Do you ever commit to a great idea, then realize how close it’s getting? Well, here I go again – it’s open studio time, and I’ll have lots of new ScentShards, SprigShards, spirit pins, shard faces, journals, votive screens – at least that’s the plan! If nothing else, there will be lots of food with Chef Mike in charge of the cooking.

Please plan to drop by – I know there are a zillion things going on in December (like the King William Home Tour on this same day) but we would like to wish you a happy holiday. Whether you go home with some artsy gifts or just a full tummy, we’d love to see you.

But wait! There’s more – if you subscribe to my new blog, Shards, (see form on right) I’ll put your name in a drawing for a custom magnetic shard adornment pin. You don’t need to be there to win – I will get someone to do the drawing during the event and email you.

At the Trinity Alumni Artisan Show yesterday, my friend Bonnie Flake requested three new journals for her grandchildren – what a delightful task! It had been a while since I worked in “journal mode” but I put one together in the studio last night. It reminded me how much fun they are. They are like little stories in themselves. The title of this one is Claire Luna and is is a 5×7″ collage cover on an existing bound plain lined journal base.

I’ve just switched from my old blog on Blogger to a new site – my blog is now on my own domain site, EarthShards.com!

It’s been a while since I’ve done these little shard pin collages- I love working in this format. Here are ten new ones from the studio. They will go with me tomorrow to the Trinity Alumni Artisan Show. If you haven’t seen these before, they are clipped to the frame interior matboard with a strong bar magnet so they can be taken off and worn as a pin. There is also a clear straw “channel” on the back that a cord can go through so the construction can be worn as a pendant. They also look cool on a hat – or a lampshade 🙂 I’ll have more of these at my December 1st Open House/Open Studio event. Invitations will go out next week and everyone is invited!

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The studio positively glowed with creative energy today – six art teachers and artisans from south of San Antonio drove in for the Collage on Canvas workshop. I had met Becky and Sharon at Sandy Oaks Olive Orchard when I taught a journal workshop there earlier in the year, and they brought their friends and colleagues today to play. What a fun, talented group! Every workshop is limited to six people and that seems to be the perfect number to collaborate and share ideas. We definitely borrowed and developed tips and techniques from each other. Everyone was so generous sharing their materials – I received some wonderful tablecloth remnants and some old keys and feathers and cactus-pad skeletons – cool. When you see their work, you’ll be as impressed as I was – thanks for a great afternoon, everyone!

It’s a clean studio (in relative studio terms). It took a few hours, but I’m ready for tomorrow’s workshop. Among the things I found were my lost bee stamp, my lost favorite face mold, a bunch of assorted beads, chopsticks, and a plastic elephant. And tons of clay dust and paper scraps. Switching from collage to clay really is a challenge! But I’m ready for my Collage on Canvas class tomorrow – yay! Here’s the unvarnished photographic record of spotlessness . . . well, maybe not “spotlessness” –  but improvement, nevertheless.

It’s always a little scary to open the kiln when it’s fired during the night – once it over-fired, once things were way too wet and there was breakage, but most of the time, it’s a thrill to see all of the pieces intact and transformed. I loaded the latest edition of shards yesterday afternoon late (1st photo) and this morning at 5:00, the kiln sitter had tripped off, and while the pieces were still hot, they looked fine. I never can wait until daylight, always have to get out the flashlight and check on them. They are still too hot to handle but I can unload the kiln in a hour or so. These pieces fired at Cone 05 (about 1800+F), as do most of the earthenware pieces I make. Thanks to the kiln gods!

During Sunday’s Image Transfer workshop, I made a disappointingly mediocre transfer of a woman on watercolor paper that I am rescuing (I hope) – I added a rice paper indirect transfer on the right and then went back into the face with watercolor. I added some iridescent acrylic on the “window” part to give it some drama. It’s not Great Art, but if it were developed a bit more, it could be a nice illustration.

I loved this workshop group – we experimented a lot and got crazy results, sometimes really good ones, sometimes really weird ones. One of the things that *didn’t* seems to work was the ITS solution on the tiles – I tried it afterwards, and by baking the tile instead of using the heat gun, it seemed to transfer a lot better. I still think I rushed it a bit (and next time will let it soak several hours) but here were the steps I followed:

Cut the thermal (laser) design to fit the unglazed tile

 Pllace face down on unglazed tile and rub until well-adhered, then bake in a 325F oven for 30 minutes

 The paper will be firmly stuck to the tile after baking

 Cool the tile, then soak it in cold water for at least an hour (this is where I rushed it a bit)

 Gently rub the paper off, leaving the ink design – you can see that it came off around the edges, but I think if I had torn the edges to make them softer, this might not have happened.

Coat with a clear acrylic spray to protect the tile