A few new pieces.

I've been having an amazing season of creative play in my studio, working out ideas that have been brewing inside for a while. I can never figure out exactly why it takes so long from the idea to the finished piece, but when they're ready to happen, they do.
Using the hand-carved tile moulds that I've made over the years, I've impressed clay slabs with different parts of the designs from my inventory of 100's of patterns. Then I take my smaller hand made stamps and add details and diversions to the image.

These pieces actually made their first appearance in my "Flying Carpet Trays" almost 2 years ago now (!), and although I really liked the trays, it never felt as though that's the form I wanted them to take.
I usually work with a very fussy porcelain body and, sorry to say, I lost more than 1/2 of the pieces I first made. But I'm so happy with the final product that there are more on the way.

These initial 3 pieces were entered into a show called "10x10 = $100" at the Mimosa Gallery in downtown Saratoga Springs. I'm thrilled to say that they all sold on opening night!!

Actually, these pieces never got the finishing touch on them, which are laser decals that I print from my new laser printer. The base glaze I used didn't hold the decals and they disappeared completely. Not a problem, as I have MANY glaze bases to use in my shop.

I've started throwing pots again and my next post will show the results of some small bowls, with decals intact!!

Carving the things in my life

4/6/09 "3 pm tea break....chai tea please"

I'm having great fun with my newest tile series....."A day in my life".

These tiles are one-of-kind, carved directly into a blank slab of clay, titled, dated, and signed on the back. Don't expect to find images of daring adventures and impossible feats......just stuff from my every day life.....unless, of course, I have a daring adventure....

This is actually a style I'm revisiting from way back in the 1990's, when I was carving in terra cotta clay. So why, you ask, are you carving directly into clay again??? I'm blaming it on the Etsy Mud Team's April Fools joke of adding toilet paper to the background photos for the day. I decided to quickly crank out some actual tile representations of toilet paper......and as soon as I picked up my old tools I was inspired!

"cat scratched toilet paper"

Just in case you have no idea who (or what) the Etsy Mud Team (EMT) is.......please visit www.etsy.com and search "emt etsymudteam", and you'll find some of the most beautiful and well crafted clay work around. And, this is a wonderfully supportive and creative group, too. So thanks, etsy mud team, for inspiring me back to the future.

"I run with scissors" 4/4/09