Archive for February, 2007

Covered Jar

Published
by
Cynthia
on February 26, 2007
in Uncategorized
. 11 Comments

Before being trimmed & after with knob

One of my favorite types of pots that I like to throw are very narrow necked vases and closed forms. This particular covered jar was thrown as a closed form. It’s a really easy way to make a covered jar because I just cut the lid off of the form, add a knob and voila! You can also make a covered jar by throwing the base and the lid separately, but it’s a little more tricky since a caliper is needed to get the correct dimensions for a good fit.

This is stoneware and is still in the green or leather-hard state. Once it’s bone dry, it will be ready to bisque fire. This is approximately 7″ tall with the knob and 5 1/2″ wide.

You may notice that I have changed the look of my blog. I have been taking an art marketing class with Alyson Stanfield the past 2 weeks and we are on the concept of “branding” oneself. I was just trying to line my blog up with my website for the time being. I realized my free website isn’t doing what I need it to do, so I am going to re-build my site either from scratch or teach myself how to use Adobe Golive and buy paid hosting. I have the Adobe Creative Suite loaded on my computer but have only really used Photoshop and Illustrator. This coming Saturday I’m also going to attend the Building Creative Business Expo organized by the city of Denver which should supplement my new found marketing knowledge quite nicely.

It’s all good, but learning about the business of art is keeping me from making a whole lot of art work. I’d be interested to hear how other artists get around to the business of marketing.

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Chuffed!

Published
by
Cynthia
on February 24, 2007
in Uncategorized
. 11 Comments

Fabric ACEO for Jafabrit

Last week, I reached a minor milestone…. When I signed into blogger to write a new post, I realized that it was my 200th post since the birth of my blog. I wondered how I would celebrate this feat because as many of you know blog beginnings are shaky at best. I thought an art give-away would be in order and offered a special fabric ACEO to the first person to comment. As fate would have it, Jafabrit was the first to comment. I have been reading her blog for awhile now and have been charmed by both her art work and the “Geordie Lass” phrases she sprinkles about on occassion. One in particular stands out: “I’m chuffed” is frequently used by Jafabrit when she’s really excited and/or pleased about something. I just knew I had to incorporate this word into my gift to her.

She asked me why I had chosen this particular image for her. To tell you the truth, my daughter just did a unit in school on chameleons and I thought this would be perfect for an ACEO. Chuff the Chameleon just seemed to be the right fit!

In other news, I had a little bit of a medical scare the past year. I haven’t shared it and really debated whether or not to do so at all. But, here it goes. Last summer my doctor suggested that I have my first mammogram since I had turned 40 in 2006. 40 seems to be a magic number in the medical community. I went last August and then got a call a day later saying, “Well, we found something, we’d like to do another mammogram and in addition, an ultrasound.” Nervous, I scheduled the appointment and wouldn’t you know, the sonographer and radiologist were speaking quietly to each other looking at the screen, asking me to submit to another mammogram. Then the radiologist gave me some options…he didn’t think that the spot they were seeing looked like cancer but if I wanted to, I could have a biopsy or I could wait 6 months and do it all over again. I asked him, if it was his daughter, wife, mother, etc. what would he recommend? He felt confident that I could wait. I decided to do so after reading the literature on biopsies and also the fact that it was small enough that my treatment options wouldn’t change in 6 months time.

Yesterday, I had my follow up mammogram and ultrasound. I had sort of blocked the whole thing until about 2 weeks ago, when I started to get nervous and played out all the possibilities in my head. The results: There is still something there, but it hasn’t changed/grown etc. and the doctor thinks it’s just a fatty cyst lodged deep in the muscle tissue of my breast. So, relief washed over me and we’ll do another follow up in 6 months time. Why am I sharing? I think it behooves every woman to go in for her annual mammogram. What if it had been something? I never would have known until it had progressed and required more invasive treatment. Needless to say, I’m chuffed!

The photos below are my ceramic ufo from last summer with a coat of celadon glaze on top. It should be out of the kiln by now and I’ll post a photo when I go to the league early next week.

