Ornament Update! And "Reasons to Buy My Stuff or Any Locally Made Craft This Christmas"

So I've been busy making clay ornaments for the 3rd annual "One of a Kind Christmas Ornament Party/Sale" happening at Swoon Fine Art next Saturday, Nov 23rd.

The sale starts at 10 am so arrive early for the best selection!  There will be lots of great ornaments by various artists! 

A shot of my studio, which is now full of ornaments! There are a lot here,  because in the name of economy and out of respect to the environment I like to fire my kiln packed as full as possible when I fire it.

 For little things like this I mostly sit on my studio couch and work off of this coffee table, which is now full

 I've been making all kinds! But here are a few favourites... these are just the raw clay ones, I have a lot of underglazing and glazing to do!!

Little Christmas Owl with Santa Hat

Pug

Christmas Shark With Santa Hat

The Christmas Unicorn

Today's topic is "Reasons Why to Buy My Stuff or Any Locally Made Craft This Christmas".

This is the time of year where we all hear "Buy Local!" "Buy Local!" chirped about the market places.  Here are some reasons to head on down to Swoon a week Saturday for ornaments, or to any of the great markets this time of year, or to any other venues supporting local artists, crafters and producers of food:

1. - When you spend money on locally made art and craft, the money stays right in your local economy.  In my case, any money I make is actually going straight to some local tradespeople.  We need some major repairs done to our house!   Of course money I earn through art will also go to small businesses that sell me supplies, mostly Dragonfire Pottery in Dartmouth who are AWESOME, and also DeSerres on Barrington Street in Halifax. 

2. - Collectability and Value.   I've been thinking about how to make my art the best possible investment for my customers.  This year I've begun signing everything with my initials.  Even my ornaments and figurines.  So if you buy an ornament and see the "SP" I'm doing that so that years down the road they MIGHT actually be worth a few extra bucks. Or, they might not, but things do go up in value due to inflation of materials etc...  I've also decided to resist the temptation to get into using molds. I don't like working with molds, sculpting is the fun part for me.  So each ornament and figurine I make is a one-off hand-sculpted piece of art.   My good friend and "Art-Ally" Evgenia Makogon has likewise begun working hard on series of collectible acrylic mini paintings which are absolutely scrumptious.

3. - Quality!  Local art and craft is likely to be safer than questionable toxic products as what we hear about coming from China.  All the potters I know, for instance, use food-safe lead-free glazes for functional ware.  And when you buy local you can ask the artist or crafter what exactly is in the materials they are using.

4. - Don't forget about the venues and people who run them!  In my case, my sales also go to support the shops where I have my stuff, as well as all the artists they represent.  I'm huge fans of my current shops: Swoon, Jenny Jib, and Nest (in Mabou).  All 3 business owners are committed to local art and craft and work hard for their artists; maintaining a brick and mortar shop is expensive and unless we want cities and towns where big box stores are the only places to shop I think it's important to spend $$ in places like this.  For crafters who sell at market, there are table fees that go back to the market organizers to keep the markets going.  It's an entire industry, the more art and craft that sells the more $$ that goes into the pockets of people like this, and that means more $$ staying in the local economy rather than getting shipped off to China or other countries.

5. - Human Rights! Now you've seen pics of my studio, would you rather have something for your tree that came from some place cozy, and happy like that, or from the sweatshops described in this Mother Jones Article about ornament factories in China?  Seems weird to me to be buying items of "Christmas Cheer" made by exploited people overseas.  Next time you get distracted by a shiny bauble in a big box store, think about where exactly that trinket came from!  Although I'm guilty of bouts of workaholic -ism, I've been becoming more and more aware and conscious of the need for me to keep happy, balanced, meditative and focused when working on craft as I believe we need more objects around us that were made with positive intention.  For the record, I'm currently paying myself less than minimum wage per hour but that's because I feel like I'm at war with China and I want to take back some of that market share for my homeland!  Plus as I've mentioned earlier I'm terrified by the thought of ever having to get a job.
 
