The Happy Place!

I am starting an online watercolor class this weekend! It's another course on the Teachables platform, with The Happy Ever Crafter. I really enjoyed the modern calligraphy course so when I learned about this one decided to sign up. I had a few watercolors missing from my collection so I went online and ordered them along with a few other items I needed. Shipping has been absolutely crazy lately. This order originated in Kernersville, NC, then went to USPS in Greensboro, NC, where it sat for 5 days! Finally, it arrived in Seagrove seven days later. I was getting worried that I wasn't going to get my paint in time for the start of the class.

Last week I experimented with creating watercolor backgrounds using plastic wrap.

It was a fun process with some interesting results.

I doodled over this background with a combination of colored pencil and water color pencils. Not sure about the end result. It has grown on my over time, but there are elements I am not happy with.

Part of the problem is that I am not crazy about my watercolor pencils. They are from Arteza, not the best quality. My regular colored pencils are Prismacolor professional series. I love them and have had them for 20+ years. What I do need is a blending pencil. Once I get one I will try this technique again using only the Prismacolor pencils.

I am off the spend the rest of the day glazing piggy banks and salt pigs. We have a kiln that needs to be fired!

Putting Pen and Paint to Paper

Throughout these months of isolation paper, paint, and ink have become my new best friends. I have created a lot of note cards over the last four months. My lettering still needs practice. Layouts are the hardest thing to master! There are a few obvious mistakes in the cards in the photo, but they are fine to send to family and friends. I need to purchase some good card stock, for now I am using some flimsy stuff that I have on hand. It's fine for practice work. At this point I prefer to spend my money on pens, something that I have always had a weakness for... now I have a good excuse to buy them!

Morning Practice

I have been trying to get a little painting in when I first get up in the morning. I enjoy painting florals and later adding some ink.

The painting, above right, I almost abandoned. It took me a few days to get it finished, and I am still not happy with it. I decided I should keep it and learn from my mistakes. Perhaps I can cut it up and incorporate it into a collage.

This angled brush came in a set that I purchased last month. It's called a shading brush, but I had fun creating flowers with it.
While the painting continues, making pots is still happening. Last week we glazed, loaded, and fired the kiln. We were moving slowly due to the heat. We fell behind schedule, but we got it done and didn't suffer heat stroke! Jeff and I took a break on Independence Day. It felt good to hang with friends, grill some burgers, and generally eat too much. Now it's back to the making cycle.

Putting paint to paper

Peaches and Lemons on Arches paper

I was finally able to get out my paints and give the Arches watercolor paper a go. While it is a nice thick paper I really didn't think that it shaded that much better than the Canson paper.  I also think that it buckled a little more than the Canson.

Canson paper on the left, Arches on the right

I did treat myself to another pan of watercolors. I have been curious about Arteza brand. They are advertised everywhere. All of their paints are very affordable. I have watched a few youtube artist reviews and after watching one on the watercolors, I decided to give them a try. I received 10% off of my order, along with a small Ebates reward. The free shipping was also a plus.

So far I am happy with them. I know what their drawbacks are (too many browns and yellows) but for the price, I can deal with that. The set was a little less than $30 and there are 36 half pans.


... and to change the subject completely, I made this awesome vegetable bake the other night!

Zucchini and summer squash, sliced fresh tomato, garlic and onions. At the very end I topped it with a little parmesan and fresh mozzarella.. I can't wait to make it again when we have tomatoes from our garden. Yum!

Kicking it up a notch

I have been using affordably priced watercolor paper. Not the cheapest, but pretty darn close. I have two pads, one is Strathmore, the other Canson (which I prefer). I recently watched a video comparing the results of the less expensive paper and Arches 100% cotton paper. The difference was rather dramatic. I decided I needed to give it a try. I ordered a pad to start with. It's also sold in blocks that are a little more spendy. If I like this perhaps a block is in my future. My other splurge last month was some better brushes. They weren't too expensive and were recommended by a few different "youtubers". While I have tried out the brushes and love them... I haven't given the paper a go yet.
Maybe tonight.
Stay tuned for a review.

I haven't given up!

I have neglected my blog for an entire month...  but I haven't given up on it!

April was a very busy month. Between both of us being sick (me once, Jeff twice), orders to be filled, and prepping for the Celebration of Spring Pottery Tour, there wasn't much time for blogging. We also had friends from New Hampshire fly down for the Celebration weekend. They are both ceramic artists, and this was their first visit to Seagrove. They had a great time and visited more potteries in two days than I have seen in nine years! They were totally amazed at the variety of work and the welcoming attitudes of all the potters. I have to say that this is my favorite weekend of the year. The event embodies what Seagrove, NC is all about.

Ruth and Kathy were good sports and let us take the obligatory, house guest, tire swing photo.

