Busy Week and Bamboo Fun Update
Hello friends! Have I really let a week pass between posts? This has been one crazy busy month so far (started around Thanksgiving) and I feel like I’m just now catching my breath – though not for long. What have I been up to?
- Daughter’s 11th Birthday & Party
- Middle School applications were due Dec. 12 for the following school year – seriously way too much for a 5th grader and her parents to deal with at this age. Essays, recommendations, test scores, application, visitations, interviews etc. I suppose if my daughter wanted to go to her neighborhood school it wouldn’t have mattered, but she applied to several public magnet schools: Denver School of the Arts (she has an audition and interview scheduled for January), Denver Center for International Studies, and Morey (a gifted magnet program). We’re lucky to have school choice, but it’s a crazy amount of work!
- Volunteer duties at her school
- School Silent and Live Auction – despite the bad economy, we raised about $30,000 which is about $15,000 less than last year. I’ve helped out the past 3 years – turns out I’m a pretty good fund raiser…go figure since I’m a terrible salesperson (at least with my own work).
- Class parties and projects – all fun, but time consuming.
- Holiday shopping & shipping frenzy
- After school clay class – ended on Dec. 16, I’ve got about 30 days till the next one starts up – whew…
- Subbing – seems like teachers like having days off in December.
- Cleaning – my in-laws arrive tomorrow for the holidays and on Monday our house is being appraised. We decided to go ahead and refinance since the rates are below 5% right now and it will save us a couple hundred dollars a month. There’s a chance my husband will be laid off in January – the company he works for announced a 10% workforce reduction and his department will be affected, so paring down our bills is paramount. I’m not terribly worried about it, if it happens then he will temporarily go into business with me while he looks for another job. I wonder if he’s crafty??
Actually, he doesn’t need to be crafty – I would love his organizational skills coupled with his financial wizardry. He’s a business analyst, finance guy and his skills would come in handy since I’m the exact opposite!
Anyway, it’s all good, and now that Winter Break started yesterday I feel like I’ve stopped hyperventilating. Now I can slow down and enjoy the holidays leisurely and in full the way it should be experienced. So enough about my laundry list of to-dos…let’s talk ceramic decals & Bamboo Fun!
Celadon and white glazed porcelain bowl
In anticipation of creating some laser ceramic decals, I have a few pieces of pottery that I specifically left undecorated in order to experiment with the process. These came out of the kiln on Monday, but since I didn’t have time to install my Wacom tablet and didn’t receive the laser decal paper until Thursday, they’ve been sitting on my dining room table ready and waiting for their finishing touches. They sort of look like they got dressed, but forgot to brush their hair and accessorize their outfits
Caramel glazed porcelain mug
This is a bit of an aside, but this caramel colored glaze is suppose to be an off white matte glaze that breaks caramel. My new digital Skutt if firing hot (going to cone 7 – even though it’s programed to cone 6) though and this glaze has been turning a translucent caramel color which I actually really like a lot. I thought it would be a good neutral base for laser decals. I dipped the rim in a glossy white which is why it looks mottled – though you might not see it unless you click on the image to enlarge it. This is a base glaze from MC6G – and it’s still stable and doesn’t run at cone 7. From what I’ve read, matte glazes that turn glossy might actually mean that at the lower temperature it’s really underfired. I know the celadon glaze that I use does that when under fired.
Celadon glazed white stoneware box
This is a little 3″ x 4″ covered box that I made for my neice for her January 1st birthday celebration. She visits the Maryland shore with her mom and dad nearly every summer and loves the beach. Instead of hand painting this one with underglaze like these, I decided to apply decals for decoration instead. I’m hoping the sepia won’t clash with the celadon color…we’ll see.
I hope to print the decals today and then fire the pieces tomorrow – and hope to share the results good, bad and ugly on Monday. It’s a good time to fire the kiln too – we’re in for another cold snap this weekend…20′s through Wednesday. Brrrr!
Meanwhile, my husband and I might go see Cheech and Chong at the Paramount theater tomorrow night. 
I was reading Friday’s Denver Post yesterday and saw that the duo has reunited for a tour and their show has received great reviews. My hubby and I desperately need to go on a date sans child and I really feel like laughing till my face hurts.
Have a great weekend,
~Cynthia
Juggling Act
The 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.
I 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
New Ceramic Platter Designs
On Tuesday, I decided to drop by the Art Student’s League of Denver to check whether or not my ceramic platters had been fired. Perfect timing; when I arrived the studio assistant had just cracked the kiln open and had begun unloading the ware. It’s always a bit like Christmas for me peeking inside the kiln after it’s been freshly fired. I helped the studio assistant unload the kiln – it was either that or I would have annoyed the heck out of her waiting, waiting for my work to reveal itself. Here’s what I realized – I need a bigger kiln! These platters just barely fit in my own kiln, so I can not make larger work in my old Paragon.
I was, however, pleasantly surprised when I saw my platters. I had decided to switch clay bodies for my slab work because I’ve found that the porcelain slumps too frequently despite all my best efforts to dry the work slowly. This is a buff colored stoneware that I happened to have in my studio which has more “grog” than the ultra fine porcelain. Many potters I talk with liken throwing porcelain clay to throwing with cream cheese. That’s how soft porcelain is when it’s wet. So, when I saw my new platters, I was very happy.
I’m firing both my kilns today. I have bisque work in the large kiln destined for Summer Art Market on the 9th and 10th of June. In my small kiln, I have ceramic pendants and earrings firing as well. I would like to have my Etsy Shop stocked with Jewelry by next weekend since I am not allowed to sell jewelry at SAM. The Art Student’s League does not teach jewelry, so it is not allowed sold there. I will be wearing some of my jewelry and will direct interested people to my Etsy Shop if they’re interested in the jewelry. I am going to be applying for space at Art-O-Mart at Capsule Gallery, which has no medium restrictions, in September and December. I will also be firing my kilns most likely through next Friday as I prepare for SAM.
I received both of these magazines in the mail on the same day this past week. I was struck by the similarities in design and color palette that both chose as their cover art. After SAM, I plan to warm up my sewing machine again. I am FINALLY going to finish sewing for my home and am going to pick up my Earth Series again. I have still been thinking of ways to combine the 2 mediums. I also have plans to resume work on the craft of making thrown porcelain cake platters after SAM. I’ll be able to work at a more leisurely pace and will be able to concentrate without distraction.
Till later this week,
