Category Archives: shards

Art teachers and adornments

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I don’t know where Sherrill Kahn gets her energy – after two full days of teaching workshops at the Studio, she lectured to a full house of North East ISD art teachers this morning at the McNay Museum of Art as part of their in-service for back-to-school. My painting pal, Gloria Hill, is the NEISD Visual Arts Director and she arranged for Sherrill to come from California for the occasion. Sherrill shared images of her intricate, colorful work and she gave lots of hints to teachers on how to inspire students even on a teacher’s budget. Did you know, for example, that cheap hair gel from the Dollar Store works beautifully as an extender for acrylic paint? Check our her newest book for lots more cool ideas.

Afterwards, Gloria, Sherrill and I went to my Studio to work on face shard jewelry, but not before several of the art teachers showed up just to visit with Sherrill on a one-on-one basis. We did get back to work on our shard faces, and we spent the rest of the afternoon with Ann Pearce creating our necklaces with her help. If you’d like to make your own clay faces, I have a workshop this Sunday, August 25, on clay adornments, so sign up and join the fun! There’s still space.

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How (not to) fire a kiln

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Being away from the Studio for two weeks meant playing catch-up when I got back. There were a lot of things I could do art-wise while I was gone, but creating earthenware and firing it was not one of them. Sunday was Clay Day – I made about 60 small and large face shards and small sculpture pieces such as pendants. Monday was hurry-up-and-dry-so-I-can-fire-the-kiln day. I loaded the kiln Monday afternoon even though some larger pieces were still damp (gulp). This is a huge NO-NO. I don’t want to see you guys trying this.

Do you see the little face on top of the big face? It’s completely dry – you can tell because it’s white, but the big piece underneath is gray. It’s damp, and anyone with any sense wouldn’t fire it at this point, but I propped the kiln lid open, let it stay on Low for a few hours, and crossed my fingers that it would dry out and not shatter in the firing.kiln1

There’s really nothing mysterious about loading and firing a kiln. Most electric kilns like my Skutt have a kiln-sitter that uses a pyrometric cone made of clay. The cone is designed to melt at a specific temperature (in this case, about 1800F). When it melts, a three-prong device trips and turns the kiln off. That metal rectangular thingy has dropped down, indicating that the #05 cone on the inside has melted.

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The Kiln Gods were kind – nothing broke, amazingly enough. Here’s the first tray just out of the kiln, still very warm.

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Here’s the bottom layer, waiting to be unloaded. If you look on the right, you can see the slumped cone and the tripping device with the middle pin in the down position.

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So despite my Bad Practice of loading damp greenware, I got away with it – this time. These pieces are now ready for me to figure out how to use them – as Scent Shards? Sculpture pieces? Stay tuned 🙂

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Pins R FUN

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Dunno why I don’t make more of these cool little magnetic collage pins – they are really fun to put together, they come together quickly, make unique gifts,and you get to try different embellishment techniques. For example, on these I used a non-fire ceramic finish from Duncan glazes called Red Granite that I found at my earthenware supplier, Clay World. You can brush it on heavy watercolor paper and it looks all granite-y. Nice!

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Anybody interested in a  pin-making workshop when I get back from Boston? We could do it some weekday evening at the Studio. Email me if you’re up for it. Speaking of Boston, the link is up for the Beacon Hill Art Walk’s participating artists, including me – betcha I’m the only one from Texas.  I sorta fudged and said I had a “summer home” there so I could get in. Gulp. But I guess it counts if I visit the kids in Boston in the summer. OK, go forth, Y’all, and be creative.

Friday Freebie – Silver Shards for a subscriber –

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mirrors1The kiln and I have been busy for the last few day. I’ve done two firings since Tuesday with new designs. Here are the first few pieces of earthenware with silver Gilder’s Paste which I order on Etsy. I love this combination or terra cotta and silver. Check out the little shard mirror! The Gilder’s Paste is a metallic wax that you can rub on with your finger to highlight texture, and it becomes a permanent patina-like finish on the unglazed clay.

