Transfer Fits and Starts

How is it when faced with a deadline my head becomes filled with additional ideas and projects?! I can shoot off in a completely different creative direction at any given moment when faced with a deadline –and still force myself to make the deadline! My advertising agency days not only taught me the art and discipline of billing in 15 minute increments but creative multi-tasking must have been seared into my brain as well. At this point in my career I admit it wears me out. Or to be honest, when I shoot off in another direction, with all of the effort I exert I expect success with every endeavor. I realize that’s not very realistic or conducive to the art of making art.

Where things took a left was when I became inspired after watching a

YouTube video on “Recycling a Beverage Can to a Digital Print.” (I know, being on the computer can be such a time-waste-vortex!) My mind raced with ideas of imagesI wanted to transfer onto the steel bases with welded “branches” as borders. I was going to cold rivet the aluminum panels onto the steel bases –even using funky, cool copper rivets with little brass and aluminum washers as added details. On his visit to the hardware store, Daddy-O was even kind enough to buy me a big role of aluminum flashing to feed into my as yet un-purchased printer! I’ve mentioned before I am constantly intrigued with learning how to use various transfer methods on EVERY type of sub-straight material. My original idea was to use the Lesley Riley TAP Sheets I purchased a few months ago, and had been saving, onto the steel but it didn’t work so hot. I ate up 3 of the package’s 5 sheets trying for a smooth and even image. I’m not sure if the paper is too old or what, but I was really disappointed. I even visited the office supply store yesterday to buy a "straight pass through" ink jet printer as

shown in the video (this would be my 4^th new and different type of printer) that could be fed the thicker media like the aluminum but I can’t find one in town with the straight pass through feed feature that’s under $1,000. I’m back to probably using a Gel Medium Transfer with color laser prints (thankfully, I already have a really nice HP color laser printer). I’ll need to go to the art supply store today and buy more Gel Transfer Medium -but at least I know the transfers work on steel because I’ve used this process before. I just really wanted to try this ink jet application on aluminum –darn-it!

My First Friday Show opens at Katie Sevigny’s Gallery, Friday, June 3^rd. THIS FRIDAY –how can it be June already, where did May go?! For the last few weeks I have been working on several pieces that I’m really pleased with, including wall sculptures that I’m finally using my clay “Pods” in. I will also have a couple of masks using hand built clay combined with plasma cut and welded steel and copper.

BOO!

Fresh Sunflowers for the Spenard Farmer's Market!

The hardest part of being self-employed is the discipline it takes to go to work on a sunny, gorgeous day –which were few and far between last summer in Anchorage! Plus I’m feeling “all deserving” because I have been working really hard and after I put more than a full week in I just want to reward myself with food and drink on the deck or be digging in my garden. But that’s not possible if I’m to take advantage of all the sales opportunities that are out there from June through August –peak art buying time. PLUS I’ve got a show opening at Katie Sevigny’s Gallery and I am the First Friday featured artist for June which I didn’t necessarily forget about but am finding it hard to believe IT’S NEXT WEEK! Holy cr@p. Good thing I’ve been stashing a few choice pieces aside in the studio -but I definitely need to kick it up from now until Friday when the Show opens! Ooooo boy do I want to goof off. School’s out and both my guys are home. I’ve had to adjust my routine and learn to work around Daddy-O and Gus being underfoot. They are underfoot in a good way but I’m not used to competing for tools, house space, the telephone or computers etc. Derek and Gus will start painting and tearing out all of our carpeting and replacing it with hardwood floors this week, and so starts the summer of destruction-reconstruction-resurrection. Thankfully, Daddy-O and I have been through SEVERAL remodels and know that our marriage can survive. What has been really nice is handing over the House Frau chores to Derek, what a sweetie (in the manliest way!). Every summer we do a bit of a role reversal and I feel like the luckiest

Art Girl around to have my man pitch in and take over all of the shopping and fix us dinner each night!

Wednesday night we took a break to enjoy a clear blue, warm night, by taking a Ghost Tour. Yes, Ghost Tours of Anchorage is hosted by KLEF Radio’s Rick Goodfellow. Rick plays host and historian on the almost two-hour downtown Anchorage walking tour full of mystery and history of Anchorage’s past. As you may or may not know Gus is completely captivated by all things haunted.

