Seeing red

I will never use red clay in my home studio because I would never be able to clean it out of there - red clay infects everything! But, from time to time, I use red clay in class. I made this vase last summer. I carved the pattern in and glazed the bottom portion of the vase with celedon. I left the neck unglazed.

The Sketchbook Project

I signed up for the Sketchbook Project last fall and I've been madly sketching ever since. Here's a bit of background about the project:

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Thousands of sketchbooks will be exhibited at galleries and museums as they make their way on tour across the country. After the tour, all sketchbooks will enter into the permanent collection of The Brooklyn Art Library, where they will be barcoded and available for the public to view. 28836 artists from 94 countries around the world are participating!

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So me, and 28835 other people will submit our sketchbooks to be a part of this traveling exhibition. I sent in my finished book today!! My assigned theme was Secret Codes and my spin on the theme was Daisies and Dandelions. "Maybe the codes that are secret are those codes not created by people. Maybe the secret codes are those created in nature. The secrets to why some flowers are white and others are yellow, and why some seeds produce daisies and others produce dandelions."

I filled my sketchbook with line drawings of flowers and seeds and pollens. Here are a few samples.

Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker

This little fellow hung out in the yard for a bit yesterday. He wasn't that small actually - he was probably the size of a pigeon. He was dining on the black sunflower seeds with a bunch of his buddies - a Downy Woodpecker was also part of the group.

Oh Christmas tree!

Once again I'm doing the same thing I always do after Christmas - I'm procrastinating taking down the Christmas tree. It happens every year. I love looking at the twinkle lights at night - the tree becomes this wonderful, warm presence that I don't want to take away. I'll give myself a couple more nights with it and take it down on Saturday. Here is a photo of one of my favourite ornaments. I got it in Mexico - it was hand-beaded by a youth group to raise money.

Lucky New Year!

Thank you to Sylvia's mom for making the Lucky New Year's bread! Although many people at our New Year's Eve party hoped to find the lucky looney in their slice, this year the house won. I found the looney the following day - so I'm looking forward to a 2011 full of good luck!

Slip trailing

I used a slip trailing technique to add texture to this slab built vase. I love the effect of the slip under the glaze. I recently bought a few different colured slip trailers, so I'm going to see what I can create by trailing coloured slip on top of painted on slip....