Entering into the Bliss

This Autumn I will be having my second child and I am so grateful to have the opportunity to take an extended maternity leave from teaching to focus on my own pottery and spend more time with my family before new baby comes. As busy as I am with a 2 year old, I have been making my work into habit (thank you nap time!) and been very productive getting ready for the Fall Festival as well as the South Corvallis Art Walk. There is a real freedom in allowing myself to simply be an artist through motherhood and I see this as such an important time during this transition in my life. My clay work has helped me maintain my individuality and identity during a time where caring for my family has been such a huge part of my life. It's easy to get lost in laundry and dishes and lose sight of the things that make you uniquely you as you transition into motherhood. I am so grateful for my home studio that is accessible and welcoming any time I feel the creative urge as well as supportive family who respects me as an artist.  My hope is to build up an inventory before baby comes that will allow me to take advantage of opportunities to show/ sell my work in 2015. Looking so forward to hunkering down for the fall and preparing for another journey that will redefine my family and myself.

Herb Pressed Clay Earrings

Herb pressed earrings in the making

My favorite little helper pressing her own herbs

A full table of work fresh from the kiln!

Skully shots and tumblers in progress

Custom wedding gift commission

New skully goblets!

Thursday Night Therapy

This summer at the OSU Craft Center I taught a 4 week class where students were challenged each week with a different call and response. I wanted to share the pieces that I created as demos and that were inspired by the class.

1) Repetition/ Pattern- can work on a set, many similar pieces that come together to form a larger form, surface design patterns, practice a form that's challenging.

This piece started with extruded tubes that I formed into several large spirals and attached together to form a more abstract sculpture. I impulsively added the figure and that change immediately made gave the piece a strong narrative quality. I named it "riding the wave" and joked that I could either focus on it during labor or smash it!

Finished "Riding the Wave" sculpture, 15"long x 7"tall x 4" wide, 2014, Stoneware, extruded and hand built form, Red iron oxide and bare clay woman and cobalt based blue glazes on sculptural wave. 

2.) Scale- go tiny or go big, but get out of your comfort zone. For this example I decided to demo throwing off the hump and make some teeny tiny little pots and a tea set.

Tea set in progress, glazed but unfired

Finished Set of tiny dishes, glazed with a white glaze and hand painted with cobalt carbonate. 

3.) Symbolism= (an artistic and poetic movement or style using symbolic images and indirect suggestion to express mystical ideas, emotions, and states of mind.) Students were challenged to use symbolism in their work- either in terms of the form of a sculpture or by carving or adding texture to the clay itself or through painting/ transferring surface designs. 

Small tray decorated with hand carved stamp of a hummingbird that I made, carved tree design and commercial "imagine" stamp. Clouds and ground hand painted with underglazes. High fired to cone 10.

4.) Mixed Media Project. Students were challenged to create a clay piece with the intention of adding some other medium to it. Some examples were light fixture or candle holder, adding wooden features, glass or organic matter. 

Large bowl with slip inlay fern design, blue and green glass melted in bottom

(Detail of glass inside bowl)

Warm-up Project:

The "10 minute" tea pot- (although mine took 25 minutes)- everyone created a quick hand built tea pot as a warm up. This exercise forces you to let go of much planning and allows you to create spontaneously. 

High Fire Skully Mugs; Frida and Diego Prototypes

I have been working on several high fire skull mug prototypes and wanted to post a few pictures

 Frida and Diego skulls side by side (painted with low fire underglaze and glazes, fired to cone 10 gas reduction)

 Frida and Diego facing each other, Frida with black hummingbird and vines, Diego with Lilies

 Frida and Frida

Viney skully

Back at it- Spring Garden Art!

Garden sculpture/ planter "A mother goddess" 

I realized that I haven't posted for a while, and to be honest I was on a bit of a hiatus as life got in the way of my art as it sometimes does. So, I decided to post a few pictures of my recent clay work mostly in garden art. I'm teaching my Thursday night Garden Art class at the Craft Center this term and have been spending a ton of time in my own garden and outside enjoying the beautiful spring.

A few small planters, Cone 10, sitting a top my wizard of oz tiled table. 

This is a hanging bird feeder made from a wheel thrown bottle . It is hung by threading the twine through a bead before stringing it back up through the top of the bottle. I didn't have a bead big enough so I used handmade button. 

Close up of hanging feeder

Adaptation of feeder into candle holder

More pictures to come as the class progresses!! 

Psychedelic bird feeder 

Large planter, painted on and layered high fire glazes

Large basin to catch water from ceramic rain chain, used a really big leaf that I found at Willamette Park

Small bird house with red door