Gus even brought along his EMF detector, note book and mini tape recorder while Derek and I simply enjoyed the post dinner exercise and watching Gus’ eyes go the size of saucers at some of the scarier tales!

Sunshine Makes All the Difference

What a relief to wake to somewhat sunny skies early Saturday morning. At the Market, weather is everything. Last year Anchorage saw one of the rainiest summer's on record and the Market attendance reflected it. Saturday's kickoff was FANTASTIC! Customers and vendors were all smiles. There were no glitches with the check-in and set-up of 40 plus vendors. I was a bit harried checking everyone in, collecting the booth fees, while cars filled the Market unloading their wares. Daddy-O, Will and Gus has my booth set-up just as I checked the final vendor in. It was definitely a team effort. My new wireless credit card machine even WORKED flawlessly! whew. I didn't have a chance to take more pictures but KTVA Channel 11 Photo Journalist, Ken Fankhauser was at the Market and created this wonderful segment for the weekend news! CHECK IT OUT HERE!

Watch the KTVA news segment by Photo Journalist Ken Fankhauser.

Just for fun...

A friend and customer who purchased one of my large, outdoor sculptures of a Sandhill Crane sent us these pictures. Look at the Pheasant in the lower left of the photo. Pheasants are not indigenous to Alaska although they are seen from time to time. The Pheasant has apparently become quite smitten with the sculpture and has been a constant companion of the steel Crane!

Market Butterflies

Today it's detail work. The welder is unplugged and the steel sculptures are awaiting pricing and tagging. I'm also pricing, tagging a few felted pieces that I'll have for sale at the Spenard Farmer's Market tomorrow. What's a market without sheep right?!

I'll be loading my plastic tubs of all the necessary show supplies, including my new wireless credit machine goodies. After months of research on wireless merchant options I settled on the purchase of a

Veriphone Nurit 8000. Now I can accept and verify credit cards wirelessly. Not only will this save me time from having to upload the manual sales slips at the end of the day but it saves the customer time from having to wait for me to hand-write out their purchase, run their card through the ol' "knuckle buster" and hope the sales slip is still legible!

Last night a few of us including Daddy-O, spray painted the vendor space numbers on the parking lot where

the Market will be. Now we all have permanent parking lot yellow finger tips! Doing the final walk-thru gave me butterflies for tomorrow. We have a full Market of 40 plus vendors with a waiting list for vendors wanting to participate if there

are any no-shows, which I doubt there will be. The sold-out Market is great news but has made my volunteer Vendor Coordinator job über-busy. The Market committee is only slightly nervous about the opening day coinciding with doomsday... I'm in pretty good shape, not for the rapture, but inventory wise and have been really focusing on striking a balance with life/wife/mom, art making and volunteer work. School was out yesterday and has added a new element to my day with Gus home so I'm going to put him to work! Both Derek, Gus and Will are on line to help me load and set up and manage my booth the Market tomorrow and is always such a welcome making the day go quickly. Having my guys around also helps quell my butterflies for the Market and perhaps for the end of the world should it happen...

Living a Full Life

From left to right, my mom, Will's girlfriend Kim, me, Will and my Dad on the deck of Pike's Landing Waterfront Lodge. We're choosing the best way to wait for the rest of the group before our big dinner party at the Silver Gulch Brewery and Grille.

A whole lotta’ lotta’ has been goin’ on! I’ve decided not to say “I’m busy” but say “I’m leading a very full life!” It’s much more descriptive and positive. My parents flew up from Washington state last Thursday for Kristen’s graduation and it was so good to have time with them. We all drove up to Fairbanks (450 miles north of Anchorage) on Saturday morning and drove back late Sunday afternoon after the commencement ceremony. What made it even more special is Kristen had a full slate of friends and family on hand for the celebration including my sister and her family. All 5 of my folk’s grandkids were finally together in one place. We were greeted by the first warm temperatures of the season making for a perfect time to have prefunction beverages on the deck of Pike’s Lodge on the Chena (pronounced cheena) River. We were able to see some of the sights in Fairbanks including a section of the Trans Alaska Pipeline near Fox, Alaska and tour downtown Fairbanks which runs along the Chena River, all under sunny, blue skies. Kristen graduated (here is a link to the commencement ceremony in the Carlson Center) from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) with a Masters degree in Chemical Oceanography.

