Thursday, April 28, 2016

Contemporary Clay Fair Weekend...

Day; 273. Damn Wind!, again...

Temperature out outside kiln; 55 degrees
kiln firings; none
music in the studio; Joss Stone, soul singer

I am about to disappear for 3 days so I thought I should warn all of my readers, all 6 of you that is! The Spring Contemporary Clay Fair is going  up tomorrow at the Santa Fe Woman's Club and will be open all weekend, April 30th-May 1st, from 10am-5pm. As the producer and treasurer for the show, not to mention a participant,  I will be too darn tired at the end of the day to write anything at all so goodbye until Monday.. maybe even Tuesday... I have to count all the money and get it to the bank... ! A big job..!


Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Juggling Shows...

Day; 272. Windy as Hell!

Temperature on outside kiln; 52 degrees
kiln firngs; all done!
music in the studio; Karaoke sing-a-long!

A funny couple of days as I prepare for a second show before I have even done the first one....
The work for the Spring Contemporary Clay Fair is mostly packed and priced for this weekend so I had a few days to make a few more things for the Studio Tour in two weeks time. I will probably sell half my inventory this weekend so I really needed to spend this week making more, but... I didn't feel like it! It is hard to be looking ahead to The Tour, and what I might need to make for it, when there are 7 bins of work sitting in my studio... After the Clay Fair there will be no time to work wet however, so if I am to make more stuff for the studio tour it needed to be this week. I managed a few bowls and cups yesterday and today I made a few more wall pieces thinking they would be big sellers at the Clay Fair, but that is a guess. Here are a few pieces out of a recent kiln for the Clay Fair that I really liked;

 Some wall pieces...
 Buttons and earrings...





A few noodles bowls..















Hopefully my customers will like them as well!

Friday, April 22, 2016

Printing on Clay

Day; 271. Mix of cloud and sun, really pretty and warm...
temperature on outside kiln; 62 degrees
kiln firings; none
music in the studio; Democracy Now with Amy Goodman

Today is one of those days I love.. dogs and husband out in the basin for a hike, and me and my I pod in the studio together sitting quietly transferring images onto pots... Ahh.. quiet, still, focused... really meditative and relaxing, I am so grateful to be working for myself.





I will finish all the image transfers tomorrow and fire the Baby Bear Kiln one more time for the Contemporary Clay Fair which is going up in exactly one week..









The ads are in, the tables are counted, the jobs allocated, the receipts printed, the wrapping paper bought, the stickers stickered, the hotspot and Ipads charged up... ready, set, go...!












Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Nothing But Glazing...

Day; 270/271/272;  Overcast and chilly..

Temperature on outside kiln; 48 degrees..
kiln firings; glaze firing in little bear kiln to cone 6
music in the studio; what is on Pandora..

Beautiful day but a bit chilly still. We have had 3-4 days of clouds, rain, hail, snow....




Mid-April and it is 30 degrees at night and the roof is leaking....













But it also means we get to have plenty of these right next to the bed..






And the next day the Jemez Mountains to the west look like this...


Hard to see how truly snow-covered they are.. But the entire range is blanketed this a.m...

But  I am in the studio today, and for the last 3  days, just mixing glazes and then dealing with all the bisque -ware that has built up... I try not to let that happen because then I make bad glaze choices simply from being overwhelmed..



So  I decided to  fire what I have completed so far and not worry about filling Big Mama Kiln. It isn't as cost effective, but it saves my SANITY... and that's important!!

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

A Return to My Mountains...

Day; 269. A little overcast and chilly.

Temperature on outside kiln; 50 degrees
kiln firings; leftover image transfer pieces, cone 02
music in the studio; Corrine Bailey Rae

I am back in the studio today after 5 days in Northern Colorado and 2 days in the dining room finishing out taxes...
My trip to Boulder and the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area was awesome.... I checked into the Chez Villarreal (a friend of a friend's house) and this is what greeted me upon dropping my backpack in my room....

 My own  big fluffy robe, shampoo and various personal items, and two bars of Boulder-made chocolate...  I was treated like the visiting Queen of England, instead of a visiting artist, for 3 days and nights.. all meals, lunches made for me, bottles of wine... I really didnt want to leave... Kate and Mark were incredible and I hope to some day return the favor as Mark The Painter has a new gallery in Santa Fe...











 After a 400 mile drive and a good night's sleep, I spent 3 days teaching teenagers in two different Boulder County High Schools and an evening  at the Boulder Potters Guild. I had a bit of trepidation about teaching teenagers, strictly because I have no experience doing so, but they were very respectful, interested, and really very delightful...


