Jim's New Jammies

I bought this fabric last summer when it first arrived at the fabric store - but it took me a while to turn the fabric into jammies for Jim. It's actually a scrubs pattern. The photos are a little rough - we were having a stiff wind at the time.

New Outfit

The black batik is fabric I bought when we were in Hawaii. Fellow Quiltart poster, Diedre, lives on the Big Island and offered to take us around and show us the good fabric stores. I bought this at one of the stores Diedre took us to. The rust died fabric is from DellaJane Hand Dyes. I played with the pattern a bit and made the outfit I wanted. I used some of the rust dyed fabric for godets in the skirt.

Of course, I then needed earrings for the outfit. So.... I got out the pliers and the crystals and made earrings.

One more sun face

Jim's Sun Faces

See what happens when the Clay Monster gets loose! Jim decided to make some sun faces. He used a mold he had made for a platter and used slips to create the facial texture and features. Having learned painting before ceramics, he approaches slip from a painter's perspective.

Female Sculptures

I made a series of female figure sculptures. Originally there were five, but one lost her head in a salt firing. Alas, her head landed in the cone pack. The rest are glazed a fired in electric kilns. With each one, I tried to make the faces more realistic. The last doll I made was the one with the extruded arms. When I painted her eyes and lips, I was amazed at how much personality the sculpture had.

The shortest sculpture is the one with the really angry face. I think that sculpture, more than any of my other work, shows what I was feeling at the time I made it.

Female Sculptures

Glazed Extrusions

This is Jim's sculpture after glazing. Sometimes the sculpture likes to be mysterious and wears a hoodie. Jim made an extruder out of a caulking gun and a piece of PVC pipe. All of the extrusions were colored with underglazes. The sculpture needed a base, so Jim took a platter that had been over fired and warped and glued it under the sculpture.

Exhibit A

I had a motion hearing yesterday, and this piece of fabric was Defense Exhibit A. The issue for the hearing was did the police officer have reasonable suspicion to stop my client. My client was stopped because he was wearing a "flannel" jacket and it was warm out.

I handed Exhibit A to the officer and asked if he knew what kind of fabric it was. He didn't. I asked if it was flannel. He didn't know. In my argument, I told the judge I am a fiber artist and I've been sewing for 44 years. I know my fabrics and Exhibit A - which was entered into evidence - is flannel.

I lost, but there will be an appeal and Exhibit A will go up to the appeals court.

Exhibit A is a leftover from some flannel I used to make a blouse for myself. I made Jim's long sleeved shirt out of the companion to this fabric. Same orange background, but Jim's shirt has hot dogs, buns, mustard and picnic things on it.

Just for me

I often make art to sell but this time, I made earrings just for me. Can't wait to wear them.

Falling in love with crystals

I've started stringing beads and crystals on wire and making earrings. I've never used sworavski crystals before - they are far more beautiful in real life than in photo. I'm having great fun doing this. If you check my etsy store, you can see which earrings I've got for sale.

The Clay Monster's Sculpture

I finally convinced Jim to take a clay class and he's turned into a clay monster. The class assignment was to make a sculpture 36" in any direction. After Jim's first sculpture fell apart in the kiln, he made this one. It hasn't been bisque fired yet. It's low-fire clay with assorted underglazes on the extrusions. After reading about extruders and seeing extruded work, Jim made an extruder from a caulking gun.

My New Earings

Being a state employee, I had today off. I spent the day in the sewing room working on a dress. Then, I got out the earring parts and the beads. I forgot about dinner. I forgot the mug of tea I had made for myself. I forgot about everything else and just played with beads. Here's the results.

Digital Recorder Case

I've got a digital recorder and I love it. It's so tiny, light and easy to use. It's also easy to lose. So, I made it a case. The case is about twice as wide as the recorder, but I have to be able to find this gadget! I used two scraps of cloth, some batting, a leftover button from a blouse I made, and played with the fancy thread and fancy stitches.

I've no idea what this is, but I like it.

I started exploring coil building this semester. Here's one of the coil built pots. I couldn't decide how I wanted to glaze it, so I put one glaze on one side and another on the other side. Then I dunked the top in green class glaze and I do like the way it ran and blended.

My Cocoa Mug

I finally made my serious cocoa mug. The mug is huge and useful for those times when only chocolate will help. I did this one with coils. Then I experimented with using several coats of underglaze and sanding through the underglaze to reveal the colors. Then I grabbed a carving tool and carved a bit. I know the handle looks like it's way too wide - it's not. It fits my hand well.