A Lasting Impression: Hot Out of the Kiln for January 2015

KathrynTeacupTextureTiles
Textured porcelain hand-built teabowl with celadon glaze in front of three bisqued impressed texture tiles, all by Kathryn McBride.

 

Although I’ve done so a few times, I find it confounding to write about my longtime ceramics mentor,  Kathryn McBride, who died in February, 2012.  Later that year I wrote “What Dreams May Come” about receiving a heartwarming bit of understanding and resolution. Last year I wrote “The Apron” about taking on one of her physical mantles. Regardless of my meager written output, she daily abides in me physically, mentally and spiritually.

Physically: I have many of her tools and materials. And I use them!

Mentally: I call a woven basket she gave me her “In Basket.” It contains small trinkets of hers and when I really need to tell her something, I write it down and put it there, smiling to myself.

Spiritually: Her Christmas Card from December 2011 reappeared a few weeks ago, full of loveliness and hope,  speaking about the coming spring she did not yet know she would never see.Read More >

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Giving Away the Milk, the Cow, the Pasture – Or Not

cowandpasture

The Facebook post asking about ways to increase sales hit me like a ton of foam peanuts. Soft, but hugely enveloping.

I watched the comment thread develop. Since it was from a delightful, intelligent group of solopreneurial women, it got more observant with each comment.

The discussion explored the rationales of offering small incentives – discounts, freebies, two-fers and the like – to one’s current and especially, prospective buyers, enticing them to buy.

Then it hit me: this is NOT small! It is the crux of nearly every trading decision. It is as ancient as any marketplace. What makes it a Deal?Read More >

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Sitting One Out

 

 

Works of Elaine Pinkernell, Hank Scott and Paula Prekowitz
Works of Elaine Pinkernell (on wall), Hank Scott and Paula Prekowitz, with Weller ceramic basket and faux poppies on left.

Last fall, during the 2013 Santa Cruz County Open Studios, I determined that I would not be applying in 2014.

For the best of reasons! My older son Roger had proposed to his love Cassandra and they set the date for early September 2014.

Their wedding would be in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, a whole wide country away. I knew I wanted to focus on that wedding and not have the pressure of a looming OS season right after.

From the get-go that decision created a heady freedom and rapidly led to taking a conscious Full Year Away from active applying and showing. (I kept two shows: the annual Association of Clay and Glass Artists Palo Alto Clay and Glass Festival in July and an invitational  three-artist gallery exhibit in July-August.)

I went deep into my studio practice, redefining my path. I observed the hell out of the year’s cycles and refined my core values to lead me into action again in 2015.Read More >

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The New New Kiln: Hot Out of the Kiln for August, 2014

Last January I took glad delivery of Blue Tsuru, my ginormous front-loading L and L Kiln. I think I  mentioned it on a webpage I no longer maintain. You might remember. It looked like this:

BlueTsuru-1

 

She was placed, leveled, wired-up and test fired.

Things went wrong.

Irrevocably.Read More >

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TYPORAMICS: Hot Out of the Kiln for April, 2014

Handwavium Canister, 2014, Liz Crain
Handwavium Canister, 2014, Liz Crain

This is to introduce you to a concept and a word I wish I had invented. But no, that honor and distinction goes to Academy of Art University in San Francisco Graphic Design MFA candidate Flora Cruells Benzal.

She defines Typoramics as the place “where ceramic art and typography meet.” And is creating her thesis-including-book around the artists who practice it.

A woman after my own heart in SO many ways: ceramics! graphic design! education! synthesis! word coinage!

I will let Flora’s description on her Typoramics Facebook page do the rest of the honors:Read More >

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Book Review and Double Giveaway Drawing: A First Time for Everything

InnerHero

This post – my first official book review and giveaway –  is both an indirect and direct result of the book pictured above: Inner Hero Creative Art Journal: Mixed Media Messages to Silence Your Inner Critic, the second book by certified creativity coach Quinn McDonald.

I’ll break it down:Read More >

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