Lately...

I've been trying to set up a few money making adventures to fund my ceramic expenses.  They are all currently in progress, which does nothing to provide income, but hopefully they will be fruitful.

• I'm trying to set up an interview with Kobo gallery for this weekend.  Then I will have to deliver work to them so that the rest of the members will vote whether they like my work or not.  ::crosses fingers::

• I'm also waiting on Uncommon Goods to tell me if they want to sell my Birds and Clouds Dinnerware.  I sent them a sample, that I really, REALLY hope made it in one piece.  I was lazy with packing and now I'm nervous about it.  If they do vote on me, then my work will be in their Summer catalog. 

• My night class at Savannah's Clay Spot met for the first time last night.  It seems to be a really great and gifted group of individuals.  

• I also might get the opportunity to teach clay to middle and high school students in February during a week long workshop.  I will be teaching at Savannah Christian Prep School for their Art Blitz Program where various artist come and give workshops.  It's a pretty cool thing, and I seem to be getting a wide range of teaching experience lately, so why not add middle and high school students to it?

Also, I've started editing some photos from the work that I've been doing lately.  I'll leave you with a finished photo. :)

Gearing up for a New Year...

As the final days that will bring in the New Year are quickly approaching, I'm feeling really good about what 2012 will bring.  I feel I made a lot of progress in 2011 for my ceramics career, and now that I have an understanding for applying to shows and displaying my pottery in fairs, I want to try to tackle even more projects in 2012.  I told Josh about a few of my goals last night, and he essentially told me that I should be wary of taking on too much.  I feel as if I've had a good amount of extra time on the weekends that wasn't spent accomplishing things; just me being very lazy, so I think I shouldn't be overwhelmed...maybe. :)

A few of the things I have lined up for 2012:

~I mentioned that I was accepted into a cup show in Baltimore, and I was also accepted into one at The Clay Gallery in Ann Arbor, MI.

~My gallery in Savannah has decided to not renew their lease on the space, so I am trying to sell my work in other places.  I applied to be a member of Kobo Gallery in City Market.  It's a co-op, so I have to pay a monthly fee if I am accepted, but I think it will be a good opportunity to sell my work.

~Jessica Broad and I are applying to an art festival in Hilton Head, SC in April.  We'll find out near the end of January if we were accepted. Before the Merry Art Market was finished, we took an image of our "booth setup." Check it out:

~I will be teaching at Savannah's Clay Spot on Monday nights again.  I already have 4 people signed up for their spots.  I'm pretty excited, because I want to try a new teaching style that I haven't used.

~I wanted to have 10-12 new portfolio pieces completed that I could submit for grad school applications before the Holidays were over.  I have started, but not finished a single one.  I have the ideas present, so I just need to sit down a make, make, make.  So that is on the agenda for 2012 as well.  I need to look into what the deadlines are for applications pretty soon.

~I also need to create work for 3-4 potential group shows. I actually just remembered those.

Those are a few of my resolutions for 2012, but to step back into this year, guess what came in the mail yesterday?!

I'm very excited to make a mold of this super sized wine glass.  Since my casting slip shrinks so much, I knew that I should find something larger than a normal wine glass to create my mold.  I got this along with a copy of Mold Making & Slip Casting by Andrew Martin- a book I've wanted for a long time.  I'm starting to realize that I'm a big fan of taking familiar objects and recreating them in clay.  I've pondered the idea of creating my own line of jars and glasses and selling them on Etsy.  There is another artist (Meredith Host) who has 2 separate lines of work that she uses for galleries and for art fairs.  I think these would be fun to decorate and sell.  I also looked into super sized martini and margarita glass.  I love booze! :)

I have a few things I want to finish before Josh and I pack up and head to Florence, SC, for Christmas.  I have half of a kiln filled with glaze/bisque.  I am trying to figure out my kiln loading/scheduling for using two clay bodies that fire at different temps.  Thankfully there are some cross overs (ex: I can fire decals on ^6 clay at ^04), so it shouldn't be that difficult, but I know that firing a glaze and a bisque in one kiln can have it's consequences. I'm venting the kiln (leaving the lid partially open throughout the firing), so we'll see how that turns out.  I also have some things being fired at Lisa's that are lovely little presents for some happy people.

Oh and I finally made a mold for a larger cloud plate for the Birds and Clouds Dinnerware.  I hope to have one of those and a bowl made for Uncommon Goods before the New Year, so they can decide if they want my pieces or not.

I hope that everyone's Christmas is exceptional and that the ending of the old year captures the hope and anticipation of the new.  Happy Holidays!

Merry Markets and Winter Whines

Hello, hello.  It's been a really long time, but I blame that on the Holidays. :)
A few updates:

Tomorrow night is the opening reception for the SCAD Small Works 2011.  I have a few pieces in the show this year.  It's typically a great show for the holidays because of the affordable nature of the artwork. 










Last Saturday was the first Merry Market.  It was quite delightful.  There was a lot of really great work that included: ceramic cups, plates, bowls, pitchers, teapots; wooden salt and pepper grinders and cutting boards; jewelry; framed stained glass; paintings; photographs; mixed media holiday ornaments and ceramic garden sculpture.  It was really bright and colorful.  I took a lot of photos, but I am only going to post a few.  All of the images are on my facebook, so you can view the rest there.  It is the first year for the sale, so in spite of our attempts to bombard people with flyers and lure them in with tasty cookies and cider, it seemed that after lunch, the crowd died down.  We are hoping that people were just waiting until the next weekends to spend all of their money on Christmas gifts. :)  I have ceramic ornaments in the kiln right now, that will hopefully make it out in time for the sale this Saturday.  

My table.

View entering Market.

Jessica Broad's table. She's so cool.

Overview of the sale.

