Christmas card, check.

Got it finished Wednesday afternoon, and decided not to add the wreath.

I know my daughter can find me something small and Christmasy to glue on the printed cards, and I can leave my original in it's pristine state.

So...... what do you think?  I'm almost 95% happy with it, which is pretty good for me.  

Next!

Something old, something new...

Here's the bbq tiles I painted a couple of weeks ago.  

I finally got the first bunch out of the kiln.  Unfortunately the new assistant put them on cookies and they warped a bit, but that's OK, I can still use them.  

What I wanted to show you was how the color changed.  Since I only used one coat of underglaze (on purpose), they look more painterly and rustic, which is what I wanted.  The finished tiles are below.  

I am also starting a new project to do a few altars for Vision Gallery's Day of the Dead exhibit.  Here's the first one, just finished making it.  It's porcelain, so I don't know if it will hold or slump in the firing.  I wanted to try porcelain because the finished colors will be so much brighter.  Cross your fingers and I'll keep you posted.

Santa Fe, Steps 3 and 4

I worked on this for a couple of sessions this week, and then again yesterday.

I still haven't decided if I'm going to use this watercolor for my Christmas card.  Here's the dilemma:  I can add a wreath by the door, or maybe even colored lights around it, but then it would be useless for anything else, i.e. SELLING IT, hopefully.  Or I can keep it as it is, and just use it anyway.

Bottom picture shows my progress from yesterday.  I think it's coming right along:  I'm happy with it.

 

Back to watercolor

Was it last summer?  Anywho, we went to Santa Fe and I took a bunch of pictures, hoping to do some paintings later.  This was the only building shot that I wanted to use.

So here are Steps 1 and 2 of the new painting.  I'm trying to decide if I want to put in a wreath or colored lights around the door and use it for my Christmas card this year, since I haven't even started on that yet.  

Also, I know the door is crooked.  It's supposed to be, only not quite this much.  I think I can fix it pretty easily.

 

Frida and me.

For those of you who live in or close to Chandler, and LOVE Frida Kahlo (as I do), they're having a great Frida exhibit at Vision Gallery this month put on by the Phoenix Fridas.  There's fabric, paintings, bead work, sculptures, and.... this fun Frida you can stick your head through.  

Well worth the visit.  

Also totally finished my coffee table for the patio, so I took a picture (see below).  There's the two tables I did, plus the new pillows and the new planter I made in ceramics, all in one place.  

I'm so happy with the finished look.  What do you think?.....

 

One more step

The tiles for my table came out of the kiln perfectly!

So we've gotten the table put together, the base in, and the tiles glued down. 

Now we're in the process of putting in the grout and Voila!  It will be done and I'll have a coffee table for my new patio furniture.  

So, now it's on to the next thing... whatever that might be.

Island beauty

My husband is building an addition to our patio in the back yard, so that we can install a bbq island.  We (he) decided it would be nice to have a tiled top.

So guess who gets to do the top.  Uh-huh.  Here is the first round of tiles with underglaze.  There will be three flat surface areas approx. 2 feet square.  So I took my love of doodling and went to town.  Since this underglaze has a lot of cobalt, it will turn much darker in the glaze firing. I only applied one layer of underglaze, hoping to achieve a "painterly" affect when it is all finished.  
I was going to alternate colors on the tiles, using blue, then brown, but I got talked out of it.  Now I'm glad I did it this way.  Thanks, Steve and Sue!

Here's how they look.

They all turned out great!  No tiles were broken and the install went smoothly, knock on wood.  Here's the photos of all three.  Yeah for completion!

 

We're ready for install

These are the last two panels, completed, organized and ready to go.  

The installation is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m.  I would have made it earlier, but I don't think the installer would have appreciated it.  
Come to think of it, in relation to our recent weather, maybe he would have!

I'll take a picture when the installation is done to post it.  

Cross your fingers that everything goes OK.

 

Where have you been?!!!!

Hey, remember me?  I really haven't had anything new to show, just been working away at the ceramic studio.  Class just finished last week, and this was one of the last things I did, so I thought I'd show you.

I got the idea from Ceramic Arts Daily online.  There was a video demo about handbuilt planters that interested me, so I thought I'd try it.   

I'm getting more and more interested in handbuilding, and I thought this turned out pretty well.  

We're on hiatus  at the studio, since our teacher's on vacation, so I'm going to do some  painting this next week.

The tiles for our boot project are finished too.  I'll be laying out and checking them today, so that they can be installed within the next week or two. I'll keep you posted with pictures when they are done.