In my own defense, I have been looking for a replacement in the same style for a while now, and haven't found one. I finally found something that will work, I hope, although I might end up replacing the rope on this one.
A scratching post, that is! This one is ...DONE... courtesy of my furry house-mates. Its got history! I got this one used, but in good shape close to 20 years ago, and I've had cats all that time. However, the current two are particularly fond of sharpening their weapons.
In my own defense, I have been looking for a replacement in the same style for a while now, and haven't found one. I finally found something that will work, I hope, although I might end up replacing the rope on this one.
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Seems like they keep changing things around here! Of course I suppose I should update the blog a bit more often... er, um... ok! Been working on catching up on my yard (its about 2 months behind due to an insane work schedule this spring...) and a few things for the store. I spent 2 hours working on pulling dead grass out of the gravel driveway and clipping back some brush today. What fun! The other day I spent about 4 hours ripping out blackberries, then I watered the bonsai in the side yard. After I was done I walked around the corner and found this guy eating the nice tender tops out of the brush pile I'd just created! WHY can't they eat them when they're still in the ground??? Sigh... worst of it is he was about 10 feet away from me as he was munching away. Its not OVER, not by a long shot though! The 3 week temporary part time job helping a friend of a friend turned out to be an 8 week 50 hours a week job at the end, but that's done. That'll clear out a LARGE block of time to catch up on the stuff I let slide, like the yard that is horribly out of control, restocking the Etsy shop, painting the house I'm care-taking for, and getting a certain sculpture done.
I'll be posting an update on the sculpture soon, but meanwhile this is a blurb from the local arts blog, where they keep up with whats going on in the local art community! Its got some photos of me working on the sculpture showing a view I don't normally get. The photo links to the wildriverscoastart blog (if I can get the darn link to work!). My normal Saturday schedule has me teaching the pottery group Saturday afternoons, and for Art Walk week we clear out of the room early. This week however the Manley Art Center (where the pottery peeps - aka the mudslingers, meet) had no demonstrators and was featuring artists from the Azalea Festival Art Show. So, I stuck around to work on the coiled sculpture, and entertain the mobs while getting work done, with the excuse that I had some stuff displayed from my art show entries. I got a first and a second place ribbon at the art show, but out of a small group of entrants so to me the ribbons were nice, but not... overwhelming, if that makes any sense! _ Wild plum blossom! The trees are in full bloom here, at least until the next round of rain comes in....
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! So, ignore the sloppy stack of boxes (and... other) behind it! BUT... this is most of my part of the last kiln load, the refired stuff plus a few others I ran through before finishing the re-fire. The big orangy brown pot in the corner is a custom order I've been stressing over, trying to get it out so the customer would get it by Thanksgiving, but, um, well... I sort of fell on my face at 5am Sunday after gluing on some cork to protect furniture under it. Then I managed to sleep way past when the USPS truck takes off even though I had my alarms set to get up so I could finish packing. It doesn't help the truck leaves the post office at 11 am, but I finished boxing it up Monday afternoon, then got it in the mail BEFORE the truck took off Tuesday. Turns out USPS "Priority 2 day service" is predicting a SATURDAY delivery in southern California. How does that work? Even if you leave out Thursday (Happy TurkeyDay everyone!) it I would expect 2 day to mean FRIDAY... Sigh, maybe I'll be surprised. Monday shipping would still have meant delivery after the holiday. But seeing as I managed to burn my hands pulling it out of the kiln at midnight Sunday, it is what it is. Anyhow, the tall skinny orchid pot in the background of this one is another custom order, it's supposed to be 10 inches tall by 7 inches wide, in a nice matte blue. The rest of the orchid pots are already listed on Etsy, and the kusamonos will go up soon. The bowls will go up later this week, I'm not totally happy with the interior on one - Rainy Day isn't as pretty as I was hoping for! The trays may or may not go up (they're a clay I don't usually use so they don't go with most of the kusamonos), but I like the way the new forms I used to make them work so I'm going to do more. This big boy was hanging out between storms in the yard this week. He's been around off and on for years now, I recognize him because his coat is a bit redder than most of the other deer in the local town herd. His antlers have been a bit uneven in past years, this year they're more even than in the past. Four spikes and a BIG eye-guard on each side, so most people around here would count him as a 5-point. Blacktail, not a mule deer, so hes not as big as some of the inland deer. They're really neat to look at, but the wretched beasts do a heck of a number on the landscaping!. Still sorting through photographs, but I guess I'll have to actually go TAKE some more to get the one I think I want for the banner... I have a plaque I made using the coil technique that'll work great for the banner, and I know I HAD a photograph of it, but, well, its evaporated!
I SHOULD go get some pictures of the new buttons so I can put them up on Etsy, I re-listed a few last night and they immediately got hits. Oh, wait, there's a theme here... guess its time to break out the camera. I found a new sheet of watercolor paper to use for a backdrop, as the last one is rather... bedraggled... Oh well, gotta dig out the lights, etc etc etc. JOY! LOL Had a great day at the studio today, so I decided its time to try something new! Nothing too exciting, this has sort of been percolating for a while, but I finally got up the guts to start a blog and gallery site. Obviously its still under construction, when does THAT ever stop? But here it is!
Anyway, got 3 new orchid pots built today, all of them new variations on the pieced work I've been doing. I'm happy with them! Also used a bunch of scraps and made some cute little bowls that might turn into something for the store, and a few little pendant bobs that might lead to some more button type stuff for the store... beads or components, I guess! :) I was also thinking the little bowls would make a great upsell item for the orchid pots... trays to put candles in to make them into luminaries! OH! I also loaded the kiln with a bisque load, so in a week or so I should be able to finish off the luminary I built a few weeks ago! Might have to sneak back to the art center for another chance to play in the clay tomorrow :) |
Maryjane Carlson
Clay has always fascinated me, its many colors and textures, the shapes you can create using it, even the feel of it squishing in my hand. Even after years of playing in the mud I find myself exploring new ideas and I hope my work shows this. Archives
August 2017
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