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Art of the day and FREE Artist Teleseminar with Alyson Stanfield

Published
by
Cynthia
on February 19, 2007
in Uncategorized
. 15 Comments


I received a nice email from a woman this morning telling me that one of my fiber pieces was chosen as art of the day on EBSQ. What a great honor! Can you tell, I don’t have too much to report right now? I’m still working on my new soft painting that I started last week. I also have so many new ideas floating around in my head. They’re all related to ceramics and fiber and how to make them work together.

I just finished a new fabric ACEO for Jafabrit, that I’m going to put in the mail tomorrow. You may remember, that last week, on my 200th post anniversary I promised a new ACEO to the first person to comment. Jafabrit was it and I tailored this one especially for her…or at least what I know of her through her blog. I was undecided on whether to post it or not, or allow it to be a surprise for her. Let me know what you think?

Meanwhile, I just started taking an online art marketing class taught by Art Biz Coach, Alyson Stanfield last week. This is a month long class that covers a lot of information about the business of art marketing. She just announced that one of her teleseminars which is taking place this Wednesday is going to be free, but is limited to the first 250 people who sign up. The teleseminar is titled What the Artist Needs to Know About the Artist-Gallery Relationship and will include a special guest, Paul Dorrell, author of Living the Artist’s Life. The class is a must for everyone who wants to know about getting into galleries, rejection & perseverance, choosing the right gallery, your relationship with dealers and much more! Plan to spend about 60 minutes Wed. evening, hours are posted on the class link.

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Garage Conversion Part 1

Published
by
Cynthia
on February 16, 2007
in Uncategorized
. 11 Comments


My first attempt ever at a movie. I apologize for the shakiness of the camera…very Blair Witch like. I was using my digital camera and had to try about 6 times before I got it right. I actually got it on the 5th time, but You Tube wouldn’t take it because the resolution was too high. I re-shot the video at a lower resolution and that seemed to do the trick.

I’m always surprised by the way my voice sounds caught on tape. Is that really how I sound? I know you can’t answer that, but maybe my family can.

We spent Sunday afternoon in the garage trying to bring some order to it. Now that it’s starting to warm up here, I’m getting really antsy to start the build out of the garage into a studio space. I want to start NOW! I realized that yesterday when I decided to go to the Art Student’s League to do some ceramic work and had to return home because a class was in session. Being able to work whenever I want to regardless of time of day or day of week would be hugely beneficial.

Have a good weekend all, and for those of you finally experiencing winter weather, stay warm!

Oh, thank you Pinky for letting me know that one of my fabric postcards made it on the Front Page of Etsy yesterday. Darn, I missed it!

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Time for another slide show…

Published
by
Cynthia
on February 13, 2007
in Uncategorized
. 12 Comments

I went to the Art Student’s League of Denver today to trim my pots that I threw last week on the wheel. Lucky for me, I remembered my camera, though I felt a little dorky photographing my work in public. There was another person in the studio at the time and I had to explain that I blog. And, what would an art blog be without pictures?

I mentioned last week that I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to remember how to throw and was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was like riding a bike! I was little rusty, but I didn’t fall off my wheel or anything. I decided to return today in advance of the class tomorrow so that I could trim (make pretty) my pots that I had thrown last week, so that I wouldn’t have to do it tomorrow. Ideally, I should have gone in last week because these were almost too dry to trim.

I should mention that when working with clay, it’s not WYSIWYG. I am working with a cone 6 stoneware clay body. When in its raw state the clay is a dull gray color, however, once I bisque fire the piece, it will become an off-white color. The same is true of glazes. I hope I can document this for you tomorrow when I glaze my UFO from last summer.

Back to the slide show…green ware is basically manipulated clay that is dry to the touch, but has not yet been fired in a kiln. I was going to say thrown clay, but it could also apply to ceramic work that has been hand built as well.

I have been busy updating my website this week and even started a new “Earth” series “soft painting”. Thanks goes to fiber artist extrodinaire, Lisa Call, who alerted me to the term soft painting. The image below is going to be the base for my painting. After looking at my last work, I was reminded of an intrusion. More to come on this later in the week.

On a side note, today marks my 200th post since the birth of my blog. I will send a fabric aceo to the first person who leaves a comment! Send me an email with your address if you are the first to comment.

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