Great Show!

The Texas Pottery and Sculpure Guild show went well last weekend. It was great to meet all the customers. I wrapped this year and the best part about that duty is not only meeting everyone, but being able to handle, touch, and oooo and ahhhh over all the pottery as it is being bought.

It's exciting to see all every ones' smiles as they hold the most absolute perfect mug they have been searching for their whole entire lives. Then there are those who are clutching the most perfect vase in the universe. What a joy! I'm looking forward to the November show.

Thanks to everyone who bought my pottery and beads. I'm sorry I didn't bring any necklaces, but I surely will to the November show. In the meantime, check back on my Website and Etsy Store for my newest creations. Also, please browse my 2007 Spring Blossoms Line if you are interested in seeing more of my recent work.

Making Progress

So here's another attempt with the resins. I bought better photo paper and a different mold. This was a small silicon candy mold with no texturing on the front or back. However, the sides are fluted, reminding me of a bottle cap.



My flash gave this a grainy appearance, but in real life it is completely clear and a good quality.

Now I just have to figure out how to take a good photo of these new resin pendants. I also have to decide whether I want to glue on a bail or if I want to drill a hole. I haven't figured that out either. That's the best part of designing, figuring it all out.



The photo is from a favorite road trip I had with my buddies up to Millerton, New York where we rode over 70 mile ... or was it 55? This photo shows a little town in Ohio where we rode near 3 mile creek. I will have to ask my friend where exactly it was because, alas, I have forgotten that as well. I do remember, however, that those are our bikes.

Treasuries

Yay! I'm in two Treasuries:


This one which Jessica of Handcrafted Jewelry snagged. It expires on Tuesday 11:38 pm, July 10th
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=2347

Also please visit Jessica's Etsy store as well as her website at Fired Clay Artists.

I'm also in this one Yolonda snagged. It expires Tuesday 1:15 pm, July 10th.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=2347

Please do visit her site as well.
Yolanda's Clay Beads & Pendants Etsy Shop

It's a lot of work to get a treasury as I found out last week. First you sit online waiting for the number of treasuries to dwindle down to 221. Then there is a lot of refreshing of the page, and then when the box pops up, somehow you have to get your text in the box and press enter before the other 200+ people who are doing the same thing you are.

It's a wonderful way to get to know another artist's work though and I am hoping to snag many more treasuries myself!

A Fun Project

Working with resins is my newest project. This first try is somewhat of a disaster but I learned a lot from it. First, I learned to use GOOD quality photo paper. The photo is a painting of mine I did a few years ago. I added some computer generated side bars to help make the rectangle shape square for the mold. It's 350 dpi. It would have worked better with better paper. This paper WAS photo paper, but it was inexpensive and thin and I should have known better. Click on the photo for a better look at how grainy it came out on the cheap paper.

If you notice there seem to be some writing showing through from the back. Yeah, that's my signature with a '1'. I thought it might be neat to make collector editions and sign and number them. Unfortunately the writing bled through to the front.

Also, when I bought my mold, an ice cube tray, it had a texture on the bottom and sides. So I really need to find an ice cube tray with no texture. This is fun and I am learning from it. Resins are a blast and I am completely hooked on them after only one try. I acquired a book about a year ago on making beads and pendants from resins, but this is the first time I've made the effort to explore this particular medium. My next effort will be better, hopefully.

Also, I snagged an Etsy Treasury and so did Jessica! I'm in both so have a look, click on everything, help us make it to the front page! THANKS and ENJOY!

My Treasury
Jessica's Treasury

Picture of a Pitcher

It's finally finished and I'm pleased with how it came out. I think it would have been even grander with that base that I initially added, but when something is not to be, it is not to be!

This is my one of my first attempts to combine throwing with handbuilding. I look forward to doing similar projects.

Baby steps ...

Etsy Treasury

I've been included in an Esy Treasury, which is a huge honor, especially with these other very talented artists.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=1712

Please come and click on each item in our treasury to help us make it to the front page of Etsy.

Thanks!!!

(and maybe purchase something as well) :)

Bead News

The Bead Kitty found a wonderful home in our neighborhood. She will be pampered and loved fully for her entire life. What a great ending! And my allergies have suddenly gone away and that's terrific too.


I hired a very responsible teenager to help me reglaze some beads. She arrived this morning and was a tremenous help. I'm getting ready for a pottery show and so having her help is wonderful. I told her, "You are my Lucky Day!" And she is!




This is a bead that is far prettier in the photo than it is in real life. Because I had such great help I was able to take a lot of time with the lighting before taking some shots. The real bead is much more drab than this photo. So if someone wants to buy it, too bad. It doesn't really exist. But it is a beautiful photo. Gotta love that "I'm Feeling Lucky" button in Picasa, yes?

Time for another You Tube video

Showcasing some of my past and present efforts.

