't actually get to see the article because we don't get the paper but I read it online. So if anyone out there happens to have an extra copy could you send it my way??
Here is the online version of the article.