Thousand Springs Art Festival

We had wonderful weather at Thousand Springs this weekend! We could get anything from wind, cold blowing rain, to sunny and warm. We were lucky!

We brought sculptures, "build your own" sculptures, garden charms. We also brought saki sets so people could be reminded that I also make functional pottery.

Ed thought we should display the garden charms on the mug tree. He had a good idea, since the couple of charms we hung from the tent frame were harder to see. There was a good turnout to the event, despite the many events scheduled in the Boise area. The women's "race for the cure" was Saturday AM, as well as many pregame events for Boise State Broncos. We talked to many artists who said their sales were down 50% from 2 years ago, due to the economy. Even though we went there to sell and make money, going to an event that raises money (from booth fees) to preserve the historical land around the Snake River. is worth the trouble of going.

Fence Art - Garden Charms

Charm no. 1
Another way to use sculpture beads.

Charm number 2
Like little sculptures you can hang.

Charm number 3
Some people have said they like my sculptures, but don't have garden space. This gives them another option.

Charm number 4
Looks like a little lantern

Charm number 5
The copper wire will turn brown after a season to contrast with the fence material

Charm number 6
Copper wire implies movement

Fence Art

My sculptural garden art is also presented two-dimensionally. I call these pieces fence buttons. They hang on a fence or wall, for people who don't have garden space. I have an idea for another
style of art to hang on a fence.

I made large beads that are about 3-4 inches wide and about that tall.

More beads, a more basic shape.

Much smaller beads. The holes in them are for a wire to be passed through them.

These beads are glazed and waiting to be fired.

This is the beginning of a design. The beads are strung on copper wire and curled to keep the beads in place. I will publish the end product in 1 week.

Stellar Rust

I use an electric kiln for all my work. What that means is that the "fire" won't change the glaze, except to melt it. In contrast, a gas or wood fire kiln can cause serendipitous spots of color on the clay and glaze that the artist has no control of due to the smoky atmosphere in the kiln. In the ceramics lab, we counted on the fire to "save" a not very interesting pot, and sometimes it did. With an electric, what goes wrong is the kiln getting too hot or too cool (a relative term)! These mugs were over fired and the tan glaze became clear and dark brown. Ugh! I experimented with the temperature in the kiln by placing pieces on low shelves and high shelves to find the best temperature to make the glaze look good.

I found that the bottom shelf is the best position for this glaze. This is a sake set I hand built. I can make nice textures when I make pieces from a slab of clay.

This is a canister set that I made and used the same glaze. I am really excited about the finished product!

I made this torso a few years ago but hadn't fired it, because I didn't have a glaze that I thought would compliment the shape. I try not to make figures tan or white, but usually use a color. The glaze effect on this piece is perfect. When I poured the glaze on the piece, the glaze was thicker where it over lapped. The glaze is darker brown where it is thin, and whiter where it was thick. It is the perfect glaze for this sculpture.