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You are cordially invited to attend the Fancy Tiger Holiday Handmade Indie Craft Fair where you’ll find me this Friday, Nov. 30th from 6:00 - 9:00 PM and Saturday, Dec. 1st from 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM. I will be offering ceramic jewelry and some functional pottery for sale. A map follows below:
I can’t believe I pulled it off. Well, I shouldn’t be so pat, because I have a final glaze firing going as I write this. So, provided the glaze fire turns out, I’ll be all set for the weekend. I will feel totally 100% confident tomorrow am when I crack open the kiln and peek inside. Fingers crossed. I should have whispered sweet nothings into the Kiln Goddess’ ear earlier…. Wait, there’s still time, the kiln is on low right now.
Dear Kiln Goddess, if you’re listening, please watch over my firing today so that everything is spectacular when I open it tomorrow morning.
? Cynthia
I hope everyone has a great weekend, and I’ll report back on Sunday!
~Cynthia
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Photo credit Matthias Gelinski, stock.xchangeThe
Fancy Tiger Holiday Handmade show this weekend is fast approaching and I have been working 7 days a week for the past 4, trying to produce as much work as possible in a short amount of time. I don’t like working like this, and unfortunately, I haven’t learned how to break my self imposed frantic creative cycle. (I seem to repeat this behavior for every event in which I participate.) I don’t know where fall went - if anyone finds what’s left of it, would you please let me know because I sure need some more time before the holidays. Everyday is carefully choreographed for maximum output, and I’m so afraid of dropping one of the balls I’m juggling at the moment.
Porcelain Jar, cone 6I don’t really have any new photographs to share with you today - though I should have some by the time I write my next post. I’m pretty tired this am after babysitting my kiln all day and night yesterday. I was up until 12am waiting for my kiln to shut off so that I could soak it for a few minutes and to manually lower the temperature to medium to induce a slow cool down. Then I set my alarm for several hours later so that I could turn off my kiln. I really want to get the most from my glazes and fingers crossed will have some good results when I open my kiln later today.
Santa, could you please bring me a digital kiln for Christmas so that I don’t have to do this anymore?
Okay, enough whining from me today - does anyone have show strategies they’d like to share that help you deal with the stress?
~Cynthia
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My clay beetle prototype, 4″l x 2.5″w x 1.5″dI mentioned in the comments section of my last post - or maybe it was in an email to someone, that teaching my clay class is mutually beneficial to both my students and myself. I get to play and try new things that I might not do otherwise without some sort of exterior motivation. You missed our slab bowl project - maybe I’ll share a photo or two of our handiwork at a later date, but I am going to share this super cool project with you - clay insects!
I revised a lesson plan from the Amaco website (#10) that calls for making insects using polymer clay. We’re using a low fire earthenware clay and nichrome wire for the legs and antennas so that the legs can be fired in the kiln as an integral part of the sculpture. The insects are being fired right now, so that next week the kids can paint their sculptures with under-glazes. I test out all the projects beforehand to see if the kids will be able to do the project themselves.
Tea Cups made from slabs of clayI’m debating whether these slab ware tea cups will become our next project, though it might be too complicated for the kids who range in age from 2nd - 5th grades. Instead we might make these slab impressed tumblers instead:
Slab built clay tumblersI impressed both the tea cup and the tumblers with a lino-cut relief plate from my school days. Either way, I want to make some sort of drinking vessel so that we can have a party on the last day of clay class and make a toast to all the kids and their hard work using juice or some other kid friendly drink of course!
Meanwhile, I received an email from Tom and Jean Latka inviting me to their Holiday sale. I have long admired their public art installations and unfortunately can’t make it down to Pueblo this weekend, but maybe some of you can:
Latka Studios
Saturday and Sunday
November 24th and 25th
between the hours of
10 am and 4 pm
at their Home and Studio
229 Midway Avenue
Pueblo, Colorado
Oh and to answer my own question, nothing is bothering me at the moment. I’m off for a quick jaunt around the park to help stave off the added pounds from all the food consumed yesterday,
~Cynthia
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New Porcelain Vase, wheel thrown and carved, still greenI’ve been pretty productive in my studio for the past 3-4 weeks in anticipation of the
Fancy Tiger Handmade Craft Fair coming up 1 1/2 weeks from now. It’s time to stop making work so that I can concentrate on firing and glazing my pieces - even this time frame is pushing it for me. I’m really fond of some of my new wheel thrown work which has a really sensuous organic feel to it and look forward to spending more time in my studio after the show to concentrate on exploring additional shapes and sizes.
Clay + Imagination= Art Monday’s class masksSince I put my Tuesday’s clay class masks on my blog, I promised my Monday class that I’d give them equal billing. I can’t say enough good things about the work that all my students are creating! I also think that they’re really what’s behind my new found energy - a synergistic relationship if you ask me.
Meanwhile, I’ve slowly been going through all the Adobe Go Live Classroom in a Book tutorials so that I can create more of a custom website for myself without using a template based provider. I like my free Sitekreator site, but it has its limitations. I did just try out another pretty easy to use free website through Google this morning that is worth a shot if anyone needs a web presence. I was able to point one of my domains to Google and there are no advertisements whatsoever on my informational site that I am using to basically direct people to my main website. It’s also template based, check it out here.
To all my US readers, have a terrific Thanksgiving vacation - to everyone else all my best until next time,
~Cynthia
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Arthaus66 Gallery
6320 Linn Avenue NE #C
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108I have some really exciting news! I was contacted by a gallery in Abuquerque, NM about 5-6 weeks ago about placing some of my ceramic jewelry in their newly relocated gallery space with the potential to add some of my other ceramic work in the near future. After emailing back and forth and a phone call, I agreed to send a few pieces of jewelry to Arthaus66 last week for their grand opening reception on Friday, November 23rd from 4:30 - 6:30pm. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it for the opening, but my work will. I sent some of my more experimental pieces and hope it will be the beginning of a nice relationship.
One of my newer porcelain pendants
Celadon glazed porcelain earrings with sterling silver ear wiresIt’s a terrific way to head into the holidays and sets the tone for 2008. I am going to be targeting galleries to represent me locally and in a few select areas of the US in the new year. Selling one’s own work is incredibly labor intensive and I’d rather concentrate on making new work and having quality studio time than marketing. In that regard, a gallery is worth every penny in earned commissions. Unfortunately, this will mean a price increase for my work in my Etsy shop where I will keep a presence so that I keep my prices in line with the gallery’s retail price. I’ve been meaning to raise my prices for some time as they are currently set closer to my wholesale set point.
I’m going to get a head start on my New Year’s goal of contacting some galleries in December. We’re taking a long weekend trip to Crested Butte, CO and I’m going to see if any galleries in the ski resort town would be interested in carrying some of my ceramic jewelry.
Clay + Imagination = Art Tueday’s Class Masks, grades 2-5Meanwhile, my Tuesday clay class finished their ceramic masks and they’re terrific. There were several that I would liked to have kept!
Have a good week everyone and a great Thanksgiving if I don’t catch you before then,
~Cynthia
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