hard lesson

 Ideas for a new body of ceramic work are percolating in my brain as spring approaches. 

And looking at the Elephant Ceramic's collection I am reminded of the importance of good glazing.  Simple shapes, formed using techniques you learn in ceramics 101, are made gorgeous by the skilled application of a rich and beautiful glaze. 

Crap.  I hate glazing. 

mad house

Sorry to just drop off the face of the earth!  Things were a bit crazy 'round these parts and my computer was busted, so I disappeared. But things have calmed down and my computer is all fixed so, I'm back!  did you miss me?  (I really will catch up with you all today!  I've missed you!)

I've been working on some "realistic" snowflake Christmas ornaments, using W. A. Bentley's book as source material and a laser cutter.  I've just made a few paper tests so far, and I'm not sure what material I'll use to make the final ones.  I'll keep you posted.   

It seems appropriate since they are saying it might snow here tomorrow.  Not a lot, and it won't stick, but still, snow!  I'm not ready.

for sale

Some of the work from the show I'm in at Art Star Gallery in Philadelphia is up for sale online, including some of my work.


check it out here.

cup

after getting everything ready for the show (closing reception April 10, 6-9pm) I decided to get to work on something I have been thinking about for a little while.

It's been years (maybe 10) since I've made any sort of pot, but something about what's going on in the world made me want to make something useful.

So, I'm going to make 1000 cups (even though I'm pretty sure that's not useful). what will I do with them? who knows.

helping hand

Steven, Josh and Matt are working on an entry for the TOGS competition in Austin, so there are some crazy things being built in the studio right now.

Gus is been helping out, the little guy is really good with a mallet. (really good at chewing on a mallet!)

good show

thank you so much to everyone who turned out for the show! We had such a great turnout and it was wonderful to see everyone.

After encountering a couple problems and averting a couple nervous breakdowns, we finally got everything up and lit late Friday night. (I like to think that our friend Andy T was telling the story about how when we were almost done with the lighting, we screwed up, blew a fuse and had rearrange everything! He probably wasn't, but it still cracks me up.)

The space at D.I.P is great and Jeanette who owns the gallery could not have been more wonderful to work with.

Ever since college (actually even during college) I moved around, a lot, and made work about that nomadicity (not sure that's really a word). I made maps, used maps a to make portraits, etc. But we've lived in Ann Arbor for 4 years now, and have no plans to move in the near future so I've started to make work about staying put.

My piece, Yard Sale is made of porcelain and insulation foam and is 39"x 96" x 6". It's every flower I've planted in my yard, arranged in plan just how they are in my yard. I used a CNC router to map out my route from my house to the studio on the foam.

I priced all the flowers individually, (ranging from $8 to $200) because I wanted people to be able to pick the ones they wanted and take them home. The logistics didn't work out to do that at the opening, so I decided to do that at the closing (April 10th).

I really need to take some better photos (the flowers are not actually yellow)!

And when I do I'll take some better photos of the other work in the show, but here's a sneak peak (ignore how crappy the photos are, please.) This piece is by Becca Tufts.

Addie Langford.

Amanda Thatch.

show up (have a good weekend!)

If you're in Detroit tomorrow evening, (and really who won't be?) stop by!

now here's a few links for the weekend:

I want to put a swing like this in the studio. (probably not the best idea, all things considered, but a girl can dream.)

perfect for St Patrick's Day or an Irish wedding.

so cute it hurts.

whoa.

A penguin on casual Friday.

Da bomb.

See that pool? I wants it.

and it too.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

I'm so looking forward to a relaxing Sunday and even more to what the weatherman says will be a sunny and 60º Monday! Can you believe it?

Almost

Really, I'm almost done.

but not quite.

in progress

Things are shaping up for the show on Saturday, I'm just waiting for my kiln to cool.

big show

I'm back, and I'm swamped. I'm looking forward to catching up on all your blogs and sharing some photos and stories from our trip, but right now I have to get to work. (actually, right now I have to shovel the driveway so I can get the car out and then I have to get to work.)

Earliest Ending of Winter, the show I'm having with Amanda Thatch, Becca Tufts and Addie Langford opens in just 16 days (yikes!) but like my friend Joanie says, that's 2 days more than I need. (I really hope she's right.)

work in image from left to right, Addie Langford, me, Amanda Thatch, Becca Tufts.

Franklin flower

I'm doing a project for a show in Philadelphia about souvenirs and the Franklin tree, because the show is about souvenirs and Franklin tree fascinates me.

