Commemorating the mundane

I was teaching a lesson on the strange tradition of commemorative flatware.  We looked at very silly pictures of royal family members on Delftware and we also looked at more contemporary pieces to commemorate Elvis’s birthday, the Royal Wedding and so on.  The assignment was to throw a large plate on the potter’s wheel and then while it was bone dry the students would use the wax resist sgraffito method to draw an ornate design that would commemorate the mundane.  After the pieces were bisque fired we painted them in a variety of low fire glazes.  The result is a very silly and cheery plate. 

I created a plate along with my students and decided to commemorate my cat Roxie.  I chose to pose her as I usually see her, standing over her empty food dish looking at me with a disapproving glare.  Doing this lesson with my students has inspired me.  What if I made commemorative plates that were a little silly and stopped taking everything so seriously for a change?  My first few will be for dog lovers.  I’m very early in the process and I’m still not sure where this is going.  I may hold back and glaze them one color or I may go all in with the idea and make them very colorful like the plate above.  I’m not sure yet.

 

artist's block

                      

                                       I have found myself in a two month long funk.  Ideas have been coming out of my brain in a trickle like there is a clog in there somewhere.  My plan is to work out the clog by just getting on with it and getting down to work.  These are a few pictures of the little bit I managed to get done.  What I need to do is just get back on the wheel and get back in the groove.  I also need to tune out distractions.  All my ideas seem to be coming up short which might just be serious case of self doubt.  I would really appreciate any suggestions you have for getting over this kind of “artist’s block”.  What do you do when inspiration feels like it’s coming through like gravel in a meat grinder?

Second Friday Art Walk

                        I am so excited to be the featured artist at this Augusts’ addition of the Council Bluffs Second Friday Art Walk.  As you may know, flooding has been a major issue for businesses in Council Bluffs.  Not physical flooding but the bad press.  I feel like lasts months Second Friday was light and it couldn’t have been the weather because it was a beautiful day.  I hope that folks aren’t watching the news about the disastrous flooding and changing their plans about visiting the beautiful downtown area.  There is a great line up of artists this month.

Pottery at the Frame Gallery

          I'm finally all settled into my home at the Frame Gallery in Council Bluffs.  As you can see the space is very industrial so to create a contrast I wanted my display to have a  more vintage feel.  I wasn’t looking forward to thrift store shopping to find pieces for my display.  Thrift store shopping can’t be forced and when you are actually looking for something then you will never find it.  Instead, I opted for picking through my grandparents farm looking for rustic pieces.  I came away with everything I needed.  A couple of fruit crates and little book cases.  The shelf on the top is actually a little desk drawer.  My favorite part of the display is the side of one of the fruit crates has a label with a beautiful picture of an orange surrounded by peacock feathers.  I think the old worn out wood warms up that concrete floor.

                      

                     Stop by and visit me in the Harvester Building!

The Frame Gallery

1010 S Main Street

Council Bluffs, IA

712-256-5577

New Home For my Pottery

                It’s easy to forget that there is a whole other town on the other side of that river.  We built a pedestrian bridge over it but the eastern banks still remain mysterious.  What you may not know is that those Iowegians over there have been busy little bees.   A combination of low property prices, low taxes and a plethora of old buildings has made down town Council Bluffs ripe for revitalizing.  One of the many projects is the downtown Harvester’s building which has been developed into Artist’s housing.  The street level has been outfitted for retail and already houses KP Style Artistry, Accessory, and Apparel, a hobby shop, and The Frame Gallery.  There is talk of a coffee/tea shop coming in and KP Style has already made noises about expanding into the next stall of the building.  Marti from Frame Gallery has sold my pottery back when she was in the old market.  Now that she is in Council Bluffs she has a much larger, open, and airy space where she will keep several painters, a photographer, a jeweler, and yours truly.  The photos are a little rough but you can see the potential of the space!  She will be ready for framing clients in the next few weeks.  The artists will be moved in by the first of May and will be ready for the Council Bluffs second Friday gallery crawl.  See you there!


Frame Gallery
Harvester's building
1010 S Main St
Council Bluffs, IA 51503

Omaha Craft Mafia Spring Sale

               The Omaha Craft Mafia sale is right around the corner and I’ve got a few new ideas floating around.  I just want to get those ideas pinned down in time to get everything fired for the sale at CAMP.  The flier features a yarn ball impaled by some knitting needles so I’m trying to cook up some yarn bowls especially for the sale.  I’ve also made some bowls with notches for chop sticks.  I want to feature fun and playful drawings on the pottery for this show.  I will have some octopus and other critters. 

Craft Mafia Spring Sale

CAMP Coworking 1111 N 13th st #119

Downtown Omaha

Keep it dirty, keep it safe

I am unapologetic about the sorry state of my studio.  If your studio isn’t a complete mess they you aren’t working in it.  Immaculate studios drive me crazy because if your studio is clean then you are spending more time cleaning than creating.  My classroom at school could probably qualify for FEMA assistance but you should see how many kids go through there during the day and all the great stuff they produce.  I gave up keeping up with it a long time ago and wear the chaos as a badge of honor.  Another positive is that it keeps gold personality types away from my room.

That being said, you don’t want an unhealthy studio.  Clutter is annoying but clay dust is dangerous.  The dust in clay is silica which has a very fine particle.  This is difficult for your lungs to filter out and will settle in your chest.  Potters have died from silicosis which is caused by clay dust settling in your lungs over time.  Always clean up all clay with lots of water.  Sweeping up clay dust puts it into the air for you to breathe in.