Bead Loving Kitten

Meet Moses (Precious), our newest addition to our household. My daughter was driving down a busy street near our house and found this baby in a mudpuddle in the middle of the road, too scared to move.

She rescued this kitty and named it Moses, for as she said, "I drew her from the water."

I suggested "Mosa" ... but she would have nothing to do with feminizing the name.

Okay.

Moses is bored. I was going to go to the dollar store and get some kitty toys but Moses helped herself to my bowl of beads and I figured ... oh why not.

She is having fun. She's about 7 weeks old. Perfect health. De-flea-ed. This is the third stray to make its way to our house this year. So far we have found all of them homes but this one I want to keep because I'm already attached. You should see her eyes when she looks up in my face. Awwww .... too cute.

Getting Ready

The July Texas Pottery and Sculpture Show (http://tpsg.biz/) is going to be here before I know it. I've been saving up the papers to wrap it all up. Right now I've got the dishwasher running, giving them a wash before putting on sticker prices. I still have to go and get some boxes. I spotted a place that sells them for 3 for 25 cents each. But you can only buy three at a time or the price JUMPS.

Ah ... strategy!

I still have multiple firings to accomplish. I'm fast running out of steam. I love glazing ... while I'm glazing. But when I think about having to glaze it seems like a lot of work. Actually, it is a lot of work with the design I'm focusing on doing this year.

So I best get started.

EVERYONE IS INVITED:

Christmas in July: Friday 6th and 7th (We open 5 pm on Friday ...)

Fort Worth Community Arts Center
1300 Gendy Street
Fort Worth, Texas 76107

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The Texas Pottery & Sculpture Guild (TPSG) is an organization of three-dimensional artists that range in skill from novice to professional.

TPSG GOALS:

• To raise public awareness of and appreciation for contemporary three-dimensional arts

• To provide regular opportunities for artistic growth for its members

• To create a unique environment in which clay artists enrich each other’s lives and creative impulses through friendship

New Webpage for my Handmade Beads

Finally I am buckling down and taking photos of some friends I've had in storage for far too long.

While I will be showcasing some of these on ETSY in my Etsy Store I'll be putting the majority of them on a page on my own website.

I'm going to keep myself to a proper schedule and add at least 5 a week.


Go here to get a look

Oh the Shrieking!

I got into clay for the tranquility, for the peacefulness of it all. But when there are 22 plates to be trimmed and a couple of them are not as thick as I thought and OPPS there goes the trimming tool right through it ... well I'm sure the groans could be heard far and wide, "No! NOOOOOOO!!!!!"

I only lost three but there are four that haven't popped off their bats yet. I did manage to salvage those three plates, however. I don't know what it is called, but I made rings out of them. If a plate seemed a bit thin, I trimmed the edges and then attached a ring to the bottom. Looks great!

The others with thicker bottoms I was able to trim as normal.

A Pitcher is Worth 1000 Words

Yesterday I threw 22 plates. I would have thrown more but I ran out of bats. So I cleaned up and headed over to Texas Pottery. Alan only had a few in stock but I got to thinking about it and decided that real potters use a cut wire and they bravely run it under whatever it is they have thrown that day: bowls, plates, mugs, etc .... and never, ever, do they run out of bats.

Because I happened to throw all plates with thick heavy bottoms, today they were still on their bats, under plastic. It's gonna take d a y s until they pop off.

Today I grew up. I took the four new bats and carefully, while holding my breath, ran the cut wire underneath each bowl. Amazingly enough I didn't wreck one. I also had plenty of bats!

Because they were off their bats I was able to do something I'd been contemplating for quite a while: cut off their bottoms completely and stack them together to make something bigger.

It was a fun day. Here's a pitcher to prove it!

2007 Spring Blossom Line Slideshow

This is my latest batch of bowls out of the kiln for the 2007 Spring Blossom line which will be at the Texas Pottery and Sculpture Guild show in July. I'm going to be at the wheel the rest of the day making some platters to go with them. Fun fun!

Texas Pottery and Sculpture Guild Sale

The show is scheduled for July 6th and 7th at the Fort Worth Community Art Center.

Meet the Artist reception and sale is on Friday, July 6th from 5-9 pm and the show and sale on Saturday, July 7th, from 10 am to 4 pm.

SPECIAL: For the entire month of July, all artists will have a "special" piece of pottery or sculpture on display. These pieces are also available to purchase. I haven't decided what to put in the gallery yet. I have a couple of weeks to decide on two.

Address 1300 Gendy Street, Fort Worth, TX 76107, right in the heart of the Fort Worth arts district.

Here's the map to find it:

CLICK HERE TO GO TO MAPQUEST

I will be selling my Spring Blossom pattern for my 2007 dinnerware design, a few pendants, and some decorator pots that I've been working on all year. I will have some bead strands, but probably less this year than last.

SEE YOU THERE! :)