Itchings and fundraisers

Itching to get back into the studio and work up a storm. Itching to get back into sewing and painting but my work area is a mess and I can’t work with a clutter around me. New year so far so good. Been coming up with some interesting ideas as of late for ceramic pieces. New and old ideas melded into one to make some craziness. One of my vases I knocked and part of the top broke. Harry and I will attempt to fix it. If not I will carve out an interesting opening. We will see what happens. Such a shame, I have put a lot of hours into that piece.

I was asked if I wanted to sell some artwork at a fundraiser for Haiti Earthquake victims so this week I am going through what pieces I think will sell and I may go make some new paintings of my popular themes special for the event. I will post when I know more. I think I can have at least 25 pieces of ceramic and painting to sell. Not a lot but still it will be worth it.

Stolen Vase

During the apartment rennovation, all my cermic vases that I have created I stored as much in the cupboards so the movers didn’t accidentally break anything. When I came back, there was still some breakage of pieces, very old old ones that I didn’t mind and ALOT of greenware. And I mean ALOT I would say 90%. Only had about 25 pieces but still. Anyway, every piece was accounted for except one. I have been looking everywhere for it and I have come to conclusion that it was stolen. It’s just erks me that someone took it. I told my manager and her response was ” wow what a compliment”. WTF kind of answer is that. I know I have an image of it somewhere, just don’t know where I filed it away. There is a relief image of geshia women on it with flowers and leaves in the background. It’s a prototype so that is why it’s so special to me. It’s the first of it’s kind. What a bummer. If I find the image I will post it one day

1/2 hour sketch paint

wee hours of the morning sketch 10.4.09

Thought that I would start doing some 1/2 hour little sketch paintings. I cut canvas paper in quaters and used sepia from the art store professional line. I think I will try to make this a daily challenge. Start one, the next day start another and maybe work on the previous sketch painting by adding color. Since it’s only 1/2 hour to an hour a day, I think I can manage it. We will see how discipline I will be with this.

What a difference a little paint makes

When I moved back in one of the first things I did was repaint my art table. I have been wanting to do this since I was in San Diego, just never had the time. Now it’s all nice and purty with a nice new coat of black paint. It looks great against the wall I painted a asain teal. The whole aread looks much better than before. Just take a look at the difference.

Back Home

It’s been a month since I have moved back into my apartment. I have unpackand  gone through most of my things but there is still a lot to go through. I am trying to really go through everything and really really organize all my art supplies. While unpacking, I didn’t realize how many paintings I have. So many and soooo many unfinished ones. I do plan to start finishing the paintings. After they are quite dry (usually a painting will take over a year to compelety dry if the painting is thick), I am probably going to take the canvas off the frame and roll them up to save space. Most of these are just practice paintings so I am not worried. It will be good for me to have somethings to start getting back intothe swing of things.

I am happy that I know where all my art supplies are now. It’s given me the chance to do inventory on paints. It’s quite annoying when you go into a art store but then don’t know what you really have an end up having 3 tubes of the same color. It’s not a bad thing but if it’s a color you don’t really use, it’s kind of a waste of money. At least now I know I don’t have to buy new paints for a LONG time.

Last saturday I threw 7 pieces for a series that was started last year. The painter who were repainting the apartment just shoved everything into bags and broke 90% of greenware (ceramic ware before the 1st firing). So annoyed about this but these came out much thinner so I am content. I need to work on these at a faster pace as it’s quite hot and my pieces are drying out faster.

It’s hot and sticky from all the heat and the smoggy air from fires. Hopefully I can update soon. Need to get the internet working at home. It will be much easier to post regularly when I have my own internet instead of getting it from a neighbor. Until then.

Helping a friend out

I’ve been helping a friend out with her web page layout. It’s evolved quite considerably since our first attempt last year. It was a fun project though. When she and I first started taking about a redesign, it was like pulling teeth to get her to see the overall concept of having something completely original. Though her original design was a good idea, it took a lot of time to get her too a different approach.

