Out of The Kiln

Here are the beads and pendants that you saw in my last post before they were fired. I think they came out great. The leaf tree is an unexpected surprise. And that is truly the thrill of ceramics, you never quite know how something is going to turn out. Could be a dud or like this one a rare beauty.

Working on some Beads Today

These are some square beads that have been fired two times already. They just came out of the kiln with the cobalt blue stain fired on. Now I am going to glaze them with a clear gloss glaze and fire them again.

These are some pendants and two hole beads that have not been fired at all yet. They are dry enough now for me to trim and smooth. Then they will be fired for the first bisque fire which for me is cone 06. About 1850 degrees.

These are some two hole beads and pendants that are in various stages of being ready to fire for a third time. The two hole beads need some clear gloss glaze, the pine cone pendant has not yet been hand painted and the leaf tree pendant has been hand painted and is ready for the final gloss glaze.
This is how the kiln load I am firing right now looks. I am trying to get the kiln full without having a disaster. The beads are on high temp wire which can only hold a light load. The wires are held in place by the posts that are on top of them and making the next layer for more beads on high temp wire. This is my small AIM 88 Kiln which only measures about 8x8 inches by 9 inches high on the inside. This is not a particularly good example of how to stack an AIM 88. Yolanda at Yolanda's clay has some great photos on Flickr! on how to really fill an AIM 88. I am firing this kiln load at a low fire 06 cone. My kiln has a digital control which is a joy to use. I just push the button and on it goes. It takes about 4 hours to fire to cone 06.

Visit to New York City

The last weekend in March I had the pleasure of visiting NYC again. It has been awhile since I visited and quite awhile since I lived there and attended college there (Barnard College). Every year, my husband and I visit my college roommate and attend the wonderful Bryn Mawr Book sale in Princeton. And some years we venture across the river and see the city.
This year was one of those. I attended the Whole Bead Show briefly and had the pleasure of meeting my Beads of Clay Yahoo Group friend Natalie Gillihan and purchased one of her lovely pendants. I chose the Tree of Life since I have such an affinity for trees and leaves. I was also able to meet some very nice folks from the Tucson Bead Shop, another connection for me since I grew up mostly in Tucson.
But best of all I spent some time with my son Brian who designs my webpage and gives me invaluable advice on all things technical and computer. He is indeed a computer whiz. I don't know what I would do without all of his help and enthusiasm for my work.
I took some great pictures of city buildings and visited Barneys on 59th Street and looked at all of their cool unslick jewelry.
And we had a great meal at a restaurant called The Brick.
And another great thing, it was a beautiful sunny day.
I am planning on making some right angle weave bracelets with the stones I purchased. I am quite Bead Show deprived since the only show that comes remotely near where I live--The Innovative Bead Show--I couldn't attend this year due to our worst snowstorm of the winter. Mind you that was in March and we had had plenty of bad weather before that time.
But now we have some signs of Spring. Check this lovely out on my website.

First Sunset of Daylight Savings Time

I took this photo on the first afternoon of DayLight Savings Time. It was so fantastic to have it light out so late. And what a beautiful sky there was that day. It was also the weekend we got a whole lot of snow, and despite the fact that it is raining today, most of that snow is still here.

Etsy Mud Team

As part of the Etsy Mud Team, I am paraticipating in their current Critter Challenge. I called my entry, in the picture above, Quizzical Critter. He is also hidden in one of my listings on Etsy which is part of the Challenge.

Felted Flowers and Beads

I have been working on making some felted flowers and beads for an upcoming class I will be teaching at the wonderful Fiber Options, a new fiber and fabric store that has kindly landed in our rural neck of the woods. I love going in there and since I don't knit I had to find an excuse to return often. So I am felting. And now they have asked me to teach a class. It will be on Sunday April 27 from 1PM to 4PM. I am looking forward to doing this. I love the colors of the roving. And they have ordered new colors just for this event.

Art Bead Scene Submission for March

I have just submitted my March entry for the Art Bead Scene. You can visit their blog at http://www.artbeadscene.blogspot.com/ You will really enjoy this one. It is so interesting.

Happy Birthday ArtBeadScene

I am wishing the ART BEAD SCENE a Happy Birthday. I am a day or two late. But what a great year it has been getting their daily blog of inspiration, information and insight. And most important of all, they celebrate the artist made bead. This is by far my favorite blog.

New Jewelry

I have been doing a lot of beading lately, perhaps because it is so cold and going out to heat up my studio for clay seems daunting many days.

