Making Marks

Day to Play with Clay

 Ann Fleming is an amazing artist and a generous, kind person. I met her through Lunaria Gallery where she shows her cast bronze sculpture which are made from coil-built clay pieces. For me, each of her pieces is imbued with a story: many feel as if a new personal discovery will happen in a moment or has just happened.

Ann graciously offered to host a few people in her studio to make a piece one afternoon. I was excited because I'd never worked with ceramics. I came with ideas about houses and slab built a small structure. I wonder what it will look like after firing!

  Side story - I was signed up for a ceramics class in high school, but I had to drop it because I fell and put my hand through a window. Several stitches (and the loss of any hand modeling jobs : ) were the result. I had to learn how to write with my left hand, missed most of the volleyball season, and never tried ceramics until now.

Fortune Friday

 Here's your fortune for today (taken from my vast collection of fortunes from real cookies)-

If you go fishing, your catch will be plentiful.

Published! Scrapbook Asian Style

One of my pals, Kristy Harris of Far Flung Craft, pulled together a stellar group of scrapbook designers (and me?) to create the book Scrapbook Asian Style. I made cards and projects using photos from my parents' and in-laws' travels, and I used a couple of photos of my own.

The book is full of inspiration from different areas of Asia, and we used a wide variety of materials in our work. Of course I'm biased, but it's a cool book!

This picuture is of a local shop, Stone Buddha, located in Silverton's two-storefront-long Chinatown. : )

Instinct - Illustration Friday

This week's theme for Illustration Friday's is instinct. 

I don't know about you, but when it's cold, my first instinct is to cuddle!

See the rest of my blog here. See the rest of my Illustration Friday drawings here. See my Etsy shop (with illustrations) here.

Scooter Update

I tried to get some shots of Scooter in the car recently, and they turned out a little arty looking. Of course I'm biased, but he's so cute!

Scooter is doing really well. I've learned how to use more hand signals with him, and they are working. For example, when he's holding a ball, pointing two fingers to the ground means "drop it". This works better than the verbal command. My guess is that I unintentionally give mixed signals with verbal commands. The hand gestures are pretty straight forward.

We have to be careful about him in the winter when it's so dark in our house. I've almost stepped on him a couple of times in the past weeks as he's lying in the hallway. I bet he thinks I'm really stupid - why don't I just pay attention to the smells and know an animal is right in my path? 

Fortune Friday

 Here's your fortune for today (taken from my vast collection of fortunes from real cookies)-

Your home is a pleasant place from which you draw happiness.

Pig Drawing

One of the reasons I was interested in sewing stuffies is to have something unique to draw. This concept hearkens back to the drawing class I took with Carla Sonheim.

I like this little guy, but the ears look weird. I think when I made the pig stuffie I just made it up about how to attach the ears. Note to self- when in doubt, look at an on-line image! I love the web.

Celebrate - Illustration Friday

 This week's theme for Illustration Friday's is celebrate. 

There's no better time to celebrate than a birthday!

Right now I'm experimenting with just pen and ink. I am also leaving in some pencil lines to see if I like that. 

See the rest of my blog here. See the rest of my Illustration Friday drawings here. Leave a comment to enter a drawing for a giveaway here (good until 2/18/09).

10,000 hours of practice

I've been reading Malcolm Gladwell's recent book, Outliers. He masterfully weaves together a variety of stories to illustrate how people became successful. One of the common denominators is practice - lots of it. The estimation is that 10,000 hours of practice will help someone achieve mastery at a task. That's about three and a half years if you practice for eight hours a day.

10,000 hours seems like a daunting task, but the truth is it's achievable. If I draw for just 60 minutes a day, I could be a master by the time I die. That's something to think about.

Happy Valentine's Day!

You know I'm smitten with vintage images. The best ones have a silly pun and a little chicken that's getting out of the way.