Steve (wood), Stephanie (ceramics), and Jessica's (ceramics) table.

In other news, I didn't win the ceramic competition with Uncommon Goods.  I think I lost the voting by a good 200 votes.  Apparently, I really don't have that many friends. :D  However, I was contacted by Uncommon Goods this past week because they are interested in selling two of my pieces from my Birds and Clouds dinnerware set.  I need to make a few more molds before I can get started on the project, but I am really excited by the opportunity and interested to see how easy/difficult it will be to work with a company. 

And the largest project that is underway, is at work.  Alexander Hall is getting a makeover during Winter break, so that means lots of loud noises and strange smells that are not pleasant.  My old office was destroyed and rebuilt, and given to someone else altogether.  I am going to be moving into what is supposed to be a more awesome location come January.  Until then, the computer access has been weird, so the entries may not get any more consistent until I have a stable environment again. :)

Happy Holidays everyone and support local artists by giving the gift of handmade!

It's hard being busy...

Whirlwind of a week!  In order to update everything, I figure breaking this down on a day-to-day basis would be best.

Sunday: I've started doing "Open Studio" on Sundays from 12-4pm at Savannah's Clay Spot for Lisa Bradley.  It was really great meeting new people and I also started working with cone 6 Helios porcelain from Highwater Clay. It was interesting to throw because I only worked with a porcelanious body briefly in undergrad.  Since then it was stoneware or low-fire.  I mixed a batch of cone 6 porcelain casting slip as well to test the durability of the clay in modern appliances.  My goal is to have a casting slip that is highly functional and doesn't crack for any apparent reason.  My only concern with this new body is the shrinkage.  I would like to continue to make mason jars, but I don't know how it would effect the size of the jar.  To be honest having a tiny mason jar might be the bee's knees. :)

Monday-Wednesday afternoon: Monday morning started off at a relaxed pace; however, I quickly remembered that I had two different sets of work due to be submitted at galleries by Friday.  One was going to Minnesota.  Interjection about this piece.  A few weeks ago, I visited my gallery in town only to discover I had sold a few pieces.  One was a yellow teapot.  I came home to find a notification from the "It's Only Clay" juried show in Bemidji, MN, as well.  I fully anticipated none of my pieces being accepted, but, yes, that damn little yellow teapot was the only one accepted.  (Have a learned my lesson about submitting pieces I don't have in stock?  We'll see, we'll see.)  So, in a frenzy, I construct another one and slide it into firings with scheduled student work to be fired.  I couldn't use the test kiln to glaze the little guy cause my boss was doing piggy back firings with it, so I resorted to waiting for the longer firings.  Resume to Monday, my teapot came out looking just like the other.  See here:

There are nuances between the two (the difference in color is only due to the image quality), but I was pretty happy with the result.  I sit down to my fedex.com to calculate shipping time and holy crap, this pot is going to MN!  It's going to take 3 days to get there!  I firmly REFUSE to ship anything that is costlier than ground shipping.  Needless, to say it made it in time, and hopefully all in one piece.

I also had to ship two other sets of work to the "Nellie Allen Smith Juried Pottery Competition" in Fayetteville, NC.  Obviously, I have more time to package these pieces, because it only takes one day to get there.  My only concern here is that I am really nervous about my teapot breaking because it is a tricky construction.

 

(I was sleeping in this morning and got a strange phone call and I was scared it was one of the galleries calling to say that my pieces had broken...it wasn't, but still.)  Since this show is a pottery competition, there are prizes, and I really hope this piece will be a winner of something.  I won't be able to make it to the opening on Friday, October 28, but I will be visiting the gallery that weekend with my family to see the show, so maybe it will be a joyous celebration!

Wednesday afternoon-Thursday night: I have mentioned that Yves is doing a commission for the new SCAD Museum of Art.  Well, this week all of the pieces came out of the bisque and were ready to be glazed.  There were well over a 100 of these varying shapes.  I worked close to 10 hours after work in 2 days.  Have I revealed that I am a gal who needs her 8-10 hrs of sleep?  I had a rough week waking up and getting to work on time.  I thought the project was over Thursday night, but I think that he might need me this weekend for some finishing touches.  I know we are both ready to breathe a sigh of relief with this project.  It has been extremely too stressful. 

Friday morning: Raku time rolls around again and I forgot to refill the propane tanks and scrape/kiln wash the shelves.  I needed to be at work at 7am to get stuff done for the event at 8am.  Hmm, have I revealed that I am a gal who needs her sleep?  Definitely woke up at 7:22am.  Disastrous morning and no details needed, but grounds in the coffee, driving over curbs, and cussing other drivers were involved.  Yesterday, ended up being pretty great, but I really enjoyed the bottle of wine and Fresh Market apple pie/ice cream last night after this week.  I think I might go enjoy another piece now, and of course, go for a run later. ;)

Updated website and new "spot" in Savannah

I have just added the finishing touches to my renovated website.  I'm pretty excited because it is a lot more professional and informative.  Hopefully it will get more exposure which might equal more customers.  Check it out at here. Also, I was accepted into the Barrett Art Center's 3rd Annual National Juried Cup Show. The show is in Poughkeepsie, NY and will run from Sept 24-Dec 17.

In other exciting news, Savannah has a new clay center.  It is called Savannah's Clay Spot and the owner is possibly one of the greatest, most genuine people I have ever met.  Lisa Bradley will be offering classes to our community teaching hand-building, wheel throwing, and various ceramic decorating techniques to name a few.  The studio space is fantastic.  She even created hand-made vinyl cushions to go onto the throwing stools and the pattern is super cute!  Lisa has a gallery space in the studio that houses functional work from local ceramic artists (including yours truly)!   I hope that the community really gets involved to make Savannah a ceramic friendly community.