New Work Taken to Made in The Maritimes, December 19, 2017

Here are pics of new sculptures which were dropped off last week at Made in the Maritimes Artisan Boutique's Hydrostone location.

Huge thanks to Joel for carrying my work for the first time at this most busy time of the year! This iconic business supports a multitude of Maritime makers at two excellent Halifax retail locations (The Hydrostone Market and Sunnyside Mall) as well as via their online shop.

All of these pieces are cone 6 stoneware, and were fired in my electric kiln with a variety of commercial and studio-mixed glazes, underglazes, stains and slips.  They range in price from $35 for the smaller figurines to $225 for the largest sculptures.  

Although I often work in series, these are all 'one offs' as I do not use molds, stamps, stencils or transfers of any kind.   

First up are 6 larger sculptures:

This fox is approximately the size of a large pineapple (I think), and is the tallest piece of the group.

Moose.

 Skunk holding flower with "Om" symbol carved into its haunch, rabbit holding flower with yin yang on haunch, "peace pig" and a sheep.

 Another view of the pig, which has a flower on its other haunch:

A look at the flowers the skunk and bunny are holding.  These were initially intended to be 'ring dishes'.

Next are two seagulls, a lobster, a whale and a shark:

Four fox figurines:

 Four sheep:

 Four crows:

Four Blanding's turtles.  This is a threatened species in Nova Scotia and the subject of habitat conservation campaigns by the Nova Scotia Nature Trust:

Four bears:

Three birds: (a chickadee, robin and bluebird)

Squirrel, deer and buffalo:

Four goats (three billy and one nanny), four chickens and a rooster.  When sculpting the chickens I thought if they were an Ikea item I would name them "Bok Bok" after the sounds real chickens make.

 And finally a couple of Easter chicks and Thanksgiving turkeys.

That's it!  Three cheers for everyone supporting the buy local movement this holiday season!

Now Available At The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia Shop, August 30th, 2016

Here are pics of work dropped off at The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia shop in downtown Halifax today.  I'm super excited to have some pieces here again!  These are all from previous firings, though the pics were taken this afternoon at Cable Wharf on the waterfront with Amos Pewter in the background.  

Lidded Vessel: crow with nest of three baby crows

Four larger figurines:

Polar bear, snowy owl, bunny

Puffin

 Smaller figurines:

Buffalo

Turtles

Sled dog

Two crows, which made me think of a Local Xpress article about the soon to be opening if it hasn't yet Two Crows Brewing Company pub downtown which looks super cool.  The articles mentions a "One [Crow] For Sorrow" nursery rhyme I had never heard of before!

 

Rooster

Polar bear and brown bear

Two bunnies 

 

Snake

Barn owl and beaver

Bowls!  All of the pieces in this group are white mid fire stoneware, as with all my functional ware, these bowls are foodsafe.  They are also technically dishwasher safe, although handwashing is recommended.

Large crow bowl

Two rabbit bowls

Snowy owl bowl

Suffolk sheep bowl

I'm still working away on a kiln full of new stoneware sculptures and functional/sculptural pieces, including some new designs, coming along as soon as possible!

New Christmas Ornaments at The Dart Gallery, November 18th, 2015

Here are pics of ornaments I dropped off at The Dart Gallery in Dartmouth on November 3rd, along with some other new pieces.

I love making Christmas ornaments and have made hundreds over the years: clay ones since 2009, and papier mache ones since 2005.  I'm pretty excited with how they are evolving.

This year for the first time I'm using ornament hooks! Thanks, France at Dragonfire Pottery and Supplies for telling me about these!  So now all my ornaments are finished underneath (thanks, husband Brendan, for telling me I should do this).  Unless they're standing on feet, they're mostly all glazed underneath too - which means firing them with on stilts, something I just started doing this year.  

All of my ornaments are handsculpted stoneware, and all of these new ones are signed with my initials.  Clay is a heavy medium, but I've tried to make them as light as possible by hollowing them out as much as I can.

