Was I There?

Paper Snowflakes

There is a ground-level window in the new bathroom.  And although no one (except maybe the stray neighbor of visiting mother-in-law) ventures back there, I decided it needed a privacy curtain.  Hence, how inspirational the idea from one of my favorite design blogs, Poppytalk, who gave me a link to Laura's DIY snowflake curtain at Bugs and Fishes.

 

Theo and I also watched a great tutorial on how to cut paper snowflakes by Chris.  People, it's all the fold not the cutting!

Then we went wild on the copy paper, glued our masterpieces together and viola!

Visiting inlaw diginataries even got into the spirit.  (This is my father-in-law's nightmare: tiny pieces of paper on the floor, too miniscule to be swept up easily...and yet, he couldn't help himself, and cut out mighty fine snowflakes himself.)

Later in the day, I bought origami paper which made lovely snowflakes, but they didn't iron flat.  Still, we hung them up on our ceiling, right where the Halloween bats had been, and it was sweet: our own  bright snowfall, to cheer us through the coming winter days.

Chicken Portraits Tiles....the debut

The chicken portrait tiles that I was working on this spring, right before the OPA show and my descent into bad health, are....DONE!  Don't they have personality?

I was originally inspired by another one of Josephine's favorite books, Tillie Lays an Egg, by Terry Golson.

Of course, I then had to wrap up this portrait,which looks like Tilly's speckled twin, and send it off to Terry as a "thank you."

Needless to say, the package arrived safely, and Terry wrote about it on her own HenBlog, which is part of the HenCam. (Which as I've said before, you should really check out.)

The OPA: How it all went down...

Well, I am still alive. But just barely. 

Over two weeks ago, Bonnie and I headed up to Oregon Potters Association Showcase, which is the largest ceramics show in the country, and draws thousands of visitors each year.  If you could ever call a section of that convention center room of 200 potters "the nosebleed section" I was in that section-- booth J11 (the farthest lefthand corner from the door.)  

Still, I was there.  Bonnie (aka "Saint") put up my booth and even took over one of my workshifts so I could sit in a drugged up daze and talk with customers.  My back was terrible, but I still managed to have those great (and sometimes strange) conversations one has with people at such a show.

Most jaw-dropping was the work of the others around me.  I can not tell you what a wealth of talent was in that room-- people making clay do amazing things.  I wasn't able to take many pictures, but I did manage to get a photo of what I most wanted to buy...Dusty Dog Studio's charming ceramic trailers.  

I talked with Corrine and her husband for a bit.  They were so hip. I could have basked their hipsterness-- not only great artists, but they are selling a nostalgia in such a fresh and interesting way.

(These trailers, by the way, are lit up from within...)

As for me, the Jane Austen platters were the biggest success.  I so love it when people-- mostly women-- walk up to read the quotes, smile, and nod knowingly.

 

 The chicken "sketch" that I made a few weeks ago by cutting up a piece of paper was also well-received...I was the most flattered by the fact that actual potters were buying lottery tickets to win it.

Can you believe the great hoards of chicken enthusiasts there are out there?

And now for a completely different chicken...

  One of the optional ways to participate in the looming OPA Showcase is to donate a sketch or "other two dimensional representation of your work" which will be raffled off Sunday.  So, as if I haven't enough to do, I got all fired up thinking about how I work from a basic sketch, but carve my platters freehand.

I also got excited by rediscovering Pacific Northwest artist Nikki McClure's children's book.  Nikki is a HUGE inspiration to me--- can you tell that she cuts out an entire illustration from ONE sheet of black paper?

And the color must be dropped in after, during the printing...

 By the way, All in a Day would be a wonderful book to add to your collection, even if you don't have kids.    Cynthia Rylant's writing (poem) is so heartbreaking and true.  

 When I read it aloud to Theo and Josephine, I feel kind of sobered.  It reminds me to enjoy the most ordinary of moments..."A day is all its own."

And now, back to the chickens...

 So Nikki and the call for a paper "sketch" from the OPA spurred me to buy an exacto knife and trash our bamboo cutting board.  I glued some ripped out pages from a Japanese flower book together, tracing my pattern that I use for the clay platters, carefully cut out a black and Japanese white chicken form.

Then I freehand cut the black form.  Measuring and adjusting, I then painted the red comb with red acrylic, pasted the two together using very expensive Spray Mount.  Added the hip green background and... 

ta dah!

 

I know.  It is so fabulous it would make Jackie O. weep.

So now I am considering a career change (clay= bad back, high shipping costs?) (paper= healthier, low shipping, same result, except you couldn't hang it outside in a rainstorm?)  Does anyone out there-- besides you, o faithful Dad, know how I could get this printed?  Like a real artist?  And do you think anyone would buy it?  Or laugh?