I have been experimenting with thinner bracelets in peyote to see if they could look nice. I ususally do cuffs but I am very happy with this one and another one I am almost finished with.

Fun in the Sun Stringing Magazine Challenge

In January Stringing Magazine ran a challenge titled Fun In the Sun. I entered a bracelet that I made with my ceramic Fiesta Beads and Melanie of Earthenwood Studio handmade porcelain snack charms. I guess being outside and eating outside are two of my favorite summer activities.

You can visit the Stringing Magazine site where all of the entries are featured with a photo. A winner will be picked by the public. Anyone can vote on a favorite. Feel free to cast a vote for my piece if you like it.

Stringing Magazine posts the following about the contest:

Fun in the Sun Stringing Challenge Gallery
About the challenge: The challenge theme was "Fun in the Sun" Stringing publishes stringing and simple wirework designs.
Voting: Voting ends March 12, 2008.
In the spirit of fairness and friendly competition, please vote only once and from only one e-mail address.

They have already posted their next challenge which is called: Channeling Cinderella

Entries are due to stringing@interweave.com no later than May 16, 2008. Voting will be held between May 30 and June 30. To enter send a clear, high-resolution TIF(better) or JPEG (good) photo that is 300dpi at 3"x5".

Foremost Focal Featured Artist

I am excited to announce that I the current Featured Artist on the website of Foremost Focal. They have a long article about me and are carrying an assortment of my handmade ceramic pendants and beads. You can read about it by clicking the Foremost Focal link above.

Here is an excerpt from the article.

Mary has been making artwork for most of her adult life. She began making ceramic beads and pendants in 1998 when she had the good fortune to take a ceramic class with Ann Burnham and renew her ceramic skills. Soon, Mary was continuously engaged by the excitement of each new kiln load of beads. She was first inspired at that time by the need for larger holed beads for the macramé jewelry she was designing. However, after seeing ancient beads in museums and on a trip to Mexico, she began to experiment with glazes and stains that would create the look of an archeological find.Out of this search she became very committed to using stains and smoke, along with some commercial glazes to color her beads and pendants. Mary feels that too much colored glaze removes the presence of the clay from the bead and no longer draws the eye into the clay to experience it. The viewer needs to enjoy the many nuances of surface, texture and aleatory (unpredictable) markings. She uses earthenware and porcelain clay fired at low temperatures to keep the clay open to receiving these stains, colorings and smoke.Mary’s artistic influences have been such masters as John Cage, Marguerite Duras and Freda Kahlo and the folk artists she researched in Northern New York and Mexico. She grew up in the Southwest which has certainly had a lasting influence on her love for southwestern and central American art. Moving to New York State fulfilled a wish to live in a land with green meadows and lots of water. Her recent work of gathering the plants of the pastures of northern New York to decorate her ceramic pendants is a form of folk history that she has imaginatively interpreted by making colorful renderings of these resilient green beauties. (to read the rest please go to Foremost Focal.)

Foremost focal was recently written up on ArtBeadScene. In this article you get a good overview of this wonderful site that features only handmade glass and ceramic focals and beads. They also offer suggestions for other kinds of beads that would go well with their focals. The site is run by Chris Thommen who is located in Michigan.

Winterlude for a Beader Part II

Clearly the winter weather continues up here in the Northeast. But oh so beautiful on sunny days. I took the photo above when I was snowshoeing this week. I was standing on the river which is now frozen completely.

My third winterlude class was with my friend Cait Throop, who is an amazing weaver. The class I took is called Triangle weave. This class intrigued me because I love all the new fibers but don't really know how to knit, crochet (beyond making bracelets) or weave. Here was a chance to spend the day with a great friend and some wonderful fibers. She was so kind to make a trip to the fiber shop to help me pick out what I needed. I chose some lovely shades of burgundys and had a wonderful day with Cait, the other students and some great fibers.

The photo below is at the beginning and gives you a good look at the triangle looms that we used. She likened them to the potholder looms we (some of us) used as children. And indeed the technique is similar.







The pattern we used is called a Log cabin pattern but it doesn't show up much in mine because of the colors I chose. Below is a photo of another student's piece that shows off that pattern nicely. I like the caotic pattern of mine quite a lot too.





Below you can see a photo of mine almost finished. We all finished our scarves before the class ended so we could take them home and wear them. I am really happy with my piece. It is warm and pretty to wear. I am planning to add some beads to the fringe at some point.






Cait is now teaching this class at the St. Lawrence County Arts Council.



Winter footsteps. Windswept.

