When it rains, it pours

And when it pours, it collects in our basement. I have 3 or 4 of these twin chambered vessels bisqued and ready to be glazed when the temperatures improve. I also spent several hours making faces to use for more of my facing forward shawl pins. The faces are now bone dry and ready to be cleaned up (the holes need to be re-drilled) before being bisque fired. I can bisque them in the bench furnace in the garage that I use for raku firing. It'll be a lower bisque than I usually use but still perfectly acceptable.

I can probably have a glaze load ready to go, as soon as Lake Fasimpaur recedes. Wish me luck.

More Studio Stuff

I spent some time today listing new pins in my Etsy shop. Tonight I'm bisque firing the stuff that I made to replace the items that I lost in last week's explosive firing. (I should try to take a picture of the debris inside the kiln before I clean it up but I doubt that I'll bother.) I'm really very excited about the pieces that I'm working on. I'm practicing my carving skills and making press molds which will keep the finished pieces as affordable as possible.

I'm still working on the needle felted project that I posted about yesterday. In addition, I'm about to start a needle felted hat. I found a beautiful wool hat for $1.00 at a thrift shop. I'm going to embellish it with needle felting and take photos at each stage of the process. I'm thinking that it will work up into a fun tutorial. If I get my act together, I may be able to have it finished in time for the Whiplash deadline since the September theme is Hats.

My other big project right now is that I want to re-write my artists' statement. It's probably because of my recent obsession with fiberarts but I've got all of these philosophical points running around in my head about "Women's Work" and the whole Art vs. Craft debate and what gets called "craft" and the value placed on crafts as opposed to "Art"...

I'm sure that reading statements from clothing designers, weavers, and other textile artists talking about their struggles to have their work accepted into galleries and validated by the "establishment" has influenced my thinking about all of this. It's just interesting to me that since I've decided to turn my attention more toward incorporating my beads into finished objects that compliment my interest in fibers and textiles, I've acquired a broader perspective with which to view the Art v. Craft groupthink.

However, if I find myself too tempted to indulge in pointless woolgathering, I just remind myself that I have a show to prepare for next weekend, and beads/pins to make.

Let's face it...

Do you ever get the feeling that you're being watched? There are roughtly 50 glazed faces sitting on the table next to my computer waiting to be fired. I've been trying to get out to the garage to load a kiln for almost 3 hours. The batteries on Sprout's swing died yesterday, so right now I can't even lull her to sleep long enough to take a shower or go to the bathroom. She's teething so she's kinda fussy and high needs at the moment.

The Dayton Show is this weekend. I'll probably go ahead and set up the table tomorrow night on my own and then meet JJ there Saturday for the show.

I should have plenty of stock for the show. I didn't really sell that much in Louisville and haven't done any shows or sales trips since then. I want to place a little more emphasis on the faces for the art dolls this time around. (Which is why there are 50 of them waiting to be fired.) I'm taking my dolls with me to the show to showcase the faces. I'm looking forward to seeing the response.

ETA: I finally loaded Sprout into her car seat and took her, the diaper bag, and my faces out to the garage. I loaded the kiln while she watched from her car seat and then loaded her, and me, into Mom's car (which I'm borrowing for the weekend) to run some errands. We have new batteries for the swing, and now if I can just figure out the dynatrol issue... (What in the bloody h*ll does ErrD mean?) I'm hoping that JJ can come over sometime next week (I wasn't able to pick up the hydrocal from the pottery supply store for him since they were out of stock... this means that he'll need to come this way next week anyway) and we can poke at the kiln. Speaking of which, I should go check on it.

And the bead rolls on

I negotiated with my sweetie for two studio sessions today. I worked in the studio for a couple of hours this afternoon, and then again for a couple hours after dinner. Sprout played in the playpen we bought her for the studio while daddy took care of a couple things inside and then he took over baby watch and I had quality time to play in the mud.

I made over 100 beads today. I started out working on the same style of beads that I was making the last time I was in the studio. I've been thinking of them as "Squash Blossom Melon Beads." They're segmented like any other melon bead but they alternate a zig-zag division with a straight division so that the end result is rather interesting. When I took the break to come into the house for dinner, I had 117 of those made and drying. (Including the ones that I made last time.)

My plan is to break them up into 3 or 4 groups and glaze all the beads in each group the same color. I will probably fill the kiln with beads in a specific color and then sort them into strands of 10 and pairs after they're fired.

After dinner, I started working on polkadot beads. I got about 43 of them made before it was time to come in. This batch of polkadots have 4 large circles impressed around the bead and then 8 smaller ones. I have another 20 or so balls formed to make more beads when I get back into the studio on Monday night.

For now, it's time to take the baby up to bed. We're meeting Helena and her husband tomorrow at Cox Arboretum to enjoy their butterfly house. We probably won't get out to the butterfly prairie because the weather is supposed to be inhospitable.

This will be a full week. Lisa is coming into town for a personal appearance and we'll be seeing her briefly on Tuesday afternoon. Monday I'm getting together with JJ to talk web stuff and work out firing for some of his doll faces.

Speaking of dolls, I should get the one that I'm working on finished. I'm loving the way that her needle felted hair is turning out. She still won't tell me how she wants to wear her beads.

Wired

I went to my local ceramic supplier on Tuesday to buy high temp wire for my glaze firings this week. Because of the way that I fire, I prefer what is generally called "Stamen Wire" because I can thread it through the holes in my pieces and make loops which I can suspend from the heavier firing rods which come with commercially available bead racks. Unfortunately, what they had available was 17 gauge high-temp wire which doesn't really lend itself well to the loop method that I've been using.

I bought some anyway because I needed wire and couldn't wait to order some and didn't want to drive to Columbus to get the stamen wire. I'm trying an experiment. If it works, I'll be in really great shape, I'll have "hangers" which I can use in the kiln for firing pieces without having to put the loops onto each piece and remove them after the firing. If it doesn't work, I'll open the kiln tomorrow morning to find a pile of vessels and goddesses which have all glazed themselves together after falling from the curiously straight wires in the kiln.

I got my new glasses today. I'm afraid that I may need to have them adjusted at some point tomorrow. I have a sore spot on the back of my left ear where the glasses appear to be applying odd pressure. The new glasses are attractive, but I 'm really looking forward to getting the other glasses that I ordered. They have tinted lenses to help with my light sentitivity, and clip on sunglasses that will be such wonderful things to have... Especially on vacation next month.

Show progress update

A word of warning: I'm feeling a bit whiney right now. Don't take anything I say too seriously.

The shells came out of the glaze kiln looking great. The three mini amphorae are really nice. If I had a month, I'd probably feel really good about the odds of getting ready for this show... as it is, I'll do the best that I can.

The half-moon vessels are ready for the bisque kiln. I made 8 goddesses as well. I'll bisque fire them tomorrow and then focus on glazing. I need to start my inventory for the show as well. I haven't heard from Kim's husband about her contributions. Her son had an appointment in Lexington to get his cast off on Monday so, if I don't hear from her husband tomorrow I'll call him. We're on a deadline here and since she wasn't going to price her work or do any kind of inventory, I really need to have a bit of time to get stuff ready.

I'm getting new glasses. The ones that I ordered at the eye doctor's office should be ready in a week or two. I need replacements for my current glasses before that. I'm missing one of the nose guards and tonight, while trying to steal them off my face, Sprout nearly lost the other one. I bought stick-on pads that should help but it's still rather uncomfortable.

I should have gone into the studio this evening to try to get some work done. I have a bit of a headache still from the eye appointment and just didn't feel up to it. I'm just going to have to make do with what I've got.