Bulldog Pottery is in Alaska!

Well at least a piece by Bruce Gholson of Bulldog Pottery is in Alaska! My “Big Gulp Fossil Yunomi” by Bruce arrived yesterday. I first saw the Fossil Fish that Bruce makes on their Bulldog Pottery Blog and LOVED them. When I read a post of the “Drawn to Clay” Show at Claymakers in Durham, NC on the Bulldog Blog, posted were images of pieces that would be at the show. Then I read about the Claymakers post Show highlights on Tracey’s Blog and was all fired up to get a piece of “Birthday Art.” Each year Derek and I like to buy a piece of art celebrating both of our birthdays (8/24 & 9/3). Last year Derek picked out a wonderful encaustic, “Intervals II” by our friend Shari Clough Suiter and this year I chose the HUGE Yunomi. I had no idea of it’s large size and both Derek and I love it! My photos don’t do it justice. The piece is textural, original and just wonderful. Thank you Claymakers for the wonderful packaging and Bruce for your vision and skill.

What do you get when a painter, a potter and a welder of steel meet? A fantastically, funderful, clay day! On Wednesday, Steve Gordon and I met at Gina Hollomon’s Red Door Studio for a day of creative fun. The original idea is to get each of us outside of our "normal" mediums by taking turns meeting at each others studios. All three of us have been

planning our art rendezvous for a few months now and it finally happened. We created, talked, shared, ate, drank and created some more! The medium Wednesday was paper clay that Gina uses on her Raku fired clay sculptures. She is currently working on several large 1% For Art Commission pieces. 

With her studio recently completely gutted and remodeled there was plenty of inspiring work area for all three of us. Steve chose to experiment with carving a Styrofoam torso and covered and batted with clay under Gina's direction. I made some fish and showed off my fish head mold –though none of us were impressed with my mold making 

abilities! The mold didn’t capture as much of the detail as I had hoped and I needed to embellish the pressed fish 

head quite a bit, but the mold was fun to have a good base form to use. Gina continued to work on a larger than life Raven for one of her commissions. She made an ingenious hanging system that is mounted to the ceiling and bolts directly to her birds allowing her freedom to sculpt the whole bird. After Gina bisques our pieces we get to gather again for a Raku Day, probably next week –yippee HEAT, FLAMES & FIRE, my kind of mediums!

 

Friendship, Compassion and the Realities of Life

"Spires"

18" x 4' - 6'

Hand Forged Steel by Marieke Heatwole

My friend is a talented metal artist (and writer as I'm learning) and she is having a difficult time right now. She has started a Blog that I think can help many, many people. I wanted to help spread her words through the Blogosphere by posting a link to her new Blog. Please share her Blog site with friends and family you may know who suffer from depression or who perhaps may gain greater insights into mental illness. 

Girlfriends Guide to Depression

http://girlfriendsguidetodepression.blogspot.com/

"...how I've felt, what I've learned and  yearn for over a lifetime of managing clinical depression and anxiety. *I am not a doctor nor do I play one one television*"

Bird Lips

It’s Alaska State Fair (food!) season! One of my favorite times, because Fall and Fair times mean its almost my birthday time too. I love to have my birthday, always have and always will. I delivered several metal art pieces up to Palmer to The Bad Girls of the North fair booth. The drive was lovely. Each year Vicki & Carol have been kind enough to invite me to sell my metal work in their Bad Girls booth. I like being a Bad Girl too. I get many, many people who say the either bought my work at the Fair or saw my work and would like to order more. It has been a good venue for me without the hassle because Vicki & Carol do the real work :o)

As we were going over the inventory a woman walked by with a lovely Peach Faced Love Bird on her shoulder. It’s name was “Squeaky” and squeaked when the woman poked its tummy (!?) Vicki and I didn’t think that was very nice and really didn’t like it when the woman INSISTED that we let the bird KISS US. I mean on the LIPS KISS! She would not let up. The only way we could get back to our inventory was to comply. I will spare you the more graphic of images I have of our “encounter” with the Peach Faced Love Bird… Vicki and I swear out lips were a bit “itchy” afterward. There are all types at the Fair... If you want to visit the Bad Girls booth, they are on the Red Path next to Rae's YUMMY Tamales, one of my favorite foods.

