T E - M A T A - V A S E S

te mata means "the cliff" in maori. and we found quite a few of those in new zealand. places I was sure that we would never, ever, ever be allowed to walk up or climb on or be anywhere near the top of in america. places that make you feel small and insignificant and inspired all at the same time.

hand-built stoneware, with celadon glaze over iron oxide to bring out the textures and crags.
signed and dated october, 2012.

large : $75
short (on the left): $50

short (on the right): $50

 

the real te mata peak

E A S Y - W A Y - D O W N

I mentioned in my last post that chris and I did a whole bunch of adventuring in new zealand among which activities was paragliding. we went up the mountain in queenstown to just take an easy day and do some of the little luge ride they have up there (which we did), but then realized that there were people running off the side of the mountain. for some reason, that looked like a much more fun way to get down than the gondola. so, without much careful thought or consideration (i.e. time to chicken out), we did it. and it was AWESOME.

this mobile is an ode to that time and the sheep mentality, which in this case, made life much more fun.

the mobile attaches directly to the wall (thank you, jan, for figuring out how to make that work) and the parachutes are hand-made from porcelain. I glazed the tops of them in zinc-free clear glaze to make them shine a bit. the sheep were each molded from sculpey.

october 2012.

$150 (though I probably should have charged more!)

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and OMG what were we thinking?

A D R E N A L I N E - P L A T E S

while in new zealand, chris and I took it upon ourselves to do pretty much every adrenaline junkie activity that we could. and believe me, there is a LOT there. so I made some plates about our adventures.

I think the only things we did that I am missing are mountain biking, paragliding (which I will address in a post soon) and wine tasting by bike (perhaps the most dangerous thing we did).

each design is hand-stenciled onto the plate with underglaze pencil. due to the nature of the pencils i have, I pretty much have to draw them on there, then paint over them using the glaze from pencil and a wet paintbrush. it's a labor-intensive process, but I quite like the result.

handbuilt, september and october 2012. each plate is about 7" in diameter.

surfing : $35

rafting : $35

blackwater rafting (this is rafting on an underground river through a cave : $35
snorkelin : $35
kayaking : $35

sorry, the grayed out ones were S O L D (11.01.12)

F A S C I N A T I N G - V A S E S

though perhaps these should be called "facet-nating" vases?

regardless, I made a bunch of vases with facets cut out of them. while not strictly new zealand themed, I felt like this kind of symbolized us getting our heads out of the boxes they had been in before our trip.

all the vases vary a little, and have the wood grain effect I am so fond of. the tricky part was letting myself just use whatever pieces worked when I built them, and not get hung up on what was wood grain and what wasn't. and then glazing: I made a rule that anything wood grain had to be white. so it was a bit of a puzzle to figureout what would work and what wouldn't.

the last one I made was the big (purple) one, and it got more complicated than the rest... I might try to do something similar again someday with a different glaze; I had hoped the hot orchid glaze I used would turn out differently (it usually does)

there were five in all. three sold (though I had a lot of people ask after the little yellow one). so the two left are the purple one and the pink one.

handbuilt, august through october 2012. dimensions of the ones I still have available upon request.
hot orchid (also known as purple) : $110

yellow: $35

celadon: $45

blizzard blue: $85

tutu pink : $75

F O L L O W I N G - S U M M E R

okay, this is out of order, but this particular piece is on my mind lately (not the least of which is because chris just went back to australia for 3 more weeks). it's a mobile I made of ceramic raindrops. we didn't get much rain in new zealand, but when we did, it made things fairly spectacular. and one of the reasons we even considered going to new zealand in the first place was because it was february and we wanted to follow as much summer as we could.

(also please note the awesome hanging display made by jan. give the guy a bunch of random wood pieces, and here's what you get...)

hand-built drops in a multitude of colors, wooden embroidery hoop and thread. october 2012. I will be making more of these (as individual ornaments, and maybe a couple of mobiles in varying shapes and sizes) for my work sale next week. speak up if you'd like me to pull some out for you.

$50

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in its final home (thank you, angie and katie for the photo!)

T H E - B E N C H

remember last year? when I busted my butt trying to get a BENCH built for the show? and DIDN'T get it done in time? well, after some soul-searching, ignoring and piling of pieces into the garage, I pulled it back out and got some help. thank you to bill yost, woodworker extraordinaire, (who came recommended by david kennedy) with the skills to finish this thing right.

here are a couple of photos of it in progress in bill's shop:

we eventually filled the gap with concrete for stability (but it's still modular!)

see the nice angle bill cut out of the top? it pretty much solved all the issues of the slumpy legs and made it so we could get them flush with the top. and, it actually made the top comfy to sit on, though it's no longer a viable option as a coffee table.

strangely, I don't have tons of detail photos of it finished. I think because it had to sit on the floor, and well, people were all around it. but also, I still own it (see also: STILL AVAILABLE!), so the need to get photos somehow seems less pressing.

here it is, in the show:

before the show began

during setup time

so, hand-built, 2011-2012. walnut slab and stoneware (the legs!)
$1600 (because, well, you know why.)

F E R N - G U L L I E S

I've decided to take you on a little walking tour of the show. it's easier than debating with myself what to post first. but first, the THANK YOUS:

this year, I enlisted a lot of help, mostly with naming the pieces (okay, and pricing. I hate pricing). thank you to heather and chris for that. and for looking over my show list and helping me figure out what goes in and what didn't. self-editing is hard!

thank you to jenn and mom, for threading string on tiny pieces for mobiles. (why am I so obsessed with mobiles?)

and thank you to kristin, jan and mom for hauling, installing and placing. and making sure I was fed.

so, without further ado, meet the fern gullies. (named by pun-master heather and planted lovingly and fitted with wire by mom.) to be honest, I kept forgetting about these, because their placement was on a support post by themselves, a little separate from the rest of my stuff. thank goodness other people saw them! they both sold fairly quickly, but I would not have been upset to have kept them. they turned out even better than I imagined.

these are both made of stoneware, and hand-built. this summer (july-ish, 2012). they are hung from gold wire and planted with ferns because yo, the theme was NEW ZEALAND. and ferns? they are EVERYWHERE there. hold still and they'll grow out of your nose.

$50 each

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W E - M A K E - 2 0 1 2

wow. it's been WAAAY too long. bad me.

but I have been doing stuff. LOTS of stuff. and I have proof. here are some photos of the WE MAKE 2012 show.

more to come soon. I swear it.

 

collage/drawings by mark shepherd

photography / silk screened portraits by tyler riewer and curtis pachunka

letterpress magic by chelsea guidry

oil paintings by katie mchugh

silk screened type by chris lael larson

"most likely too fail" watercolor portraits by brad simon

outdoor paintings by sam tudyk

and a few things by me.