H O L I D A Y - S A L E

today!



post-mortem to come.

C Y L I N D E R - V A S E S - W I T H - O A K

as part of the wood frenzy, I made these vases inlaid with wood rings. okay, techincally, they aren't inlaid, I guess. the wood goes through to the inside, so they are actually rings sandwiched between clay. ONE RING TO RULE THEM ALL!

sorry. couldn't help myself.

anyway, now that I have reminded you how nerdy I am, I will confess some other things as well:
1. I want to make about a dozen more of these in varying shapes and sizes for my next show.
2. maybe, just maybe, I will attempt vases with more than one ring. that could get tricky though;
3. when I fired them, they stuck together and there was a good bit that I thought I wouldn't be able to get them apart to put the wood in there.
4. I, of course, did not do the wood myself (thanks again, mike berg).
5. I need a new wood guy. mike berg can't devote his life to helping me. wah.

SO, ANYBODY KNOW ANY GOOD WOOD GUYS (OR GALS) I CAN HIRE?

I didn't get a chance to measure these, but they are glazed with eggshell wash outside and copper patina inside, which is what gives them that greenish tinge around the top lip. I also had to do some white underglaze around the areas where the wood was going so there wouldn't be weird unglazed areas. (underglaze won't stick together. actual glaze will.)
wheel-thrown and signed july (or august?) 2011.
$135 for the short, $150 for the tall

S O L D – even before the show started (08.04.11)

W O O D L A N D - A N I M A L S - M O B I L E

I give up. I simply cannot take a good photo of this; it is impossible. no, really. three other people have tried besides me, and not to sound ungrateful or anything, but they didn't do much better.

so trust me on this one. this mobile is adorable. yet not cute. it's got a kind of quiet sophistication about it so a real-life grown up (or someone pretending to be) can hang it in their house without being fodder for mocking. no really, it's hanging in our house right now, and the dog never mocks us over it.

anyway, mobiles are something different for me. and now I CAN'T STOP looking at them. I have pulled all sorts of inspiration pictures and ideas though I really have maybe one okay place to put one, and chris has some sort of weird aversion to them that I have never really understood. anyway, expect more mobiles. different ones too, though I really need to source hanging devices...

this one features all the favorite woodland animals from the tiles: moose, bear, fox, snail and squirrel. it's got NO GLAZE on it. just iron oxide, which brings out the faux wood grain on the animals. I saved the *glaze* for the real wood parts. (*oil, actually.) the "sticks" are oak (thank you, mike berg).
hand-made and not signed because I couldn't figure out where to sign it. 2011.

$150



chris and I arguing about how high to hang it at the show:


close up so you can see the wood details on the animals:




the last attempt to get a full shot of it while it hangs at home:

A N I M A L - T I L E S

yes, I am still here. it's been a heck of a month (+). things have been crazy busy, and just crazy in general. so here we are; it's october, and I'm still recapping august.

anyhoo... enough with the self recriminations. I made these! and they were in my show. and they were big sellers. maybe because they were reasonably priced, or maybe because they are cute as heck. you be the judge. but I mean come! on! woodland animals! on tiny easels!

each one was different sized – whatever felt right for the animal. the moose, for example (on the far right of the first photo), was about 7 or 8 inches square.
I applied iron oxide stain before glazing the interior of each animal with copper patina.
hand-carved, signed and dated july, 2011 ish.
each $25 (includes tiny easel).

S O L D (08.04.11)



and now individually. “put a fox on it:”


“put a snail on it:”


“put a bear on it:”


“put a squirrel on it:”


“put a moose on it:”

N O T C H - B O W L S

I was at a loss of what to name these, but ended up calling them the "notch bowls" because of the wood notches in them. SOOO creative, eh? later, someone suggested they look like owl beaks, so I thought about renaming them. but by now I have been calling them the notch bowls for so long that changing the name would just confuse me.

anyway, these turned out awesome. (meaning, just like I had hoped.) a lot of people said they were their favorites, and they are one of mine as well.

