New glazes!

Okay, it's been waaaay too long since I've blogged. So this will just be a quick update blog post of my newest glazes until I get back into the swing of things. I've been very busy doing some craft shows and fellowship stuff. Here are my new cone 6 glazes. I'm so happy so far with them.

From the top left to right: semi-matte cream (in some parts of the glaze it comes out a beautiful blush color), raspberry (kind of touchy, need to work more with this one), semi-matte light green. On the bottom left: greenish-blue, then royal blue.

This is the raspberry glaze on a bud vase.

Here is the cream glaze on a bud vase. I love the speckled coming through on this glaze. There are dark and light speckles that occur.

Encaustics!!!!

Well I started my fellowship over Mother's Day weekend by taking the encaustics workshop with Kim Bernard. It was so inspiring! It felt like being back in college taking art classes again. I haven't taken many workshops or classes at all since I graduated with my B.F.A. from USM in 1995. I'm so used to being the one leading or teaching, that it was so nice to be able to listen, think and reflect for once. Kim's one big rule was we were not allowed to create works of art. We were supposed to just play and experiment. 16 hours of playing and experimenting! I never do this. I always work for a finished product. It was hard at the beginning to let go and just try something new without worrying and fretting over it. Here are some pictures from my weekend:

This was my work space. A griddle to heat up the wax, heat gun to melt the wax, vent to suck out harmful fumes.

My tools: various clay tools for scraping and incising in the wax, natural hair bristle brushes to paint the wax with, and vegetable oil to spread the oil pigment sticks around the wax.

My painting station with the encaustic sticks. I melted them straight onto the hot surface of the griddle, set at 200 degrees. The clam can is holding melted medium, which is a combination of beeswax and damar resin. Smells so good! It's hard to believe that this wonderful smell (it's fabulous too) is harmful if inhaled too much.

Preparing a wood panel. I'm painting this with melted medium in one direction, then apply heat with the heat gun, then let cool, then paint another coat in opposite directions, apply heat, and so on for a total of three times. Then the panel is ready for encaustic paint.

This panel is cooling, you can see how the bottom right hand side is still warm and not cooled. It's almost ready!

This is my first experiment, well actually my second. My first one was so bad, I heated it up and scraped the entire piece off with a razor blade. You can see here that I tried incising and inlaid approaches. I also used pigment sticks for the little scratched green lines and the black lines. I'm totally addicted to those pigment sticks.

Here are four experimental panels. The gray one is a transfer from some cool medical drawings I photocopied of the spinal cord and skull. The upper right shows incising and pigment sticks to bring out textures. The lower left has collaged pieces of wood and a ceramic textured tile. It's blah, but good practice for when I try this on more clay work in the future.
Here is a close-up of the transfer I did. I gave it to Rob, sort of as a joke about his back issues.

Prepping Studio Walls

Well, it's time. It's time to paint the studio walls. And when I say "studio", I mean "basement", and when I say "basement", what I really mean to say is "crap crap crap!" In January I wrote about my studio and how terrible it looks. I want to feel inspired when I work down there. Yes, it is a basement, but I need to keep my costs down. I can't rent a studio space, especially with a spouse that works nights and two small children at home. So, I need to spice things up. I finally bought a new heat gun today. I needed one anyways for my fellowship to work with encaustics.

Here are my new fab tools! A heat gun and razor blade.

This is a before shot of some ugly adhesive on the concrete wall. Before heat gun:

After heat gun: You can see that I tackled the spots at the top and haven't done the bottom ones yet.
Now my arms ache!

Makin' Magnets

This is my new thang: magnets! I love them! It took me a while to get a few sets because my daughter would always want the pink ones, so I'd never have a set of four to post in my shop. I've actually had these made for a while now, but was too "busy" to glue to magnets on. Then I had to work with epoxy, which to be honest, I haven't used since those college days when everything you make in art school breaks because you don't have a clue.

This one is meant to fit together like a puzzle, or break apart like an abstract relief sculpture.

New Colors and Etsy Maine Team

I fired my kiln to cone 6 (2165 degrees f) overnight last Friday and it just wouldn't reach temperature. So after 18 hours, I made the decision to turn it off. The results still came out kind of cool, I just didn't put enough glaze on most of the pieces. Here are some photos of my square plates in the red and green. The green was supposed to come out spearmint, but this plate reminds me of the 70's refrigerater we had when I was growing up. Or, I could consider it mod and feel really hip and cool.

Here is my new yellow, supposed to come out a bone color, but I think it looks like oatmeal. Here it is on a spoon rest.

We had our second Etsy Maine Team meeting last Saturday in Augusta. We have a blog now which is awesome and private forums in the making. People on the team have really come together and are working hard to make the team work. We now have weekly blog writers and private forums in the making. Very exciting.

