The firings went well for "Murder At The Dart" (hooray!). Super huge thank you to Jane, The Dart Gallery's owner, and artist Lee Cripps, for including my ceramic pieces in Lee's show of amazing new crow/raven works.
Here's an installation shot from The Dart Gallery's Facebook page:
Here are pics of my pieces, starting with the big stoneware wall hanging titled "These Crows Are Happily Married":
It was decorated with a combination of homemade slips, commercial underglazes, and homemade glazes. I was pleasantly surprised that this didn't crack anywhere, seeing as it had to be carefully flipped over while green to work on a few times.
Next is this round lidded vessel:
I love coming up with ideas for functional sculptural pieces. This vessel combines relief carving and sculpture and I imagine it as a good hiding place for something precious. Like the wall hanging above, this was decorated with a mix of slips, underglazes and glazes although for this one I did use a commercial ultra clear glaze as well.
Next up is the largest crow sculpture I've made. This bird is maybe a bit fat-bellied, so I imagine him/her as having gotten into too much trash. To the right is another new product: a baby crow in a nest that is intended to be used as an ashtray. Alternatively this piece could sit on a desk and hold a pen in the crow's mouth, and maybe some thumbtacks or paperclips.
Next are two large crow bowls, the bigger being the biggest one I've ever made. Here again it was such a relief to open the kiln and see that these pieces survived the bisque firing unscathed, where they are quite thick in parts. These are most definitely food safe, and theoretically dishwasher safe, however handwashing is recommended.
While I have made a few other crow bowls before, on these the interiors received a swirl of a white glaze, inspired by pics of Jupiter's aurora.
The second crow bowl, smaller than the one above.
The next bunch of pics are new wall hanging crows and figurines, which were made with a black stoneware clay from Pottery Supply House, resulting in a darker finish than the above pieces.
This pic includes sitting wall hanging crows on branches, something I hadn't tried before but which has led to more ideas for 'bird on branches' wall hanging pieces.
Next are figurines. There are 7 'larger' ones, including one on a branch.
And here are some smaller crow figurines grouped with a goose figurine.
Next are some flying crows from previous firings. These ones were all made from the white stoneware clay body that I normally work in.
Also in this firing for The Dart Gallery, though not part of the show, were some new figurines.
Here are some mushrooms that I thought would make for 'figurine habitat' while providing a chance to test some new glazes. Hanging out among these mushrooms is a frog and dragon.
Pair of owls:
Raccoon:
Pug:
And finally another view of that goose in a blue neckerchief, which was inspired by this much loved motif found on many antique and vintage collectibles.
"Murder At The Dart" is up until July 28th. If you're thirsty or peckish, Picnic at Dart - the gallery's newly
expanded resto/bar - has created a delicious crow-themed
menu - copy/pasted below - to go with the show. Note that some of the show has flown over onto one of the restaurant walls. "The 4 & 20 Pot Pie" item title made me smile, and if anyone else couldn't remember the whole "sing a song of sixpence... 4 & 20 blackbirds..." rhyme, here it is on wiki.
Finally, as an aside, the feeling of being really inspired while working on the new pieces for this show reminded me of how I felt while painting this crow painting in late 2011 - which was posted on this blog before. It was painted with the caption in mind as I worked on this to calm down about our impending move to the country. Oddly, the scene ended up being much like out our back door on moon lit nights, with the branches looking like winter branches on the giant oak tree closest to our house. The next full moon is Tues July 19th, 7:59pm Halifax time!
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| "Reassuring Crows" |
