Alien pieces....

Next week me and Paige Cox of LuLu Groove are taking the Alien Show down to South Carolina for it's debut at Southern Pottery. We are so excited to be in such a wonderful gallery full of amazing artists. I will post all the details of the opening soon, so for those of you who live in the Columbia, South Carolina area, keep an eye out.

Here are a couple of pieces I have been working on:
(please excuse the mess)

what I am working on today.

 

Here is the finished piece drying before going in the kiln this weekend. I think I need to make another one with a slightly bigger head.

Can''t wait to put this one together..........
Yea! for old rusted sprinklers found in the woods.........

Finished!

  

Just a small update to show the finished teapot and bottle. This bottle will be auctioned off for a wonderful cause....the Hirsch Wellness Network annual Silent Auction and party titled Art Lives Here! Located at Gallery 115, September 17th from 5 pm—8 pm me and the Hubby will be there volunteering so come on out and see the wonderful work and us:)

Wyandotte Chickens and their beautiful feathers......

Wyandotte chickens are beautiful birds. We got 8 new biddy hens this spring to help keep the roosters happy.....and also because we love having the chickens as pets. They are truly wonderful companions and a source of true joy in our lives.
And for me they are also so very inspirational.....

Here are some pictures of new Wyandotte pieces.

Hope you have a good week!
Leanne

Oh Balls!

When we started thinking about the Alien Show (see this post) I tried to imagine what an alien would look like, what an alien would sound like, how they procreate. There is a lot of alien imagery out in cyberspace and it is hard not to be influenced by it. I wanted to bring my own ideas to the table. But in the end, I think the seduction was too strong and many of my aliens take after the Greys. (more explanation here) (picture here)

The theory about their reproduction, generally, is that they clone to reproduce.....but that sounds so boring. No romance, no sex.....boring. Right?
Anyhooo, in my mind, they are hatched from eggs.....spiky bright turquoise eggs, spiky mottled green eggs....
















But now that the aliens show is over, I began to think of these balls as decorative pieces. I can see them running down a big glass coffee table. Put in flower planters. Nestled in a big wooden bowl.....the list goes on.























This week I have taken the spikes off the balls and carved them instead. My next move is making the pieces as big as will fit the kiln and use them as floor pieces. Here are some of the balls running across the grass. They are unglazed as of yet.....

Glaze testing with Andy Martin's Show Saver

As a potter, admitting that you despise anything about the ceramic process, is often met with shocked looks and disdain. But here I am confessing, not for the first time I might add, that I HATE MAKING GLAZES. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it! Wheeeeeee! that felt good......
But as much as I don't like doing it.......it still has to get done.
This week I maned up.....womaned up......and made some glaze tests.
Here are the results:


Andy Martin's Show Saver Base Glaze:
nepheline syenite 21.4
frit 3110 4.2
strontium carbonate 12.8
whiting 2.4
barium carbonate 22.8
grolleg (EPK) 2.4
silica (flint) 31.o
bentonite 3%


For Water Turquoise:
add: 4% copper carbonate
















For Purple:
add: cobalt carbonate .25%
manganese carbonate 3%



















For Grass Green:
add: chrome .5%
copper carbonate 3%
red iron oxide 1%

















For Ultramarine Blue:
add: cobalt carbonate .5%
copper carbonate 3%
















For Chartreuse:
add: .5% chrome
(be careful here. it calls for .5% not 5%. too much chrome is never a good idea)

















I am going to remake the purple and the grass green with less of each metal for a little less intense color. Next week I'll post test tiles.
Have a great creative week!!!!
Leanne P

finished bottles and chicken heads

Here is the finished group of bottles from the last post.
Like I mentioned previously they are glazed with:











Andy Martin's Show Saver Glaze:
nepheline syenite 21.4
frit 3110 4.2
strontium carbonate 12.8
whiting 2.4
barium carbonate 22.8
grolleg (EPK) 2.4
silica (flint) 31.o
bentonite 3%
add:
copper carbonate 4%

This glaze is AMAZING! I love it! Very stable, wide firing range- cone 3 up to cone 10, does well in oxidation or reduction, does awesome in a salt kiln, buttery surface.
I can't get enough of this glaze. Every time it comes out of the kiln I always think of candy, specifically Jolly Ranchers:)

Side note: I do not use this glaze on pieces meant for food because of the Barium content.