6. - Artists and Crafters are Nice People!  This goes for everyone I've met in the industry.  When you support artists and crafters by buying their stuff, it's likely that they have other artists and crafter friends they want to help out.  It is likely they volunteer on committees or in guilds, or teach art in their communities, fostering creativity in youngsters and adults.  Some are even organized and profitable enough that they have created jobs for other people.  Super great place to direct your money in my opinion.

Leads me to the last point (for now)

7. - Money is energy!  I had this thought last night that money is power.  Maybe that's why the word "Currency" is so similar to Electric Current or River Current... money moves people and things.  Aha, thanks internet, I just looked it up in the Online Etymology Dictionary.

Turns out I was right on! 

 Currency: 1650s, "condition of flowing," from Latin currens, present participle of currere "to run" (see current (adj.)); the sense of a flow or course extended 1699 (by John Locke) to "circulation of money."

So I know times are hard out there and maybe you just have a few bucks for xmas shopping, but think about it, money really is power and with every dollar you spend you are actually casting a vote for the world that you want to see!

A Peacock, More Ornaments, and my New Identity

So since my last post, I've been busy in my studio making more ornaments and a few figurines.

Last time I put up a pic of the doves I was making, and although I'm pleased to see the completed fleet, I've since decided that 14 is too many of anything to make at once.  It started to feel like too much like work.  I think optimum number of ornaments or figurines for me when working is series is about 5 - 8 of each animal at a time; enough to get quicker and better at it, but not so many at once, that I start to get bored.

Once again, everything here is 'greenware', in a few days I'll start glazing and firing everything.

Blue jays! Inspired by the noisy flock that enjoyed our giant sunflowers.

Squirrels!

One-offs (for now - til I make more) are super fun too, like this peacock figurine.

greenware peacock earthenware figurine who, when finished, would love to go live on the desk of an NBC executive

And in this pic are a meerkat with santa hat, a bulldog with santa hat and collar, and a bluebird with santa hat.   All earthenware, I really hope they turn out after I glaze and fire them!



These aren't even all the ornaments/figurines I've made so far, there are also owls, roosters, and I'm working a small herd of horses.

So there are some pics.  On to this post's blah blah blah...

Last week was Halloween so husband and I were on the look out for a terrifying movie.  So we watched "Death by China" on Netflix.  Scary stuff indeed!

Here is the trailer:



While the movie got mixed, and interesting, reviews on sites such as Rotten Tomatoes, my guess is that pretty much everyone in North America has been affected in some way by the off-shoring of jobs.  And somewhere in the movie someone said something about how if you make less stuff than you bring in your economy is going to be in trouble.

This led me to another huge A-Ha moment that Oprah herself would possibly smile at.

I've decided to change my identity.  I'm not going to identify myself as an 'artist' anymore.  Forget it.  From now on if anyone asks what I do I'm going to tell them I own and operate a small manufacturing business.  I own a factory.  An ornament and figurine factory.  

Because it's true, isn't it?  Artists and craftspeople are some of the only people left in this country that actually make anything.   In my case, I literally make things out of practically nothing.  I take a glob of clay, mold it, process it in my shed, and voila, home decor.  No child wage slaves (yet...),  no environmental degradation, no tankers with containers of stuff, no human rights violations, no dress codes even.  I only have one employee so far (me) and I treat her/me pretty well.  Working conditions in my factory are pleasant, bright and well ventilated with adequate breaks, flexible hours, background music of choice, and a very short, easy commute.

I'm very sensitive to the energy of people and objects, and when I told my husband about my 'factory' revelation I could tell that he instantly began to view what I'm up to in my studio with higher regard.  After all, his father was a manager at Sydney Steel, so his whole family was raised on manufacturing money.  Sydney Steel of course is another Canadian company that fell to the inability to compete with cheaper foreign goods, leading to a giant loss of jobs for my husband's homeland.

A discussion ensued as to whether I'm operating a 'plant' or a 'factory'. I've decided to go with 'factory'.  And now I can see maybe what Andy Warhol was up to when he named his studio "The Factory".

Maybe I'm on to something.  

"Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art.  Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art." - Andy Warhol

Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/andy_warhol.html#cXZpeZ5vE8ywMb3j.99

Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/andy_warhol.html#cXZpeZ5vE8ywMb3j.99

I have another big idea for a blog post, related to this one, coming within a week or so, so stay tuned!

Meanwhile "Steam Engenius" by Modest Mouse is stuck in my head... (sharing this via youtube, but I did buy the cd, which is awesome)

Flock of Doves, and "Why I think I’m less of a Deadbeat Since Quitting My Biology Career to be a Full Time Artist"

First off, here's a flock of stoneware Christmas ornament doves I’ve been working on.  They're bigger than the little doves I used to make, but I've carved them out a lot so I hope they'll be reasonably light.  These doves are still "greenware" (unfired clay) and eventually will all get bisque fired then dunked in Chun White cone 6 glaze.

 A couple of the doves looked like they wanted to be carved onto, so I did.

On to today’s other topic.  “Why I think I’m less of a deadbeat since quitting my biology career to be a full time artist”

This post is dedicated to all my biology friends who may have thought I was crazy for leaving my job to follow my dreams.

After my last post I did some thinking about what has held me back from making a living as an artist, and I realized that I have perhaps saddled myself with some unnecessary guilt.

I did some googling and found this article, reading it and all the comments below made me feel like I’m not alone.  It's a good read!  And so are the reader responses.

Do You Feel Guilty for Being an Artist? by Marion Boddy-Evans

Perhaps it is the public education system which trains small children to believe that they should be marching off to work inside most of the week with limited breaks to be a functional citizen. 

I know when I made the decision to quit my full time job, and move to Regina and start Art School with the plan of following my bliss all day, I felt like I was swimming against a giant tide.    

A giant tide of people with “real” jobs.

I remember, after a couple of years, going back home to Richmond and my brother and I went to an open house across the street from our mom’s house.  It was a new development in a neighbourhood where old houses on giant old building lots with rich, fertile soil are getting mowed down for condos. 

The  sales agent asked me what I do and I said “I’m an artist”.   

It took me ages to be able to identify myself as this, rather than say “well I used to be a biologist”.  

 I felt proud of myself for saying it.  "I'm an artist".  Outloud, to a stranger.  

But, when I said "I'm an artist.", my brother, a mechanic, snickered.  

 No big deal. Of course he snickered, because I think there’s a public perception that being an ‘artist’ isn’t a real job.  

Rather, I suspect that many people could perhaps view artists as deadbeat mooches. 

It turns out that I'm not making this idea up; the idea that the public would regard a career in science as more worthy than an art career.  There’s even a report done by Princeton University that shows only 27% of those surveyed think that artists contribute a lot to the general good of society, and 26% think artists contribute little or nothing. Note we’re well below scientists but just a photo-finish ahead of politicians (whew).  Also note this survey was done in the states, I wonder if results would differ in other countries.

 

 

Perhaps this is the root of some of my guilt for choosing to move away from my friends and family to start a new life someplace where I have a chance of affording to do what I want all day.

But here’s the thing! 

The other day I had a giant “A-Ha” moment that would make Oprah proud. 

I realized that by leaving my job I was allowing myself to try to live an authentic life, a life where my main objective is to follow my bliss.  To use my talents in service to others.  To work at what I truly love.  In the words of Bob Marley to "emancipate [myself] from mental slavery".   

What if everyone in the world dropped what they were doing and made the effort to align with that which they knew, deep down, they really wanted to do, what they knew they really should be doing.  Wouldn’t that be interesting.

 

The other part of my “A-Ha” moment came from me reflecting back on my biology career.   

Did I really accomplish anything?  

I certainly blew through tens of thousands of tax dollars.  I’m good at academics, so I won a big scholarship that paid for my entire Master’s degree.  My Master’s research also came from tax money, a great big pile of tax money, which I spent on counting birds, identifying plants, measuring sagebrush and coming up with some conclusions that would possibly be obvious to anyone spending thoughtful time out in nature watching what the various birds I  looked at were up to.  

