Nothing Like a Good Party of Artists to Cheer a Girl Up

I pulled myself out of my little funk on Friday. Partly due to the supportive blog comments from other artists, the afterglow from the Art Coffee party and partly due to just jumping right back into artmaking. The party Thursday night was a huge success and I even drew the lucky “#1” for our Chinese auction and I SWEAR it was total luck. There were even witnesses that I drew fair and square! Katie, her husband and I even established the rules of the auction BEFORE any alcohol was consumed. Man, o man do I love that Midnight Sun Brewery Kodiak Brown Ale! If any of you have ever had a Chinese auction, when there are coveted gifts, establishing the rules BEFORE the auction starts is paramount! Like limiting the number of times a gift can be exchanged and deciding does the “#1” person get to select any gift at the very end. And lucky for me, YES the “#1” person does get to select ANYTHING at the very end!! Every artist that came, brought a retro appetizer, beverage, artist trading cards and a gift ($25 or under) that had been made by themselves for the auction. There were WONDERFUL artworks to choose from, everything from handmade jewelry, fused glass, oil paintings, encaustics, illustrations, metal work to hand dyed silk.

We all agreed that many of our customers and clients would have killed to be in our auction! The gift I brought was one of my Good Fortune Pea Pods and it even got traded a couple of times. For the gift I selected, which was a hard decision, I chose an absolutely wonderful painting on board by Duke Russell, I am so sorry Katy W. (she's holding her short-lived prize in the top photo) but I HAD to have Duke’s piece and swiped it out of her hands at the very end of the auction. The photo of our Chinese auction gifts are sitting atop “Dog Table” one of Duke’s sculptures (Duke is wearing the white shirt) on display at the Upstairs Gallery and the photo of Katie Sevigny and myself holding my lucky “#1!” The party was hosted by the artists of The Upstairs Gallery in their very cool common room and was a perfect venue, thanks again Katie S. for hostessing. Everyone agreed the Soirée was a hit and we’re looking to hold another when the weather warms on their outdoor, rooftop deck. We're thinking tiki theme...

Last week it occurred to me that before I place my big mid-range clay order, I’ve never fired my kilns higher than ^04. I purchased both of them used with a brand new electronic kiln monitor and started out using lower fire clay. Though I’m sure it will be fine, rather than have a pallet load of ^6 clay sitting in my shop unable to be fired, I picked up two bags of the only ^6 clay the local ceramics lady had on hand, SP655 Alpine White. Shaking off my funk on Friday I made some more textural trays using this Alpine White and can test fire them at the higher temps after they are dry. I’d like to do some more sgraffito on them but will wait and see how these first ^04 trays come out next week.

My Chinese Auction Art by Duke Russell,

Isn't it wonderful?!