This is the view from the ceramics studio looking west towards the Boulder Flatirons... not too shabby!!



How fun to be back in such a gloriously beautiful place and the city that I went to grad school in... I visited with several old friends and basically felt like I had re-entered by life of 20 years ago... ! A little disorienting but great good fun as well. 

After my teaching gigs I spend a night up in the mountains with an old friend that I lived with in Nederland (and in New Mexico), after my husband and I decided to get a divorce. I wanted to see her again as it had been a year and also she bought a house, her first ever, outside of the small village of Jamestown. 3 years ago this area had suffered a 100-year flood event, and the ravages of that historic flood were still evident; rubble and debris still littered the landscape and roads were still impassible and being rebuilt. After reaching the Bar K where Tamira lives with her two very large dogs, another Husky of course which I had found for her in NM, we had our usual meal of olives, cheese/crackers,  and very good wine. I was so pleased to see that the north-facing windows perfectly framed Longs Peak, a 14'er right outside her window, in the mountains that she loves so much. So good to catch up on old times and see her happy and contented in her new home. 

The next morning I drove home but not before I stopped briefly in Nederland to drive up to the top of Hurricane Hill.. My ex-husband and I built a house here in 1993 and I wanted to see how it was doing after 20+ years of hurricane force winter winds..  I must say it looked great and I was tempted to ask the woman standing outside if I could  peek inside. I didn't however, I was feeling  shy and sad and a little emotional, so I just pretended I was a tourist looking at the Continental Divide... I just couldn't help thinking about the day I had left in 1997; crushed and sobbing, and leaving one dog behind...  off on another adventure, but not really knowing where life was about to take me at the age of 41...



After a deep breath, and another goodbye,  I turned from my mountains again and headed for Santa Fe...  All the way down Boulder Canyon I thought about my life in Colorado and how much I had enjoyed it; skiing out my front door, the camaraderie of graduate  school, the intensity of nature at 8,500 feet of elevation... But by the time I reached the bottom of the canyon, 16 very steep and winding miles, I had shifted my focus and was then thinking about how the move to New Mexico had turned out and how lucky I was to land on my feet again; an incredible man in my life, a beautiful new home , a new studio to work in, four new huskies to love,a supportive arts community and more mountains to play in! Damn, I'm a lucky girl!



Monday, April 4, 2016

Uncle Sam Takes a Bite Out Of My A*s ....

Day; 268. Sunny and absolutely gorgeous! Spring has definitely sprung.

Temperature on outside kiln; 60 degrees
kiln firings; none
music in the studio; none

Another non-studio day for the 3rd day in a row, and I am about to take a road trip for 5 days so I thought I better catch up all of my two readers as to my whereabouts....

Saturday I participated in my first  Art Market in the Santa Fe Railyard, and had a great day!... even if I had to put my tent up at dawn.. It was so beautiful with pink clouds hovering over the mountains...






















I had been a little worried the night before because we got a few inches of snow, but the next morning it was cloudless, snowless, and most importantly, windless!!
And a lot of tourist and locals came out to support us. I had one of my best days and it was only April 2nd!      
Which was great because the next day I spent working on my federal taxes and sweating a little like I do every year once April 15th is looming...


 I am going with the notion that all will be well however, and practicing the feeling of abundance and imagining all bills paid... Feeling first, than manifestation... it seems to be working!

Tomorrow I drive my husband's new SUV north 400 miles  to Boulder, Colorado...

 I will be teaching at Boulder High School for two days in their ceramics department and will be doing a one-night gig at the Boulder Potter's Guild. I am really excited to get out of the studio and into the world. I have been feeling wayyyy to isolated lately and I am making a change!




As I went to CU Boulder in the early 90's and lived up in the mountains above town  for 10 years,  I am very stoked to re-visit my old stomping grounds as well and to see some old friends. My husband and I at the time built a custom house overlooking the Continental Divide and I am curious to drive by and see how it is weathering the years.  I will also visit one of my oldest friends who lived with me up in Nederland and who I lived with briefly when I moved to New Mexico. Tamara is now back up in "Our Mountains " and living the life with a new husky dog which I found for her after her wolf hybrid, who was related to mine, died several years ago...
It should also be fun to kick around the town, so chic, so outdoorsy, with tons of window shopping to do that Santa Fe just doesn't have...   and even though they got a foot of snow last week, this week is suppose to be 65 and beautiful... Front Range of the Rocky Mountains here I come.... !!