Colorado Art Studio

New Porcelain Vase, wheel thrown and carved, still green
I’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 masks
Since 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 87108
I 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 wires
It’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 2-5
Meanwhile, 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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Clay + Imagination = Art class masks
More elementary school age kid’s masks
Okay, so maybe my riff on Fiddler on The Roof is a little cheesy, but it’s the first thing that pops into my head when I see all these fabu masks made in my kid’s clay class drying in my studio. I’ll share a couple of my favorites later on after they’re painted. In the interest of time, we’re going to paint our masks with acrylic paints rather, than using glazes or under-glazes.

Test tiles with under-glaze and clear glaze
After moving into my studio a few weeks ago, I have found several things that I had previously stashed away for future use. You know those things that you’re saving for when you need them, only you can never find them again. Well, among the items that are newly found, were these bisqued porcelain test tiles. I decided to go ahead and paint one with each of my Duncan Cover Coat Underglazes - and then add a clear glaze to half of each tile to see what the difference would be. Makes sense, right? I will have a library of test tiles to help me decide how to finish work in the future.

All of the test tiles had been bisqued to cone 04 - and the test tiles are a cone 6 clay. Based on a previous successful experiment with my colorful hand-painted buttons, I used a cone 06 clear glaze and glazed my cone 6 porcelain test tiles. Now for you non ceramic people - this can be a problem because the glaze and the clay body aren’t a good firing fit. But, since this was for my own knowledge, and I didn’t have any low fire earthenware test tiles available, I went ahead and used the porcelain ones.

Thank goodness I did, because I made a fatal mistake during my firing yesterday. The kiln over fired, the 06 cone in the kiln setter melted down, and I have no idea how hot my kiln actually fired to. It’s rated to cone 10, so I would assume that it didn’t get hotter than that. Why is this a good thing that I used the wrong temperature clay? If I had used a low fire earthenware clay body like I should have, an over-firing would have melted all of the clay to the kiln shelves and would have been one big mess. Instead, most of my color test tiles are merely washed out and I’ll need to do the test tiles again.

The other interesting thing is that some of the cone 06 glazes had an interesting outcome in the higher temperature firing, including the buttons below which should be a bright plum/purple color. They’re now a gorgeous periwinkle blue color.

It would be great if I could always have a perfect outcome every time I go to my studio with ne’er an error. But, alas, I learn more every single time I do make a mistake. It’s a good, but frustrating event. What else did I find out? That my cone 6 porcelain clay body can be fired higher than cone 6, that I need to pay more attention when I’m loading the kiln, and that cool things sometimes happen when you push the material’s limits. After doing some research online (Thank God for the Internet), I most likely had a kiln shelf touching the kiln sitter which prevented the rod that the cone sits on from automatically turning off the kiln. My little test kiln is a tight fit and I was trying to cram as much as I could in there. It also reinforced that I should always be present around the time when my kiln should automatically shut off to prevent further disasters.

I can’t think of another medium that requires so much trial-error and technical gymnastics - okay - maybe printing, glass, jewelry….

Meanwhile, I had breakfast at a fabulous breakfast joint called Lucile’s here in Denver this am with 2 of my running buddies from Denver Fit. Wow - delicious, I had the Eggs Benedict something which I never make at home. I’d rather eat there every Saturday, than lace up my running shoes and do 10 miles!

Have a good weekend,
~Cynthia

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Glazing snowflakes
I spent the better part of yesterday in my studio - getting organized, cleaning and doing some miscellaneous tasks like touching up the kid’s snowflake ornaments from class last week. I had them glaze their own snowflakes - but when I inspected them, many had missed spots, so cleaned them up a little. I was on my feet most of the day, when I remembered this stool that was sitting forlornly in my dining room. I had painted it for my kitchen when we lived in Maine - but there was no spot for it in our house here in Denver…until yesterday. Perfect studio addition if you ask me.

Washin’ Dishes
Part of offering a clay class after school is that I have basically created a mobile studio for the kids. I have to haul everything back and forth because the school doesn’t have the storage space and no clay facilities. It adds a little bit of work for me and necessity is breeding efficiency. Every week, I figure out how to get more stream lined. The biggest burden is the clay - but I’ve figured out that I can get by with 25 lbs of clay per class - no need to lug the big 50 lb. box with me. Everything else fits in a large blue Rubber Maid container, and while awkward, is not particularly heavy. I also have to clean up at home, since the school’s old plumbing system is not set up to handle clay.

Freshly painted ceramic buttons
When it became apparent that I wasn’t going to get any new work started yesterday morning, I took the time while I was glazing and painting these ceramic buttons to catch up with my wild friend, Nikki, out in San Fransisco. It’s always great to talk with her since our backgrounds are fairly similar - both former flight attendants creating their own lives and realities. My neck was a little sore after talking with her for 1 3/4 hours - remind me to get a head set for my phone next time I’m near the gadget store, will you?

Last week, while I was at the library, I remembered that I wanted to watch Art School Confidential and lo and behold, they had a copy in stock. It’s loosely based on a comic of the same name and is quite funny in a perverse sort of way. Everyone who has seen the movie told me that I would recognize myself in the student body and I did. Arghh, I was the older woman following her dream after having kids. Ahhh whatever, I’m okay with that. If you’ve ever been to art school, you know the different types - tortured goth kid, jock who can’t draw, talented kid who isn’t recognized, older woman/man, hippie, etc. etc. I know, I know stereo typing isn’t cool.

So now that I’m caught up with busy work, I’m going to try my hand at making a couple of molds today, followed by cranking out some work.

See ya later,
~Cynthia

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