Three Things to Cheer You Up

 
 In the middle of the night, as I lay awake with a cold, grieving over Fairny dying, and worrying for hours about where I will park at the upcoming Portland OPA show in May, I felt depression settling over me like an old, musty blanket.

Does this happen to you?  You feel so low you wish that if you could just find that one inspirational book, or just have that one healing conversation with a friend, or just discover that one magic pill that would part the gloomy clouds, you could set the world to right?

I know those things don't really work, or at least they don't work for most people. (Saul on the Road to Damascus exempt.)  But I can, in my own tweedly shallow way, share three things I've found comforting lately.

1.  Van Morrison's music.  I mean really, the man is a musical genius.  A reformed hard sinner with a strong shot of spirit in him.  Irish.  Spans the gamut of profound to schmaltzy.  I mean, how can you not love a man who creates an album cover like this?

 

 However, I would recommend the album he did with the Chieftians, who are hot, hot, hot right now. (And let's hear it for middle age!  Just look at those gobs!)

 

2. Mine That Bird.  When I heard this, I thought the name of the horse was "Mind That Bird," as in "Mind the gap!"-- that thing the British subway blares at you to remind you to watch out so you don't fall through the cracks as you step off a train.  But it really is "Mine That Bird." 

  
I'll just let you weep with joy for yourself by watching this.

3. Hen Cam.

Thanks to Josephine, small-one-oh-obsessed-with-baby-chickens, we checked out this fabulous book from the library. Tilly Lays an Egg by Terry Golson.

But the beauty was that this book led me to Terry Golson's Hen Cam.  Had a bad day?  Feel like the world is frantic and cruel?  Just check out the chickens wandering about on  Little Pond Farm. (By the way, Terry's book inspired the chicken portrait plates, if you haven't already guessed.)

So.  If the chickens can't cheer you up, nothing will.  Say it-- chicken....  Even the word itself has got to make you laugh.  

Bird of the Month: baby chick

 

March was going to be a robin, but two things happened: one, the baby chicks arrived at our local grange and the children are wild about them.  And two, I kept remembering these chicks in kerchiefs cupcake toppers I encountered once on Amy Karol's fabulous blog.

So just like the bunnies this year nestling into their sweet tattoos, the chickies are bustin' out the kitschy kerchiefs.  Polka dotted of course.

Chick chasing a bunny.

 

Chick going the other way.

And now (drumroll please)...ANNOUNCING.... 

THE "CHICK IN KERCHIEF" BEAD DISH GIVEAWAY!  

If you make a comment on this post between now and, say, midnight PT Saturday, March 20th, I will then use a random number generator (probably Gus) and send one of you lucky readers a chick bead dish for free!

(I know there are only about three of you readers, what the heck...let's just be wild and crazy.)

If you're stumped as what to say, just tell me what you think about chicks.  Should they be wearing something else? Should they be saying something?  Do they remind you of the hummels your grandma used to collect?

Okay, I hope you are doing well and that the spring days are lightening your heart! 

Etsy Cover Bird

 It's good to know that this afternoon, after a rollicking toddler dance class, pbj lunch with another mommy and 2 year old, and more dreary rain, one of my ceramic " bird prayer flags" actually made it to the front page of Etsy.  I like to think this occurred the exact moment when I was in the downtown bookstore and Josephine informed me, legs bronc-rider wide, that she had to go pee.  Which is, as you can guess, translation for the past tense: I already went. 

Joining the virtual marketplace of indie artists and crafters that is Etsy was the best thing I did last year. You can start by checking out their homepage here or come on into my "virtual shop," Pumphouse Studios. I know I start to sound a bit psycho when I talk about Etsy, but I have been thrilled with my experience. I have been able to sell my ceramics to people around the globe, from the US to Canada, Italy, and even Australia!  I've connected not only with these customers (I love hearing why they are buying a piece), but with other Etsy artists as well.

My experience has not been without its struggle (like my first sale, in which a piece broke in transit or those times I've basically given pieces away for free because I've calculated the postage wrong), but I've learned a lot.  And a big shout out to those gals down at the Talent post office who have helped me so much, and that bastion of boxes and bubble wrap, J.P.

He so understands my cardboard fetish.

How did my piece get on the front page of Etsy?  Well, that was the work of the fabulous Teri Nelson, fellow ceramic artist, Etsian, and local Clayfolk member.  Like many Etsians, Teri makes "treasuries," which are nine piece grids of things that strike her fancy, or are arranged by a wonderful theme.  These treasuries are then picked at random for the front page, giving you more exposure and hopefully more customers.  For example, the last time I made it to the front page, I got 700 "hits" on that item that day, which in my own inaccurate way, I like to think of as 700 people.

Anyway.  Etsy is very, very good for this Oregon stay-at-home-mommy's moss covered soul.