Crazy New Colors

Here are some crazy new colors for the upcoming Whimsical Show at the Marshall Gallery in Greensboro, NC.
Love Love Love the Chartreuse glaze....thank you Margaret Bohles for sharing the Showstopper Glaze.
















This pink is a La Guna store bought to use for my new niece's pink rabbits for her pink room. But I like it so much I will probably use it on some of the pieces for the show.


































A group of rabbits.













And the finished Crazy Monster in my Head sculpture. I don't know how I feel about the super shininess of this glaze. It seems to be distracting in spots. I wonder if it wouldn't have been more successful in the matte turquoise. But alas, I took a risk and there is no changing it now.

New Studio and a new rooster

I think I mentioned before that we moved. We moved into the cutest log cabin ever made. It is absolutely the most wonderful piece of land.....like out of Hansel and Gretel with diamond glass windows and wooden walls and floors. It came with an old shed that Will calls the barn. That is my new studio that he has been working so hard to fix up for me. These pictures are of my actual working studio. I just painted the crows on the floor today. I think they look pretty snappy!





















And here is the latest rooster. No feet? Yes...I had an accident with the last one when I loaded the kiln and knocked a leg off. I decided that they were too much trouble and too fragile to be sensible.

Back Again

We were off to upstate NY where my hubby's family has a lake house on Lake Ontario. Oh!!! what a vacation. Sun, waves, body surfing, family parties and just plain old relaxation!
11 days of good food and trashy novels! What more could you ask for?
While I was there I did spend a little time working on my soon to be born niece's goodies. Some baby booties and a toddler's jacket. Here they are.


I will say that the sweater is a little bit difficult. These Make It Yourself books were written in the 70's and the patterns are not as well constructed as newer patterns. This sweater is made from the top down with lace weight cotton. I fear that the way the sleeves are made there will be bunching at the underarms, though in the picture it looks snug enough. I have now read the pattern a couple of times and think I can work it out....we will see if my crochet skills are up to snuff.


The baby booties were a pattern found on ravelry! Thank you Miss Mouse for signing me up!

Trip

I had the best time on my trip to Tennessee!
Lana Wilson and Margaret Bohles were am amazing team of teachers and I learned so much.
The Appalachian Center for Craft was also amazing. The food was to die for and the center was on a little island far away from civilization or so it seemed. We never saw a car except the ones the staff drove. It was quiet and peaceful. Definitely a place to find inspiration.

When I go away, I leave a piece of art behind for someone to find. This time I left three at the Appalachian center. Here they are:


Hopefully someone will find them and give them good homes.

We got the chance to make a few pieces while were there. Here are the best 2 of mine.











This is an alter for our new house. The new place is called Stealing Crow Farm and the house is actually named Stealing.
In the top window there is a feather with Bird Girl masks all over the top tier. Then there is a crow(of course). The next window is me and Will's feet together and then the bottom has the stamped letters Stealing Crow. There is a dogwood tree carved in the front because we love them so much and the new yard is full of them. I really like this piece and cut the back so that it can hang on the wall outside our front door as a welcome.

This box below is another nasty head bug box. I has a working drawer and inside the drawer is a little doll. This one was so much fun to make. I had a blast with it.

Before I leave....

I wanted to put up a couple of pictures of recent doings.




































I was blessed to have a visit from Mouse aka Grey la Gran, Agent Grey herself as she traveled across our fine state to her parents for a visit.
We had the best time eating, drinking and of course...crocheting and knitting. I had started a little crocheted sweater for the spring but had only finished half of one side. But with a little encouragement from Agent Grey, I finished!
Here it is!





















She was working on some wonderful projects. A very inspiring visit for me!







We have been moving into a new home this week...really for the past month.
More on that later. I just can't bear to think about all the things that aren't done yet. We are truly beat!


And lucky me! Right in the middle of the chaos I get a brief reprieve. I am going out of town to take a workshop with Lana Wilson, a potter favorite of mine. The class is at the Appalachian Center for Crafts in Tennessee. I am thrilled to go with a good friend and gallery owner Christina Brown...creator of a wonderful shop called Just Be.
We will be back on Friday evening and I will post pictures of the work we create.

Roosters, Monsters, and Fish

Here is the front and back of 2 rooster pieces I made for the gallery.
The bottle shape is just what I was looking for and will make more of those today. I am still trying to push the forms a little. I want to work on more interesting shapes, trying always to make a shape that is pleasing but also takes to the carving well.

