the FINAL art journal...

is DONE!  i was having a lazy day today.  it seemed that nothing held my interest and i spent the day doing only the bare essentials (laundry and dishes).  in the late afternoon i decided this was the day that i would finish the art journal project... 11 months late.  this last journal's theme is parallel reality.  last month i made and fired some raku tiles.  i chose one and made rubbings of it in different media - conte crayon, charcoal, cray-pas, and oil pastels.  i also used a variety of papers including tracing paper.  the rubbings were only moderately successful and they were difficult to glue into the journal.  the original tile will be placed within the book for the journal owner to do what she would like with it.

it feels good to get this project behind me... there were months when the themes came at just the right time, they inspired me and helped me work through some difficult emotions.  then there were times (many of them!) that i hit an artistic mental block and i sent off some haphazard material (sorry journal owners).
the plan was always for the group to put together an online forum of photos and discussions (perhaps in the form of a blog?) so that we could see everyone's completed journals.  we are all artists scattered along the east coast.  my own journal came back to me in the mail last week and there is some amazing stuff in there.
if you are a new reader and curious about the journals in this project, search "art journal" in this blog and you will find related posts with pictures of the artwork.

gallery rearrange

after a wonderful meal with jeff's family we came and home and went back to work on our gallery space...

we set up a combination of jeff's booth walls and my abstracta shelving in the lower level

this is the view when you walk in the door... i took this shot so you could all the white lights we strung in the rafters... poor jeff had to do all the climbing while i either held the ladder or caught the lights as he swung them around the beams.
we still have some tweaking to do and couple of more shelves to put in place, but for the most part we are ready for holiday shoppers!

recovering from the celebration...

i have been an absent blogger the past few days... right after the celebration i came down with a stomach bug, therefore monday was a total loss.  here are a few pictures from the big show...

Jeff chatting with our booth neighbor, Eck McCanless of Dover Pottery

booth shot... jeff caught me texting my daughter

i sold the vase that had our flower arrangement in it... at least the buyer got to see how well Jeff's pitchers pour!

this covered oval came back to the gallery with us... it will get posted on etsy this week

a glance down the aisle on Sunday... on Saturday this aisle was jam packed with shoppers!

...back to work now.  we are COMPLETELY  rearranging our gallery today and putting up some white lights for the holidays.  we are open this weekend so if you are in the Seagrove area please stop in.

a good day at the celebration

the celebration was great today... it was wonderful to see so many people very eager to purchase pottery.  it really was fun to watch (and take money, wrap pots and send them home with new owners).
after the show we met up with a big group of seagrove potters at the burrito brothers in asheboro for a yummy food and margaritas by the pitcher!
... sorry no pictures today, left the camera behind.

Gala Evening!

tonight was the Gala event for the Celebration of Seagrove Potters... it was a crazy week leading up to this show!  we fired the lil' gas kiln for a second time, set up for the show, unloaded the kiln, packed up more pots... phew... we are tired!
the Gala is a catered, wine & beer, jazz band event where attendees get the first opportunity to purchase our best work.  there was also an auction of collaborative pots made by potters of seagrove.

photos of our booth... the show is in the old Luck's Bean plant... the yellow stripes on the floor are a little distracting... next year we may bring a carpet for uniformity... although i am not sure it will really increase sales.

this is a new glaze combo i started using this spring

slip trailed and sgraffito and/or maple leaf resist dishes

back to the Bean plant at 9am tomorrow... i hear this will be our busiest day!