Eggs and eggi-ness

I have decided I like this whole "series" thing. Not that the 4 season with the trees is particularly original, but it was a fun series to do and gave me some inspiration for making each tree unique. I don't want to fall into some sort of rut with the trees, but I don't think I am in danger of that for a while. Still too much to explore there.

My next series is an expansion on the eggs I have done in the past. The first set of eggs I threw earlier this week were OK but not great in their eggi-ness. I didn't spend enough time thinking about the angle/curve of the egg in relation to the lid/base and ended up with some frustrations in fitting the lid-bowl onto the base-bowl to my satisfaction. So today, since I finished all the other pots for the week, I decided to throw two more. I took my time about it. While not perfect, and they still required tweeking, I am much happier with their general shape and the fit of their lids. My goal is to end up with 3 that I really like for the "series". It will be a series of eggs in the World Egg, Cosmic Egg, Druid's Egg theme except instead of all being eggs with snakes, I am going to break those concepts out individually. One of them will be the snake and the egg that I have done before; the alchemical symbol for creation (Druid's Egg). One of them will be a "world tree" motif with a tree (of course) and various flora and fauna (this is the World Egg). The last one will be decorated only with glaze. I am going to do it in black with glazes on top of it to look like a two arm spiral galaxy complete with stars (the Cosmic Egg). I have some great pictures for this but it is the riskiest of the three since it relies completely on the glazing for its surface decoration with no drawn or sculpted elements. But I have a Plan(tm) to help with this. I actually have six eggs right now, which means I have "test eggs". I figure I don't really need a test egg for the one I have done before, which gives me a test for the world tree egg and potentially two tests for the cosmic egg. That will allow me to test a couple of glaze variations before I do my "good" one.

I have a feeling that even if I get it to turn out the way I am envisioning, that last one is going to be a bitch to photograph ....

More Work In Progress - Seasons of Trees Goblets

I made enough pieces to create 4 tree goblets and have decided they will be four seasons of trees. As I was working on them it became clear which tree should be which season (there us one already on the bisque shelf), now all I have to figure out is how to glaze them to enhance their different and interesting shapes, and help evoke their seasonal tie. It is cool to be making a set of things like this!

Geckos Are Curious - Grant App. Pots

and these guys are checking out the fruit bowl. It is not quite finished at this point (no toes yet) and I decided that the tails needed to be functional. So the tails make loopy sorts of handles for this bowl. You can see its bigger cousin lurking in the background of the picture waiting to get its toes too.

New Inspirational Artist

We went to the new public library in Downtown MPLS while the kids were on their holiday break and wow is it neat! There was also a small exhibit there call "Precious Objects" that included two paintings by Magaret Wall-Romano. I added her to my list of inspirational artists with a link. Her work has areas of blended color and areas of very fine detail and realism. Lots of botanical elements without being chintz like at all. I love to look at her work over and over again since there always seems to be more to see. The picture is a detail of a much larger painting. Check out her website!

Jerome Grant

I am going to apply this year for the Jerome Grant to help further the development of my work in preparation for applying for Grad school this coming fall. More to come in the blog about this. I thought it would be a good idea to make some new work to photograph for the application.

The application is due Feb. 26th... lots of work to do!