And since the monsters haven't neglected me, I felt I had to include a drawing of them. This is an image of them crawling out of my head as I sit naked on the floor. It is harder to see this piece on the camera but when it is fired I think the image will be stronger.

















And here is the beginning of a dresser top that will go in our bedroom. It is very raw, I have only just begun, but the colors are singing to me. Koi fish are supposed to be lucky so hopefully they will bring us good fortune and happiness!

The new and the Old

So apparently there is a big thing about rooster sculptures...that I didn't know about but got a call from a gallery, Select Southern Pottery, for carved rooster pieces and decided to give an actual rooster a shot. Here he is in his cocky glory. My friend John Malpass, potter extraordinaire, first tried his hand at it.
( i have to admit that John's rooster was the great inspiration for my rooster...Thanks John!)

These are photos of work I was doing when I was 26. Mad and angry work and encouraged by a book I was reading at the time. I can't remember the exact name of the book but something along the line of The Devil and the Idea of Evil....anyhoo, I was reading this section on the witch trials and Lordy did it make me mad! There is a whole series of these including cups, bowls and plates. I have most of them in the attic because really...who wants to be reminded of these atrocities when trying to digest food?

Flowers with spiky petals and crawling vines...

Here he is. The crazy monster eater. I just finished the flowers and vines. I wanted his shoulder area to look like the top of a cake. I can't decide if I want to carve the body or leave it the way it is now. If I do carve it I would imagine it being carved with a diamond design not an actual image.
Any ideas?

My monster eater has flowers in his head...

I wanted to imagine something to take away the monsters in my head. I wanted it to be something ferocious and as wily as the monsters. So far here he is...
He will have flowers coming out of the back of his head and down his neck, finally resting on the platform or shoulder area.

Finished pieces

Here are a couple of the finished sculptures from last week.
I glazed the small head with a cone 6 shino type glaze called nutmeg. It is a lot darker than I expected put I am quite pleased especially with the monsters.

The rabbit has the turquoise glaze that I have been working with. It turned the black slip blue. I am not as pleased as I thought I would be at the result but Will really likes it.
Working on some crazy new sculptures for this week and of course pots.
I have been meaning to post a tutorial here,
but I haven't gotten to it yet...maybe this evening...

A different approach

I have been asked to do a couple of Face Jugs for a show in August. So I made them in my traditional way with the black and white checkerboard background and a funny, calmish face.
But then I thought maybe I should push the envelope a little. I have been doing face jugs like this for a couple of years. So I decided to incorporate the latest "Monsters in my head" theme and here is the first result. I think I need to make the face more expressive but I am pleased with the heads swimming around on the back.

Hey Jafabrit!
( for those of you who haven't seen this blog, Jafabrit is an amazing artist! take a look!)
Here is the link to the items I am selling on e-bay. I have been meaning to make an etsy shop but time has gotten the better of me. My seller name on e-bay is pottingshed.
Leanne
Thanks for posting!

Carved Rabbit

I wanted to see what the rabbit would look like carved and here is the first one.
I like the carved effect. It reminds me of my rabbit when I was a girl. Her name was Chocolate Chip. I called her CC. But she was of course black and white and had a dramatic look to her fur.

Still can't get away from the somewhat melancholy look on the rabbits face...maybe it is my mood and not the shape of rabbit's mouth's in general.
I did like though the way the carved rabbits share legs and the tail with the actual sculpted rabbit.

Head Lice

I decided to post a finished version of the 2nd attempt at Head Lice...or the crazy monsters in my head series.
I still think I may make another one similar to this with a totally black face because I liked that better. The dark black suits my mood better than this. Here the face almost looks happy on the right side. The lines looking too much like eyelashes. Let me know what you think!

2nd attempt

I wanted this face to look bewildered and confused. It is hard to see...I had a hard time photographing the black. I can't decide whether to carve the face of leave it all black. If anyone has an opinion let me know! I would love to hear from you.

Ever feel like.....

there are monsters in your head screaming for all they are worth, making you feel damaged and strange? Well, this week especially, I have a couple of resident monsters and they are having a heyday laughing and talking about all my little insecurities and gigantic failures. Instead of crawling into bed with a book and sadness, I made a couple of sculptures trying to get it into clay how it might look in my dreary head. Here are the first ones.