Next I got some jobs.  And looking back on these jobs, just the other day, during my "A-Ha moment",  I finally thought to “follow the money” and think about where my paycheque was actually coming from.   

For example, I worked as a fisheries observer on off shore trawl boats for a couple of years in BC.  It paid me well, but I think I only just clued in that the fishermen whose boat I was on would have to pay the consulting company $300/day or so.  No wonder the fishermen were pissed off about the observer program, there were trips where the fish observer would make more than members of the crew.  Ironically, more fish would have to be caught to fund me, and pay the consulting company fees.

And what good did it do anyhow? Small fishing boats are being replaced by giants ships that require way fewer crew, changing the sustainability of coastal fishing communities.   And as long as there are big profits to be made by the corporations responsible for these ships, aren’t we just going to fish everything until extinction anyhow?

Same goes for some contract work I did for a forestry company. I couldn’t help but get the impression that some of the work I was part of was part of some giant rubberstamping process and that industry would largely end up doing what it would have done in the first place.  

As with the fish that were caught to pay for me to be a fish observer, I realized that trees were possibly cut to pay me to have my cushy biology contract.  Possibly beautiful, huge, old growth trees.

Eeek.

By 2005 I felt like it’d be easy enough for me to be a biologist, have a comfortable life, getting paid to go on hikes, gather data, getting flown to meetings and eating muffins, attending conferences, writing this report or that, all on the public dime, while outside the world seemed to be largely going to hell in a hand basket with big corporations calling all the real important shots. 

I envied my coworkers who seemed cheerful to go to work every day.  Sometimes I wonder what if I'd have gone on antidepressants or found some other sort of way to make my job bearable.  Maybe I’d have stayed in Vancouver, maybe I’d have married another yuppie and we’d have a condo in Whistler to go on weekend ski trips to.  I’d still be playing ultimate frisbee, going for Friday evening drinks, cramming all my fun into evenings, weekends and vacations…should I have tried harder for that life?

Nah.

 

Fast forward to 2013 and I have to say I love every square inch of our 10 acres of riverfront. At least I can say that every frog, snake and bird on this property has a healthy home, and my non-yuppie husband and I do what we can to keep it that way.  As my art career grows I hope to earn enough to buy more acres of riverfront to leave for the critters.   

And I can say I love every minute in my studio where I try to sculpt things that I love, and hoping other will love them too.  I have to say I work way harder since becoming an artist, longer hours anyhow, if I was to count the hours where I was actually productive.  Being a biologist never pulled me to my work in the middle of the night the way my studio can. Instead of watching the clock and working for the weekend, now my time is spent realizing creative ideas and looking for the intersection between what I love to do, and what people need and want.

And, ironically, I think I live lighter on the earth.

No more driving my car to my conservation biology job and stopping for a Macdonald’s McGriddle on the way (I did this a few times near the end).  Now I have the time and space to grow my own vegetables and cook most things from scratch.  Trips to town to buy things are infrequent, and I no longer feel the need to numb myself after work with booze or shopping.  So, inadvertently, I think all this makes me a better ‘conservation biologist’ if I’m still allowed to claim that identity. 

And I'm not out to bash biology.  Rather, I think there are many scientists doing important work, and hopefully these are the people who are following their dreams. I'm grateful for all the biologists who work to protect the environment, and all the plants and animals we share the earth with.  It just wasn't right for me, and the best thing I could have done for society, I think, was to go off and figure out who my authentic self is, and start living that life instead.

So there you have it.  I refuse to feel guilty anymore about being an artist! I can't help it if I want to sculpt all the time.  Back to the studio!

New Ornaments, and "How to Make a Living as an Artist?"

I spent the last couple of days carving away on some new stoneware Christmas ornaments I've been working on.  Now that I'm on a new kick of tracking my hours I have to admit these took more time than I thought.   I've been making stoneware animal ornaments for a few years and have figured out I can make them lighter by hollowing out the insides, so scraping away their innards takes a while but is worth it!

group photo

bunny and seahorse

cocker spaniel puppy wearing a santa hat, and hermit crab

A buck (great for the hunter who didn't shoot one during hunting season) and a tortoise

snow goose and ermine

Chickens, I'll be making a lot of these I think!

