I wasn't terribly happy with the last batch of photos I took of this pot earlier, so I changed out the lights in my photo set up.  This photo is taken with the old lights, a couple of 'super floods' from GE, which are something I got when a friend moved.  She had them as color correcting incandescent bulbs for her make-up mirror, and the bulbs are a blue color and burn VERY hot.  Average life expectancy on one of these is listed as 4 hours!  She worked on TV for a while, so was very concerned about this, and these bulbs are probably vintage by now!  Anyway, they work great for a lot of my colors, but on this little pot... not so much.  The actual pot is glazed with a brick red glaze, NOT a bright red as this photo shows.  The light level is good, but the color... meh, not really good. I adjust camera a bit and the photos require very little mucking about in photoshop.

THIS one is taken with a couple of 100 watt equivalent CFL Ottlights bulbs.  I had to tweak the  light levels a bit, these just don't put out as much light as the superfloods, but this is a much more accurate color for this pot!

So, I just wanted to show how much different lights can affect a photograph!  Our eyes and brain usually correct for this, so we don't notice, but the camera doesn't.  And these are both 'color corrected' specialty bulbs, not standard bulbs!  Standard bulbs would have even more variation between the different types available!

Ok, off to go take some more photos!

Ok, so I redid the shoulders and arms today, now she needs a bit added to the hips to match the shoulders, or maybe she just needs to be a bit thinner in across the back.  It helps sometimes to sit back and look at the pics.  Overall though, I'm pretty happy with this for a start.  The clay was starting to get TOO stiff where I started (the legs and hips) and too squishy in the shoulders, so I've got her wrapped in a damp towel to even it out some before I go back and work on it some more.  

The fine muscle details and such really aren't a big concern as the finished piece will be coils, motifs, and more coils and motifs.  The SHAPES of the different body parts will show, but not the fine details.  This is about 8 inches tall, the final sculpture will be done at about 22 inches, which will fire at about 20 inches.  

I'm excited!  This is a fun project!  Even better, I'm getting paid to play!

Last week I was contacted by a potential client on Etsy wondering if I'd take custom orders.  Well, certainly!  A lot of my bonsai pots and planters are custom, sized or glazed for a particular plant or in a color to frame a planting the customer has in mind.  This customer asked if I could do a large coiled sculpture in the style of coil work I use in the vases I have up on Etsy.   She asked for a female torso, done as large as my kiln will take.  I'll admit, I gave her an honest price after estimating my time and looking around at prices on other sculpture pieces at different levels of complexity and I really didn't expect the customer to reply because the price is... well, high.  But she went ahead and ordered! So now I'm starting work on it.  

I spent the first few days noodling over poses, looking for reference material, and working on other orders that came in before this one.  I've still got a bunch of kusamonos (little decorative planters with sort of random shapes and colors, a lot of fun to do!) as well as a LARGE orchid planter (as big around as my kiln will take!) and a bonsai pot that I have to finish!  The orchid planter is simple, its just 16 inches across when fired, so it has to start at 18 inches.  Clay shrinks as it drys, then shrinks more in the firing process.  The bonsai planter is built, drying and just waiting on firing and glazing, and I'll be working on kusamonos whenever I get a handful of scrap clay, just because they keep moving!  

When I figured out the pose I want, a bit hip-shot but otherwise pretty straightforward, I started working on a 'sketch' out of clay.  This piece is coming along very nice!  So far I'm happy with the pose and the anatomy is looking nice, although I do want to dig out a reference and adjust a few things.  Its done with coils, not the decorative coils, just smoothed so I can get the figure perfected.  It'll make a nice piece for the Azalea Festival Art show if nothing else, although it might have to have a fig-leaf or three to keep the pearl-clutchers happy!  :)
I'll get pics tomorrow, I forgot to grab one today!  

Here's the latest load from the kiln!  About half the kusamonos are for a wholesale order, but the orchid pots (here!) and some of the little planters (here!)  are listed.  I'm still adding planters though!  

The green plates will go up soon, although I might decide to do something more with the cream and blue ones on the left.  

Ok, maybe I'm just having a momentary panic, but the weather here has been decidedly UN-winter this past week!  Christmas is done, I had a great trip to San Jose to visit kid and his assorted, as well as nephew and his assorted, and now its back to work.  We've had a very dry winter (frighteningly dry, to be honest) and this week its hit the 60's almost every day.     I'm TRYING to get pots built for spring replanting season and to fill orders, but they're all a few weeks from sale and now the weather throws THIS at me?  ack!

I did accomplish one thing this week I'm happy with!  I actually gave up on listening to OMIP  (the 'oregon medical insurance pool' that the state put together to get those of us who the insurance companies used to sneer at for pre-existing conditions) and their claim that they would 'take care of us' when they FINALLY (after 6 weeks, and a 12 page form filled out) sent a letter saying "oh, by the way, we can't help YOU, but here's a bill if you want to continue our craptastic zuperexpensive insurance until you get something else figured out."  An hour or so checking out options online, then 2 minutes filling out a form requesting a call which came half an hour later.  Maybe 20 minutes on the phone quizzing the guy about how they handle XY and Z, answer a few (and I MEAN a few, as in 3 or 4) and boom, I now have better insurance at close to HALF THE PRICE of what OMIP was charging.  The state can go suck eggs.  I didn't even bother with the feds the stories there have been so bad!

  So, now.  I've got a bunch of little pots built, but I've got to get some bigger stuff done! And more little stuff.  And bowls, those are coming out very nice so I should work on some of those.  BACK TO WORK!