50 Things About Me Part 2

Here's the second installment of facts about me:

26. I’m obsessed with checking my e-mail. I must check it literally over 20 times a day.
27. I was a vegetarian from age 16 to age 29. I started to crave chicken when I was pregnant with my daughter. I caved in completely when pregnant with my son a few years later while craving bacon.
28. I’m no longer a vegetarian, but try to only use animal test free products.
29. I was a hippy-goth girl in high school. Picture this: tie-dye and black make-up with hair in the face.
30. I listened to the Cure and Edie Brickell in high school. Does that make the picture clearer?
31. I didn’t take my first plane trip until I was 26.
32. I love making banana bread with the kids. My husband can’t stand the smell. Hmmm...maybe that’s why I love to bake it soooo much.
33. I Rob sooooo much!
34. I chew my cuticles.
35. I yearn to sing like Ann Wilson (ya know, Heart?) Barracuda!
36. I can do 50 sit-ups in a row holding an 8 lb weight, so there!
37. I hate squats, but I do them for my butt.
38. I need to do more squats.
39. I have a B.F.A. in Art and teach elementary art.
40. My students have stopped asking me if I’m a college student. Does this mean I look my age now?
41. I’m torn between teaching full-time and teaching part-time to pursue my art and pottery. Hard decision financially.
42. I stress about decision making. It consumes me, ask my friends and family.
43. I love Sharpie markers. I believe them to be the ultimate art supply for professional and student artists.
44. I’m not a good house cleaner. Sometimes I admit I’ll see a dead fly on the floor and ignore it. It may still be there a few days later until I get around to getting rid of it. Still want to come over for coffee?????
45. I used to LARP (Live Action Role Play). I cannot believe I’m actually admitting to doing this on my blog. People might read this!
46. My characters have included (including LARPs and table top): vampires, ghosts, risen (zombie like creatures with brains), humans, werewolves, dwarves, rebel fighters, super heros, fae, orcs, magic users, warriors. All of these geeky characters come from the beloved games of: D&D (admit it, you’ve played it and like it), World of Darkness, Warhammer rpg, Star Wars, Magic the Gathering, and so many other games I can’t remember.
47. My husband owns Game Geeks http://gmgeeks.coms with his brother Paul. Now you see....I’m married to the biggest geek of them all!
48. I have two tattoos, one of a sun that I designed on my right ankle, and another of a tiny ladybug on my left foot. I got it done in Seattle last summer. It’s illegal to do foot tattoos in Maine.
49. I want more tattoos, they really are addictive.
50. I think I need more nightly sleep.

50 Things About ME, Part 1

My neighboor Kate started a blog last month and wrote this great entry called 50 Things about Me. I thought it was hilarious and so honest that I wanted to try it myself. But I'm going to post my 50 things in two installments. Part 1 and Part 2 coming in the future.

50 Things about Me:

1. I was born in Maine and have lived in Maine my entire life, except for two years in Canada when I was 2, but I don’t remember it.
2. I have two kids.
3. I’ve been married for almost 16 years, and got married when I was 20. 20+15.5= EEEGADS! Yes, I’m 35, in two months I’ll be 36. And no, I wasn’t pregnant when I got married, as many people think I was.
4. I had my first child at 30, so there!
5. I’m 5’and ½" tall
6. When I was 6 I told my brother, 4, that the mud pies I was creating were really yummy...you can guess what happened next.
7. I love tortilla chips, salsa and sour cream. It’s deadly on a Friday night.
8. The first thing I threw on the wheel in eighth grade looked like some animal climbed up and took a dump. I even glazed it brown for some reason as well and my Mom still has it somewhere in her house.
9. T he second thing I threw on the wheel, at age 19 in ceramics class in college, was amazing and beautiful, then as I stood up to get the pot scoopers, I stepped on the pedal making the wheel spin uncontrollably and sent my creation flying across the studio room, smashing in a muddy mess on the wall.
10. The third thing I threw on the wheel looked like an animal climbed up and took a dump. But this time I glazed it white.
11. When I was pregnant with my daughter I craved banana bread. When I was pregnant with my son I craved everything!
12. My first grade teacher told my mom that "Becky can’t draw her way out of a paper bag!" My mom saw her at a conference 15 years later and told her I was in art school, then proceeded to tell her off. Go Mom!
13. When I was 9 I told my brother, 7, that chewing gum was good for your jaw muscles. Several cavities. Oops!
14. I drive an escort wagon. Very sexy let me tell ya! But it’s paid off!
15. My studio is in my basement.
16. I love living in Portland, Maine.
17. I still have not put my sons baby book together yet. He turned 3 last month.
18. I met my husband when I was 14 on the first day of school in of course...art class.
19. Rob and I didn’t start "going out" until a week before prom.
20. I moved in with him when I was 19 and almost gave my parents heart attacks and ulcers.
21. I played clarinet all through middle and high school. I almost majored in music in college, but chose art instead. Good choice!
22. I think the sound of a clarinet squeaking during a middle school performance is close to the most horrible sound in the world, besides the sound you make while your giving birth.
23. I was not one of those parents crying at the bus stop when my daughter started Kindergarten last fall. I was excited that she was beginning a new phase in her life. And I was also very happy not to pay for childcare anymore. My son starts Kindergarten in 2 years. I’ll be VERY VERY happy then!
24. I wear 30 spf facial lotion year round. Why wouldn’t I?
25. My shoe size is 5. I’m not kidding.