Great Newspaper Article

I was in the paper last week!
Check it out: http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090627/ARTICLE/906269951##

Read the article from the source, or from the copies here.

Click on these photos to see large enough to read.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090627/ARTICLE/906269951##

Back Again!

After a lovely combination of three week vacation and major kiln repair, I am finally able to post some new work! After a major overhaul of wiring, and 2 element replacements, I made a test batch of tiles and a big bowl, to see if things were back to normal.

A happy sight indeed!

Not only that, the kiln seems to be getting it all done about a half hour early.

Great efficiency. Thank you, kiln.

Now that I can depend on proper firing, I can re fire the plates I had to re do after a horrible amount of breakage, just before I went off on holiday. (See previous post).

I cant say I minded running away from disaster.

So today, I am happy to report very spiffy looking plates, and as is often the case, the re dos are even better than the originals.

I now know to never, never fire during very damp conditions, like rain storms....that is in fact what probably broke all the plates in that fateful load. It was raining cats and dogs that night. If the temperature in the kiln was also inconsistent, before the repairs, then that surely didn't help either.

This week we had a lot of rain too, and I waited until an entirely rain free day, firing in the afternoon, just to make sure.

I waited to re fire this lovely pitcher that was under fired in one of the firings before the repair...thank goodness it didn't fit in that final load.

I have 5 more plate re dos to fire yet, and a few new pieces, including some soup bowls that will have fish and orchids on them...I feel so relieved to have the kiln working. I was all traumatised by that broken stuff, and was afraid to fire the re dos! Now I can relax , I think.

More Pottery- Florida Native Plants

I have a commission to do a set of plates depicting Florida Native Plants, and ones that are found easily in our area, SW Florida...The rims and backs will feature my typical borders and patterns: .. ..the centres will feature 1 or 2 native plants in a natural setting, sort of botanical, with a Florida landscape depicted in the background. Charming!
This is a Loblolly Bay:

The larger plates are quite big 11.25" and the smaller ones are 8'' or 10" I think, which nestles nicely inside the larger, and the 2 rims complement each other.

Bomba is SO helpful.

This is a fun project, and the plates are turning out really well.
You can click on some of these images to larger!

Coco Plum:

The much loved Black Eyed Susan:

Wild Sunflower

Railroad Vine and Beach Morning Glory (unfired):


Horse Tail:

Lizard's Tail and East Palatka Holly!

This is Coral Honeysuckle:

The Beauty Berry plate turned out particularly well...here un fired

And here, fired.

Sadly, in the firing, there has been some breakage... I am extremely upset and don't want to talk about it.
However, that's pottery! Firing is a crazy thing, and I have always been very fortunate, and consistent with my results...

and I don't get much breakage.... maybe I will learn something from this event....in the meantime, I take a deep breath, maybe several, and prepare to re-do a few of these beautiful plates, and in the end, look forward to it, since they are most agreeable to work on. It's not really the end of the world, like I thought it was at first.

Pottery update!

Its been a very busy couple of weeks....I have been too busy MAKING to take time to WRITE.. and more importantly, to PHOTOGRAPH. These are very quick and casual photos... I haven't had time to slow down and set up a nice photo for this pottery... I will later! I always regret later, not taking to time to document the work as it gets done. But it is tedious.

In these photos you can see a mixture of projects from these fresh water fish vases (the one with the handle formed into a hole is very exciting... a perfect set up for water and fishes... think SURF!

And here are just 3 of the pretty pastel and bright bowls made to add to an existing collection... I have painted many of these this fortnight!. Check back soon for more pictures of them!

And here are the teapots, and the butter dishes in the same style and colours... the butter dishes were painted to match pretty much exactly the existing one, as shown in the previous post... well, I think I managed that quite well.

Pottery Projects Finally Get Going

As I mentioned some months ago, I have a large variety of pottery projects planned since December. Finally I am able to get around to them!

I have been looking forward to this work. I love painting the pottery, mainly because its so exciting to fire and see what comes out, hopefully something planned for.

This bowl is one of several to match the bowl in the photos, painted by me some time ago for a client.
The teapot is a variation on a previous teapot, (you can search 'teapot' in this blog and maybe find the one I mean)
The butter dish is being painted to exactly match the one shown in the foreground.

These are little tapas/snack plates for a set of 12.

They will have a bright green background when fired.

The faithful Bomba is always there to help me with my pottery.

........................................

Well, no he's not. This is his table most of the time, when I am busy in the other studio, he gets the whole place to himself. I have to negotiate the space with him now. He looks resigned to it. I am too.

Painted Planters

Here is an interesting project :paint up these terracotta planter pots to give them a little pizazz. I used paint for painting cement, which should offer some extra adhering qualities.I also used some cool metalic in the recessed areas of the pots, to add to the sense that these are now objects of great antiquity, made of fantastic enamels, glazes and precious metals(!) You can see many of these pictures larger by clicking on them.

It was a lot of fun working with the bas-relief areas, layering a lot of paint, and making it look like mineral build-up, and drips.

These pots will be outside, most of them under cover, on patios, but even the ones out in the weather should hold up fairly well...and as they endure the elements, further weathering will probably only make them look more interesting.

