Is It Done Yet?

"Seaform Figure" at Ceramic Showcase 2012

Theme shows can push us to explore in fun new ways. In the two weeks leading up to my deadline, the big piece in the middle of this photo was still in a state of Yuck! It was part of our Bette Feves Tribute installation at Ceramic Showcase last weekend at the Oregon Convention Center.

The base was a sculpture from 2010 (as it states so permanently next to my signature) but I'd never liked the top so it has been clogging my tiny studio since then waiting for me to do something with it. So I started my Betty tribute at a bit of a disadvantage as remaking tops to fit bottoms is always tricky. I erred on the side of too big instead of too small.

After firing the top, using the same clay body and layered velvet underglazes on it as I had the bottom, the results were very different and mis-matched looking. So heated up the entire sculpture, added Apt 2 to some white glaze to have a clean surface to start anew and cooked it. Still not so great. Another coat of white to cover it all up a bit more. Finally just a hint of its previous life showing through. While still warm from the kiln dripped and poured some glazes, ala Betty, and back in the kiln to cook. It took a few hot from the kiln glaze painting, dripping and pouring sessions (8 in all) to get this pebbly, drippy look. At the show, with these other pieces the blue worked just fine. Love how the drips accentuate the curves. But now back at home there might be a 9th firing in her future...

How to be Extreme...?

Big pile of scraps after cutting out a bunch of items. Thought, hey, maybe I should do something for the Ceramic Guild's Extreme Show with these, or in other words, attempt to PLAY with clay instead of just make stuff.

If I lived in Opposite World I would be making cutesy very saleable items with little hearts all over them. So, picked up a lump and started making what I hoped was a stylish heart.

THEN, mid-way I flipped it over and saw this little lovely:

Spent the rest of the day making Scrap-Pile Hearts allowing their humble beginnings to show. It was fun and totally different than my regular fare. Will see where this takes me...

Rainy Thursday Musings

When a gallery owner invites one to be in a show and has a special request for a certain type of work, I'm not one to turn her down. Show opportunities are too few and far between.

The challenge is how to put a NEW spin on an old form. My stacking sculptures began as a way to create some organic shapes, get out the bright low-fire glazes and brushes and just have fun with how it all came together. I've never meant for them to be art per se, but last year I did challenge myself a bit more with the forms.

Now I'm working on the first stacker for the show with the idea of making some crisper shapes and slightly more complex forms. Here's how it's going so far. The base flower shape reminds me of a cock's comb, so think a top knot will have to repeat it on top. Last year I made some interlocking shapes that have become more refined and will have centerpieces rather than interlock since shrinkage and warping didn't play out too well.

So many possibilities for stacker number two.

Phase One of a New Series

This form, created a couple weeks ago, was bisque fired and received some color via oil paints mixed with cold wax medium. Hard to see in these photos, but when dry, the surface was buffed to a nice waxy sheen. Feels nice. Kept the colors simple. At some point it came to me that I was painting the colors of a big egg--one with concentric hollows inside.

WIred it up using some little tin weights from the fishing supply store and should've taken a photo with just the wire web before adding the tissue. But, impatient person that I am working in fits and starts, I just wanted to get down to adding the paper. First thought was using some old letters on air-gramme paper. Nice with the text on it but not thin enough. Next, tried my old high school graduation present bible's tissue paper pages, cutting out the GENESIS of the first page. (Calling Dr. Freud!). Still a little too thick. Settled on some tissue wrapping paper with some bits of text added for good measure.

It's funny when a piece is filled with so much symbology that just happened due to the materials on hand. As the start of a new series of work, an egg-shaped Genesis is pretty funny as well as apropo.

Yesterday's post in video format. It could use some background music...

What Inspires Us?

Oooh, to make beautiful sculpture as nice as this weathered log. Saw some beauties on the Big Island this year. This one was at a sweet little beach at Waialea Bay. Gentle waves the day we were there but the trade winds were blowing just enough to drive us off the beach a little earlier than we'd planned. We're wimps.

Undulations and smoothness, little surprises in places, and one big dramatic flourish.

What more could one want in a sculpture?

Now, how to translate into something I can actually make in my studio...

Experiments

Time for some new work or at least work glazed and decorated differently. What better than a bunch of little cups to try out in various permutations of the many ideas I have.

The eye opener was that it was harder to make a symmetrical cone shape than it looks. Cut out shape after shape and they all had a short side.

Well, these are just glaze/decoration experiments so guess I shouldn't let their off-center shape bother me...even tho it does a little...

Are Customers Always Right?

Have spent many years working to create a signature look for my pottery that relies on spiral embellishments and additions that add to the personality of each piece. More and more people ask for my work without the "fronds" or "arms" or "curly-cues" and in an effort to accommodate I've been trying to make the forms work without.

This version of my tulip vase reworked has a bit wider opening and slightly more feminine curves. She looks like she can stand on her own without my additions.

No matter what it takes, it's good to push ourselves a little bit outside our boxes now and then.

Small Tulip Vase - $36

Going Etsy

Why have I succumbed?

Community! It's what Etsy is all about.

Heard a very inspiring talk by Mandy of ZillowPillows and how she's made Etsy work for her business. She talked about how it is quirky and offers different methods for shopping besides the old fashioned "category" method most of us are used to. It uses social media and connections with other people to get noticed and recommend what you like. It is indeed a true community of people helping each other be successful.

Different than having our work in galleries and other "catalog" websites, one can control how work gets seen in various photo poses we take and how it's presented and written about. Etsy's commerce site is a super-highway of web traffic and there Etsy and other artists help you negotiate ways to direct some of it to our work.

What was I waiting for?!?

Kept track of my time and it took about 4-5 hours to get a shop set up, create a shop header, anguish over the text, set-up shop info, get a premium PayPal account set up AND take photos of a few pieces to "list." The first item took an hour to list; by the fourth item it took only about 15 minutes.

The shipping piece is still a bit frightening and figure I'll "eat" some costs until I figure it all out.

TIP: even though I took all the photos at one setting, in the first piece I listed the background colors turned out a bit different in each shot after I changed the sizes to their recommended pixels, fixed contrast and SHARPENED them. When I manipulated the photos for the next few items I left all of them open in my Photoshop "project bin" so I could align their placements within the frame and make sure they all had same background tone.

Here's my new Etsy Shop: "NicePots" by Cynthia Spencer.

More to come...

Finally, the Spring Order Complete!

Finally got two butter dishes completed -- and it only took me 5 months!

Sometimes special orders have a way of going wrong, very, very wrong... My first dishes were too small as I didn't figure the clay shrinkage correctly and were too small to fit over a cube of butter. The second attempts came out horribly in the glaze firing. Then the festival (my other job) began to loom and time in the studio dribbled to a few pieces a week. Finally got enough pots completed for a kiln load and got these out yesterday.

The smaller one is sleeker and easier to lift off the dish. The other one has a nice hefty feel. I'll have to remember to make the indentions deeper on future models so there is a good solid place to grip the top.

$40-$45.

What gets us into the studio?

During a snowy December week I woke with this image in my brain after seeing myself make it in a dream, and so laid out some very thick slabs for it, figured out a way to put it together and support the weight of the walls with gravity wanting to flatten them. Over a couple of days let it dry and then carved and sponged this piece into shape. The term "compelling" actually was my mantra while I was making it. It felt like this piece needed to be made -- wanted me to caress it into shape.

I cannot deny its cradle-like shape and all the of the symbolic stuff that its creation implies. Art is the child I've chosen and this beautiful piece says it all. Whether it makes it through the finishing and firing, and whether or not I still love it as much in the end, it's too soon to say.