Saturday Afternoon on Trinity Street

Today i am going to be sitting Trinity Street Market and Gallery on Trinity Street in Abbeville from 1;30pm until 5pm. So that means I will be out front on the sidewalk doing demonstrations and constructing projects. Last week I made a birdhouse . (I fired it too fast yesterday It went KABOOM in the kiln.what a mess) This week maybe some garden chickens . If You come by and say you read this here on my blogger i will give you a piece of clay and let you make your own garden chicken .I will fire it and you can glaze it in the color of your choice. You never know; it could be your new best hobby !!! Shown above is Yellow Cat Toad House . Another fun project. I am planning on doing a 1 day workshop on May 23rd . Constructing Your own Toad House. If you are interested stop in and see me at the Trinity Street Market and Gallery or contact me here. While you are in town check out the other galleries. There are several. Sit down on the front porch of the Ice Cream Parlor there on Trinity Street and enjoy a cold treat on a hot day. I will be sitting right across the street working on chickens ............

Bonnie and Pooh

This is my latest sculpture . It was a gift to my very dear friend Bonnie Bardos who is also an artist. (You can visit her blogspot by clicking onto her bohemian artist blogshot to the right of my page) In her arms is her sweet and wonderful Pooh .
Yesterday I met my friends Sherry Dinkins and Pat Hildebran in Saluda NC . It is a beautiful little monutain town just off I-26. We had lunch at the Purple Onion which is always , to me the greatest place up there to eat whether it is lunch or dinner it is hard to beat the Purple Onion. They have desserts that are just too hard to resist. I suggest one of their wondeful salads with the roasted freerange chicken added. Then you dont feel so guilty for having one of their dessert creations. YUM ! I always choose there flourless chocolate decadence (might be spelled wrong) with raspberry sauce. The atmosphere is always great . On the walls you will find local artists work hanging that are available for purchase. See if you can spot a pieece or two by artist Bonnie Bardos. I bet you can!
After we ate we visited The Brass Latch and The Garden Cottage down by the bakery in Nostalgia Courtyard. I love that place too. It has a beautiful little courtyard full of garden accessories and beautiful pots of flowers and the shops are brimming over with special little "gotta have's" everywhere.
After shopping the shops and splurging on ourselves we went and visited with Bonnie and Pooh at their beautiful studio house. Visiting Bonnie's place is always a special treat. Art in every room. Our friend Linda Kay dropped in while we were there and so the 5 of us beautiful Diva's sat out on Bonnie's garden deck and had a wonderful visit. I LOVE my FRIENDS !
My friend Sherry gave me a $50 gift certificate for High Water Clays in Asheville so real soon I will be going on an Asheville trip. I can buy about 150 pounds of clay for $50! Just in time to begin my work for my upcoming August Show.
Life Is Good ! .............. For more photos of our day in Saluda and the "Bonnie and Pooh" picture go to The world of Pity Pat blogspot to the right.

Upcoming Show for The Loon

I am so excited ! In August I will be showing my work at The Tryon Fine Arts Center In Tryon N.C. in "Gallery Too" . I do not have the date of the show yet and when I do I will post it. And as I get closer to the date I will write a little more about it. For now it means lots of hard work and brainstorming. I have so many ideas . I will have to think of a name for my show also. Oh how exciting !
I am going to dig me a pit and fire a few pieces of my things in the pit. For those not familar with this technique it is quite fun except of course for the digging of the pit. I will dig me a pit 5x5x2 . Since my ground is nothing but red clay this should yeild some very interesting pieces I am hoping. After I dig the pit I will take a few pieces I have made especially for the pit and burnish them with smooth stones I picked up from behind the Hartwell Dam until the pieces have a smooth and shiny surface to it. I prefer to use Lyman Red lowfire clay and white raku clay. Then I will bisq fire the pieces in my kiln but not too hot because I do not want to burn the shiny suface off. Then I will add different oxides to the pieces . Also believe it or not plant foods and cheap dog foods ( I dont feed my dog these cheap dog foods by the way) can be added all around the pieces in the pit and because they are full of copper and other metals and chemicals they can sometime produce some pretty interesting colors to the pitfired pieces. My favorite method is to take copper scrubbers you buy in the grocery store( I hate to scrub with them as I hate housework. domesticated I am not) ) I unfold them . This gives me a long sleeve of copper mesh which can be stretched around the burnished bisqued piece of clay . Also thin copper wires can be wrapped around the piece. Then I add saw dust to my pit and put my pieces all around in the saw dust and heap lots and lots of dry wood on top of my pieces and start the fire. And if I manage to get my fire hot enough it burns the copper right off of the piece leaving some very pretty colors of red and orange and black with different patterns. I may go to one of the local farms around and see if i can get some cow pies (manure) . Cow pies make a very beautiful shiny black finish . Maybe I could do some cow sculptures and color them with cow pies. How cool would that be??
I think I will start digging my pit today since it rained all night the ground should be soft and easy to dig . I have all kinds cured wood lying all around my woods where trees have fallen . I can accomplish 2 tasks with this pit I am going to dig (3 if you count the exercise it takes to dig it) I will get great surface and finish designs and I will get my woods around the house cleaned up. I will take pictures and write more about this later.
Looks like I am going to be a very busy girl . I better get started.......

