tiles, tiles, tiles...

Last summer it happened that I taught a one-on-one week-long workshop, which I thought would be a one time thing.  But it turned out to be a pretty darned good success, and so much fun for me that I decided to offer it this year on purpose.

My first victim ... er, student this season, Ginny, was here this weekend from Atlanta.  Extra fun for me as Ginny and I go back to those days of yore, and she'd just started working in clay again this year after a pretty long hiatus.  

workshopper Ginny, starting with stamps

We officially began the workshop at Echo Gallery, where I'm on duty most Fridays.  It was a perfect setting to get into the mood for creating textures on clay, as there are many visual and tactile textures to be found in the current exhibit of work by both gallery members and our current guests for the "Threads" exhibit, in clay, painting, textiles, photography and more.  If you haven't been out to see it - you've got another few weeks so get going!

 making stamps for texturing tiles

Ginny's project goal was to make tiles to cover three small mirrors she brought along, so Friday's clay work was to make stamps we could use on Saturday to decorate those tiles.  I made a new stamp of my cone flower for my own new tile tests as well.

more texture, courtesy of a doily

Saturday we had a full day in the studio, slabbing clay, impressing textures and cutting tiles.  We took a mid-afternoon break for lunch downtown so we could check out the crowd at Fanaticon, swung by the Chocolate Lounge and then back to West Asheville to see all the lovely bird houses and lawn art laid out for Bountiful Cities' annual Birdhouse Auction (off-topic shout out to friend Melissa Weiss who won first prize for her birdhouse entry - it rocked!).  Then it was back to the studio to clean up the tiles and prep them to dry out some more.

planning the layout

Sunday morning, Ginny laid out her design on the mirrors and then carefully numbered them - she's got lots of extra tiles which will be great for glaze testing when she gets back to Atlanta.  I can't wait to see what else she does with all the new information she sucked up this weekend - even though we only made tiles for this one project, we talked about various firing techniques, other decoration techniques and she picked up a new book on making and installing tiles.  Watch out Atlanta!  I'll send her the bisque fired tiles, and she's promised to send pictures of the finished project, so check back for that.

coneflower accent tiles

And because I teach to learn myself, I also got to play around with some ideas that have been swimming around in my head waiting for a spare minute to spill out.  I only took a picture of the first series, so stay tuned for more (and I'll be making another one of these cone flower stamps for Ginny so I don't have to say goodbye to this one after the bisque)!

extra prezzie for the dishwasher...

I also slipped the back of a platter to show Ginny some sgrafitto carving, and just couldn't stop once I got going ...

Thanks Ginny for coming up and motivating such a fun weekend - can't wait for us both to share the finished tiles we each started (and for more of your great brainstorming on behalf of my business)!

And now back to the regularly scheduled programming... the studio's (mostly) put back in order, and after a slight delay, pots are in the finishing stages of decoration and glazing and will fire tomorrow.  But I'll be thinking about more tile designs myself, and making notes for the next workshop fun ... more tiles with Lisa in July!

2nd Saturday Artist Market!!

East West Asheville, who brought you the very well-received Holiday Art Walk, now brings you a monthly Artist Market. What makes this Market special? It's like a Tailgate for Artists - a monthly venue to mix and meet with the artists in lovely and sunny West Asheville (yes, it's always sunny in West Asheville!).

The 2nd Saturday Artist Market will take place...can you guess?...the 2nd Saturday of each month! The Market begins April 11, and will continue through December, when we encore the Holiday Art Walk, which expands the Artist Market to include holiday events and promotions with surrounding businesses.

Crazy Green Studios is one of the sponsoring producers of the 2nd Saturday Artist Market, which will take place in the lot adjoining my studio to my neighbor and co-sponsor, Mimi Strang Design. We'll have a booth outside the studio each month, and for the most part, our booth will feature either demonstrations or hands on participation in events that will support Empty Bowls. Those events will include throwing and/or decorating demos, bowls for patrons to decorate, and always bowls that will be for sale, with all proceeds going to Manna Food Bank.

The Crazy Green Booth will also feature some of my own work, and during the season I plan also to invite studio members and assistants to display their own work.

In addition to the Empty Bowls activity at our booth, one booth per month (out of a total of 20) will be donated to a community organization for their use.

So if you're an artist interested in taking part in the Market, follow the link on the logo (which is temporary...a much nicer one is in the works!) to the 2nd Saturday blog.

AND...if you're a business interested in becoming a Market Sponsor, we'd love to have you! There are a number of levels of sponsorship available, all the way down to donating a tent and table for the Community Booth. If you go to the 2nd Saturday blog, you'll find a link for all Market forms and information.

I'm very excited about what's going on around here: studio members are doing very cool work, new glazes are in development, the summer workshops are already getting good feedback, new and exciting work for clients and galleries, and now the Artist Market. I'm excited yes, but I'm cross-eyed from being on the computer a LOT over the past week, so I'm stepping slowly back to the wheel for some much needed catch-up work and a little muddy therapy!