On Sunday night we had a HUGE rainstorm. Well, huge for Anchorage. It flooded our street and Will and I took Tauzer out to make sure the storm drain was clear of debris

(The street completely drained by morning). We laughed at Tauzer who looked like a drowned rat. But all the rain didn’t diminish her intelligence, Will couldn’t coax her into the water –even with a pocket full of treats!

The FUN news this morning is that I’m off to CLAY DAY with Gina and Steve! Photos to follow, I promise.

Blueberry Love in Girdwood

The sun shone in Girdwood for Love and Blueberries. The Alyeska Resort Blueberry Mountain Arts & Music Festival was held under sunny skies and fresh mountain air. I had a chance to see two of my favorite artists who had booths at the event. Anna Waschke of Wandering

Star Studio had wonderful new boxes and mixed media dolls. I’ve given several of her boxes as gifts to family and friends. Anna will be at the November Bad Girls of the North Show with me in November. I first met Lance Lekander when our kids went to elementary school together in Anchorage. Lance’s vivid and highly illustrative designs have been transformed into hip buttons, note cards, plush animals and sculptural wall art. I was able to pick up a birthday gift for Daddy-O (whose birthday is Monday, so I can’t show what I bought because he’ll be reading this post probably today!).

 o xXx o 

What a better way to top off a day filled with music, great art and fresh mountain air than with an outdoor wedding! Meet Mr. & Mrs. Luke Peroni. Our good friends Luke & Jules were married yesterday near the lovely log home of Rita & Steve Mace in Girdwood. Rita has a huge second story Quilting Studio that on most winter days you can find Jules and Rita creating. Guests were asked to walk down the bike path to an overlook at the Meadow where the ceremony took place. With glaciers and grassy meadow

streams as a backdrop, as if on cue the Alaska Railroad rounded the bend loaded with tourists and sounded it’s horn to the cheers of the wedding party! The champagne and paired wines poured as we danced to the Photonz, ate incredible food prepared by Luke’s friend, Chef Al Levinson of the Kincaid Grill and renewed friendships. Guests were asked to wear Aloha attire which fitperfectly as the fragrance of fresh Hawaiian lei’s were in the air. A wedding cake was specially created by Creative Cakes by Jeryll who won the Food Network Champion Cupcake Challenge. With everyone dancing, celebrating and feeling the Girdwood Love, the three-tiered

 wedding cake was never cut! So on the way home I swung by the Double Musky for 3 pieces of Musky Pie to go. Always a packed house, it felt good to go straight to the bar and get my to-go order and say hi to a few friends. With a

 view of the mountain we had a late night dessert on the deck

around our fire pit telling stories. Now that’s love.

o xXx o

Ta-Da!

No splashing from these fish! Round two of fish-head mold making went well. I used the last of my Potters Plaster with my jumping fish episode Wednesday, and Anchorage Sand & Gravel was also out so they substituted Casting Plaster for me instead. I don’t think it will be as strong but mixed and poured similarly and was the same price, about $50 for 100lbs. The solution to keeping 

my fish heads submerged (and not torpedoing up at me) was wiring them to a small base and building a clay base surround.

The first head I cast made for a too long and narrow mold. Though the cast worked, it was difficult to get my hands and clay in and out without distorting the clay fish head. I made a second mold and built-up the clay base to the head much more, giving myself more “throat” room for removal of the clay artwork and the second mold worked great!

The first head actually cooked inside of the plaster! When I went to dismantle the mold, a hot, fishy-spicy smell wafted up from the humid plaster… The head disintegrated as I pulled the wired board up and it was so gross I actually put 

on some rubber gloves to remove all of the fish skin and various parts. It wasn’t pretty. The second head I kept more frozen and it removed solid and perfectly. So good in fact that I rinsed it off and put it back in the freezer for more artmaking. The head had such wonderful lines to it I didn’t want to throw it away. I made a quicky clay casting using some Tile White (^06-1) and the new form worked well.

There wasn’t as much detail as I’d hoped but the shape and removal were good. Using my clay tools, I'll take the time to add back the details I love so much that are found on the Natural fish. Gina, Steve and I are planning our Raku clay day for next week and I think these heads would be GREAT Raku fired. I’m going to bring a couple of my molds to our clay day.