Anyhow, that's today's pics.  In other news I've been thinking a lot about "how to make a living as an artist".  I turned 40 last year, and will be 40 for one more month.  I've had a pretty full life so far but seem to be at some mid-life point ready for a challenge.  Making a living as an artist  seems like a fun puzzle to tackle... for the next few decades hopefully.

It's worth pointing out that although I've devoted myself full time to my creative pursuits since quitting my last full time biology job in 2005, I can't honestly say I make a living as an artist, rather my husband and I live frugally off the income from a few residential rental properties we own.   After looking through my 2011/2012 expenses I've realized my art practice is something I need to start keeping an eye on. 

 There have been a few artists I've spoken to lately who have mentioned they're lucky if they 'break even'.  I'm assuming this just means they pay for their art supplies.  Not sure if this would include gas, mileage and lunch when dropping off work and going to openings, power bills for running studios and kilns, and any sort of dollar amount for one's time.  It begs the question of how to avoid 'working for free'.  I love sculpting!! but I also would love to make more money than what I spend on doing it!  Mainly because I've been out of the work force for so long that I'm pretty sure I'm unemployable, also because I think it's only fair.  I'm a manufacturer, offering people the opportunity to purchase things that were locally, lovingly made.

Lots of my work has sold over the years, but my main problem to date, I think, is that a shop will sell something of mine, and I'll think, 'woohoo! a sale!' and believe that I've made x amount of dollars off that piece.  Lately I've realized that my earnings get watered down by the time and materials tied up in all the unsold pieces sitting in storage at venues or in my kiln shed.  

So, what to do about it?

Fortunately, I've noticed something.  Whenever I go that 'extra mile' on a piece, do a little extra detail work, or it's something I was just noodling around with having fun in my studio, and decide, oh, it's not serious so I'll put a reasonable price on it, it tends to be the first thing that sells.  It's worth noting that these are pieces where I tend to just stop caring and am fully 'playing'.  Unlike the times where I get serious, turn myself into a machine, and try to crank out a bunch of objects that I think will sell (although those things will sell too, just not as quickly).

This is good news, seeing as the reason why I decided to attempt a career as an artist in the first place was to see if I could get paid for doing what I love all day.  It's a good reminder to try to put 'the love' back into my sculptures, because that's really the advantage I can offer to consumers, when they have the choice between buying something I've made versus something that came from a foreign factory.  I'm sure foreign child wage slaves don't get the luxury of lounging on their studio couch binge watching "Glee" while whittling away the last offending flecks of clay from the insides of the chicken christmas ornament they're working on, knowing they can pop downstairs for more tea or snacks, or outside for a walk as needed.

I've also had the experience of being 'profitable' without even realizing it at the time.  In the autumn of 2005 I was freshly back from working on a community art event in Taiwan, and full of creative energy.  That's when I began making silly looking papier mache animals with santa hats on them.  I called them "Merry Creatures" and gave them names, like "Marian the Christmas Daschund" "Ned the Christmas Cobra" "Steve the Christmas Penguin" etc.  I took them up to the Paper Umbrella in Regina, and they sold the first few for me, for $9 each minus a 30% commission.  I was so pleased that they had started to sell that by Christmas I'd made (and they sold) about 50, and my price was up to $15 each by Christmas 2005, and $21 each by Christmas 2007. I sold about 150 ornaments over the 3 winters I spent in Regina, plus a few dozen "Pulp Creatures" figurines.

After Christmas 2005 I started Art School where, to my surprise, none of the faculty was interested in my papier mache cottage industry.  Since then I've spent thousands on a kiln, wheel, pottery supplies, art school, and only now have I decided, ok, time to make a conscious effort to treat my art as a business.  So I've thought a lot of that first Christmas season, selling stuff, not knowing what I was doing, but ironically being quite profitable.  It gives me hope that I have a good intuition for making work that is both salable and enjoyable for me to make.