The Lake Loon Studio

The doors are always open and you are always invited to come in to The Lake Loon Studio and sit a spell . Come watch as I create my new works or grab a chunk of clay yourself and see what comes out of it. I bet you will be surprised.
It is a great day today to work out in the studio and work in the yard a little. I have done both today. Skipping all housework. After being stuck in the house for days while it has rained it was great to get out and enjoy the outdoors today. I walked around the studio and the yard and inspected all the new seedlings and bulbs that have emerged . Now the sun will warm up the ground and soon I will have flowers and vines and veggies growing all over the place . I can't wait.
I have a kiln full of fired pieces cooling and later today I will be able to take them out and inspect them. I love the opening of the kiln. It is like Christmas every time I open it and look inside. You never know what you will get. And even if I do know I still can't wait! I will glaze tonight with red and fire another kiln full of reds tomorrow.
Last night as I worked late into the night (actually into the morning) I was visited by 3 beautiful Luna Moths. You have to stay up late to see these beauties. And of course I am always up late. I had 2 in the studio with me and one in the kiln building. There were no signs of them this morning. Maybe they will visit me again tonight as I glaze. I hope so !

Happy Easter

What a beautiful Easter day. The temperature is perfect today . Not to hot and not to cold. A great day to be thankful for our many blessings for sure. I have truly been blessed with a great husband , 2 great kids , the cutest little grandson anyone could ever hope for , so many wonderful friends , Lily and my cats and the Freedom to get up everyday and do what ever I wish to do for the day which is almost always work on my art.
It has been a great day for playing around in my studio. I have been doing a little painting today on the sculpture I am working on for a friends birthday coming up. My plans are to go out and bisq fire it in just a little while. I will need to shape me a little Kiln Goddess to sit on top of my kiln while it fires to watch over it. I have a nice little collection of Kiln Goddess from previous firings. I will take pictures of all of them one day and post them . I will post a picture of my latest kiln firing later this week when I open up my kiln.
My husband and me took Lily down to the one of the local lake parks for a little walk earlier today. We have many parks located on the lake on both the SC side and the Georgia side. We try to visit a different one every weekend. Yesterday we took Lily down to the Hartwell dam to play. She loves for me to take treats for her to bury. She has treats buried all over the banks of Lake Russell . She is the funniest dog I have ever had.
Happy Easter to everyone all over the world . May we all one day enjoy Peace On Earth !

Hanging out on Trinity Street

Today I am going into town and get out of these woods for a little while. I am going to sit Trinity Street Market and Gallery on Trinity Street located in downtown historic Abbeville SC . You will find the gallery right up from Trinity Church in town. You can't miss the beautiful old church. The town is quite lovely this time of year. I think I will take a little clay and sit out in front of the gallery and work. Beautiful Spring days like this I love to work outside and this will give me a chance to socialize with the folks out strolling the town. I have a new idea for garden markers and a couple of plans for birdhouses. Maybe I will make another momma kitty with babies since i sold my gray and white one. So many ideas. If you find yourself in Abbeville today stop in and see me and I will give you a small piece of clay to work and create for yourself. I will be looking for you......