Fish Float

What a better way to celebrate back-to-school than have a clay day! Yippee for me. With everyone back to school this morning I met a friend for breakfast then came back to my studio and pulled out the clay. It’s been way too long since I’ve been able to get my hands muddy. So long in fact that I needed to cull some partial bags of rock hard mystery clay and double check some other supplies. I really wanted to make a fish head mold today using a lovely salmon head I had put in the freezer 

a couple of months ago. I especially loved the lines on the underside of the fish near the gills and could see a whole wall full of various clay fish heads! I had plenty of Potter’s Plaster but had to pull out a couple of chunks that had hardened from a little moisture, but the rest was still powdery fresh. When I measured the height of the salmon head I noticed that the head was too tall for my existing mold boards that Bill Sabo and I had used on our whole fish casts. I cut new wood and made a mold that was tall enough, laid clay on the bottom and in the seams of the mold. I used a nonstick cooking spray on the boards for good relief once the plaster would be dry. Here is a video on making a one-piece plaster mold from Ceramic 

Arts Daily. There is also a handy chart for the water to plaster mixing consistency.

Dressing the salmon head was a bit tricky. After he thawed a bit, I noticed one of his eyes was damaged and his mouth wouldn’t close so I mended those areas with clay. I also needed to build up a base for the head to attach to and sit on since I couldn’t have any undercuts so the fish head could be removed from the hardened plaster cast. Once I had the heal all cleaned up and details showing I mounted the head to the clay base in the mold, readied my plaster and began pouring. 

I had enough plaster that I had also wanted to make some slump molds for slab work and decided to pour the fish head last. As I scraped the last little bit of plaster into the mold holding the fish head, all of the sudden that fish head had released from the bottom of the mold like a beach ball being held under water AND SHOT UP THROUGH THE TOP OF THE LIQUID PLASTER! Dropping my plaster bucket on the ground, I screamed as the head bobbed gently in the warm liquid, ghost-like and staring at me with it’s one good eye! I was not even expecting that and it scared the bejeezus out of me! 

After I composed myself, all I could do was laugh and thought “well, fish DO float!”

With lots of water cleanup, I managed to salvage the mold and the head to put back in the freezer. Of course I used up my last bag of Potters’ Plaster and need to get more tomorrow. I’ll try and cast it again after I figure out how to keep a fish from floating… 

It's A Wrap

Whew. The rain held off most of the day and the G Street Artist Fair is over for the summer. Yesterday morning started off s-l-o-o-o-w. I admit I had an uh-oh moment when by 11:00 I hadn’t had a sale –this is in contrast to the last show in June where I had tourists wanting to purchase my work before the fair and my booth were completely set up. But the day turned out good sales-wise, down a bit from the June Show but considering the weather and end of season tourism, all good. This kind of up and down day gave 

me time to think about my artist friends who were new to the event with their inventory questions. Another important consideration of my Show/Fair inventory is always what are my plans for the residual or left-over work? I’d like to not have this issue and sometimes there are not enough pieces left over, but this time I had more than I thought I would left. Oh well. My production estimates were good on the Wind Salmon, steel Garden Ravens and Outdoor Chime Sculptures but I didn’t sell one of the ornaments! Last time I didn’t have enough of the less expensive ornaments and made extra… so much for the “creative crystal ball!"

I also should have had better signage because we needed to use the tent walls to block the stormy weather (sorry, the booth images aren't very good because I was still setting up). I had a smallish sign I hung outside the tent wall to tell customers who was inside the booth. The rain had beat up my potted flowers that I like to have embellish the booth and could only bring the Irish Moss pots –they were the only ones that weren’t slug bit and weather beaten! I try and always have a plan for where leftover works will go. There are usually a few phone calls or e-mails after an event where customers want a piece they saw at the show and regret not buying it, or they are buying as a surprise gift etc., so I usually hold on to all my left-over work for a few days. My plan for the leftover work from this show was varied. Lucky for me, Carol and Vicki from Bad Girls of the North will have another booth at the Alaska State Fair this month and requested a lot of Ravens and some of my fun Dog pieces. My larger wall sculptures (which only a couple of them sold at G Street yesterday) will get to go Half Moon Creek Gallery here in Anchorage, which really needs new work from me. Lastly, my artist friend and entrepreneur Katie Sevigny wanted to buy wholesale a few leftover pieces from me to have in her hip, downtown Gallery, Sevigny Studio.