Winterlude for A Beader

Near where I live the college has a special name for that time between Christmas Vacation and the beginning of the second semester. They call it Winterlude and offer classes that students would not ordinarily take.

This winter I seemed to need a Winterlude and took some jewelry related classes that I would not ordinarily take either. In December I was invited to participate in an ornament making class at our local arts council. We made lovely ornaments out of plated silver wire and beads. It was fun to be a student. In fact it was very relaxing and I had a great time and used my new wire working skills to make some cool presents for family members and friends. My winterlude has continued on into January when I got together with a few friends, Sally Hartman, Vlema Bolyer and Kim Klatt to learn how to fuse pure silver wire. What fun.

Up until that time I was leary or more accurately afraid of torches. But that little baby is such fun to use I could hardly stop myself from making more and more. The thrill of watching the little ball of silver jump up the wire, and the excitement of watching the thicker wire turn molten and then magically fuse was addictive. I had to stop when I was getting my tab too high, as that wire is expensive.

Here is the set up with a small micro torch, safety glasses, and a heat proof surface in a cookie sheet to work on and prevent drops of red hot silver.

Here I am trying to heat a piece of wire and make a ball on the end of it.

I probably won't have much luck as this was copper wire we used for the picture because I didn't think of taking the pics until we were almost all packed up. When the wire is pure silver little round drops form on the wire and grow by jumping up the wire. We did a number of these for head pins as seen the the next picture.

They make very elegant findings, and despite the high cost of fine silver wire they are still economical to make.

Then we learned how to hammer and shape the silver ring above into a very chic

pair of earrings using the head pins we made to wirewrap a bead for each loop.

Our helper for learning to make these fine silver findings was Kim Klatt who is a great jewelry maker in her own right, and a superb teacher.



Our hostess for the day, and some more days planned for the future is Isis, a wonderful spinner and weaver and owner of a new pup named Casper.

Thank goodness for Caspar and for this wonderful day making fine silver findings.

Now You See It Now You Don't Winter

I have decided to call this Winter Now You See It

Now you don't

But isn't it beautiful?

Winter All Around

Now that it is December, it seems that winter is here to stay. Oh, well. I guess I have to adjust to this unwanted change in weather. But it seems that this year more than others I am having a hard time giving up the warm weather.

But when I look at all the snow around and sit cozied up to our woodstove, it isn't so bad after all.

Fused Glass At Gallery Tour

In addition to glazing ceramic beads, my guests on the last day of the tour had the opportunity to make a fused glass pendant. These came out great.

Artistis' Studio Tour

If you were to look up Artists' Studio Tour on Google you would find over 38,000,000 entries. So I guess it would be safe to say that Artist Studio Tours abound in the US and most cities and towns engage in this form of promoting the arts.

In St. Lawrence County, in Upstate New York, we have been having artist studio tours for at least 20 years and I have been actively participating for at least half of those years. I have seen this event grow and become a great opportunity for artists and the public. This year there were 39 participating artists. Our usual brochure grew into a booklet and many studios were open for the full 3 days of the event.

I think this event is very special which is why I am writing about it. It is special to me because for a remote, rural county-- geographically, the largest county east of the Missippi River-- we have an exceptionally active artistic community. And we have a very interested public. In addition, we now have an active and forward looking Arts Council with a Director, Hilary Oak, who believes in the arts and is very good at their promotion. Not only is a studio tour a smart marketing opportunity for artists, it is also a chance to educate the public about how our individual creations are made. For me, the fun this year was involving my guests in ceramic bead glazing and glass fused pendants. All that participated experieced a sense of joy in participating in their own creative process. And I felt so happy that I could make this happen and give back to my guests who are friends, customers, and people new to me this year.

Here is a photo of some of the lovely ceramic bead glazing my talented guests did.

After the tour was over, there was still some of the colorful glazes they had used leftover in the paint dishes. Since I don't usually use much glaze, mostly stains, I thought about throwing them out since they were getting dry. But in the end, I didn't have the heart to do it, so I began glazing some beads that I had around. I took my own advice and put on several coats so I would get bright colors. And did I ever love the results. Now I want to make more and here is what I have to play with for the next weeks. So I say thank you to my guests for coming and letting me share my skills with them, and I say thank you again for using all those bright colors and getting me inspired.

St. Lawrence County Artists' Studio Tour

The brochures are out and the tour is just two weeks away. I am at a new location this year, my own studio in a ninteenth century barn. Here is an announcement for my part of the tour with a map of how to get there. I am Studio 23. I look forward to this event. I will be doing a make and take ceramic bead event and demonstrating how to make fused glass pendants.