On another page.....or wall..... chicken heads. Everywhere!
When I am sitting in the studio carving, this is often what I see. Chicken heads peeking around the door, looking for treats from mama. So I just had to make one or two or 10......so you can have chickens peeking at you from a wall, or around a corner.






























































Later in honor of one of my bestest friends birthday........Giraffe Heads!
You know when you have a good friend and you can't think of one more thing to buy her/him? That is where I was this year. So I decided to make something just for her. She loves giraffes. So in your honor Lisa........

what's on the shelf......

what's on the shelf this week?
Lots of orders......
Commissions can be a great support system behind an artist during the slow months in the beginning of the year. I try to manage small orders throughout the year and save the big ones for January and February when I am really slow and don't have much to do. This year I taught Winter Term at a local college and didn't have quite as much time as usual. So these past couple of weeks I have been trying to finish many orders that have stacked up on my list. This group of bottles is due next week. They will be glazed a shiny turquoise called Andy Martin's Show Saver glaze.





Also on the shelf this week are many pieces coming out of the Lotus Series.
I have an order for 2 large loti, 3 medium and 7 small. So far I have made all but 4 small loti which I hope to finish today.























Off the shelf this week is a big order that I did for the Greensboro Children's Museum. The request was to make tiles and plates that thank the museum donors by having their name carved on the pieces. I had a wonderful time working with Betsy Grant and the staff at the museum.
In the following picture are the tiles that they have hung on the barn in the Edible School Yard.
Here is some information I have quoted from their website:

"The Edible Schoolyard History

The Edible Schoolyard is a teaching garden and kitchen where children and their families can learn how to grow healthy food and create delicious snacks and meals using fresh, local, organic ingredients. The Edible Schoolyard offers children a chance to build practical gardening and cooking skills, to connect with the natural world and to enjoy nourishing food.

The Greensboro Children's Museum has been selected to be the first children's museum in the country to have an licensed Edible Schoolyard, a program created by Alice Waters and the Chez Panisse Foundation!

The Edible Schoolyard at GCM is expected to serve as a national model for other museums and children’s institutions nationwide promoting health and wellness in young children and families. "

The garden is exceptional and beautiful. They have chickens and rabbits.....and every vegetable, fruit tree, herb that one can possibly think of. What an amazing place to have in ones home town. I am proud to be a small part of such a wonderful museum.

what's on the shelf......

Hello out there!!!
It has been so long since I last posted. And if there are still people out there that follow this blog thank you for being patient.......thank you bunches.
Life has been simply put-crazy.
We have had some family emergencies, but thankfully things are looking better each day that passes. We have been very blessed.
On a lighter note, we have also had some really crazy fun shows this spring. The collaborative Alien show with my great artist friend Paige Cox, traveled to Winston Salem and Greensboro. In September, the show will travel to Columbia, SC to Southern Pottery Gallery.
We also had the best "Keep It Local" home show so far. A big thank you to all of you who came out and helped make the show such a success!
With all of that said, I am happy to say that I am recommitting myself to blogging. I have truly missed this connection that the blogisphere allows and the friends I have found out there. And on that note here is what is on my greenware shelf waiting to be bisque fired this week:
































pottery lingo:
green ware: formed pottery that is air dried but unfired and, thus, still raw clay.
bisque or bisqueware-is clay that has been hardened through a firing to a lower temperature somewhere around 1600 to 1800 degrees F. Bisque Firing is the first firing to harden the clay for glazing.

Keep it LocAL pEOPLE!

It is that time again! Spring has rolled around and we are gearing up for the 11th annual KEEP IT LOCAL show. Join us on Saturday the 23rd from 10-4 for a fantabulous day of fun!
Fellow artists include:

Melissa Blackburn- fused glass jewelry
Diane Mannino-fiber and fabric
Lisa Skeen- fiber and food
John Malpass-pottery
Kim McEntee-fabric dolls
Dani Keith- jewelry
Beth Feeback-painting
Adrienne Byrd- mixed media
Bonnie Hitchcock-pottery
Ann Lynch-pottery
Debbie McDaniel-pottery
Tammy Lamb-salsa
and of course me Leanne Pizio!-pottery and sculpture

We are also having our 2nd annual ART HUNT. To participate all you need to do is bring 6 cans of food to donate to the local food bank and you can hunt for a piece of art.
Can't wait to see you all there!

Alien Show

We are Here!.......

This show was a collaboration of Leanne Pizio and Paige Cox, two artists trying to imagine and then express the idea of alien life and landscape.
When we started talking about this show we began thinking of other worldly landscapes, color and the circus. Which led to dolls, parades, funeral parades, outer space, crop circles and aliens.
I think we left little remnants of all these ideas in the show but in the end though we focused on an alien world.
Paige Cox is an amazing fiber artist and a whiz at felt. She works from her studio at home in Greensboro, NC and you can see more of her work at lulugrove