Right after I dropped my parents off at the airport Monday morning, Gus’ class needed additional chaperones for the end of year adventure discovery field trip. We hiked the Turnagain Arm Trail system from Potter’s Marsh to McHugh Creek and over towards Rainbow…a cool 5-6 mile hike! Holy cow am I out of shape. I was popping a couple of Advil during our lunch break and paying dearly for all of my celebratory eating and drinking over the weekend! Hopefully, it’s back to welding today if I can bend down and reach the steel. I need to finish up a couple of large plant stands for the Market which opens on Saturday. I took another Aleve with my hot tea this morning hoping it takes the edge off my aching knees. What would really soothe my poor aching body is to be back on that sunny deck at Pike’s with the family!

"Mama Bear Blueberry Hedge" Commission

I completed the "Mama Bear Blueberry Hedge" this week and Daddy-O and I did the install this afternoon. This was a dream job commission. The client contacted me last Fall with her idea of a blueberry hedge that would be act as a year round divider for the beautiful bronze Bear sculpture by Jacques & Mary Regat. It was a luxury to have the whole winter

to think about how I was going to construct the small hedge and attach the blue glass bead "berries" the client requested. I wish I would have had this idea on my own but the idea completely belongs to the client. After studying digital images of blueberry bushes near our cabin, I plasma cut out small leaves from two large steel sheets of steel and constructed branches to form the 105" length of hedge. I built 3 sections of 20+ inches for a first fit then welded the sections to a length of flat

iron that was attached using all weather screws to the wooden section on location. We needed to have the hedge installed before the plants, flowers and landscaping started their summer bloom. The steel was left uncoated so it will weather to a natural brown patina. The highlight of the install today was stepping inside of the client's home and watching the sunlight catch the blue glass beads through the large, beautiful window as Mama bear smiled back at us.

Cups From Near and Far

Saturday and Sunday were full of gifts. Perfect timing that made for a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend. On Saturday, Wendy and her husband came to pick-up my two kilns I sold her. It was a bit bitter sweet as I’m so happy Wendy is getting her studio set up here in Anchorage but a bit sad to see my kilns get loaded into their Honda Element. Yes, they fit one by one! As a thank you gift, Wendy gifted me one of her hand made, sgraffito ceramic cups. I especially like how she stamps her initials on the bottom. When Daddy-O brought the mail in he handed me the Mother’s Day card I had sent to MY mom last week...

it was returned for insufficient postage -20 cents short(!) that’s AFTER I had put two stamps on the envelope. It was a normal Mother’s Day card feeling only slightly heavier…don’t get me going about why the US Postal Service is having trouble. On the upside he also handed me a box! Inside was

a gift from my friend “Ang from down under” as I affectionately refer to her!! While she was stateside and touring with the Seagrove group she took time to send me ONE OF HER VERY COOL CUPS! Two cool cups in one day –I hit the jackpot! You don’t want to see the cup I normally drink my tea from. We don’t have the cabinets filled with ultra-artsy cool pottery that most of my potter blog buddies do. In defense of the arts, it’s because Derek has a strong arm approach to putting the dishes away and survival rate for nicer pieces is low. I now have a special “safe area” in the upper cabinet just for my two new cups! I admired the cup Ang gifted me when I first saw it on her blog. The artful handle, the lovely matte glaze and the comfortable shape that fits

my hand perfectly. I wrapped my hands around it’s full shape and felt the warmth of my tea this morning. Thank you so much Ang for thinking of me! I was really touched and proud to have such generous friends near and far.

Mother’s Day was filled with a morning walkies with Nimbus and my man to Fire Island Bakery having Monkey Bread outside on the Café tables. Followed by a long family bike ride through downtown and wrapping up with a movie and pizza at Bear Tooth with Will, his girlfriend Kim, Derek and Gus. Kristen is out at sea on a research cruise, but managed to call last week when they were forced to dock in Seward to repair the CTG and winch that had broke earlier in the week. She will be back just in time for graduation this weekend. It will be a push this week with family coming, graduation and all the final prep for the Market opening. Hang on, Alaska’s 90 days of summer is just about to begin!