& I’m Cracking Up!">Shadow Box Update & I’m Cracking Up!
I should be just about done with my donation to the Rainbow of Art Fundraising auction for PFLAG by tomorrow. Well, I better be, because the art coordinator is coming by in the afternoon to pick it up. I wish I would have finished earlier, because I think I’m going to like the way it turns out. I like to live with my artwork sometimes before releasing it into the wild.
This morning I’m going to be sewing the background for the shadow box, and am having a glaze fire for the ceramic house component. I’m not sure how visible it is, but I’m replacing the glass front with a plexiglass one – which I cut out the other day. I’m going to be drawing into the plexiglass piece to add a little more texture and backstory to the piece.
I was very excited to see that my little nichrome wire hanger fired just fine on the back of the ceramic house. It’s a little brittle now that it’s been fired, but it should be easier in the long run than sawing, attaching and glueing wood blocks onto the backs of wall pieces.
Waaaaaa…. Okay, it’s out of my system now. I have experienced a string of cracking issues in the bottom of my thrown pieces. This is happening during the drying process and I’m wondering if I’m not wedging correctly, or am I drying work too fast? I’m making sure that I’m compressing well with a rib during the throwing process. I just paid a visit to the Clay Art discussion group, which has a lot of technical information for people who work with clay and there are plenty of suggestions to try out in the future.
Part of the problem might be that I haven’t been throwing all that much this summer. I’m out of practice. Next week brings the start of school for my daughter, and I’m going to spend the week in my studio just making work. David, if you’re reading this – it truly will be in September that I have your work finished. So sorry…
In other news, we watched a fun documentary last night called 10 MPH: Seattle to Boston in 100 Days. It’s about this group of people who quit their corporate gig to travel cross country on a Segway traveling at, you guessed it, 10 mph. Well, actually only 1 of the members truly traveled only via Segway. The other members were the support crew, marketing staff, fundraisers etc. My favorite part of the movie was the little side stories of the people they met along the way. 2 thumbs up – inspiring story especially for my husband who would like to leave his corporate life behind! I’ve already quit my “real” job, but the truth of the matter is, you still need money to survive. The movie points this out rather week, but, sometimes, you just gotta go for it…
~Cynthia
As you may have noticed, I changed my blog template to one with a 3 column format. I thought I was being so smart, by leaving my old blog open in a fresh window so that I could copy all my links, widgets etc. into the new template. Needless to say, my internet connection crashed, and I’ve been working by memory this afternoon to restore my links. If I linked to you before and I haven’t added you back in, let me know!
Ack!! My studio is a mess, and art career musings…
It’s a little difficult to be productive in the studio when I can’t find anything which I attribute to the current messy state of affairs in my studio. See below:
Despite cleaning before going on our camping trip in July, I’ve managed to whip the place into a frenzy. I must be the equivalent of a human tornado! Many things have conspired to literally trip me up ie., the up coming home tour (the studio will not be open for viewing) and the purchase of a gazillion jewelry findings. See below:
These items are impeding my already cramped studio space which also doubles as storage for my family’s belongings. Enough is enough already!
I’m pleased to say that our contractor, Jim Wilkinson of American Home Remodeling (he needs a website!), was over last Saturday to give us an estimate for insulating and drywalling the garage/studio. Yay, won’t that be nice? I’ll be able to work in my studio through the winter! Initially, we were going to add solar panels to the studio so that I could power my kilns, add ample lighting and for heat, but after meeting with REC Solar, we’ve decided to postpone. It’s a good investment, if you plan on staying awhile….
We’ve decided that we will be moving cross town in 8 months – 2 years or so, depending on the needs of our tenants. You see, we own a home that we’ve been renting out over the years in a less trendy, more diverse neighborhood in Denver. It’s larger than our current home and has a large 2.5 car garage to boot! Read – Bigger studio space! The good news is that we can cash out on the equity we’ve built in our current house and live much more comfortably in the other one, which we ARE going to solarize – both the house and the garage/studio.
Why add insulation and drywall to the current studio if we’re planning on moving? It could be a couple of years before we move and I need a comfortable working environment. I’ve talked my husband into renting a storage unit to accomodate our stuff that we can’t seem to part with, including 2 vintage 1980′s Motobecane bicycles that my husband can’t seem to part with that hang above one of my work tables and that generally annoy the hell out of me. Though, I’ve made a peace of sorts with them, by hanging my clamp lights from the pedals of the bikes.
Also, we’re going to add an outdoor shed for our gardening equipment to free up even more space. To his credit this was my husband’s idea, and not mine. I’ve weighed renting studio space, but that gets so expensive and with my mommy duties, it sure is nice to be able to walk out the back door and stroll 20 steps to work whenever I have the time and inclination.
As to the jewelry findings and beads, Mary Cay and I are going to begin sorting through our stash tomorrow. Whatever we can’t personally use, will be listed on Etsy for sale. Hopefully, we can start whittling these down fast.
In other news, I was contacted by a wonderful art center here in Colorado to teach a kid’s clay workshop next summer. I’m working on a proposal right now and will announce the venue when I’ve signed the contract. I know I said I wasn’t going to make any more dolls, but guess what? The art center wants me to teach making clay effigy dolls to kids, so I’ll be working out more than a few proto-types in the next few months. I’m thinking of some different ways to make the limbs movable and to perfect my technique.
Buoyed by the opportunity, I contacted the enrichment committee at my daughter’s school about teaching an after school kid’s clay class and they’re interested. I submitted my proposal to them yesterday and fingers crossed, this will come to fruition too.
Making a living at being an artist involves searching out multiple streams of income and making your own opportunities. Back in college, I took a philosophy of art class and our professor told us that only about 20% of student’s graduating with a degree in art actually end up working in their chosen field. My friend, Mary Cay, thinks it might be closer to 5%. It sounds like such a bleak and disheartening statistic, doesn’t it? How do you make it work?
That’s all for today,
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Mishima or the Art of Inlaid Colored Slip Decoration
One of the cool things with keeping a blog is that it serves as a journal for me for trying new techniques and also a way for me to share the results with whomever is interested. I have been meaning to try the technique of inlaying colored slip into a piece, otherwise known as Mishima for awhile now. I just happened to have a leather hard pot available and decided to try it out yesterday afternoon.
Mishima originated in Korea during the Koryo Period (935-1392) where floral and animal motifs were incised and filled in with a contrasting colored slip on tea bowls. Contemporary ceramic artists borrow techniques from the past and make them more current – though often straying from and breaking some rules along the way. Now, isn’t that fun? I certainly like breaking the rules. For example the celadons and blues that I favor are normally fired to cone 10 in reduction (gas firing), however, I use a cone 6 glaze that resembles a traditional celadon in oxidation (electric kiln) that Mary Cay shared with me. Is it cheating? Nah, I don’t think so – I’m just making it work for me.
If you’re interested, a very basic Mishima tutorial follows below:
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Meanwhile, I received a very exciting email and phone call last week. I hope to be able to share the good news with you soon!
In other news, Mary Cay and I visited Denver artist, Mark Brasuell on Friday afternoon. Mark trained as a metalsmith, but has since turned to drawing and painting where he excels! After visiting a bit, touring his studio and getting a sneak peak at some new work in progress for an upcoming show, we purchased a huge lot of jewelry findings, beads, stringing supplies and tools from Mark now that he is no longer interested in jewelry making. We haven’t gone through the lot yet – it’s a bit mind bending with how much inventory we have. This coming week, we’ll be culling the supplies that we want to keep for our own work, and then expect a sister Etsy shop to open in the near future, where we will be liquidating the remaining stock.
Have a creative week,
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