New Work Taken to The Dart Gallery, December 19th 2017

Here are photos of new pieces dropped off at The Dart Gallery in downtown Dartmouth last week, starting with a group shot to give an idea of relative size of the pieces:

The gallery is looking fantastic with all sorts of wonderful local pottery and jewelry, a show of fun pieces inspired by Pixar and many great cards and prints.  The gallery also has a handy storage with many great pieces from previous shows. 

For folks who would enjoy some delicious food and drink with their Christmas shopping, or are just looking for an artsy holiday outing, Dart is adjacent to Picnic at Dart, a licensed bistro under the direction of a very creative chef who trained at Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School.   

The gallery's neighbourhood has also been hailed in the national news media this year as "Halifax's Brooklyn" as downtown Dartmouth turns into a popular indie shopping/dining destination. 

On to the work!  First, a bunny and mouse holding flowers, which could hold rings for safe keeping:

  
 Next up: an owl and pussycat sculptures.

  
For Chinese astrology fans, next year will be the Year of the Brown (or Earth) Dog, beginning February 16th, 2018.   I didn't realize this when sculpting or glazing this basset hound and corgi:  

Next are bunnies with their hedgehog friend: a bowl, sculpture and figurines.  One accidentally ended up with a coat that looks similar to Huxley, the gallery bunny - a glazing "mistake" that ended up being an improvement:

Elephants! A small bowl and a figurine, with trunks turned upwards for good luck, ready to shower good fortune on passers by:

Four more figurines, a frog, cat, German Shepherd dog, and raccoon:

Three chickens, a goat and a rooster.

Four crows:

Four sheep and four foxes:

Next, a selection of handsculpted brooches and pendants!  These are brand new products for my art practice.   First, the brooches, with a loonie (Canadian dollar coin) for scale.  These are a bit big but suitable for a jacket, coat or bag, I'll be making smaller ones in the new year:

Next, the pendants.

Suggested musical pairings: for the flying crow pendants:  "As the Crow Flies" by Stephen Fearing. For the pig pendant, "The Grim Trucker" by Ron Sexsmith.

In addition to the twenty pendants above, there was a mushroom pendant I didn't manage to get a photo of. 

Finally here is a high relief carved bowl of a fox chasing a pheasant:

 

New Christmas Ornaments at Jenny Jib, November 18th 2015

Here are pics of the ornaments from this most recent firing that I dropped off at Jenny Jib in Lunenburg on November 4th, along with some other new pieces. 

All of these are handsculpted stoneware, created in Lunenburg County the Balsam Fir Christmas Tree Capital of the world!  There are lots of tree farms near our rural home.  

These new ornaments are made with ornament hooks embedded in them, instead of heavy wire, which means they're now finished on the bottom. There were 28 of them total at Jenny's shop, they're $25 each and include a wire ornament hanger:

Lobster, whale, seagull

 

Reindeer and an owl wearing a Santa hat

Three Great White Sharks, 2 wearing Santa hats, and a baby Harp Seal which looks like it might be in some trouble...

Close up of a shark and the seal, where they've decided to be friends

Bald Eagle

Polar Bear and Squirrel

Flock of 5 sheep with a donkey

Four Fish

Farmyard friends: Horse, Goat, Rooster

Four doves

 

Birdfeeder Buddies: Blue Jay, Cardinal, Chickadee

Fox

The Blue Jay, from above, demonstrating how these new ornaments hang with a simple wire which is provided for all of them

I also brought in 5 older ornaments:

A seagull, displaying my new tags, and 2 fish.  These are $20 each

And finally, two Kevin O'Leary Christmas Tree Heads.  There will be another post coming up about these now that I have some nice pics of a bunch of them hanging in a hawthorn tree.

Same heads as above, front view

This has become the time of year when all I want to do is make ornaments, so I am working on another firing that will include some new whale and dolphin ornaments for the shop if all goes well!
 

Now Available at Jenny Jib, August 21, 2015

Here are pics from my most recent firing, of work dropped off at Jenny Jib on Saturday August 15th.  I'm excited about the direction my firings are going, with a mix of big, medium and small pieces at a variety of price points.  Most of these photos can also be seen in this Facebook album.

Everything in this firing is cone 6 stoneware and foodsafe, technically they're microwave and dishwasher safe too but where the stuff is getting more sculptural, I'd recommend gentle handwashing.  And, of course, plates with picture wire attached shouldn't be microwaved!  

Click on the pics to see larger images.

There were 2 relief carved vases in this firing that turned out quite well. 

First, a vase with an owl and mouse on one side, rabbit on the other, and birch trees all around ($175).  
  

Detail of mouse, ground and fiddleheads, some of the colour effects were obtained by painting studio glazes over the underglazed areas.

Top of the vase, looking in

This is a small vase with a heron on one side, fox on the other and cattails all around ($125)

Whale Mugs!  There are 4, $50 each:

 

 

Next, the lobster butter dish: 

Next, large Flounder Platters.  These are both wired with picture hanging wire so can go from wall to table.  The blue/brown one is not available (due to a small crack) but I'll be making more!

The larger flounder platter worked out: $125

Lobster mugs! I made 2 of these, they were fun, featuring advanced comfort grip lobster handle technology.

The first has the Peggy's Cove lighthouse on it and a lobster handle, $75

Mug with lobster handle and relief carved Bluenose II - which is not actually available due to a small crack.

A Kraken Mug ($50):

 

Small figurines, these are at the $15 price point

Horse

Dog

Fox

Frog

Goat

Rat

Walrus - first ceramic walrus figurine I've made!  It's sold but I'll be making more!

Walrus side view

Here is a big rooster! He's 13" tall x 13" long.  And a bargain $175 only because one of his toes bust off during the making process, and again while I was glazing him, but I was able to repair it with glaze so it should be fine so long as he's handled with care.

I'm happy about the interaction of the commercial underglazes I use with the studio glazes I mix up in my shed.  This guy had all his details painted on for the bisque firing, and then was dunked in "Randy's Red Gold" for the glaze firing.   

  
Two small sheep bowls:

And I also dropped off a few pieces from a previous firing that I still had at home:

Mountain Goat Bowl ($85)

A large, stocky horse ($125)

 

Polar Bear Bowl ($65)

Larger Polar Bear Figurine ($50) 

 And two older small flounder plates, that can also hang on the wall.