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 Jenny Jib, December 12th, 2016

Here are pics of new work that was dropped off at Jenny Jib in Lunenburg this past Friday.  The shop is now open every day until Christmas and has tonnes of great stuff to peruse for anyone in need of a relaxing shopping excursion to this scenic town.

There were some new experiments in this firing including a couple of large relief carved plates.  These come wired with picture hanging wire in order to hang on the wall when not in use.   

Relief carved Humpback whale plate

Relief carved Bald Eagle Plate

The relief is a bit higher in this sleeping fox 'plate' which is also wired to hang on the wall

Here is a photo of the above plate with two new fox bowls.

Next up seagulls!  A bowl and a mug - these are the first functional seagull pieces I've tried, and they were quite fun to do.

Puffin bowl - also a new product from this firing along with the next bowl...

Bald Eagle bowl

 A flounder plate, wired to hang on the wall.

Next are new, handsculpted, one sided flat ornaments.  With the exception of the lobster which ended up getting glazed, these are sanded bare clay on the back and so can be personalized with a marker or even used as gift tags.

Whale, orca, dolphin, fish, puffin, lobster and sharks

Foxes, sleeping foxes, sheep, sleeping cat, rabbit, elephant

Duck

Polar bear

Elephant figurine with larger elephant sculpture

More new figurines...

Border collie tending a small flock of sheep

Larger sheep sculpture

"Skulk" of foxes, including new sleeping fox figurine and new hedgehog figurines

Blue jay, turkey and crow

Puffins and whale

Now Available at Jenny Jib August 13, 2016

Here are pics of 9 new Pulp Creatures dropped off at Jenny Jib in Lunenburg this past Thursday.  

It's been awhile (almost 2 years!) since I've worked in papier mache so these were a lot of fun and fortunately it turned out to be a great day to get some pics at nearby beautiful Hirtle's beach.

First up are the 2 "Sidney the Pittsburgh Penguins" made in honour of Nova Scotia's own Sidney Crosby, the Pittsburgh Peguins captain who is quickly becoming a national treasure.

Here's a great CBC article from last month about the parade for Sidney Crosby and the Stanley Cup in his hometown of Cole Harbour.  This is a really sweet article too about how he surprised a fan in rural Nova Scotia

In one sculpture "Sidney the Pittsburgh Penguin" is holding the Stanley Cup, and in the other I tried to copy the pose of the penguin on the team's jersey.  Big thanks to my super hockey fan husband for the suggestion and input!  These are way more detailed than the hockey raccoons I made in 2014; as an aside one of the players who inspired these raccoons has since switched from the leafs to the penguins.

 A close up.  Turns out Sidney Crosby shoots left and the penguin on the jersey shoots right:

... Then they  went down to the beach to check out the great white shark and show off the Stanley Cup.  (For non-hockey followers, the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the San Jose Sharks for this year's Stanley Cup).

Another shot of that shark, it has a hook built into the top so it can hang as well as sit:

Next up a herring gull with three piping plovers.  Piping plovers nest on beaches and are endangered, check out the Nova Scotia Piping Plover Conservation Program for tips on on how to help these summer visitors thrive.

Next, two crabs.  This wasn't intentional but posting these pics makes me think of play on a well loved Dr Seuss book... "one crab, two crab, red crab, blue crab"

 

 


 A group shot of the crabs and birds:

A photo of everybody:

And final photo before dropping everything off at Jenny Jib, Sidney the Pittsburgh Penguin with the Stanley Cup in front of the Lunenburg Arena. 




Hooray!  These creatures took a lot longer than expected! but I'll be getting back in to the clay soon and working on the next firing!