I'm Launching on Kickstarter!

So... I know it's been quiet around here. I've been trying really hard to maintain a creative practice at home and too much blogging (reading and writing) takes away from that. My creative energy is a-bloomin', though. I've been craving clay more lately than I have in a very long time. Hiatuses are good sometimes I guess. But this isn't exactly a hiatus anymore. 

There's big news.

I'm launching a Kickstarter Campaign, today, and I need your help, (Mud)Bucket Readers.

For those who aren't familiar with it, Kickstarter is a web-based, grassroots fundraising tool for creative projects aplenty. Individuals propose and then list projects on the Kickstarter website where friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances, and strangers alike can pledge different contributions to the project in exchange for a series of rewards. The pledges are collected in an 'all or nothing' fashion, so each project is accompanied by a monetary goal which must be reached before the project creator can reap the benefits of the fundraiser. This protects both the project creator and its supporters, and ensures that no projects end up half-assed. I like that.

I've been working on this Kickstarter Campaign called 'Ladies Work' for the last couple weeks and I'm finally ready to launch. It is a textile arts project that I am very excited for. How does a textile arts project relate to a ceramic arts blog, you say?  Well, to put it plainly, I hope, through the production of this textile series, to develop a stronger point of view as an artist which I will then feel more confident translating into the different mediums I love to use- including clay. (In fact, this whole series was originally inspired by the workshop I took with Diana Fayt earlier this year, fancy that.)

The obstacle that I've come to in my ceramic work is that I feel I don't have a solid path to follow. My work has been very weak on many levels and for the longest time I couldn't figure out what was going on. I thought maybe I really didn't love clay as much as I thought. WRONG. I thought maybe I just wasn't any good with clay. Again, WRONG. And then I thought, well maybe I just don't have anything unique to offer the world as a ceramic artist. WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG. I have since realized, through the pursuit of my textile work, that I do want to work in clay and that I do have something unique to offer the kiln gods. If it is through the consistent exploration of multiple mediums that I remember these facts, then so be it. Isn't it funny how that works?

So... I am asking you, readers, to help me with this project. We have until December 1st to reach the pledge goal of $1500. If you can pledge, thank you from the bottom of my little potter's heart. If you can share this Kickstarter Campaign with your friends, family, studio mates, and blog readers, again thank you from the bottom of my little potter's heart. If you can do both, I will explode with gratitude like a pot full of plaster in the kiln.

Thank you so much for reading this. For more information please visit my Kickstarter page, where you can pledge if you decide you'd like to contribute and where you can find the video above to share with your friends and readers.

I hope this project inspires some of you to try your hand at a Kickstarter project as well. If it does, please let me know. I'd love to support you, too.

Pledge to "Ladies Work"

P.S. If you'd like to see some of what this project will fund, check out my board on Pinterest.

Studio Time: Textile 'Paintings'

So... just a little update on what I am working on now. I consider these studies for what will eventually develop into textile paintings of sorts. And I see these also branching off and growing into ceramic scrolls... Have you ever considered how similar embroidery and mishima are?

Molly Hatch, I might have finally found the proper application for your fancy technique.

P.S. Folks, don't worry. I have not forgotten about clay. I just have been a bad studio girl lately. More projects coming soon.

Studio Time: Surface Design

Okay, so can you tell, I've totally been sick for the last three days. Hence my mass-posting of things I've been meaning to post for some time. No pressure to read it all at once. Take your time to peruse, it might be a while again before I have time to post. Who knows.

Anyway, I wanted to share a little doodling I've been up to in my Surface Design class. We've been doing a whole heck of a lot of stenciling... Which is cool. I actually really like the motifs I've come up with so far. It started out with a bunch of automatic drawing (top) do loosen up and get some pattern ideas out on the board. Truth be told, I think my intructor was just trying to gauge where the everyone in the class was on the uptightness level and let people adjust a bit to his teaching style. But that's just me. He, he. 

Sampling started with some pigment (screen printing ink) and over-dyeing. I kind of cheated and pre-dyed my fabric swatches with thickened dye. We were supposed to be experimenting with different stenciling techniques many of which you can read about in the book, Printing by Hand by Lena Corwin. I employed the traditional stencil cut from plastic film method and the stencil cut from waxed butcher paper method. I loved the clean lines of the butcher paper stencil. Can you tell which part is from that method? Because I'm really into this compositional thing at the moment I added some embroidered images that were inspired by an old magazine article from 1951.  I'm really digging the way these are starting to look like textile paintings. And they remind me of some of my work from last semester.