 I'm not complaining about having not made a living as an artist yet, the truth is I've never really tried before and have spent a lot of time and expense on fun things including art installations and volunteering for various things.  From now on, though, I want to be able to fund these activities through sales of my art.  I've never applied for any kind of grants as an artist; mainly because I feel like I've blown through my share of tax dollars as a biologist.

My goal for 2014 (well I'm starting now) is to see if I can earn the equivalent of a minimum wage job.  Mininum wage in Nova Scotia is $10.30 per hour.  This is just my 2014 goal; eventually I'd like to be earning what I would have as a biologist.

Do I know what I'm doing? Absolutely not, which is why "how to make a living as an artist" is followed by a question mark in the title of this blog post.

But these are things I've decided I'm going to try to help the process:

1. - Photograph everything I make from now on.  Would you believe I've sold over 150 "Merry Creatures" and never took a photo of any of them?  I wish I had.

2. - Overcome shyness and anxiety with respect to Social Networking.  To this end I've already recreated my twitter account (@susanpaczekart) and after a few month long break from facebook plan on logging back on and making a fan page.  It's occurred to me that most people are so wrapped up in their own businesses it's silly to worry about promoting mine.

3. - Work smarter.  Plan things out so that my kiln is fairly full when I fire it.  Make things I love but work in series to cut down on the time that painting glaze or acrylics takes.  Plan my trips when I drop work off so I'm making the most out of the gas/mileage. Pay attention to how much time I spend doing various things; like blogging even, so I can be more efficient in my use of time.

4. - Post regular blog posts with pics of my stuff in various stages of progress.  I can't justify the time it'd take to post every day but am aiming for at least once /week.  I'd also like to include some posts where I ask artists around here what they think about various things.

5. - Make better work! actually if this list was in order of importance, this would be #1.  I love Jim Rohn, there's so much great stuff by him on Youtube.  One of my favourite quotes:
Don't wish it was easier wish you were better. Don't wish for less problems wish for more skills. Don't wish for less challenge wish for more wisdom - Jim Rohn
I feel like time is the one commodity I have in abundance, it doesn't cost me extra dollars, and I'd rather put extra time into a piece and increase the chance it'll sell than end up with boxes of unsold stock.

6. - Don't get sucked into time sucks.  This one I've already overcome I think, but when starting out as an artist it's funny how many people think they're doing you a favour by inviting you to donate work to this auction or that fundraiser.  "Oh, it'll be great exposure" mmm hmm...

Last fall I did my first 'craft fair' ever, it was for a charity and I'd never been before but I had a feeling it might not go so well.  I went anyways for the experience...  It took up 17 hours of my husband's and mine's time (34 hours total), once I packed up stuff, loaded the car, driven to the event, set up the table, sat the table, packed everything up and went home.  I sold $210 worth of stuff (It wasn't promoted very well, several artists didn't sell a thing), minus $30 for the booth, minus 20% commission on sales, so 210 - 30 - 42 = $138 I made; so not even counting materials and labour to make the items that sold, for just our time at the event we earned $138/34 hours... oh wait, no let's subtract $40 for gas from that... $98/34 hours = $2.88/hr for our time being at the event.  This would get diminished by actually factoring in the time and money, firings, etc for the things I fired and sold.  I guess my point is before committing to an event, do some research, or visit the year before to make sure it's worth the time.  Obviously some things are super fun and social to do even if they make little economic sense, but it's good to know what you're getting into!  Brings me to the next point:

7.  Mind my own business.  I've realized that organizers of other businesses (venues, websites, craft shows) are minding their own business and out to do what's profitable for them.  I think the trick might be to look for opportunities where mine may intersect with theirs into a mutually beneficial win/win. 

8. Know when to say no.  I've realized I don't earn enough for my art practice not to be bliss, and I need to quit making the assumption that every opportunity that comes along is in my best interest.  Eg, if I could build a time machine I probably should have said "no" when I was offered a show in a gallery the week after I got married.  It made me a nervous wreck in the weeks before and the work I made really sucked.

