Getting back to Blogging

2010 was not my year for blogging. Too busy juggling balls as construction manager on major home improvement projects. No sooner had we finished erecting a Craftsmen style guest cottage on our lower property, than we turned to remodeling the 74 year old house it faces. This rambling structure which includes my studio space, was originally an old barn that over the years had become another incarnation of the Winchester Mystery house. As the project unfolded in true domino effect (as most good remodeling endeavors go) even a portion of the studio got a face lift. We demolished the old fiberglass greenhouse in preference for a real room with high beamed ceilings dotted by three skylights and open windows all around. Cabinets from the old house got repurposed in the studio and a bank of new cabinets installed ringing the windows. End result- more storage space than a deluxe kitchen, which didn't take long at all to fill to over flowing with our collection of odds and ends.

My Colorado parents, approaching their 8th decade of life, bravely gave up their beautiful home, saying goodbye to my brother and family, my mother's many organizations, friends and church family to migrate our snowless climate a year ago this month. Ramon and I sleep in our home on the top of the hill, but it's a pretty communal setting with my parents now down at the south forty. That's where I am usually to be found. But then there is still much to be done, and a physical magic to the place that is compelling. Even the undertaker who came by recently to drop off my sweet Aunt Dorothy's ashes, and stop for a drink of tea with Mom wanted to take photos. I'm pretty convinced it has something to do with the ancient oak that envelopes our heads. All those gnarly twisted branches calling up the druids and their poetic mysteries. Certainly some creative energy oversees this place we are caretaking in the stream of time.

Meanwhile...16 months have passed. I have finished mosaicing the wall outside my studio and the diamond wall next to it. Both waiting to be grouted. Not a quick endeavor when working vertically on a large canvas in 2D mosaic. This is where having a cadre of assistants would come in handy. But alas, it is me with the pink platex gloves, the cellulose sponge and the dental tools for the precise archeological excavation of the many textured handmade tiles. As a girl who never works linearly, this isn't the only project that requires my attention. There is a mason bottle wall structure to be finished and a Craftsman style fountain which likewise needs some embellishment.
Need a string of warm days ahead of me to work outside.

Leaf Panel Mosaic

Happy 8oth Birthday, Dad

Returned from Serbia just in time to finish this mosaic for my father's 80th birthday party that got postponed til June. Panel is 4 feet long and made to hang above his bed. Comprised of handmade 2-D ceramic leaves, ceramic tile and sici tile. Framed by Mission Gallery in San Juan Bautista.
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Attempted another leaf panel for my brother''s bathroom for his birthday in July. This one less than successful so it sits in the studio as part of my artistic exercise collection. Problem: not enough variety in color and pieces too far apart. Bland and blah. And darn if I still don't owe my brother a birthday present.

Jan's Mermaid Mural

Latest Mural Project in Studio
Jan's Mermaid

Next to the door, going into the old house, is a portion of wall we had left covered in hardibacker for a furture mural. Keeping with the ocean theme of the existing mural in the studio, Jan projected this mermaid on the wall and colored her in with chalk. Then began the delicious collection of baubles and beads. Collecting a veritable "Pirates of the Carribean" treasure chest of goodies to mosaic with is Jan's forte. Problem arose when we discussed how to mosiac our mermaid's body parts. Wouldn't it be nice to make them in 2-D clay? Yes of course, but while Jan and I like to sculpt neither one of us has any experience sculpting the human body.

What to do?Enter our 26 year old friend, Nora Schwaller, who is finishing her BFA in Ceramics at San Jose State. Nora, aka "Bird Girl" (self explanatory when you view her body of artwork) can sculpt the human body, no problemo! See below. Nora's not bad when it comes to birds either:)
This is Nora hard at work in the SJSU studio with her Bird Woman still in progress. Legs still need to be sculpted.
Sooooooooooooo.....We bribed Nora with a play day in our studio and a few munchies. She graciously showed up prepared to give us lessons in coil building. Funny, we never got to the lessons. No, we twisted Nora's arm to help us with our new mural and watched with rapture as she sculpted the arms and hands for Jan's Mermaid.
Arms will go here.
And look like this...Impressive work in one afternoon, yes, yes, yes! It pays to have talented friends in the sculpting department.

