Kiln Unloading! December 6, 2015

This last firing went pretty well I think!  I unloaded it early this morning.

Here are a bunch of photos of ornaments waiting to go to a venue.  Since posting this, I've made another post, with additional work at Jenny Jib as of December 7th.

A wren, goldfinch, nuthatch and thrasher

Two blue jays and four chickadees

Five bouncing bunnies

bluebird, fawn, raccoon

slug, pterodactyl, brontosaurus, triceratops and frog

Golden retriever, West Highland White Terrier, Pointer

Four frolicking foxes

Four owls and a nervous mouse

Polar pals: penguin, sled dog, seagull

Farmyard friends: pig, rooster, calico cat, pony

two reindeer and a Christmas vulture - known to sneak in through the kitchen window on Boxing day to steal turkey carcasses

woolly suffolk sheep

The Canadian and American icons: beaver and bald eagle

close up of the red-breasted nuthatch

This Week's Favourite Things! Monday November 23rd - Sunday November 29th, 2015

This week's post is a bit late owing to a marathon of underglazing!  The bisque kiln is cooling down now so I'll be glazing tomorrow. Pics of the new work in a few days hopefully.

1.  Awesome news from the Dart Gallery! They'll be expanding in the new year by joining forces with Picnic and offering food.  For Star Wars fans, Dart Wars (a Star Wars inspired group show) opens tomorrow night and runs through December 15th.  

The gallery is shutting early this year due to renovations, so the 15th will be the last day to shop. However I think they'll be at the first annual Halifax Lights Holiday Market at the Historic Properties from December 17th - 20th, but check Dart's Facebook page for details.

2.  Congrats to Lunenburg's Fiore Botanica for being selected to have products in the next Golden Globe Awards gift lounge.  There was a really nice story on Global News on Nov 25th about it, with the Bluenose II photo by Peter Zwicker that will be included in the gift bags.  I can't seem to share the clip but here's a CBC article from September with the announcement. 

3.  Bob Proctor - As you think so shall you become - how to think positive! youtube video

4.  Paper clay slip!  I snapped the fluke off of the larger of the two 'whale tail fruit cake stands' I planned on firing. 

Here's a pic from before the accident:

After an internet research session on 'how to fix greenware', I made a slip of dried clay bits, torn up bits of toilet paper, and white vinegar (let soak for a few hours).  Then I wet the clay with normal slip, twice, scored and slipped, held it together, and rubbed a bunch of the paper clay slip into the seam on both sides.  It totally worked!  Ironically while doing all this the video I linked in item #3 randomly came up on autoplay on youtube.  The paper clay slip also worked to fill in a crack that had formed in another part of the piece, the repaired/filled parts just needed a bit of sanding with some sand paper afterwards.

But then after this miraculous repair job, a few days later, I busted the other side going out the door to load my kiln!  Oops!  It was ok, as there wasn't enough room in the kiln for it, and it was a bit wonky anyways - the smaller one is much nicer.   

I'll repair the other side, and fire it eventually though to see how my repair job holds up - this way I won't risk having things I like underneath the repaired bits!  The whole accident has me thinking about experimenting with homemade paper clay on future sculptures, it could be good for making furry textures.

5.  The Loonies & Toonies Dollar Store at 203 Lincoln Street in Lunenburg because they have awesome packs of kids paint brushes in the art section, with bright plastic handles, that are actually perfect for underglazing.  The pack includes a bunch in different sizes for $2.  Paintbrushes aside, this is a really great dollar store with lots of interesting random things.  

6.  Lunenburg's love of Christmas Shoppers and small businesses: the entire town of Lunenburg has free parking for the month of December.  For those considering a scenic shopping excursion, many Lunenburg shops are offering some extended hours this month by staying open until 8pm on Fridays.

Here's the list copy/pasted today from this Christmas In Lunenburg Facebook event page:

Shop local this holiday season! Many shops will be open late to help you enjoy stress free, relaxed shopping. Check with your favourite shop to see if they'll be participating!

Shops open late:
Friday December 04 until 8PM
Friday December 11 until 8PM
Friday December 18 until 8PM
Monday December 21 until 8PM
Tuesday December 22 until 8PM
Wednesday December 23 until 8PM

Participating Shops:
Dots & Loops
Luvly in Lunenburg
Jenny Jib
Lexicon Books
Stan's Dad & Lad
Lunenburg Bound
Mom's Buy & Sell
Kinley Drugs
Lunenburg Community Consignment
Mariner's Daughter

I imagine this event page may get updated though, so check it for details before heading out.  I believe some shops are also having tax-free events during these times.