9. - Quit expecting validation from everyone (friends, family) there are a lot of people who don't really get what I'm trying to accomplish.  I've come to realize that's totally fine, and am trying to save all my blah blah blah about art for other artists friends I'm making who want to hear about it.  Well my husband still gets an earful but he's a good sport and supportive.  By putting more of myself into my art I'm getting plenty of validation from my creations. If that makes any sense.

10. - Learn from like-minded people!! Since moving to Nova Scotia to do the full time art thing I've come across other artists who are pessimistic about the whole topic of making a living as at their trade.  Sure, the economy here has been even worse than usual since the Canadian dollar got stronger, and with less tourism.  And yes, it seems every artist and her dog seem to be moving to Nova Scotia to hone their craft.  When I got back into twitter I've found that for every nay-sayer, there are plenty of great, pro-artists-making-money articles and inspiration on the internet, from all over the world.
 

That's it for now, this is a post I'll likely revisit and work on (I've already added a couple points since posting).

Here are some links to sites and articles I've found that I really like, I'll probably add to this list over time, if only for a reference for myself.  A lot of these posts are by people selling services to artists, but the messages are still positive and affirming.

Artsy Shark

The "Rants" and many many articles in the blog section of The Abundant Artist

This Abundant Artist guest post by Martin Stellar on why artists should tell their stories.  

"An Entrepeneur's Vision" Art Business Institute interview with Debra Zeleznik

Art Biz Coach



Paul Klein on How to Succeed as an Artist - this is great!
  



This is also great:

Glazed Spirit Animals and a Crow

In my new effort to be better about documenting my work, here are some shots of the animals that came out of my glaze kiln on Wednesday, lol, with glazed stained pages of the Lighthouse Log as background... at least I'm taking photos now I guess!  I've decided to also post the retail prices of my pieces along with the pics; partly for my own records, and mostly because I find when I look at other people's craft on line I'm always so curious about pricing.

I'm glad I decided not to paint coloured eyes on these.  They all hang on the wall and are part of "Spectre" the 3rd annual group halloween show at Swoon. 

"Spirit Animal"  - large bear - $125

"Spirit Animal" - small bear - $50

"Spirit Animal" - white buffalo - $125

"Spirit Animal"- white stag - $125

"Spirit Animal" - owl - $85

I also took 27 (? I think) flying, wall hanging crows to Swoon, including this one below which I had to refire with more glaze.  The crows range from $25 - $125, this is a $75 one, and is one of my favourites!

I'm pretty happy with how my pheasant turned out.  I glazed it using concepts underglaze on greenware for the colours, and to get the striping on the feathers.  After it was bisqued I used Raw Sienna from mastering Cone 6 glazes, with a splash of Randy's Red Gold on its belly.  It hangs on the wall and is $150.

Finally, the next pic is my new favourite ornament ever, by super awesome ceramic artist/potter France Arruda! She's made all these great skulls with different coloured designs on them; each one is unique so it was so hard to choose!  I picked it up at Dragonfire Pottery along with some ornament hooks to try.

New Low-fire Figurines

My kiln is cooling down now with the cone 6 spirit animals that I glazed yesterday, minus the rabbit whose foot I broke off before it left my studio to go to kiln shed.  maybe I should glaze it and it'll be my lucky rabbit foot?

 In bisque firing my pieces I glazed a bunch of new figurines to cone 04 that I'm excited about, many remind me of "pulp creatures" that I've made in the past out of paper mache.  It's fun to find commercial glazes that are similar to the bright acrylics I would paint with, and recreate some of my favourite past paper mache sculptures out of clay.  These are all headed to Swoon tomorrow and will be $18 each.  I included a couple of pics at the end of my favourites from this batch, the owl and turkey, in my hand for scale.  The figurines average a couple inches in height.

In the future there are a few things I'd do different; the eyes crawled a bit where I painted black concepts over the yellow or green eyeballs; I think if I carve spots out for the pupils with a tool I can avoid this in the next batch.

Bunnies

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil...

vulture, cobra, lion

mouse, cat, owl

poultry

horse, goat, border collie, cow

turtle, skunk, frog

snail, brontosaurus, fish

group photo, class of Oct 16, 2013

owl close up

turkey close up