After re-thinking my not-too-savvy booth components (or lack of) I decided to weld up a new display for my Garden Ravens. It worked great and I think it will also help Vicki and Carol to better display my Ravens at the State Fair. For good sales, the inventory, booth design, pricing and marketing are essential to compliment the actual ART. There is an aRt to the successful selling of ArT at special events, festivals and fairs. As an ARTtist I feel I need to be a super-woman mix of talented-original-being, *gracious* salesperson and wise businesswoman to make a decent, full-time living as an ARTist. Not only do I need to look at new ways to display my work more efficiently and attractively to help with sales, I need to stay on top of technology. For the last show I needed to upgrade (my old terminal which the bank said was no longer "compliant" is on the left) the technology of my merchant services equipment, which is a whole other facet but probably one of the MOST important. My booth neighbor, Shara of Octopus Ink Clothing has a booth each weekend at the Anchorage Downtown Market and had signed up for every G Street event as well. Yesterday she and her boyfriend were running both booths simultaneously. Without power to our G Street Fair booths, I had to manually run my credit card sales and input into the new terminal when I returned home last night, which costs me more by not swiping & capturing or even doing store & capture at the 

moment of the sale. Without power to the booth, Shara uses a battery powered terminal and another artist I know has bought a terminal that uses a satellite phone (the terminal was VERY expensive) to completely capture and approve all of her credit card sales. There is even a merchant credit card transaction App for the i-Phone I might look into but then I'd have to first get an i-Phone...(I'm sayin' it's gonna cost me 'mo money, 'mo money, 'mo money). Anymore 80% of my sales are purchased with credit cards and I can't afford not to accept credit cards. It’s also time to consider what my fair and show schedule will be for 2010 and it’s clear that if I’m going to include more festivals and fairs, I will need to upgrade my booth and get on top of the whole new merchant technology –oh, and make some more ART!

PS- Linda, these are the light strip bars I zip tie to my grid wall panels when I do indoor events with power. They are similar to the lighting

 I use in my studio. I think I need to buy a couple more for the November 6 & 7 Bad Girls of the North Show. *This year the Anchorage venue has moved to the Millenium Hotel.

 

Show Time

A couple of artists new to the G Street Art Fair recently asked me how MUCH “inventory” should they make for various fairs and shows and how did I know what types of things to make. I thought these were great questions that even established artists ask themselves before every show. For me, I ask myself these questions months before any event to better plan my busy production schedule. Though there is never the “Creative Crystal Ball” to determine what customers will be buying and how much they will pay, there are some tried and true standards I like to use. Working backwards, I first know by booth space and venue. For example an indoor venue means lighting is everything and I bring halogen light strips that I zip tie to the top of my grid wall panels and for outdoor events, I bring larger works and colorful plants and a large windsock/flag to beautify the booth. It is important to consider how much inventory can actually FIT into the booth. I will consider the size of each piece for hanging on my chrome/steel 2’ x 6’ grid wall that I zip tie together and forms the back and corner of my booth as well as any free standing and table top space available. I like my booth to look “complete” by having just enough to fill the space, look interesting to visit and not look too empty or too full where customers cannot see the art or maneuver inside the usually tight area. Due to space limitations, I rarely bring extra inventory, everything is hung or displayed and my customers have become used to knowing that everything is displayed and I won’t be bringing any “new” pieces the second day if the event is a multi-day show. Probably the most important consideration I like to plan for is a variety of prices on my pieces. I try and have a little something for every budget. My lowest priced pieces are usually ornaments at $12-24 up to several hundred dollar wall sculptures or large, outdoor plant stand Garden Chimes. 