Today’s Friday Freebie is one of the little B Beautiful shard dishes like the two in front. You can use them for tea bags, rings, whatever – or just look at them as a small one-of-a-kind work of art. I put a honeycomb texture on the clay that looks very cool, if I do say so myself. If you are a SHARDS Blog subscriber before midnight tonight and your name is drawn by my number randomizer app , I’ll send you one of the little B Beautiful dishes – free tea bag included 🙂 Subscribe by adding your email on the top right on the page – thanks! And thanks to all of you loyal already-subscribers – you guys are awesome.

Also, as a PS, since I’m talking about ME, I was asked to submit my digital portfolio for consideration as San Antonio Art League’s Artist of the Year for 2014. Now, chances of my being chosen are about as likely as flying pigs, but it was nice to be nominated. I didn’t have a digital portfolio so I put one together with some work from the last couple two years. The nomination made me smile because my work was rejected by the juror in the last Art League show, but you gotta roll with rejection, keep calm, and carry on!

 

Inspiration time . .

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It’s happened again – another artist has taken my little shard faces to new heights! Hooray!! Look at these Bohemian-inspired wrist-wrap bracelets made with sari silk by Janet at Anvil Artifacts – you can see more of her fabulous work at her Etsy Site and on her Blog! Janet, these are amazing – thanks so much for sharing your beautiful work.  janetbracelet3

 

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Shards and Strands

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Last night I got an email from artist Dawn Zichko, whose blog, Mental Mohair is full of inspiring ideas for thought and new work. Dawn had ordered some Shard Faces from my Etsy shop in early February. I always ask buyers if they’ll send me pictures of how they use the little faces, but these fiber hangings that she and her daughter did just blew me away. Look at this amazing combination of strands of knitted yarn, ribbon, twigs – beautiful work. There’s another photo here. Thanks for letting me share these, Dawn. I love your work and your blog.

Spirits abound

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Yesterday’s Spirit Doll workshop at the Studio was magical! We started with sticks and clay and cloth and ended up with enchanted beings! I am going to have an exhibit of Spirit Dolls by these talented creators and those in the March 24 class on Friday, March 29th. Stay tuned for details, but I think you’ll agree that these sculptural forms are much more than the sum of their parts.

Friday Freebie: Faces!

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I just unloaded the kiln and – whoopee! – it was a most successful firing, thanks to the kiln gods 🙂 To celebrate that (and Friday), this week’s Friday Freebie is a pair of unfinished faces, one white, one terra cotta. You can use these for pendants, for spirit dolls, or just to put in a pretty bowl on your desk with a drop of essential oil. All blog subscribers are in the drawing, name to be drawn before the stroke of midnight.

FYI, When I don’t have a friend around to draw a name, I use a online random number generator. It’s also the way I select the order for my my students’ presentations in class. Digital equal opportunity! I’ll be around most of the day at the Studio tomorrow – if you’re in town, drop in and say hello-

PS – Speaking of Spirit Dolls, I opened a second Spirit Doll workshop on March 24th! It’s not full yet, so sign up and celebrate spring with a cool soft-sculpture creation.

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Sunday earthshard workshop

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There’s something about the new studio space that is inspiring – either that, or I had some incredibly talented clay workers in yesterday’s workshop. Could be a bit of both, but take a look at some of the earthenware ornaments they made –

I love the combination of clays and the embellishments! These will be fired late today or early tomorrow, and then we will meet at Ann Pearce’s Jewelry Design next door to pair these works with beads, leather cord and findings to make one-of-a-kind necklaces and pendants. I’ll take pics of the final creations.

Next workshop, March 3rd, Spirit Dolls, is already full but I’m going to have a second one later in the month on March 24th – email me if you’re interested.

Follow Your Heart!!

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What a fun day at the Studio – it was a celebration of art and love and even spontaneous guitar music – here’s a little video. More to come, but special thank to Lesta, Jan, and Alison – and all the friends who came (and Mike for his amazing food!)