Sorry if I've not replied to your comments much recently. I've been in a self loathing funk and haven't been being as productive as I should be. (am I ever?)
My job hunting has taken a zillion different directions just over the past week, but I think I have it settled. At least for now. My frazzled brain noise went as follows:
Relying on the fact that the owner of the local Chinese restaurant is interested in hiring me as soon as the kids that currently work there head back to school. There are pro's and con's to this that I won't get into.
I then had an overwhelming feeling that I need to get out of this town already, and searched online for jobs up by campus where I graduated. Then I could keep working in the studio (cause the teachers are awesome and let us grads use the facilities) and get and early start on my recently acquired 5 year plan. But the job I found (which was art related!) is only part time and I wouldn't be making enough to even split rent with Mary, who I would be moving in with. Other job options I racked my brain over ended up not being good ideas either. Bummer. :(
Then I started getting pretty miserable that all this job hunting made me feel like I was giving up on Etsy. And that was not a good feeling. I decided that taking time out to stay with Mary and work in the campus studio for a couple of weeks would be a good idea. The boy also made me feel better by reminding me that I could really use that studio time to make things for the pottery festival next month, and holy crap is he right. Then two weeks turned into three since Mary will be heading off to Penland later this month (lucky her! :D ) and could really use me to house sit and feed her kitties for her again.
I think this will be a really good thing for me to really focus hard on not only getting things made for the pottery festival, but giving my Etsy a good kick in the bum, and try to get my sales back off the ground. I really want to give it all I have for the next three weeks (and beyond of course). No procrastinating. I look forward to it being refreshing, and helping me get my positive attitude back. And hopefully after the festival in September, I can finally afford that small kiln I so disparately need.

In unrelated news, my dreadies have been looking wonderful lately. They are long enough for me to tuck under my head bands and wraps now (well, most of them,haha). It looks rather nice. :)




Oh hey :)

So sorry for not posting regularly. I don't have much of an excuse. I hope you forgive me! I have some new things though. :) More pics and details at the links.

I finally got around to completing a project with the roving I purchased from Copperpot on Etsy.
I also used the rest of the ceramics beads I had made late last year.




It was tempting to just keep it! But I still have plenty of that roving left so its all good. :) I also priced this a bit cheaper than what it probably should be because I know a lot of people are feeling the economy, so it's a pretty darn good deal.
Off to finish another necklace! :D

I've not been online much for a few days. I've been working on a baby blanket for my best friends baby who is due in July. She is in from Hawaii (husband is in air force, they are stationed there) for two more weeks. :) She had a baby shower yesterday, but I didn't finish the blanket in time for it, so I will have to give it to her before she leaves. It's extremely colorful, like a clown threw up, haha. I'll get pics.
I have my first commission for a business. The gift shop coordinator for the Elmhurst Art Museum in Illinois seen this necklace and wants me to make some for them to sell in the gift shop. So I'll be making 10 of these for the shop there.


I don't have enough of my ceramic beads to make 10 more of these so I will be attempting to recreate the ceramic beads from polymer clay. I'm really excited!
Well, I slept past noon today and I've not eaten. :p Time to get some grub.

I've just stumbled upon some artwork from ceramic artist Mineo Mizuno. You ever see something you think is fantastic and matches what's swimming around in your brain so well that you get jealous that you didn't think of it? Happens to me a lot unfortunately, haha.
Mizuno makes pieces resembling large creek stones. Areas across the body of the pieces are indented, designating where moss will be planted to actually grow on the piece itself. I loooove moss and think these are beautiful.

You can view more on the Samuel Freeman gallery website. These works are on display there until March 21st, so if you are lucky enough to be in the Santa Monica California area, you might want to check it out. I am on the opposite side of the country, but am enjoying viewing more of Mineo Mizuno's work on his website. :)

I can't wait to have my own kiln so I can keep working in clay.





Right to left, top to bottom:

alinahayes

potterygod

BranchDesigns

catherinereece

jwpottery

NomadClayworks

GraceandEv

handpaintedbykristin

SabrinaLeaf

lesperancetile

janellesonger

dbabcock

FancyTownStudio

webbpottery

SIKIU

LeatherwoodStudioArt

...Such as keeping your beads where you want them while you plan out a necklace.

