In Season Holiday Open House with the Art Gypsies

On saturday, Nov. 22nd The Salon & Spa on Railroad in Eagle River, Wisconsin hosted our 3rd annual In Season Holiday Open House and Art Sale.


The show featured the "Art Gypsies (left to right) Debra Ketchum Jircik, Carol Miller, Amy Higgason & Wendy Powalisz.

In Season was conceived as an event for "hunting widows" on the opening day of the gun deer hunting season. It offered a preview of the salon's Aveda Holiday Gift Collection, free spa treatments and featured the Art Gypsies and their "booths" set up in the hair stylist's stations.

Though turn out was lower than the past 2 years (we blame that pesky economy) the Art Gypsies had a great time peddling our wares.


My pots.






Some of Debbie's sculptures.


Wendy's set up.




Carol's photos and cards.

Results from this week's glaze firing

Here are some photos of the ornaments and candlesticks from the last post after the glaze firing.

I am firing this week

I am getting ready to fire glaze kiln on Tuesday or Wednesday. Here are a few "before" shots of some bisque pieces.




These are candleholders.



Some small slab built dishes.





I will frame these tiles.

Wheelthrown Ornaments

I always make ornaments for the holidays. They are a good low ticket item, fill space in my kiln and make great last minute gifts for good customers, friends and family. I use cookie cutters to cut shapes from rolled out clay slabs. Then I use all my texture tools and stamps to create designs. I finish them off with twisted copper wire hangers.



This year I decided to also make some wheelthrown ornaments. They were thrown off the hump (hollow inside) and carved in the leatherhard stage. I will be glazing them and firing them later this week. Watch for a future post to see their progress. So far, I think they are pretty cool!

Bridge for Obama

Please forgive one more political post on my otherwise pottery focused blog. Today I attended a rally on the bridge in downtown Minocqua. The organizers of the Bridge for Obama rally expected about 50 people. Over 150 people showed up in the freezing cold drizzle to show their support for Barack Obama. This may not sound like a lot of people to some of you urban dwellers, but it was a huge turnout for this largely republican small town. We had a great time, got lots of honks, waves and thumbs up. We also got a few flying middle fingers and one full hairy "moon" from a passenger in one passing vehicle. Another classy McCain supporter...you betcha!

Here's some photos. They speak for themselves!

Clay Bonding

After the two back-to-back shows and some extended hours at my job I was able to take a few days off to visit my mom in the Chicago suburbs. While I was "home" I made a trip downtown to catch up with some of my clay buddies.



My first stop was to see Chris Garofalo at her studio on Ashland Avenue. Chris had the studio across from mine for a couple of years at Lillstreet. I killed many hours (when I should have been working on my own pieces) hanging around in her studio. It was time well spent. Chris has her own home studio now... a unique little habitat where her sculptures grow.



If you work with clay you know how delicate and fragile these pieces are before firing. She has loading down to a science. I've fired with Chris. It's a special event opening/unloading a kiln full of her pieces.





To see some finished pieces go to her website: www.chrisgarofalo.com

Next I headed over to Lillstreet to meet Gary Jackson and Emily Murphy for dinner. Even though I never worked at the new building on Ravenswood, it still feels like home to me. I love wondering around, looking in the classrooms, peaking in the kilns, checking out the latest show. I work in solitude now, (which I prefer) but it's comforting seeing this big community of potters thrive. I need my fix now and then.



I sat with Gary as he worked on pieces for the soda kiln. Gary's work incorporates intricate stamping techniques on functional wheelthrown pots. There's a great balance in his work between the tight throwing and decorating style and the random glazing effects from the soda kiln.



You can find photos of Gary's pots on his new blog: www.FireWhenReady.com

Once Emily arrived we were off to dinner at a Thai place down the block. Attention urban dwellers: DO NOT TAKE YOUR ETHNIC FOOD CHOICES FOR GRANTED! Some day you may move to the country and no longer have options. The closest Thai restaurant to my house is 75 miles away. Of course the real reason for our dinner was perfectly illustrated by my fortune cookie...



... the Pad See Eiw & spring rolls were just a bonus.

After dinner we returned to Emily's studio for computer support (she made me join facebook), clay talk, girl talk, trash talk, etc. Those of you who read Emily's blog know what a wealth of information she is. If you don't read her blog you should:
www.potteryblog.com.

Here's our silly midnight self portrait...



...and some of Emily's pretty, pretty pots!



I'm back in my studio on friday...

Northwoods Fall Art Tour

Last friday, saturday & sunday was the Northwoods Fall Art Tour. My studio is one of 23 that participated in the 3 county area. With the economy in shambles no one expected much in the way of sales. From what I hear so far the results were mixed for the artists. So I consider myself really lucky that my turnout and sales were up from last year's fall tour. The best news of all... I sold the new sprigged platter (see post from Sept. 24th).

Here are some pics from the weekend.


Here I demonstrate how I attach feet to a small slab build dish.


My guest artist Wendy Powalisz (left) and glass artist Kathy Furda of northernlightglass.


Some fun returning tour visitors.


Barb & Paul Koester spot their tiles.



Glimpses inside my tiny gallery area.


A quick self portrait.




I demonstrated my scrafitto technique on small clay tiles.


Another tilemaker returns to see the finished project.


I had a record 16 people at once in my small 12' x 24' gallery/studio space.


Birdman supports Barack Obama!


My shrine to electricity.