These last two pieces were my second set of samples. Here we were testing different dyeing methods. I painted the fabrics with one color of fiber reactive dye (used for cotton and other bast fibers) and then experimented with some thickened discharge applied with a squeeze bottle quite like I apply my underglaze designs in ceramics. I'm hoping to stitch on to these samples as well, but I'd like to use some sketches of children from old family photographs. I'll share as soon as I do.

Our newest sample assignment is all about stamping and very basic repeat pattern. I'm not a basic repeat kinda gal so this might be difficult. I have died my samples lovely shades of lime and aqua, however, which I'm excited about. And I also found that the ends of cheap plastic thread spools make a lovely lotus root-esque stamp or something similar to an okra print. This might work it's way into my clay somehow. Yes?

I'll be sure to post upcoming samples soon. :)

Off Subject: Orly Cogan

Orly Cogan has figured something out. When I think about artists taking traditional crafts and using them to create fine art, I don't think of many success stories. Orly Cogan is an exception. Her work pushes boundries, makes you think, looks beautiful, is impeccably executed, and still stays true to the roots of the craft.  I've got to figure this secret out.

(images via My Love for You Is a Stampede of Horses, Mr X Stitch, Magpie and Whiskeyjack, The Rathaus, and Hammer Gallery)

Studio Time: Contemporary Fiber Forms

Here are my projects from my textile sculpture class.  I'm having fun in this class but I have to say it's not quite as exciting as I thought it was going to be. I feel like my teacher has certain ideas about what it is she want's us to create that make me feel limited in what I can do. But I'm trying my best and she seems to be pleased with my effort. So this is what I've got so far... 

At top is my third project, soft sculpture. I call it A Chair for Dreaming.  It was quite a challenge and took much more time to complete than I had expected. My work in weaving suffered for it, unfortunately.

Just above is my second assignment, fitted transformation. We had to draft a pattern for an object and use that to transform the object from its original state. My original objects were plain glass teacups. I wanted to transform something everyday and mass-produced into something whimsical and unique.  I call this piece Tea with Wayne and Mary because to me the cups look like physical manifestations of the work of Wayne Thiebaud or Mary Engelbreit.

Anyway, next up is an assignment on structure. Hmm... I dunno, we'll see about that one.

Off Subject: Sarah Applebaum

I'm slightly at a loss for words over Sarah Applebaum's work. The San Francisco native has me completely whipped. Her work emblazons an emblem of nostalgia like nothing else I've seen. I never thought I would put granny square and fine artist in the same sentence, but there it is. The artist humorously explores the new pop iconography and nostalgic issues of comfort while fearlessly tackling the chemistry of color and architecture of geometry.  I'm so in love. Give me more.

(images via artist's own website)

Off Subject: Thomas Campbell

Delicious. Colors, collage, painting, geometry, and thread. Love, love, love.

(images via Gregory Lind Gallery and Giant Robot)

Off Subject: Miyuki Sakai

I fell in love with Sakai's work over the summer when I saw the pieces she contributed to a food spread in Martha Stewart's Living. She manages to capture the romance and delicacy of fine china so well with just her machine and some thread. Ah-mazing. Plus, how cool that this Japanese native now calls San Francisco her home. It's so exciting to come across local artists you admire but who you never realized were locals. 

(images via artist's website)

Studio Time: Fabric Design

(testing squares, the two on left are mine, top right corner used another of my designs)

(pre-sketch with watercolor, acrylic, and ink)

 (in progress) 

 (finished 3'x3' square, eventually to be mounted on padded frame or quilted)

Fabric design is not something I thought I would ever be interested in. Kinda funny considering how much I love patterns and color.  This final project from last semester combined bast dyeing, discharging, off-set thickened dye stamping, fabric paint stamping, and embroidery.  I would like to do this some more... Maybe next semester, with a bit more yardage. Regardless, it was fun even if quite involved.

Studio Time: Textiles Galore

(textile relief exercise, series of 8"x8" muslin squares, 4 from each student, click images to view larger)

 (three-dimensional felt forms exercise, single piece patterns, first piece)

(first three weaving samples of eight, 10" width, four yard warp)

So this semester I am in an intro weaving class as well as a textile sculpture class. Needless to say, I am stoked beyond belief. I wanted to share a bit of what we've been working on.