Christmas DIY Present: Victorian Beaded Ornament

Materials:  Red glass ornament; green seed beads (10/0), gold bugle seed beads (10/0), emerald bicone Swarovski crystal; ruby Czech glass drops

Christmas DIY Present: Terrarium Ornaments

Materials:  Glass globes, Tillandsia, moss, white rocks

Favorite Instructional Video Clip: Jason Bige Burnett

http://ceramicartsdaily.org/bookstore/the-graphic-pot-handbuilding-surface-techniques/

Ceramics: Wall Heart

Materials:  Cassius Basaltic; pomegranate underglaze in etching; burnishing; cone 6 firing

Ceramics: Wall Plaque for Valentine's Day

Materials:  B-mix, lipstick red and black underglaze for etching, clear glaze; cone 6 firing

Jewelry: Halloween Charm Necklace

Materials: black crystal beads, Fire Design orange and yellow hand blown furnace glass beads, clear crystal beads, orange Swarovski beads, 24 gauge wire, TierraCast silver finish pewter scary cat charm, TierraCast silver finish pewter grave stone charm, TierraCast silver finish pewter zombie charm, sterling silver Halloween witch charm, sterling silver with cubic zirconia pumpkin charm, "Candy Corn Rocks" Amy Labbe charm

Jewelry: Rosh Hashanah Bracelet

Materials:  Blue glass crystal beads, clear glass crystal beads, Star of David silver oxide charm; 20 gauge wire

Jewelry: Halloween Charm Bracelet

Materials:  faceted black glass beads, orangey glass crystal beads, TierraCast silver oxide charms, 20 gauge wire, double-strand toggle clasp

Jewelry: Flat Spiral Beaded Bracelet

MATERIALS

3 yards of Fireline (6 lb. test)

11/o TOHO round ceylon lavender seed beads

11/o fuchsia seed beeds

56 4mm pink Swarovski pearls

28 6mm mauve Swarovski pearls

silver lobster clasp

TOOLS

beading mat

chain nose pliers

This bracelet...alas!...is too large for my wrist, so I'm going to have to either sell this or give it away.  I need to, if making a bracelet for myself, use only 24 6mm and 48 4mm beads instead.  However, I plan to create on my next attempt a triple row of this bracelet to make a cuff which for myself would translate into 72 6mm beads and 144 4mm beads.

Jewelry: Talisman Necklace

Materials:  leather, crocheted silk bead thread, purple dyed cracked agate and pink pearl glass beads, brass charms

Tools:  crochet hook, flat-nosed pliers, E6000 (even though I double knot)

Jewelry: Children's Charm Pendants

Materials:  toy camel, toy horse, sequins, metal findings:  jump rings, spacer, chain

Tools: chain nose pliers, E6000 adhesive

Jewelry: Leather Wrap Bracelet

Materials:  6 foot brown leather cord, pink round pearl glass beads and pink round glass beads, transit cord, button

Jewelry: Child's Camel Charm Necklace

Materials:  toy camel, sequins, metal findings:  jump rings, spacer, chain

Tools: chain nose pliers, E6000 adhesive

Embroidered Photo Art

M A T E R I A L S:  copy of a color photograph to black and white; embroidery floss, colored marker

Collage: Pet Portrait

This year’s theme for the 2014 Etsy Craft Party I'm hosting this Friday, June 6, 2014 is Recapture: Bring new meaning to your photographs. Transform your photographs into display-worthy works of art using a variety of craft supplies and creative techniques.  And so below is my example of how I embellished a photograph of my dog.  Eight people whom I don't know plus a neighbor have signed up through Eventbrite for my event.  I'm a bit nervous about entertaining crafters because I'm avid but not especially skilled.  I'm also not even an Etsy seller though I love shopping their site.  However, I do love making and losing myself in assemblage and am just aiming to have fun with strangers.

M A T E R I A L S:  photograph, cut-outs from discarded book, artist canvas panel, scrapbook paper, drawing pen, rubber stamp

W O R D Rocks

M A T E R I A L S:  Bmix and coconut cream clay, black velour underglaze, cone 6 glaze

Inadvertent Art Walk: San Mateo, California

Not wanting to deal with having to find parking in a congested downtown San Mateo on a Friday evening, my neighbor Cori and I walked to a restaurant.  I'm so glad we did because who knew the town I live in promotes public art?  On the way to cocktails:

Love the colors and dogs wearing cones make me chuckle.  Leaving the restaurant we saw the METER GARDEN, and here are my favorites:

Also en route to home at the public library, we encountered KNIT  BOMBS:

Wednesday Night Sketchpad: Zen Doodles

Jewelry: Bird's Nest Pendant and Bead Wrap Bracelets.....when frustrated by clay, turn to beads and wire.....

M A T E R I A L S:

1 foot of 16 gauge copper wire, 4 feet of 24 gauge copper wire, 3 glass pearl beads

M A T E R I A L S:

5 feet of 24 gauge copper wire, 3 glass pearl beads

M A T E R I A L S:

5 feet of tan leather cord, transite cord from bead landing, glass pearl beads, shank button

M A T E R I A L S:

5 feet of dark brown leather cord, dark brown Silamide waxed nylon bead string from BEADSMITH, glass beads, shank button

Ceramics Workshop: Ann VanHoey@Rae Dunn's Studio, Saturday, April 19, 2014

The first thing I noticed about Ann Van Hoey's studio practice is her constant cleaning of her tools in order to achieve the pristine, super smooth finishes of her clay bodies.  She starts with a hemisphere mold and stiff paper in order to make a template, which she constructs by fitting into the mold and tracing with a pencil before cutting two templates.  She opened a bag of Sierra Clay which she doesn't wedge but did pound with a fist to flatten before rolling out into 5mm slabs, one of which she flipped into the mold.  And she uses a rolling pin rather than a slab roller to slow down the process and ensure a uniform slab thickness.  Then she cut a second slab, scoring and slipping (just one side to adhere it to the other slab) and compressing further into the mold.  Lastly she eyeballed the bottom and cut from a slab without a template and compressed that into the mold too.  Click on the pictures below if you want to enlarge and see more details close-up.

While we waited for the bowl to dry to leather hard, I explored Rae Dunn's gorgeous Berkeley, California studio.  Who wouldn't want to come to work every day in such an airy, well-lit and organized space?  I too would be inspired to create beautiful vessels and objects!

I splurged and bought one of Dunn's vases above (the one with a screen print of one of her paintings and typography--a dictionary definition of botany and the word, nourish).  And Dunn's vases which I loved so much to me are so reminiscent of the vases that Nancy Selvin makes.

Back to Van Hoey's work.  I also took pictures of the vessels she brought from Belgium for her workshops here in the U.S.  Below are representative works that she created for various juried exhibits and competitions as well as that which she designed for a chef's kitchenware line that are mass produced.  Van Hoey's colored pieces were auto painted by Ferrari.  My own tiny collections of ceramics reflect this combination of expensive handmade one-of-a-kind with less expensive (but still aesthetically lovely)factory made.  And that balance of handicraft and also designing for wider distribution is what Rae Dunn seems to have also lucked on to, for she sells in her studio and in her Etsy shop her unique and locally made art while also designing lines for Magenta which are sold at Nordstrom.

Van Hoey's next demonstration was of her cups.  Only the demo was of Sierra Clay rather than the paper porcelain that you see above.  

 Next it was time to release her earlier demo of a larger vessel from the mold and demonstrate more of her overlap of darts in her signature bowls.

“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to."
[MovieMaker Magazine #53 - Winter, January 22, 2004 ]”
― Jim Jarmusch