I like using it instead of those beading trays because it can hold oddly shaped beads how you need them, keeping the holes horizontal and such. I just roll out a coil and flatten it to the table to the length I want and it works out really well. I can push my beads into it and it doesn't get all stuck in/on them or anything.

And this is that necklace finished:



I am extremely pleased with how it turned out. Besides the gemstone beads used, the rest are all handmade by me, either ceramic or polymer, including the copper clasp.

..but technically it's the 2nd now. Meh. And one of my goals for 2009 is to stop procrastinating, go figure.
Also I had a couple of pictures to post but can't find my camera cord, so I guess there's my motivation to finish unpacking my stuff tomorrow. :9
But anyways! I finally graduated college with a BFA in ceramics. Yay! Now the plan is to save up money so that I can afford to move to wherever grad school may be. I still have to narrow down where I want to apply, and i won't be applying until Fall 2010. Right now my biggest goal is to get my Etsy going enough to be able to sell my items full time. And if I can just get a small kiln, that would help sooo much. But until then I have to make do with what I have. So I guess now this will sort of be a journal of that goal. Scary! haha. But thanks to having an awesome boyfriend that can allow me to try this Etsy thing head on for a while, I'll have all the time in the world to work on my Etsy and this journal and some other things. :) So wish me luck! Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a more substantial post to type up, haha.

It's about time I showed some of what I have been working on in my final ceramics class before I graduate this December. Before I do that though, I want to show a couple of finished things from my metals class. Earlier in the semester we learned granulation (a process used by goldsmiths or silversmiths to decorate precious metals with small spheres fused to a base piece.) We also learned to make a chain with fine silver (fine silver is what we were also using to granulate). We had to do a practice piece first, which I ended up using as the focal point to this bracelet. It also uses the chain I made (which is kind of a pain in the ass since you have to fuse every jumpring by hand before linking together)







I'm really happy with it, and wear it most days. :) It's not supposed to have a face, it just ended up looking that way. But I like it.

Once I got the hang of granulation with my practice piece, I made the main project. These are a pair of 8 gauge earrings. The granulated part is of course *fine silver, and the hook and rivet is sterling silver. These were not meant to look like purses, but they just ended up that way. *shrug* That's ok with me though, I am really happy with them. I wear them almost daily.






*As far as I understand from my class, you must granulate with pure metals, not alloys. Only pure metals will fuse together when heated. This is why you can not granulate with sterling silver. Sterling is 7.5% copper, which is added for strength (silver is pretty soft). Fine silver is something like 99.999% silver, nothing added whatsoever.



Ok, back to ceramics. These pieces are all unfinished, either still being sculpted, or still in need of being glazed, etc... They are for my BFA senior exhibition that will be December 7th. So close! So stressful! Haha.

This is a sort of terrarium, so to speak. Tiny plant life (muchly made up from my brain) in what could be a split nut shell, or maybe some driftwood, who knows. :) It is dry, but still needs to be bisque fired. It will be really tricky to glaze!









A work in progress which is now finished, waiting to be bisque fired.



Bottom of this still waiting to be carved, and the top waiting to be put on.






Here it is with the top finished. The bottom still needed to be carved, but it has since been finished and is also waiting to be bisque fired.





Here are some bisque fired pieces on my shelf, ready to be glazed. :)







One of several small 'studies' of mine. They'll make good glaze testers. :)





This is my work space in the advanced studio. I have since cleaned and organized it so it looks much better now. :9





And that's all for now! I can't wait to have the finished pieces to show. :D

Listed a few more ceramic pod pendants. Here are just a couple of them.

New things, as promised! I'm excited to get these posted because they are much more representational of my style and work as an artist than the rest of my shop. They are ceramic pendants. I have just five listed right now, but many more to post and many more to make. :) Here are just a couple, take a look! More in my shop.








I added some copper headpins I made also. I'd like to start keeping those in my shop too. :)