Granville Island Visit

I admit that I had alterrior motives for heading over to Granville Island with the family today... I needed to drop off some more ceramics at the BC Gallery of Ceramics that had been special ordered by some of their customers. Since I spent 3 years being on Granville Island almost daily when I went to the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design (now called Emily Carr University), going there is like going home for me. I usually have to scout out my favourite spots at the Net Loft, and then it's off to the Market for my favourite beverage/snack combos. By far my favourite combos would be: a donut (has to be honey dew) and a JJ bean latte; a chai tea latte from the Granville Island Tea Company and an apple foccatia bread from Terra bread; or for the savoury lunch combo- a soup from the amazing soup place and a rosemary rocksalt bagel. So today, with family in tow, we went for combo #1 and I couldn't help noticing the amazing flowers while I was waiting for my latte. I managed to get some photos of their gorgeous holiday wreaths and bouquets that could inspire the Van Gogh in all of us. What a great way to start my busy week!

On another note, I wrote an article about 'blogging about clay' for the next BC Potter's Guild Newsletter, which should be coming out this coming week. I got emailed the rough draft on friday and I'm kind of excited to see it get published! It's the first article that I've written, and I really wanted to share some of the great resources I've found in my travels on-line with other clay blogs or websites! It's inspiring to read what other clay artists around the world are doing and I wanted to pass that along to others.

Bird Sightings!

We have been watching the 'Planet Earth' series of videos lately- absolutely amazing footage of animals and plants on this beautiful earth of ours- if, of course, we can manage to keep it this way! The bird footage in the series has been great to see, especially the birds of paradise portions, where the male bird struts and dances around to try to impress the ladies! On my own bit of bird sightings, we went to the Parrot Sanctuary in Nanaimo, BC with the kids a couple of weekends ago. It is really unbelievable how many exotic birds have been plucked out of their natural habitat to become soon-to-be unwanted pets. The bird sanctuary provides a home with other birds as parrots live in flocks and like to be in the company of other birds. The birds are really loud but friendly- will say 'hello' to you when you walk into their space, but I really can't imagine having them in my own home. Furthermore, they often live for up to 100 years!
Anyways, the bird theme in my life has, of course, come out on my ceramics more recently. Since finding a baby bird that had fallen from it's nest in spring, I have been playing around with bird shapes on my ceramics. Some cardinals have recently appeared as a hommage to the cardinals I would see when I grew up out east. Also a couple of hummingbirds, a pheasant, and the little sculpture of a sparrow that I hope to make more of.

In other news I was back at the clay studio working away on the Christmas orders that have started to come in fast and furious... I also posted some new work on etsy, and hope to continue posting more images over the next week to have the shop well-stocked for the holidays.
The Portobello Holiday Market is coming up really quick so there will be more Cardinal Tree Ornaments finished in time too! Save the date: December 13 & 14, Noon-6pm at the Rocky Mountaineer Station- $2, kids free!

Thanks for another great Crawl!

Thank you to all those who came by for another great Crawl! It was great to see everyone come out- I lost count at how many people came by, all I know is that my studio was a lot less full than on the opening night ! A huge thanks to Miriam, my sister, Dean and Andrew- all key people who helped me out over the weekend to make it a huge success! I'll post more pics soon !

a snapshot of what is to come!

Here's a snapshot of what will be available at the Crawl this weekend at my painting studio: 1000 Parker street, Room 350- around the very back corner of the building! Swing by and have a look- Friday night 5-10, Saturday 11-6 and Sunday 11-6! It's going to be a great Crawl this year- the studio is humming with artists getting their studios ready for people to check out their work! Hope to see you there!

Foto Fun!

So I gave picnik a try over the weekend. WAY too much fun. For those who have not yet been introduced, it's like photoshop for dummies- you can upload your photos from your computer or flickr and adjust the lighting/contrast, etc. It will be great for all those photos I've tried to take for my etsy site where the lighting is a bit off or the colour is too yellow. Now I can put them into the program and Viola! I can change that in a pinch.
Of course, one can get carried away. Or, like the photo above, the picnik shot isn't necessarily 'better', it just can create a different mood or effect than your original. You can make the photos a little more artsy or goofy depending on what kind of picture you upload. I'm about to start on Dean's, ahem...40th Birthday invites- should be fun! He is notorious for taking pictures of himself, and now he may regret that.
In other news I'm on the final count-down for the Eastside Culture Crawl! The studio is starting to look more like a gallery than a studio! So exciting! Remember: November 21-23, studio 350, 1000 Parker St!

It's been a few days without my computer and I have to admit that I missed it. It was on a journey to Calgary with Dean because his new laptop didn't arrive in time before he left. There are usually a few things I miss about not havin' the man at home... he makes me coffee in the mornings, he compliments me on how great he thinks I look (even when I skipped the hairbrush and make-up routine) and he helps look after our boys, a real plus when I'm in the midst of my busy studio times. So I'm quite glad he's back for all those reasons and more. Single parenting would not exactly be my forte, I've decided. Kudos to all of those single parents out there who do their darndest to hold down the fort, and run a business at the same time. WOW is all I can say!

On another note, I have decided to just be at studio 350, 1000 Parker street for the Eastside Culture Crawl this year. I had thought that it might be great for people to be able to see my clay studio at the Mergatroid building, as every year I get all sorts of questions about where my wheel or kiln are hiding, but it's just too small a space for more than 2 or 3 people to check out my stuff at one time. So with the idea of 4000 people marching through the studio in 3 days, I decided I'm better off at the painting studio- lots of room there and it will be my last year in the space. Yes, that's right, I'm moving out of the building and come Dec 15th, will have 2 small spaces at the Mergatroid, one for clay and one for paint, right across the hall from each other. It's a shame, my painting space has been fabulous, but it's time to move on. My good friend Amy is also moving to another space downtown and so it wouldn't quite be the same without her there.
Well, I'm counting the days until the Crawl and am really looking forward to it! I've got one last firing and then I start setting up the studio! Will post pictures soon...

Just some of those great photos that got shot the other day.

A Huge thank you to Curtis for the amazing shots!
Also a big thanks to Tyler Payne for the new blog heading!

Obamaware!

Congratulations to our neighbours down south of us, for the nomination of their new president elect: Barack Obama! What a victory! I followed the story on the news the other night and couldn't help but think about a little grouping of ceramic artists who pulled together to auction off their hand-made Obamaware to raise over $10 000 for his campaign! Amazing what people can do together under a common cause! A ceramic artist called Ayumi Horie organized the auction and her site is really unbelieveable with photos of Obamaware in action etc!
Check out the roster of artists that got involved in the project here! There is an amazing photo of Obama holding up one of her mugs during a campaign speech on the site- check it out!
Also check out Diana Fayt's blog as her Obamaware is something else!
To those people who bought Obamaware during the auction...not a bad investment piece! Those babies will turn up on the Antiques Roadshow years from now fetching a pretty penny more than what they paid originally!