Quite a lot of work was put into this and I am very happy with the outcome.

Already July

Sheesh, time has flown by. Much has happened in the month of June. My apartment is under complete rennovation so I had to pack up everything and move in with my parents. It’s quite frustrating to have your world discombobulated. I am utterly annoyed at the fact that I am not able to paint, sew, or work on anything creative whenever I want. I really miss my apartment and can’t wait to move back in whenever that may be. So with this going on, I haven’t really been able to create too much. I have been sketching though which is a big help and I had been going the studio so I haven’t faltered too too much

I am in the design decoration stage of my large vessels. I used a design that I have used a few times on one piece and have decided to apply the same design to a few others just to have a little series of them. It is a bit a tedious design since I am using the mishima technique to it. For those of you who do not know what Mishima is, it’s japanese technique where one carves lines into the clay and fills the lines with watered down colored clay (engobe). I will post images soon.

time for an update

I started back up with ceramics. Last session I took only 5 sessions and spread them out. Turned out that wasn’t a good idea. Pretty much my throwing was very off. I decided to do another 5 sessions but then decided to do the full 9. This time around I am taking classes on Thursday night instead of all day Sat. This way I am throwing 2 days a week instead of one. Most importantly I will be able to trim my pieces that same week instead of waiting a week. ‘

So far this past 2 1/2 weeks I have been throwing larger pieces. 7 lbs + of clay. So far I am very pleased. I have been watching a lot of tutorials online on throwing larger pieces which seem to help. Though I feel I am doing well, Harry has made some great suggestions and also monitoring my skills. At first I was like “whatever” but now do really appreciate his help with me.

Two saturdays ago I threw a really beautiful piece. A lot of help from Harry, but overall most of my work. This past saturday I used Black Mountain Engobe to cover the what Bmix. I will be scatching out a a design this week. One similar to a design I have used before. I am excited as this is the biggest piece I have thrown in all my years. My goal for this year is to throw 25lbs of clay by the end of the year and make the piece super thin about 1/8 – 2/8’s “. Just to challenge myself.

Also this past sat I finally went for it and bought southen ice porcelain. It’s quite nice to work with. You really need to have a steady hand and lots of patience of not to rush your work. Thr first piece I cut the bottom too much so there was a hole at the base . I will try again on Sat.

Well that is all really. I figured if I throw larger pieces I can’t bring them home and forget about them so then I will be working faster. Hope that really sinks in.

“Stiches” series completed – Finally Images!!

Finally my pieces were fired the second week of December and picked up that Saturday. It’s taken me this long to post again. Had some drama with my computer crashing and losing a lot of files. Edited images included. I have since done a reshoot for 3 of the 7 pcs but only posting 1 image.

The glazes came out better than I had hoped. It’s very earthy. I really like the differences in all of them. I am also quite pleased that the base glaze, Sun Valley, came out the way it did. There are spots of greyish blue on some pieces. I also pleased that there are some areas with  goldish hues where I used the Malcom Davis Shino. Overall I am just so please with the outcome.

Now all I have to do is post this for sale. I have an etsy account but have not taken the time to researching it. I also have to post this on my “Oh so  need an update” website.

Hoping to post again. Soon. This week I started to paint again so that may take some time away from ceramics. I do however need to finish up the woven series and other works that I started last year.

Giffin Grip is my new favorite tool

Wednesday I went to the studio with the intention of adding a rim the the “pretty little things::bud vase” series. Seeing that I needed to trim and SO did not want to hand trim them, I asked Harry about this one funny looking trimming aid and how to use it. WOW was I ever so happy that I did. The Giffin Grip is the best tool I have ever user. Usually I hate to trim on the wheel because you have to center it, blah blah blah and I suck at centering.
With the use of Giffin Grip, I don’t even have to try centering. It does all the work for you. It’s as easy as just turning the tool around so that the grips go inward to hold the piece. Great for production trimming as I was doing.