7.  Halifax Transit's ferry naming contest on until December 13th.  

I was making some rabbit ornaments when I stumbled across this, so Huxley came to mind as a great ferry name.  Huxley is the pet rabbit owned by the Dart Gallery's owner, who agreed Huxley would also be a fine ferry name.

Huxley is a bit of a Dartmouth icon: he's often at the gallery, blogs at Hello Dartmouth and has had Badmouth Soap named after him.  

Like the word Halifax, Huxley has an "h", "l" and "x".  It is a catchy name that perhaps speaks to  many Haligonians' love of art, humour, nature and pets. Also, Huxley is adorable and who doesn't want to live in a city that has a ferry named after a pet rabbit.  

Plus it might give a PR boost to all the shops and restaurants of downtown Dartmouth, inspiring more transit "cruises" over from downtown for shopping/dining excursions. Leave your car at home, take transit, walk, shop, have a drink with friends...  This could be good for the economy, stress levels, the environment, and Halifax transit.

   Here's the link to the contest which is open to all residents of Nova Scotia.


Here's a CBC article about the first ferry naming contest, and a Herald article about the most recent winner/finalists - this will be the third contest for the third ferry.

Lots of people voted for these and suggested names in these contests, but there are so many ferry-name-worthy humans, both female and male, that how does a person choose just one?  Picking the rabbit could save everyone the debate.  Plus it's a male rabbit owned by a female human, so there are 2 genders and 2 species covered off in one ballot.  Perfect.

This Week's Favourite Things! Monday November 16th - Sunday November 22nd 2015

1. "Eighty-One" the current exhibition on at Slate Fine Art Gallery in Regina (through December 6th) of gas-fired stoneware pieces by Jack Sures, to celebrate his 81st birthday.  Jack Sures is a master potter and set up the ceramics department at University of Regina.  He had retired by the time I got there in 2006 - 2008 but was still coming in frequently to work on stuff for sale, and we all got to use his glazes and gas kiln.  Plus he gave me some good tips.  

It was so nice to randomly stumble across pics of him on twitter and see him apparently aging backwards! And the show looks amazing. When I was at the department, Jack would work on his pots for a few hours everyday, and then go off and do something athletic, like swimming or curling I think. I guess that's how you keep making pottery into your 80's!  Here's his bio from the Slate Fine Art Gallery site.

This CBC article has the pics I saw on twitter, of both Jack and his installation, here's a screen grab from the article:

2.  The Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council (NSDCC) Christmas Craft show that was just on this past weekend in downtown Halifax at the Cunard Centre.  So much beautiful stuff, here's this year's list of presenters. My very favourite I think was the handpainted Limoges porcelain by New Brunswick artist Isabelle Lafargue.  Here's a link to her site with a bunch of pics, and a closeup of this teapot with houses, not sure if it was the same one at the show. 

 I also loved La P'tit Poterie by Suzanne Babineau from New Brunwick and added to my mug collection, the artist does awesome cone 6 stoneware and wood fired pieces.

my new stoneware mug by La P'tit Poterie

 Clairvoyant Art Glass was there too, and impressed I wore the pendant I bought 2 years ago so much that the cord broke, and tied a new one on.  Then it was hard to leave without getting one of their new pendants.

My new pendant by Clairvoyant Art Glass

3.  The colourful, cheerful bird prints by Sarah Duggan available at The Dart Gallery - where it's 2D I won't take a pic! but I picked up a really great one with a bunch of blue birds on it.

4.  Handknit chicken vests meant to keep former battery hens warm in this article:  A woman is knitting tiny wool jumpers to keep her chickens warm.

5. This bear sleeping bag by artist Eiko Ishizawa

6.  This article: 10 Easy Social Media Tips for the Struggling Artist. 

7.  This Destroyer album: Thief, plus the song of that title.  I forgot I had this and listened to it a tonne this past week.

8.  Regina Indie rock band Rah Rah's first album "Going Steady" from 2008 which is the only one of theirs I have, but I listened to it lots lately too, it reminds me so much of the time I spent in Regina!

9.  Seen a couple movies on Canadian Netflix lately that I really liked:  The Sapphires (based on the true story of an Australian Aboriginal all girl soul singing group in the 60's), and French cartoon: Asterix and Obelix: the mansion of the gods.

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!
 

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.