In 1765 Philadelphia botanists, William Bartram discovered a grove of "very curious shrubs" while on an expedition to the Southern Colonies. He brought several seeds back home and cultivated them and named the new genus of plant Franklinia Alatamaha, after his father's great friend, Benjamin Franklin.



It's a small tree, mature at about 20 feet, that produces 3 inch camellia like blooms in mid summer. The fragrant flowers last all the way through until leaves turn dark red in fall.

In all of Bartram's travels he never saw the plant growing anywhere other than in the small grove where he first collected the seeds, and a few years after discovering the plant he returned to the grove to see them and they were gone. Every last one. Flood, change in weather, human interference, no one knows what happened.

A few other botanists claim to have seen the tree in other places, but by 1803 it was gone from the wild altogether.

Still cultivated today, every single Franklin tree that exists is descended from Bartram's seeds.

images from my studio, here, here, and here.

Book 'em, Danno

They published a big fat book about the Ceramics and Architecture project we were a part of, to go along with the exhibition.

Our work is on pages 93-97 if you ever come across it.

(What the heck is, "book 'em, Danno" from? And does it make me culturally ignorant that I don't know?)

what to do

We have work in a show that's a part of Dutch Design Week, so we're off on a 6 day trip to Eindhoven soon!

We're probably going to spend most of our time looking at the other exhibitions, and might spend a day in Amsterdam visiting friends, but I was wondering if anyone had any good recommendations of things to see and do in Eindhoven (especially if you know any good places to eat).

walled off

We designed and built (with our friend Andrew Thompson's help. Thank you Andy!) this shelving/wall treatment on the ugly OSB wall in our studio. It's made from remnant oak utility flooring we got for a song at Lumber Liquidators. It took a long time, but it's finally almost done.

I love the warmth and color variation of the wood so much I'm going to have a hard time putting stuff on those shelves.
I'll post more photos when it's all done, (I'm so happy with it, I couldn't wait.)

portraits

To further my case that someone (Steven? Mom and Dad? Mom and Dad and Steven?) should get me Sihouette Digital Cutting Tool for my birthday, I thought I'd share some drawings I made a few years ago where I used maps to make portraits of people.  

the top two are of Steven.  Maps of the provence he was born in, the provence he grew up in and the two countries he is a citizen of make up the drawing.  (Attiki, Greece, Lombardy, Italy, Belgium and Lebanon.  long story.) and the other drawing is of all the places Steven and I had lived since we started dating.  All our addresses overlap at the center of the drawing.  (Snowmass Village, CO, Alfred, NY, Buffalo, NY, Stuttgart, Germany, and Birmingham, MI) Maybe I should remake it and add the 3 places we've lived since.

it's curtains

I am still trying to figure out what to do about the windows. I like these by Ravi Design.


but maybe that's just because they remind me of a bone china piece we made during our residency at the European Ceramic Workcentre a few years ago.

sinking

When we moved into the studio the sink was gross.  The plumbing is a bit funny and the waste water is pumped up and out instead of going through a waste drain, so there were two cheap, ugly plastic utility sinks, one on top of the other, that were just really dirty and gross.  I scrubbed and scrubbed but they did not come clean.  

The idea of spending money on two new ugly, cheap (but not inexpensive) sinks bugged me so after looking around at resale shops for something better, I decided to make one.  

I bought two galvanized steel buckets ($12 each) and some shelf brackets, and pulled a sheet of stainless steel and a sheet of plywood that we had leftover from another project out of the garage.

Our neighbor at the studio is a blacksmith and he helped me cut a hole in the bottom of the bucket and stretch it so that the drain I put in would work better.  I cut a couple holes in the plywood, one for the bucket, one for a towel rack. 

hung the plywood on the brackets and...

Voila!  a sink!  

cheap ass bastard

does anyone know how expensive window treatments are?  and why the heck do they sell curtains individually?  I mean, really, who is gonna buy only one?  

I hate the shades that came with our house.  they are ugly and janky and dark and did I mention I hate them?  But I have no sewing skills to sew something, and think that pretty much everything I have found is a rip off, so we're screwed. 

Our neighbors will see us naked.  

well, I have one idea.   

A year ago I made a whole slew of laser cut vellum drawings that I never took any photos of.  But recently I was looking at the work of valerie boy:

Jolynn Krystosek:

and Heather McGill:

And while I think they might hate me for saying so, I am thinking I can fashion something out of some rag paper using an exacto knife or maybe U of M's laser cutter.  

wish me luck.  

bricks

I made this pile of porcelain bricks a few years ago and thought of them again over the weekend when I saw a few on Rick and Toni's window sill.