I am still trying to practice painting every spare second that I can. I will spend a few evenings on watercolors, then switch to few days of alcohol inks. I even sold a few alcohol ink painting during the Celebration weekend.

I will leave you with a peek at what I have done in the past month.

Jeff and hung these in the gallery at 11:00 pm the night before the pottery tour!

"Decadent Pies"

I have been a little "under the weather" for a few days. For the first time in many years I have a head cold. Jeff came down with it first and then it was my turn. This morning I am feeling a little more human again. 

I was very excited to order new watercolor paints last week. I have had them in my Amazon wish list since February. Thanks to my bank card rewards, I received an Amazon gift card and decided it was time to put them in my cart and checkout. Of course the day they arrived I felt like crap and definitely didn't feel up to painting. But I was able to admire the packaging... and the names are wonderful. 

Watercolor Confections - Decadent Pies

Starry Colors

The day after they arrived I had to give them a go, even if I wasn't feeling great. I love the color palette of the "Decadent Pies". The colors are very harmonious and many have a beautiful shimmer to them.

The "Starry Colors" are a Japanese set of metallic watercolors. Great for accents and splatters, because who doesn't want a little more bling?!
I had a lot of fun with these small practice paintings. Watercolor paper is more affordable than Yupo so I am a little freer with it. But I still try not to waste anything. I will cut practice work up and turn it into greeting cards. I rarely buy a card anymore and I think that most people appreciate a handmade one.

I am heading back into the studio today. There are pots that need to be slip trailed and mugs to be thrown. Painting adventures will have to happen in the evening.

Putting brush to paper

I mentioned in the last post that I have also broken out the watercolor paints. So far this is the only one I have been willing to share publicly... and it too could use some work.

I have really become obsessed with youtube tutorials. The downfall is the supplies list that accompany them! I can't believe all the different watercolor sets that are now available. The colors are amazing... and you don't have to mix them. The cost, on the other hand, is out of my reach right now. You should see what my Amazon "wish list" is looking like.

I am still exploring the alcohol inks. This is crazy abstract flowers, finished with doodly, alcohol ink pen enhancements. Not sure how I feel about it, but I love the colors.

Today I finished this tree.I had a lot of fun with it. It also is embellished with an alcohol based ink pen.

One of the things that I have found helpful is to photograph my paintings with my phone, and then view them there. It gives me a different perspective and allows me to see areas that need work that I couldn't see from direct viewing. Jeff has also given some good critiques. He rarely paints anymore but is very good at it. If anyone has more painting experience than me, I am happy to receive critiques and advice. Feel free to comment.

Collaborations

Jeff and I collaborated on a mug order last month. All wide bottoms, some with his strap style handles and some with my pulled handles. Like most potters, if you have an order, you make extras!
These two are my handles with watercolor glaze combo and some fun little dots.

Someone special might like one or two for Valentines Days... clicking on the photo will take you to my Etsy shop.

Oops!

When the last bunch mugs came out of the bisque kiln all I could say was, "Oh Sh$%t!". The slip trailed dots were supposed to be white and everyone of them was blue. I had even emptied my slip trail bottle and refilled it with the fresh batch of white that I had mixed the day before. The mistake came because I had also just slip trailed an order of blue dotted flower mugs and left that bottle next to the white. They were even LABELED and I still screwed up. In the end I decided I like the dark blue against the lighter blue underglaze.
Some mistakes do turn out ok.

Mugapalooza

We fired the kiln on Monday and needed it to be cooled and unloaded by 4:00 on Wednesday. Jeff and I both had mugs for the Randolph Arts Guild, Mugapalooza Exhibit. We don't really like to hurry the cooling but it all worked out and our mugs were delivered on time. The exhibition opens on November 4, 2014 at the Sara Smith Self Gallery, 123 Sunset Ave, Asheboro NC. It looks like there will be 20 something artists with 10 mugs each so the selection should be very interesting.

We had an order for one of Jeff's sugar jars, decorated and glazed like my water color mugs. Potters can't make just one of something, so there will be a few more in the gallery and to take to the next show.

The first batch of ornaments is out of the kiln. I like how the gingerbread men look without glaze. They seem a little more "cookie-like". I will add blue and red ribbons for hanging, and then we shall see how long they hang around! There are a few more to slip trail today. This second round has some new shapes to play with. A good customer gifted me with a nice assortment of cookie cutters.

I couldn't resist making the frowny face guy. I just might have to keep him!

*Secrets*

I finally finished my art journal pages. It really consumed me for nearly three days. I had to remind myself that I don't get paid to do this, that I needed to squeeze in some pottery making!

This journal belongs to my friend Jane Kaufmann. Her theme is "Secrets".

The artwork below is one of my favorites in the journal. It was created by Leah Murphy.

I completed two painting in watercolor batik...

How do they fit in with the theme of "Secrets"?
... it's a secret that I am not telling.

