New Sugar Creamer Set

My mind is always cooking with new ideas and I am sure many artists go through the same thing.

Here is a glimpse of my new sugar creamer set in the making and the final product.

These are handbuilt from extrusions of clay, altered with slab additions. I really liked the way they came out.

The tray is made from a thin slab of clay made to look like embroidered fabric.

These would be great for wedding gifts and for Christmas. They are now available on my Etsy shop.

Upcoming in 2010!

I have been busy from the start of the year making some new work for 2010.
Here are some pictures of them in their unfired stage.
I made some handbuilt tumblers and beer steins from slabs of clay which are really light weight and a delight to hold.

I also made a new extrusion die with which I can extrude walls for a container with a gallery inside for the lid. It is quite a versatile die as I can make containers of any shape and size with just this one die. You can see the first picture of the small ones that I made first and then some really big casseroles I made. I wanted to emmulate the look of fabric wrapped around and held together by buttons and that look really comes through.

Another challenging thing has been making oval lids from slabs to fit these pieces and these have comes out great.

These items will be available for purchase in April in my etsy shop.

Salt Pepper Shakers Evolving

With every artist, work keeps evolving and changing. It doesn't even need to be intentional... sometimes it just happens. I for one keep experimenting and trying to do something new. It makes me excited about every piece and thrilled on opening the kiln. And where does one get ideas? Books, magazines, nature, movies, other art work and the list goes on.

In my trip to Dallas during Thanksgiving 2008, I visited David Hendley of http://www.farmpots.com/ who is a very impresive artist and also a very tall one....LOL. I am most impressed with his extrusion work. It was fun spending sometime with him and chatting about his process and studio. I bought his DVDs to add to my skills on extrusions and now you can see the change in my salt pepper shakers.

Earlier, I extruded them straight out and altered them pushing from the inside giving them curves and finished them with a top and bottom attached. This time around I added the "David Hendley" twist while extruding them and followed my process as before. I also made them more decorative by slip decoration emphasizing the movement in the piece. Earlier my shakers danced, now they have just that extra bit jump in their feet which I like. You can see the before and after pictures of the shakers and see for yourself. Also attached is a picture of David Hendley and me at the studio.... in case you are wondering.. I am the short one. :)