I was particularly pleased with this sideways leaning pot. It was more of a challenge, since it didn't have any raised areas, so I had to do much more to make it interesting. And it now has a lot of character.

Some of the pots had cement screed dropped on them, from construction on the site where they where kept before I got them to paint. I was able to knock some of it off, but the cement that would not knock off, I painted brilliant gold, and then "aged" it, so that it looks like real gold was carelessly dropped on them.

Artwork On Paper To Complement Table

I was commissioned to also produce a set of three artworks for framing for a wall in the same room the game table will go. I didn't want them to match exactly, but to be be more colourful and fanciful than the table. They will work as a progression of three ideas, tryptich style.

Many of the elements from the table are included, such as the black and white checks, and the cheerful fish...

Working on paper seems to inspire a looser more florid style... or maybe it was just me.

I wanted a different feel from the table, as mentioned...Also wall colour form other rooms, and a colourful cotton print covered sofa will be complemented by the three paintings.

I finished the edges with gold, after I removed the tape from stretching the paper. The paintings will be floated on the mat, for framing.

I hope to have pictures of the whole room, decorated and pictures hung, to show the whole effect. its very difficult to show these paintings out of that context. Check back later in the summer!!!

Painted Game Table

Here is the sketch: I actually ended up making the squares 2 1/2 " square. Better proportion

This table will be in an area designated for kids to play in, but still part of the main part of the house, so I didnt want it to be to "Childrens Furniture" in style.

The only colour in the room at the moment is the fabric on a couch, and thats where the colours for this table have been drawn from.

Here is some nice detail developing...

I used a very thin coat of gold , almost just a ''dusting'' of gold, to liven up the dark squares. It also unifies the whole, since the fish have reflective and interference colours on them.

Here is the table completed. Varnished.
I love using interference and metalic glazes on fish, to make them sparkle and look iridescent.

Adventure Pets Strike Again!

Here they are again, that intrepid duo, no extreme pet sport too daunting for them...

Of course it's the CAT who notices they are flying too low.

Or is he just getting carried away trying to chase the string?The dog is having a blast, unconcerned. Either way, its a wild ride.

You can click on some of these pictures to see them larger.

I can hardly wait to see these made into pillows...what fun its been painting

them.

Dog & Cat Adventure Pillows

Who says dogs and cats don't get along?




I hope nobody is going to tell me the technical reasons why the dog's equipment is never going to work..I know! But short of putting her in a diving bell, I decided to go with the wishful thinking model. (!)



Here are the VERY LOOSE pencil sketches for the two pillows....hilarious, and there were many other really cute ones, maybe someday they will make it out of the sketchbook and onto pillows too....Here is the next one, Hot air Ballooning. Further below you can see it on fabric just barely blocked in today....

Below is the chalk drawing work that I do before painting. Obviously I had to do a lot of figuring out on this one...I made them standing, since the floating legs didn't fit into the square format...

I had fun depicting them standing on each other's fins, which, if you have ever done any scuba diving with task management like loading lobsters into a bag, you know this is exactly what happens as you try to keep your balance, and work with your buddy, while you both try not to float all over the place.
Here are the backs:

The pillows are for a very special room that serves as guest room to 2 little granddaughters of the people who commissioned these pillows. In a subsequent post, I will show some of the painted furniture in the room that i did some years ago. these pillows should fit right in...and obviously the dog and the cat are modeled after real pets in the household. You can see Kona, the dog here:P.S. - Pillows Delivered sitting on my pillows back in June 2008. And The cat is shown here, on tile: Cat Portrait Tiles

Here is the Hot Air Ballooning one, just barely started, ...you will see it completed in the next post, in a few days!! In the meantime, don't try this on your pets! Unless they could maybe really bring you back an extra lobster.

Fine Arts Society Art Show

This weekend I am participating in a Sarasota Fine Arts Society event that includes a gallery show along with a tour of artists' homes. It's a nice event. Tonight was the opening party, well attended.

It runs all day Friday and Saturday

As I have mentioned before in this blog, I enjoy shows and parties like this, involving my work; its always a lot of fun to meet people and talk about my work. Of course, sell things too!

It has also been a lot of fun to set up this display, in a gallery setting. I have particularly enjoyed the gallery lighting.

Washing The Fabric

After the fabric has air cured for 3 days, and then been heat set in a very hot dryer or hand ironed (depending on size of piece) I soak the fabric briefly in soapy water, and hang out side on the line. Then I rinse the soap off with a hose.
I wash the fabric mainly to remove particles of dried paint that stick to the back of the fabric and to wash away any left over chalk marks from the drawing process.

By the time the fabric is washed, usually most of the chalk has been wiped away by me as I paint, or its been painted over, or even sort of incorporated into the art work: sometimes the brighter chalk colours can add an interesting outline , or "shadow" if they become mixed with the fabric paint and made permanent. Its hard to notice, but I like it.

As a companion piece to her two bird pillows, The client has asked for a smaller (18") pillow with fish on it. She will choose one of these:These are the backs for the fish pillows: