“Practically The Kitchen Sink”

My favorite part is the tree topper cupcake stand
that is filled with cupcake ornaments!

Yep, that’s what I bought at  S.T.A.R.'s 17^th Annual Holiday Tea that was held at the Marriot on Saturday. I bought item #11 in the live auction that was called “Practically The Kitchen Sink!” The new kitschy aluminum tree is the perfect addition to our home for the holiday and the bonus was that the tree was LOADED with over 100 miscellaneous professional cooking items! Volunteers lovingly decorated the tree with items donated by several businesses AND included was an additional three huge boxes of goodies with a gift certificate for cooking class for 6 from Doriola’s, a Krups Espresso Machine, Krups Coffee Grinder, fresh coffee beans, cast iron grill, multiple cookbooks, stacking cooling racks, professional kitchen shears, an assortment of professional knives, an assortment of items from the Pampered Chef, stainless utensils and much, much more! My thought was while helping contribute to S.T.A.R.’s fundraising event my Christmas shopping would be almost complete by sharing all of these incredible goodies with our friends and family!  Special thanks and holiday three CHEERS to Anchorage Restaurant Supply, Natural Pantry, Doriola’s, Allen and Peterson Cooking andAppliance Center, Nina Mann, Mary Dodge, Ginger George-Smith, Celeste Dorsey and Nancy Dahlstrom who were the wonderful team responsible for our new Christmas tree and helping me with my shopping!

 The festive Holiday Tea was the perfect kick-off for the holiday season! I’ve been trying to make a few gifts including this felted moose -that can now accompany some cool kitchen gadgets!

Happy Wholesaling

Planning is in full swing for preseason buying for the wholesale gift shows and markets. I’m lucky to be hooked up with a really great sales rep, Karen Sobolesky and Company. Karen and her team are creative, sincere, professional and rep a bunch of really cool lines. I’ve decided to build a wholesale line of my work and reprint the Alaska Animal Alphabet book, print a new line of children’s art prints, design and illustrate a new Alaska children’s activity book, offer new releases of my Art Quilt Patterns along with a couple more of my creations for the wholesale gift market. The souvenir gift market in Alaska is very strong and with proper profit margin planning, creating for selling wholesale is a lot of fun. With a good sales rep it’s also a lot less work for me than me trying to regularly sell retail or only have my work on consignment at Galleries. I still need to put together my wholesale order sheets for Karen and design some custom foil labels for the art prints and books but I’ve had my hands full getting all of the creative components designed and "sample ready" for her showroom. Several of my original designs I’ve decided to scrap. Sometimes right after I finish an illustration or design I really love the work but I've learned I need to have a “cooling off period” and try and look objectively at the work when considering if it will be a good seller for the retail market. Even then, nothing is a sure thing. I’m reviewing the budget and timeline with my printer in Hong Kong for the reprinting of the hard bound Alaska ABC book. The over sea printing costs make it much more cost effective for me to be able to wholesale a professional, hard bound book that will have a reasonable retail price of around $10 each. The activity book, the art prints and patterns are all printed here in Alaska –an important point to most souvenir shoppers. I’m a bit out of practice juggling all of the new deadlines for the various projects I have going on but would rather be working on the wholesale line than packing boxes for the move! 

A Birch Tree at Gus' X-Country meet today near the APU Mosley Sports Center.  The colors were so vibrant they made me happy but made my eyes water! 

Gilper Fish

These plasma cut and welded steel sculptures are my latest in the “Gilper Fish” series. Marieke inspired me to make more of them. She has one of my favorite “Gilper Fish Biggies” displayed on the outside of her home. When I was up at her house a couple weeks ago, I was flattered to see the big ‘ol fish being display so prominently. She calls them “Ugly Fish,” but only in the most admiring way. I think I’ve mentioned my fascination of the Coelacanth Fish and you know how much I LOVE our “Big Gulp Fossil Yunomi” by Bruce Gholson, they both remind me of my “Gilper Fish.”  Probably the best thing about the making of my Fish is the majority of the steel used to embellish the sculptures are pieces I 

cut from my huge scrap pile. Every artist that comes over WANTS my scrap pile, it’s really cool looking and is always evolving and shape shifting. For the new sculptures I wanted to make some new tags using scratchboard illustrated fish. On one side would have my usual artist info, the Gilper Fish name with the illustration and on the other side the story of the “Gilper Fish….” Of course the story on the tag will be edited for space and clarity :o)

This is a true story. When I was in second grade there was a boy named Brady who antagonized me to no end. He would taunt me, making fun of how tall and skinny I was, calling me a name over and over, every day.

At recess he would come running up to me saying (spraying) “Hey Gilper Fish! You look like a Gilper Fish!” he would laugh and point his chubby little finger in my face, spin on his small leather heeled shoes and run off. His British accent enunciated the word “Gilper Fish” until it was seared into my brain. One afternoon while waiting in line for recess, Brady was in front of me, looking more flushed than usual, and grinned at me. Out from his khaki trouser pocket he pulled a ring. A huge, antique looking, platinum, rectangle cut emerald ring (something from his

mother's jewelry box kind of ring...) with diamonds on each side. Even at eight, I knew bling when I saw it! His pudgy hand quickly presented the ring to me. He said “this is for you my Gilper Fish!” I was so shocked at the beauty of the ring and his sweet face, I took the ring to get a closer look and when I did the teacher shouted “all quiet and what are you two doing?!” panicked, I popped the ring into my mouth and before I knew it I had accidentally swallowed it! At only eight years old, I was too embarrassed to tell my parents what had happened, let alone the teacher, and not knowing the intricacies of the digestion system, to say the least the ring was never to be seen again. And that’s the story of the “Gilper Fish.”

oxXxo

This picture of my Sandhill Crane sculpture and the moose are especially for Peter in New Zealand! A good client sent us the photos after the pair of Moose and Magpies seem to enjoy the company of my large

steel sculpture. The clients have a beautiful home situated on a bluff overlooking Cook Inlet, perfect for viewing an abundance of wildlife, steel or real!

Ahhhhh-laska! The Vernal Equinox

We may not have any crocus or daffodils popping up like at Mom & Dad's, but Spring in Alaska is still beautiful. The days are finally longer now. Last night walking Tauzer-Schnauzer the sun was shining and reflecting off Chester Creek, near our house. People were out, happy to be walking, skate-skiing and jogging on the Anchorage Coastal Trail. The daylight has brought a much needed attitude adjustment and people along the trail actually said hello to us! The high was still a brisk 29 degrees BUT, the sunrise was at 7:59 am and the Sunset was 8:15 pm, for total daylight hours of 12 hours, 16 minutes -yipee, we made it!!!

The glaze firing went well. A couple of

experiments worked and I was pleased with the matte glaze on two of the "Woobie Souls," pictured here. Though my glazing skills are still not that great, and in all hon

esty there may be a serious lack of "glaze desire" on my part. A gloss, dark blue (Speedball commercial glaze) doesn't look as good as the matte finishes. When I use the matte finishes, their velvety finish makes you 

want to hold and gently rub the bodies of the sculptures. Their softness lends the piece a quietness and overall subtlety that I wanted to convey.  The glossy, shiny glaze, in my opinion looks too reflective, slick and bright. I do like that Blue Speedball gloss glaze on some of the Sea Tiles. Everything was fast glaze fired at ^04. The real Blog news is that I finally got to try the ceramic laser decals today! I have a few test peices in the kiln RIGHT NOW -I'll post the process as soon as I can safely pop the lid on the kiln...