Watercolor Batik on Rice Paper

Remember the art journal project? We are about to come to the end and I decided for the last journal I wanted to try a new technique. 

Watercolor Batik

I found some tutorials online and the only thing I needed to purchase was rice paper and a new black micron pen. The technique uses hot wax and layers of watercolor so I set up my work area on the waxing table in the studio.
The basic idea is to draw your design with the micron pen on rice paper. Then starting with the lightest value, apply layers of wax and watercolor wash.

When all the shading is done the whole sheet of rice paper is coated with wax and crumpled. Then the paper is smoothed out and darker wash applied all over.

Once it's dried the wax is ironed out between newspapers and your finished design is revealed.
I actually liked it better before the wax was removed!

I was also thinking about creating some batik dyed shirts with the ginkgo design... hmmmm who knows where this will end up.

I figured it was a good first effort. Now to start work on a piece for the journal I have in my possession. The theme is "secrets"... time to get my imagination rolling.

Baby it's hot outside!

It's been a hot week for working, but the show must go on. Two and half days were spent glazing. Typically we would have been done more quickly but we took it slow, stopping for multiple breaks throughout the day. Last night we finished loading the kiln, bricked up the door, and called it done.

Sophie cat woke me up a little after 7:00 am. As soon as I wasn't too blurry eyed to light a torch and turn on the gas, I went out to the kiln and lit the first burner. We might even be done firing before complete darkness. Our little gas kiln takes about 12 hours to fire. Once in awhile we are closer to 13 hours.

Since I was awake and fairly coherent, I decided to photograph some mugs from a couple of firings ago. They should all be in the Etsy shop by the end of the day.

Happy Friday to all... for some reason I still like Friday evenings, even though I work on Saturday!

December Art Journal

The journal theme that I am working on this month is autumn colors. I believe that fall gives us the most beautiful sunsets. Since we typically close our gallery at sunset, I rarely miss seeing them.

For this journal I have been working on a series of watercolor sunsets with pen and ink trees. Pen and ink was my favorite medium in high school, since our ceramics department was extremely limited. I prefer to work with an old fashioned ink pen and nib with India ink. I have used, and still own, an Osmiroid cartridge pen, but find they don't work well for me. I blame it on left handedness, but perhaps that's my own excuse! I am waaay out of practice, but this has been a fun art journal to work on. I'll take photos of the various artist's fall inspired artwork when I have completed my contribution.

I can't believe I haven't blogged in a week! Christmas really kicked my ass, but now I have taken a short break and I am ready for an exciting 2014.

Putting brush to paper

I have been spending a couple of hours in the evenings working on my July art journal. This month's theme is "Rebirth". Since Jeff brought me that nice brush from Seoul, I figured it was about time I got out the watercolors and gave it a go. I like to work on two paintings at a time. That way my impatience of waiting for things to dry doesn't make me turn colors into mud.
The journal this month is small, 8"x 5". I prefer a larger format, but working with what you have is half the challenge. One of these paintings will span two pages and I will still have to trim it down quite a bit. I actually like cutting up paintings when I am done. Creating new angles and paper shapes. Sometimes I am happier with the finished work after hacking it up some!
Occasionally I like to add some pen and ink to watercolor paintings, or even sharpie markers. I haven't decided about these yet. Once my entry is done, I will take some photos of the journal, including entries by the three previous artists.
Last night I dreamed of painting half the night... they were peaceful dreams. The night before I made coasters in my sleep... and I woke up tired! I think I should put brush to paper every evening.

Wishing all an art-filled weekend, filled with peaceful dreams.

odds and ends.

ginkgo leaves - colored pencil and sharpie marker

ginkgo leaves - water color and sharpie marker

a mess of handmade dishes that need washing after a fun dinner with friends

art journal part II

Here are photos I took of some of the 2009 art journals. A few are my contributions, others are by the other artists. The first two photos are from the "New Beginnings" journal.

 This book came in the spring when I had made the decision to move out of the apartment that JZ and I shared. Once he was gone I could only focus on the negatives of living there. The windows are filled with representations of those things. On the right was my new beginning. A little house on Bow Lake. The windows are filled with the promise of starting a new chapter in life.

The next three are from the "Self Portrait" journal...

"Dreams"

 Above is my two page spread, based on a very vivid dream. After that dream, I knew I was never going to not have my hands in clay!

"Fairies"

 The cover of fairies was both cool and creepy. It appeared to be a paper pulp sculpture built up on the cover.

 "Color"

I had just read a biography about Georgia O'Keefe, and had seen an exhibition of her and Ansel Adams work in Washington, DC. Obviously this watercolor was inspired by O'Keefe.

It looks like I have recruited 7 participants for the 2013 art journal project... I am looking for 5 more people to join in. If you missed the details go back and read the previous post. If you know someone who you think would like to do this have them leave a comment or send me an e-mail.

Happy Independence Day!