Pages 04/15/09

I got to open a freshly fired kiln load this morning. It's like Christmas! There is still one shelf load left, but have to leave hubby to upload it because I am far too short to reach the bottom. ;-) This was a mix of glazed pieces and bisque pieces. So if some look shinier than others you can tell which are glazed and which aren't. I was really pleased with pretty much everything. I was even able to recue the ornament I fired upsidedown. Oy. I was amazed it made it! (You can see it in the first photo. It's in the bottom left - the white ornament.)
Tonight I'll start with more glazing and see if I can get another kiln load ready for next week. I'll also be busy adding corks to the wine toppers. I was really pleased at how well the colors came out on the toppers.

Pages 04/11/09

Last night when I got home, I had a nice little surprise waiting for me. Last month some of my art was licenced by a company in Texas to be included in a line of domino jewelry. The company is called Phenomenoes. I was delighted to receive some samples of the jewelry and am very pleased at the clarity of the printing and quality of the product. Overall I am really stoked to be a part of the collection. Check out all the designs I have in the catalog here.

Pages 04/05/09

These are some pages I made for a swap I am in. The theme is 'Odd Girls'. The bases were made in Photoshop and then printed on a laser printer. Then I altered them by painting in the hair, adding collage pieces, stamping and drawing and adding some fibers. I find it's a good way to save alot of time when there are alot of pieces to make. By making the bases in Photoshop, I saved alot of time and I was able to make the 23 pages fairly quickly while still making each page unique with stamping and painting..

Pages 03/30/09

I bought these bisque pendants for another project. My original idea did not work out. I'd planned to collage on the surface and it just was not working. Sooooo, after having them hang around my studio for over 2 years, I decided to paint them with ceramic glaze and make painted pendants. (What they were actually intended to be! lol.) I am on a kick right now to use up and finish projects I started, or bought and never did. This is one of them. These will be fired in the kiln and then color will be added to them, baked again and then a clear glaze added over them. Although, I am kind of liking the stark black and white. Maybe I will leave them with no color. What do you guys think?

Pages 03/13/09

Find more photos like this on creativity unleashed with Traci Bautista

I thought I'd share this slideshow of the work from the other students in Traci's workshops. There has been some really fabulous work made!

Pages 03/07/09

Another of my 'doodles' from the Bautista workshop. I used a variety of pens, Sakura Gel Pens, colored pencils, correction pens, sharpies.

Pages 02/21/09

I got pretty behind with my Traci Bautista workshop this week because of work. Today I buckled down and spent a bit of time going through the exercises. Most of the exercises were about spilling out your random thoughts using a variety of different mediums. I used Sharpie paint pens, gel pens, highlighters, markers, white out pens. I found it really fun to randomly write words and didn't stress out while doing them. I recommend trying something like this. Take out a blank sheet of paper and start randomly scribbling the thoughts in your head. Then mess around with different pans and see what happens. Try using a bunch of pens you'd normally not draw with, like a highlighter. Just when you think you are done, push it again and add more color or line work.

The painting above I started with a really dark blue background and swirled in some lighter blues. The exercise was to write with a white out pen. I also used gel pens and a sharpie pint pen for the blacks. This one is my ode to the blank page. ;-)

Pages 02/06/09

This is another exercise from the class I am taking with Traci Bautista. We had to collage a sheet of paper with varios ephemera we had, then cover with paint. Once dry we were to doodle and write words about 'who we are'. I honestly was really scared to cover the collae I made with paint. Afterall, it was quite a bit of work! *LOL* But, I am glad trusted the process because the outcome was interesting. I like the way the type from the collage peeks through. You really have to look for it, but I think that's the point. The focus should really be on the words, not the collage. ;-)