There are 18 of the new ones at Dart, most are $25 each but there are few smaller ones for $20.

Owl, sitting bunny, mushroom (these first three are the smaller $20 ones), spotted frog, fox

Close up of the mushroom and sitting bunny from the above pic

Giraffe, owl with santa hat, another fox, 2 sheep and a squirrel

Two doves

Pig

Polar bear

Puffin with Santa hat

Crouching bunny

And last but not least, a Sullivan's Pond Goose with Santa Hat

 All of the above ornaments come with a simple ornament wire, ready to hang, as well as one of my new homemade tags (photo paper + inkjet printer) if desired.

Here's an action shot of a fox ornament in a live tree, though the tags at Dart say "handsculpted in Nova Scotia Canada":

I also dropped off a selection of older ornaments, most are $15 - $20 each.  Here's a group shot with most of them.  What have we got here... three chickens, a couple of ghosts, a few skulls, white rat, meerkat, blue jay, duckling, santa head, alien, 4 doves in 2 styles, pumpkin, jack o'lantern... and 3 Kevin O'Leary Christmas Tree Heads (more about them at the end of this post).

Here's a flying bat that missed the class photo:

 And a small flying dove: 

This flying goose was actually made this year, but in the old style - open on the bottom with a heavy wire through it.

And here's one of the skulls in action.  

Back to the Kevin O'Leary Christmas Tree Heads.  I made a dozen or so of these tributes to "Mr. Wonderful" in 2012 while binge watching Shark Tank, thinking I'd get into doing celebrity ornaments.  I still plan on it, and have a few other people in mind, but probably not for this season.   I'll do another post with more pics of the photo shoot fun I had finally hanging the ornaments in a hawthorn tree outside.  Meanwhile here is one example of a group shot:

And here's a shot of the 3 heads that I took to  Dart:

The Dart Gallery has a couple of very nice shows starting soon.  "Le Jardin Magique" opens November 19th 7 - 9pm, running until Dec 2nd, and features paintings by Estelle Thomson, this year's Gold winner artist for both Visual Artist and Yoga Instructor in The Coast's Best of Halifax awards.

Opening in early December and running until Christmas is "Dart Wars", a group show inspired by the latest Star Wars movie release.

Now Available at The Dart Gallery, November 5th 2015

Here are pics of some new work I dropped off at The Dart Gallery in Dartmouth, this past Tuesday November 3rd.  

The gallery just won Gold for its second year in a row, in The Coast's Best of Halifax awards.  Congratulations Jane!

Here are the new pieces from this most recent firing, starting with four bowls.  Everything in this post is cone 6 stoneware:

Skunk bowl! side view

Skunk bowl, top view

Rabbit bowl, side view

Rabbit bowl, top view.  In this firing I've started playing with using layered studio glaze effects on functional pieces and figurines. 

Second rabbit bowl, front view

Second Rabbit bowl, side view

Fox bowl

And some new figurines:

A "skulk" of foxes!

Duck

Elephant

Frog

Horse - again, as with the black rabbit bowl, there is a layered glaze effect

Skunk

Cow

Wolf

Pileated Woodpecker

Barn Owl

Suffolk Sheep

Puffin

The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia Shop is shut temporarily as they're relocating across the hall to make room for the Pavia Gallery - Espresso Bar & Cafe to open a tasty cafe!  The following are a few pieces from previous firings that were at the shop, and are now at Dart:

Fox Mug

Rabbit Bowl

Suffolk Sheep Bowl

Rabbit figurine

Bunny figurine

Buffalo

Two more standing fox figurines  - these are a little larger

Crow Cup

As of Tuesday The Dart Gallery is also now selling copies of my self-published rhyming storybook:  "What If Michelangelo Was A Telemarketer", $10 each.

I also dropped off a bunch of ornaments, but out of respect and gratitude for all veterans I'll post those pics later.  The Dart Gallery honours Remembrance Day and doesn't start getting geared up for the holidays until later in the month.