Last Kiln Load of the Year!

I managed to get my last glaze firing of the year done in time for the FAU Potters Guild Holiday Show and Sale. We had our opening tonight. Here's one of my new pieces that made it to the show. I originally thought I would glaze the inside of this vessel but as I was building it I decided it needed a fabric lining so that's what I added after it was fired.

I was also happy with this new tray design. I'm glad I got a photo before I packed up for the show as it already has a new home.

The show has a wonderful mix of functional, decorative and sculpture work. If you enjoy ceramics and have the opportunity, stop by and visit the Ritter Gallery at the Boca Raton campus on Friday or Saturday, 10am -5 pm.

Have a great weekend!

Why Did I Wait So Long?!

When I first saw a video showing the Gelli pad I was impressed and thought it would be such fun to create some fabric and paper print with the pad but I put off buying one, thinking I had way too much to work on without making mono-prints. Well I finally ordered a Gelli Pad last week and last night I tried it out.

 Above is the very first Gelli print I pulled. I didn't put the paint on very heavy and only made one pass through the paint with a rope-on-a-toilet-roll stamp. I love the little snowflake-like spots the pad creates when there is not much paint. Below is print number two.

 Below is print number three; I had to try the famous bubble wrap print.

 Then bubble wrap over many other prints trying to get some subtle color.

  After my first few prints I quickly sent an email to my Odd Tuesday group saying everyone needed to get one and that I was bringing my pad to play with today at our get together.

 Below is my clean-up paper that I rolled my brayer on after each use.

 More bubble wrap.....

 Three different pulls.....

 Below yarn laid over the pad and printed over several other pulls.

 Above and below some postcards I made. Above has regular stamping done with eraser stamps. Below was many different pulls until I had the eery look. Then I cut and glued parts back onto the card.

 I found an easy 'rake' tool can be made from cutting into one of those annoying styrofoam trays from the supermarkets. I wish they didn't use them but because they aren't recyclable here I keep them so they do make good tools.

 And finally I discovered that you can fill in those white patches nicely with watercolours. I used Derwitt Inktense pencils, that I received from Karen over at Rabbits Eat Quilts.

I'm looking forward to lots more experimenting and planning to create some fabric or papers to use in a quilt. Have you tried this pad out? Or have you been doing some other fun experimenting?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing You a very Happy Thanksgiving or a simply wonderful thankful day, wherever you may be!

 I'll be making Nicolas and Cleo their cookie treats today!

FAU Fine Arts Festival

I'm sure you'd agree that November is just buzzing by! My month started out with the FAU Fine Arts Festival. It was fun to display both my clay and fiber work in one show!

 

 

It was great to catch up with FAU friends whom I only see a few times a year. I was lucky to be next to John McCoy (who was my ceramics professor when I was a student at FAU) so Amelia and I had lots of visiting time. John is having his holiday show and sale on December 15 and 16 at his place in West Palm Beach. You'll be able to see and purchase work by John, Nena Escobar, Courtney Paige, Brian Kovachek and Justin Lambert. I'll post more info as the date gets closer or just ask if you'd like me to email you more info.

 There were three other clay people from FAU at the festival. Sandi was just down the hall from me but far enough away we didn't have much visiting time and I'm sad to say I didn't get any photos of her work and she had a wonderful collection of clay, books and photos! You'll be able to see her clay work at the FAU Potter's Guild show coming up in December.

Joan Carew will also be at the FAU Potters' Guild Show ..... and I'm sorry the photos I took upstairs were done early in the morning with only my tablet, no flash but Joan's work still looks fabulous even with my poor photography .....

It was great to meet a fellow Etsy clay artist who went to FAU and drove down from Tampa ..... sorry to say I didn't get back upstairs to take better photos once the light was better but you can see Judy Freeman's fun work at her blog and etsy shop ....

One more sorry ... I don't have other photos to share but an artist whose work I've admired for years was set up outside in his tent. Kevin Kichar creates fabulous, fun, colorful art and his process of creating his paper is fascinating. If you get a chance check it out.

 I'll finish the November catch up another time .... right now it's on to the weekend! Hope you have a good one!

Happy Halloween

Hope you're having or had a wonderful, fun Halloween!   (found a t-shirt I made many years ago and then painted on at a fun class, and a sweatshirt painted in my very far past of tole painting days .... the t-shirt has glow in the dark painted eyes!)

Itten's Harmonious Proportions

 When given the challenge of  'beginnings' for our Tangled Textiles quilt I started with brainstorming, recording ideas and sketches. I immediately thought of my beginnings in quilting, beginnings of art quilting and also beginnings in color. Below are a few shots from my sketchbook as I worked through some ideas.

Looking back now I may have preferred the finished quilts of my first sketches but I settled on the last one, partly out of time constraints but I did know I wanted to make a quilt based on black and white blocks and this was a good opportunity to do it.

Then which color or colors to add? That was quickly decided with the three primaries as this is a 'beginnings' quilt. As you see from the sketch I hadn't decided to put Itten's theory to work yet, but as I glanced at my book shelf , that old book from Color Theory class junped out at me and I immediately knew I would be using Itten's theory of Harmonious Proportions.

I took those relationship ratios and put then into a relationship among the three primaries and came up with 6 to 8 to 3. I decided I wanted my widest strip to be 2" so the blue was cut 2", red 1.75" and yellow 7/8". As I started to cut fabric for the binding it hit me that I needed to use the same relationships there.

Here are a few shots of the piece.

Thanks for visiting! To see the other Tangled Textiles quilts head over to our blog ...... that's where I'm headed now as it is reveal day!

Starting Classes This Week!

Summer's over, and I start my new teaching position this week, hand building at the JCC in Boca Raton. Classes are on Tuesday or Thursday and include open studio time. There are also wheel classes with Marilyn Wander on Mondays or Wednesdays. All levels are welcome and we both will include hand building or wheel in our classes so classes are flexible. If anyone is interested in classes send me an email or call Barbara at (561) 954-3262.

Above are some warm up mugs waiting for my next kiln load and below are the last photos taken of birds from vacation this summer. It was almost dark when I saw this owl land on a tree. I rushed out and tried taking its photo using my flash. It's not a great photo but better than I expected!

Happy October everyone!

King Fisher