Jan worked on the face and neck.

And one of these days we are going to get the pieces glazed and up on the wall and be off and running. Thanks for your help Miss Nora!

Frida Retablo

Blue Floor

One of the benefits of my parents annual visit from Colorado is that Jan and I feel compelled to take time off to do a bit of spring cleaning. Compelled...no, in a panic, is more like it. Took us a week of full time work in order to pick up, dust off and get the place ready for mom's white glove inspection. The studio stays like this until my parents leave, and then immediately begins to fall back into comfortable creative chaos. Comfortable for me, Jan would like my parents to visit more often ;)

This year we needed to deal with a section of the studio that had been part of our last year's remodeling endeavor, and never quite finished. The rust colored cement floor in this area was in need of some serious sprucing up after being battered with drywall and plaster.

So....we took a little trip to Home Depot (that toy store for adults of "do it yourself" persuasion) and bought a gallon of cement paint which we had tinted blue to match the counter tile. A few hours lof elbow grease later and wa la! New floor!

Flower Pot for Andrea's Web Site Award

Flower pot made by glazing the rim of a Home Depot terracotta garden pot and then embellishing it with handmade ceramic tile flowers and bits and pieces. Pot is ungrouted in these photos. (Eventually grouted with light grey grout.) Made and donated to http://www.wethepaper/ as one of the artist to artist awards for this web site's January Greeting Card design contest.

Summer Sabbatical

August heat hit and along with the insufferable weather, a variety of life interruptions and responsibilities put our creative pursuits on hold. Jan and I haven't been seriously at work for a month and the place looks like an archeological site, all those bright beads buried under layers and layers of dust. A few small endeavors while on summer sabbatical. Finished the Mary Retablo with a background of black smalti.Took this little fellow out of the kiln.And a funny looking chili pepper...
Now in the process of being covered with beads and glass. Made a bit of progress on the outside atrium wall.And since I couldn't be in the studio while putting new hardwood floors in the house, I brought the studio with me. A new window box valance. Have shards will travel.

Ceramic Cuerda Seca Technique

The three butterfiles in this multimedia mosaic are actually three single butterfly shaped ceramic tiles. There are no tiny individual pieces, just the illusion. Lines have been channeled in the clay while it is leather hard. After bisque firing and glaze firing, these channels will trap grout when the entire piece is grouted, leaving the butterflies to appear as though they were mosaiced from tiny pieces instead of a single piece. This is a form of ceramic Cuerda Seca technique. If you look closely at the bottom butterfly, you will see that I forgot to channel the large portion of its left wing. Notice how it looks different than the right, as if it were one piece instead of two.

New Glazes

While Jan and I have been busy studying Sculpture at UC Berkeley Art Studio Wednesday nights, we've also been experimenting with some new glazes. Here are four of Jan's tiles, freshly painted on greenware using low fire translucent underglazes which have been packaged to look like watercolors, and be used in a similar fashion. Once painted on the leather-hard clay they are ready to be bisqued in the kiln at Cone 04. And my attempt, using Amaco Velvet underglazes combined with Jan's watercolor glazes in the yellow center and the leaves. After these are fired, they will require a clear glaze to be painted over the entire tile and then re- fired to Cone 05. We have no idea how they will really look until the moment we lift the lid. That's the exciting part of ceramics, opening the kiln and seeing what happened during the second firing!

A few 3-D hand sculpted tiles loaded in the kiln and ready for bisque 04 firing. The fish tile and the frog on the lily pad are made with slip glazes, which we've been exposed to for the first time in our sculpture class--something new for us, painting with colored clay. Lots of experimenting in progress. In order to appear shiny after bisque firing, these tiles will require a clear glaze and a second firing at Cone 05 or Cone 5, depending on the initial glaze used.