Preschool Book

In between clay and shows and cooking I also do some illustrations for books....this is the cover for the never ending preschool activity book I've been working on, with a very patient friend, for several years now.  I'm hoping that posting an occasional drawing will keep me focused...I only have 30 or so more activities to draw....surely I can finish this before my son Peter goes to college...he's almost 18.... this is a drawing of him when he was 3.
The book was published years ago when all our kids were small, it's been out of print for quite awhile but there has been interest in it lately so we decided to update it and redo the pictures!

The Face by The Door

I made this little box awhile back.  It's different from most of the things I make but I needed a guardian by the door...at first I thought perhaps a green man but then I found that green women were very rare...I like that.

Mother Earth

This was the first sculpture of 2011.  I wasn't sure if the earth that she's holding would survive during all the thermal shock that is raku.....however, she came out in one piece and I'm quite pleased!
I think the earth will look really cool with incense smoke wisping out through all the "oceans".

Her beginnings are in the January 2011 blogs.... if you happen to be interested in her progress.

Beading With Babies

Well, not really babies...a 3 and 5 year old...challenging though.  My daughter helps me bead things (I am easily frustrated with the fiddliness of small beads and wee knots).  This time we beaded with her girls. There was much "helping", tying knots in random lengths of string, crawling on the floor to retrieve spilled beads....for some reason the special beads we bought for the girls were not as desired as the small, impossible to string without help, beads we were using.  It was fun...projects were finished, songs were sung....alcohol was consumed.

Tree of Life

A somewhat blurry tree of life (I have been using my phone for a camera and my hand always wiggles when I push the send button) ....anyway, this is one of the larger icon boxes.  I think the colors turned out really cool...I particularly like the shiny, metallic leaves and bird (the small blob in the middle is a bird in a nest).

The Story...someday

                                      Frequently.... when I'm at a creative
standstill.....I paint on the walls in the shed. This is a flower... of sorts.... with a large squiggly sun over the door...they both clash quite nicely with the mantel.... that will forever be a W.I.P. (work in progress).

You can check out the early stages of the mantel on the 12/27/2009 post.  As of today it looks more like this (and... as with all things in my life... there's a great story that goes with the mantel.....someday I might just devote an entire blog to "the story"...I think it will be titled...There Was This Dumpster).

Small Things

These are some small things I've been working on lately. When I finish with them, they'll hang from either a hemp or leather cord with a few beads...they each have a little pocket on them to put a very, very, very small affirmation into.  So far, I believe them to be necklaces but things tend to change as I work on them.
I think they're nice and they make a lovely noise when they clink together.....perhaps wind chimes?

Well.....

There's been all this stuff and it's slowed me down a bit on my blogging.... I have been busy though and  I'll be at the Druid Hills Artist Market again this year.  It's the last weekend of April and my raku partner, Joyce, will be sharing the booth with me.  Joyce and I have been busy rakuing every dry day possible (which has been tricky considering the weather lately).....there'll be hamsa hands, vases, pillow pockets, necklaces, pears, icon boxes and some saints and gods and goddesses and an angel or two....it should be fun!