Monthly Archives: December 2008

turtle life

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on christmas eve i moved everything out of my place.  i started the night before, packing up all my books, journals, sketch books, etc and wednesday morning i took them to the clay co to drop off (temporarily).  i could barely lift the big boxes since so much heavy stuff was packed in so i had to invent special methods to lift things into my car.   i was like a racoon with an oyster. 

yeah, i like a simile.

my awesome sister came and helped me pack up all the breakable stuff and load everything that was left into my van.  anyway, i’m moving to my new place tomorrow but the person taking over my old place needed to move in early.  so i’ve been a turtle all week.  good times!

in production mode…

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wall pieces drying

wall pieces drying

i’m going into production mode with these wall peices.  my goal is to get my etsy store open by january 1st.  i’ll feature these peices initially and move into offering more work.

i’m enjoying production, but with the new year will come new work…..

handmade rules the world

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yesterday i spoke to my sister who spent the day the the bust magazine holiday craftacular.  jealous!  but i got my own taste of handmade movement goodness at the atomic holiday bazaar in sarasota.  i went to do some field research as well as to shop.  there were only two ceramic artists there, one potter with wild colorful glazes and a slip caster with parts of different molds assembled into fanciful creatures.  i saw a few people selling books (with other stationary items) and starting thinking how cool it would be to do a fair like this with m and her books. and i would love to bring my clay stuff next year.

my fan favorite (do i watch too much top chef?) was definitely jewelry maker opulent oddities.  her work was too good to pass up and i chucked my “browse and return” system to drop some cash at her booth.  i even had to run across the street to the atm for more because i needed to walk away with multiple pieces of her work.  i justified my purchases by focusing on the fact that i barely own anything these days.

knife-necklace

necklace with green charms, sphere, fist and pocket knife!

map-measure-necklace

necklace with map measurer pendant. (the other side is a compass so i knew it was meant to be!)

i also had the very pleasant surprise of seeing old friends megan (of flying heart jewelry) and don and family and another very old friend who i have not seen in nearly 15 years.

afterward we all went to liz’s and enjoyed cheesy delights and cocktails.

*sorry about the low quality pictures!  they’re from my cell phone, all i have at the moment.  working on it, hoping santa claus will bring me a camera for christmas…

here’s to staying on your path.

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compass

compass necklace

last february i visited the u.s. briefly, in an attempt to decide what my next move in life would be.  after being super broke for months and months i scraped up every last dime i could to get that ticket.  i knew i needed to get out of tokyo to figure out what i wanted to do.  i made plans to see friends one on one, to meet with old professors and art world friends and to stay with my sister in brooklyn for the first week i was in the states.  outside of whole foods in the city a women had a table of jewelry set up.  jackie said she’d bought something from her before and we went over to check it out.  renee, the artist, encouraged us to look all we liked, and to not worry about buying anything.  i don’t know if that was her tactic but i was sure that i wanted to support her work and also to own one of her necklaces.

after A LOT of decision making my sister and i bought each other compass necklaces, to help us find and stay on our paths.

i wore mine everyday until i left tokyo and i wear it nearly everyday now, to remind myself that everything i do today is building a bridge to what i will do tomorrow.

thanks sister.

after the longest week ever.

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seriously, last week was long.  i was bummed out to miss art basel in miami but life on the west coast of florida was busy enough.  at work we were being observed, at the studio we were preparing for the sale and i was preparing my own art work for the sale.  whoo, i was really running on low!

finally yesterday i had a bit of a break.  well, recently a half day is as close to a day off as i get but i’ll take what i can get.  i worked in the morning at creative clay.  we are still book making.  i know we will have to move onto something different but i’ve so enjoyed seeing m improve her skills.

afterwards i went to mazzaro’s italian deli to get something for lunch.  i’ve been hearing about this place since i moved here, but hadn’t yet been.  it was like walking into italy.  i was able to find my favorite cheese from when i was traveling in italy (romano fresca with pepper corns) not to mention arancini (sicilian rice balls) and italian tuna.  these were the things i would buy (with a roll or loaf of bread) and carry around in my bag to eat for lunch in some scenic spot.  you know how it is.  the only thing i didn’t find, but i’ll have to look next time, is white anchovies.  the arancini were very similiar to my family’s except that they had way too much cheese in them!

i relaxed the rest of the day, stepping out for an errand or two, and this morning, finally i was back to 100%.

holiday sale.

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today and yesterday were super busy. st. pete clay held their annual holiday sale and i got a great suprise.

i pulled my wall hangings out of the kiln at 7:30 saturday morning, put wires on the back and hung them in the reitz room, where a display of work had been set up. among everyone else’s stuff, j had set up some of my bushes in a little patch of “snow”. i hung the wall pieces across from them and then headed to work. a  couple of hours later j sent me a text saying that someone had purchased all 5. when i finally got back to the studio, i cruised past my shelf to see if anything else had sold and to my surprise an older sculpture of mine had also gone. the “nose warmers” is the white sculpture with red knitted tubes.

this whole holiday sale thing was fun. i’ve never really made work with the sole intention of selling it before, but i got into the spirit this year.  i put my work into a format that i thought would fit into people’s lives well and it was successful.

i had one bummer of the weekend though.  the white platter with glaze cells (bottom photo), took a dive off the shelf last night.  yikes.

wall peices installed in the reitz room

wall peices installed in the reitz room

my shelves

my shelves

second-top-shelf

second-bottom-shelf

bottom-shelf