Cuteness Overload!

I am in LOVE with these little paper purses! I can't even tell you how much fun I had making them. I found a couple of templates online. I decorated the paper using multiple techniques... mono-print, distress inks, acrylic paint, stencils, and stamps.

I made the backsides of the paper in a complimentary design to mimic the lining of a real purse. My paper wasn't very thick so I gave each of them a coat of matte medium.

I think adding embellishments was the most fun.

I filled each one with a tiny bag of little candy and I am sending them off to my favorite girls... great nieces in New Hampshire, and one to my daughter in Connecticut, who has a great love of handbags.
They took me so long to make that if I added up my time they would cost more than a Coach bag!

Glaze Tricks

 I had an order for a salt pig that was to be un-glazed on the interior and sprayed ash glaze over shino on the outside. I was in a quandary as to how to not get the ash on the inside, without have to meticulously sponge it off.

Of course Jeff came up with a solution!

A piece of sponge cut to fit, and wired with a handle to be able to pull it out after spraying the glaze. It sort of looks like we were torturing the poor piggy. Jeff's idea worked like a charm.

Creativity comes in many forms when you are a potter.

The Oval, revisited.

I mentioned in my last post that I was feeling good about the clay again. I figured I better post some photos to back up the words. These ovals are a little smaller than the ones I usually make. The stamped pieces in the foreground will get some slip applied for mishima technique. Once the slip has dried I will scrape it off to reveal the pattern below.

A few of the ovals got the ginkgo pattern. I am doing it a little different this time, placing a few leaves within panels. There is white slip in the panel, but it's hard to see in this light. My glaze plan is sprayed ash, foregoing the usual green and shino. I have been really digging the brown lately. The interiors might be lined with shino. I will make that decision later.

My work this week is a good jumping off point to get more creative in between making pigs. Today it's back to the pigs. I am feeling ready for them!

Untitled...

Nothing too exciting has been going on around here. We have had some great weather, so over the weekend I cleaned up the yard. Last week's storm brought down lots of tree limbs. They are now out back in the burn pile. We will have a big bonfire very soon.

The kiln building is moving along. More work would have been completed this weekend, but we needed ceramic mortar and none of the local suppliers had it. Jeff ordered some last week and we are expecting delivery today. Still no word on the propane tank. As long as it's here by the time the chimney is up, we will be happy.

I have been feeling like I am in a clay rut. I have been completing orders, but not doing any creative exploring. Without our larger kiln, it feels like we are in limbo. Making and carving these two small bottle vases has been the extent of my creativity these days.

The daffodils are blooming everywhere, many of them off into the woods. I had been cutting some to enjoy in the house, without stripping the yard of blooms. Last night I snapped this photo of the dining room. I glanced in from the kitchen and the shadows of the flowers and large pot caught my eye.

I thought about deleting this post, it seems rather scattered, but in the end I decided to publish it, because this is where I am at right now. Scattered and trying to get my sh&t together.

Sketchbook

This morning I was reading Ben Putnam's blog post about "sketchbook practice". At the end of the post is a link to a sketchbook practice project that he did some time ago. Ben had approached me about participating and sadly I had to decline. I have been terrible about keeping a sketchbook. I realized when he asked me, that the only time I have regularly kept up with one, was when I have been part of an art journal group. I have a collection of sketchbooks of varying types. Most have lots of blank pages with postcards, letters, and newspaper clippings tucked in between. Right now I can't even find my favorite one, the one that probably has more sketches in it than any other. I am sure it is tucked in a box in the office, which is a horrid mess right now. Someday it will get unpacked and organized. Someday I will get in the habit of keeping a sketchbook.
But not until this studio move is complete. Until then, there is no creativity happening here.
Just manual labor.

the art journal project

in november i was invited to participate in a year long art journal project. here is how it works:
12 members, each chooses a theme for their journal and creates a two page spread of artwork in their book. on the 1st of the month you mail your journal to the next person on the list and you receive someone else's book. each month you create art in the journal you received using your own interpretation of the the owner's theme. when the year ends you get your book back...filled with 12 artistic interpretations of your theme...how exciting!!
... i was feeling that it would be a good way to express myself creatively after the emotional year that i have had.
so here it is the last week of january...i have seven days to complete my journal and send it off...the stress is building!
i'll update periodically about how this project is going.