I also know that there are customer favorites and try to have plenty of those items on hand. The 6 Wind Salmon I had last time sold out before 10am so I doubled the number I made for this Saturday and have over a dozen hanging ready to go. Ravens are always a big seller and I will have plenty of inventory on hand of those as well.  The weather is playing a major part of my planning for the G Street Art Fair on Saturday –it is supposed to rain all day… Sort of OK for me because most of my inventory has been weathering out in the garden the last two months and the patinas love the rain! But some of my nicer, enamel painted, interior wall pieces might end up going to the Gallery instead of the booth on Saturday so they keep dry. We’ll see, not having to pay a Gallery commission on my sales this Saturday makes me a little greedy...

Check out the fungus among us! Taking a break welding this afternoon, I was tidying up the steel pile and noticed several different mushrooms growing on the ground here in Anchorage. I also found these pretty lavender (bottom row, center) colored ones growing in the compost pile. The orange one (top left) was growing under the picnic table and the little round puffer ones (top center) were in the front yard. I was surprised at the variety of mushrooms I found just wandering around the yard and started taking pictures. I think I need to make som of these out of clay this winter... All this Fungus reminds me the Fabulous Fungus Fair Formal will be at the Alyeska Resort, Labor Day weekend, there is a link to the schedule of events and fun fungi photos.

Fool(ed) Tauzer Schnauzer hacked up some grass on the carpet. Nothing too major, but just a reminder that dogs can 

be gross. I reached in the pantry for the Resolve carpet cleaner but couldn’t find the spray bottle so I grabbed what I thought was

the refill jug and poured it on the carpet… YIKES!! WHY WAS THE NEUTRAL COLOR CARPET TURNING PURPLE????!!! Because I WAS POURING DRAIN CLEANER ON THE CARPET!! Daddy-O came to my rescue after he heard my shrieking and we doused the carpet with water and sponged it up. It’s actually not too bad, nothing that a throw rug won’t hide and the spot is REALLY, REALLY clean now.

I Heart Homer

My hubby found this beach rock for me in Homer this weekend, it was quite "romantical." Our halibut fishing trip was great too, under blue bird skies we departed at 6:30 am on an all day charter with our friends Sean and Gerri from North Country Charters. We fished in three different holes, about 50 miles out in Kachemak Bay. It took 2 hours to reach the holes, but the scenery was spectacular. We saw Puffins, sea otters and even sea lions that had hauled out onto a rocky island. Everyone on the boat limited out, 2 halibut per person, which is down from last year's limit of 3 per person. We also hooked into some nice fatty, sea going Silver Salmon. That's a picture of my salmon biggie in the fish tub. Daddy-O hooked a nice 30 pound Halibut but most were averaging a small "chicken size" of about 15-20 pounds. The day before our fishing trip we also packed home crates full of new drift wood for my Wind Salmon sculptures. The guys helped me collect the perfect shaped driftwood pieces from Bishop's Beach, which is just about a 100 yards away from where we stayed, Two Sisters Bakery, Suites By the Beach. 

The big news was that "ocean girl" got so seasick I could hardly reel my fish in! Poor Derek had to do triple duty for our whole family! I have NEVER, EVER, EVER been seasick before and I LOVE 

being on the ocean and on boats. It caught me (and Derek!) by complete surprise as me and two kids (ages 7 & 11) from New York had to share the garbage can in the boat's cabin! It was totally demoralizing but made for a great story for the other tourists on the boat. Derek, Gus and I were the only AK residents and considered ourselves quite the "veterans" on board -HA. I did gain everybody's respect though, wanting to catch our limit, in between dry heaves and the shivers, I hooked all my fish and my sweet hubby helped me reel my Halibut in! The Salmon was easy, I sat down on

the deck with my head down between my legs and just reeled him in on the lighter weight pole! As we were under way heading back to the Homer boat harbor I was fine. Got my coloring 

back and was even able to think about a cold beer and pizza at Fat Olives! Now that's an Alaskan Woman, or so my sweet hubby says. 

As soon as we got back into Anchorage I headed down to pick up some more steel. I'm hard at it as the season's last G Street Artists Fair

is this Saturday. I'm making some more Wind Salmon now that I have some new driftwood pieces and I'll also weld up more ravens and a couple of 

customer requests to have on hand at the Fair. Though I'm feeling 100x better, I swear I will NEVER, EVER give anyone who is seasick a hard time EVER again (including my best friend Patti!).