I didn't get measurements before I sold them off (thank you, melanie and justin for finding them two new homes that make me happy). but the small ones are about teacup sized and the larger one is about the size a teenage boy might use as a ice cream bowl. or what you might feed your australian shepherd from.
glazed in eggshell wash. notches made from REAL! mahogany!
wheel-thrown, signed and dated july, 20011. I'm pretty sure.
small: $75 each
large: $95

S O L D (08.04.11)

T H E - W H O L E

as promised, here is a piece from the show. this one was one of my favorites, yet it didn't sell. maybe I overpriced it, but to be honest, I DON'T CARE. it's worth it. you'll have to take my word on that because sort of like a good hair day, it's difficult to get a good photo of. I think the first one shows it best.

anyway, the big circle in the center is actually a piece of oak. yes, real wood. not that fake wood texture I'm addicted to. REAL WOOD. the oak has been stained dark, sliced to a very thin thinness, and cut exactly to fit in the hole, which I promise you, is not exactly perfect... I mean, is totally perfect. this was a cinch. (special thanks here to michael berg, chris's college roomie, and Master of Wood. he's the lucky guy who got to help me with all the pieces on which I decided to experiment with the materials combo.)

by the way, the diagonal lines in the wood aren't the grain. the grain runs up and down with the fake wood texture grain on the ceramic part. the diagonal lines are cellulite. okay, not true. it's caused by a twist in the wood and has a sort of shine to it. but that's kind of like stretch marks, right?

this piece is biggish. I forgot to measure it, so for now I'll guess and change this later. I'd say it's about 10 or 11 inches wide x 5.5 inches deep x 14 or 15 inches tall. and the walls are thin! and I continue to be impressed that with such thin walls this madness worked!
eggshell wash glaze over iron oxide. oh, and oak. did I mention the oak?
hand-built, signed and dated june?, 2011

$225 (really, totally worth it.)

T H E - S H O W

I have finally compiled a bunch of photos from the show. I think I'm going to try to give you an overview of what it looked like, and then I'll try to focus on individual pieces in subsequent posts. just so you know what you're in for...

so, drumroll, please. here's our stuff:
(ps: thank you to the photographers who allowed me to be present at the show: jennifer thurman, kristin quick, sam tudyk and chris thurman.)





the curiosities of karen koch:






the quite possibly still wet oil paintings of katie mchugh (plus one sculpture):




the super cool map-inspired paintings of sam tudyk:




curtis pachunka's boxes of destruction:




chris lael larson's intriguing photography and slightly voyeuristic videos:




brad simon's charming hand-done type and characters:

tatum shaw's photography (I want him to capture every life moment I have, ever.)

and MEEEEEEE. (we didn't really get any shots of my whole setup so I am posting more pics of my stuff to try to give you get the idea. I swear I am not that self-centered. but hell, it is MY blog, so shut your pie hole.):


















if you are interested in anything you see (from anyone but curtis – he sold everything!), some of the art is still available, so let me know.

T U R N O U T

I have a report on two things:

1. the bench. it did not make it into the show. it was just too dang problematic for me to be able to solve in time. also? it might need redesigning altogether to make it work. I admit I did have a little bit of a tough time coming to the realization that it wasn't going to work. or maybe I should say ACCEPTING. because you know what? I freaking busted my ass to get that done in time.

fail.

but rest assured, you have not seen the end of the bench. in fact, you might see a lot of progress reports on it as I attempt to make it work by christmas. I hope.


2. the show. it was a great success. I sold a ton of work. I have a little left over even, which is nice because some of that is stuff I really liked and would love the chance to enjoy before it finds a new home (see also: holiday sale). I can also post that work here, once I have photos of it. which I will. have photos.

soon, I promise.

S N E A K - P E E K

the show is tomorrow. I am working my butt off to get the pièce_de_résistance done. what is that, you ask?

a bench.

I made the legs out of ceramic and the top is a 2.5" thick slab of walnut. so I'm sanding my arms off today in the hopes i can get it to:
a. fit.
b. not have any huge gaps between the wood and the ceramic parts
c. get it finished (sanded and oiled) in time.

maybe it'll happen. maybe it won't. maybe it will and there will be a sign saying "please don't touch; it's wet."

I am trying to be very zen about it.

here are some pics of the process.

this is a mockup with a thin piece of plywood. with the walnut, the white pegs on the top will be flush with the top.


leg close-up:


template making:


the walnut slab with my cutting templates:


the best drill bit in the world (thank you, mike):


first cuts:


it's progressed a little farther than this (I have about 1/2 inche before it rests flat), but honestly, I don't have time to show you that if this is going to get done.

gotta run and sand!
hope to see you (and this bench) at the show.