Good friends, food and coffee

Art Coffee was this morning. I’m feeling refreshed and inspired after a morning with other like-minded creative types. Several of us independent artists regularly get together for a morning of casual conversation about upcoming shows, art trends, studio troubles, new projects, gallery business news and of course coffee (I also had eggs benedict...mmm). New people come and go, and there can be as few as three, to as many as 10. I usually get to meet someone new whom I may have heard their name, and get a chance to put a face to the name/medium at Art Coffee. Mary and I usually feel the need for Art Coffee about the same time, every 2 weeks or so. Working on your own can feel isolating at times so we pick a morning at our favorite coffee shop cafe, send out an e-mail and ask to forward it to other like-minded creative types. Today we had a couple of fiber artists, a bead artist, painter, fused glass artist, encaustic artist, ATC artist, metal artist and ceramicist.

Unloaded the glaze load and had nice results for a beginner! The hardest part was that it took a lot of patience for me NOT to open the lid and peak before the kiln had properly cooled!

It was an electric ^05 firing. I tried out several new glazes, Amaco matt, as well as some new Speedball (not sure I like the Speedball but LOVE the Amaco matt). I also used some ancient Raku Crackle white and Copper Lustre...all not too bad. My scrifitto fish turned out way too shiny/glossy for my taste so I ordered some new clear matt glaze.

The picture on the right is of a small wall sculpture layout I want to make using the combination of steel and clay. I'm going to rust patina the metal and use copper wire to connect the clay components. The shell is a giant Alaska scallop I got in Homer this summer, along with the starfish (from my treasure box), using press molds Bill and I made this summer. I think I will be dong a similar sculpture for the fish and a few of the tiles. I like the combination of the steel and clay.