Preparing for the Carolina Designer Craftsmen Show in Raleigh, NC

Just picked up my rental Metrovan.  Kevin and I will fill it up with art and booth furniture tomorrow and head to Raleigh.  Bodyguard, Caroline & Grace and Max & Gizmo will make their debut at this show.  I'll also bring new big dogs, teeny ornaments, and small dogs and llamas.  Also, my blackware--inspired by potters of the pueblos in the American Southwest.

I know I have not kept you up to date on studio happenings in the last several days--had so many things going on, I didn't have time to write about them!

We've put in some late nights, but it has been rewarding to see the work finally finished and the set up ready to go.

Hope to see you in Raleigh!

Sneak preview below--photos by Jason Dowdle

Bodyguard--the first in this new body of work, People and Their Companion Animals.

To give you an idea of scale, this piece if 21 inches tall.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, my brother thinks the girl looks like me in high school--even before the piece was glazed.  I had not noticed it, but he is right. 

Caroline and Grace

Max and Gizmo

Caroline & Grace is 15-16 inches tall and Max & Gizmo, 17 inches in height.  

You would not believe how much time I spent picking out colors, including colors of the dog collars! I considered what the character would choose, what glazes are available, what works well with colors of dogs, enough contrast, not too much contrast, etc.  Made many, many test tiles and, will be doing more, as the new batch of clay has a different formulation, so may give different colors with my glazes.  Not such a big deal for clothing, but people's skin tones--wow--so many colors that looked good on the test tile did not work for larger areas.  So I will be testing a lot more.  I am currently using mostly Amaco underglazes, but if anyone has suggestions for good skin tones, of all colors, please drop me a line.

The dogs' tags have the numbers 2912519, corresponding to letters of the alphabet for BILES:  

2-9-12-5-19

The ladies' dogs have heart shaped tags, but Gizmo's tag is bone-shaped.  It is unintentional, but Max bears a striking resemblance to Kevin's father (though Max's face is much fuller).  Also, Kevin used to have a vest almost that color.