Celebrate!

Compliments of my friend Barb
Its really, really yummy.

It's a celebratory attitude here. The porcelain egg is FINALLY done (pictures to come tomorrow) and I had 200lbs of clay delivered to the studio yesterday. That delivery meant more time on the wheel and the moment I could get down onto my wheel I did and pulled pottery like a maniac last night! After all my work was done I popped open the special bottle of red wine my friend Barb brought while she was visiting. I had been dying to try it. Last night was the perfect night to pop it open. I sat and enjoyed the wine and enjoyed looking at the egg and all the raku pieces I just pulled.

Raku clay maddness here

I decided to purchase some raku clay that will withstand thermal shock this time when ordering. This clay should suit my needs better when making horsehair pottery. So far, I'm off to a spectacular start. This clay is magic. Creamy, groundy smelling (ahhh-I love that) and perfect to center, pull and even trim. I'm in heaven. I love it more than the porcelain for wheel throwing. I hope it fires well. If so, then its perfect all around and that is also a plus since it's half the price of porcelain.

So Red the Rose

Working roses onto the porcelain

Roses are the most difficult object for me to personally paint and draw. I struggled all weekend trying to create roses on the bottom of the porcelain egg. After several tries I finally painted a few roses that looked fairly decent. In the end I had to add a bit of white paints in order to bring out the highlights since they really got mushy looking.

Today I await a shipment from Maryland China which includes a special brush for applying gold. I didn't feel confident in using the water color brushes I currently own. Next to roses, applying gold is the second most difficult thing to paint on porcelain in my opinion.

Wait! What?

Slowly layering in flesh tones

As you can see I have been working diligently on the porcelain egg box and I have made some really nice progress. It's by far the most adventurous and beautiful china painting I have produced to date. So, I was of course very excited to show it off and left the upper portion of the egg sitting on the kitchen table. Hubby walks in after work, picks up the egg, examines it and says, "It's too religious" then walks away leaving me speechless and feeling rather defeated.

Three days of non stop, solid work were seemingly squashed in three words.

Layering hair

Too religious? Wait! Did you say it was too religious Mr. "HURRY we are going to be late for mass?" How on God's good green earth is this box too religious for the school association of SAINT Bernard's? Should I seriously be worried about my box offending about a hundred Catholic women attending a fashion show in support of the school they are sending their children to?

Defining the veil

The Madonna gently holding her baby is the epitome of a mother's love. A quiet moment of innocence and nurturing. Aren't we as moms and dads always striving for that quiet moment of love between our children? How could the Madonna, the ultimate mom in the Christian religion, or for those non religious- the most ultimate "mom" icon of high art be too religious, too over the top? Whether you are religious or not, it is still a beautiful image, no? Did I miss the memo?

Layering color on infant

Slowly detailing Mary

I know it's become rather fashionable and easy to forgo religion, to forget your manners, to be apposed to anything Conservative these days, and to poo poo any form of gentleness in our rough society. It's quicker and more fashionable to type "Xmas" instead of "Christmas" and any slight mention of Christ brings some to a halt with a snicker. That's OK. I get it and normally keep my religion and religious thoughts to myself, but this idea, this seemingly perfect theme for a huge fundraising event held by women at a religious organization that lands right before the big religious holiday seems right. No, wait, its seems absolutely perfectly SANE in EVERY respect.

Visualizing entire piece together

If this idea truly is not sane, or it is too religious and most of all unfashionable to present a Madonna and Child to a religious association hoping for a rather large turnout to their event with, of course, nice four figured profits at the end of the affair in order to support a RELIGIOUS school, then the whole world has truly gone mad.

Diversify

Beginning stages porcelain painting

Diversity is key in my studio. I love having many things to work on and I actually enjoy juggling between those projects. It keeps me on my toes and I feel my eye stays sharper and fresher. I'm also never bored.

As you can see today I've added another item to the juggle. I was invited to attend a fashion show in Brooklyn and hence asked if my small business had anything by way of donations in order to help support their cause and although the request comes last minute the group that asked is an association that I had been hoping to show off my work to (one goal of 08) but never had the opportunity. When opportunity knocks you answer and so I added this lovely porcelain egg to the mix.

Adding figures lightly

My vision for this piece is to see the Madonna and Child painted on the upper portion of the egg. The lower portion, near the legs, will have beautiful red roses circling the area and there will be 24k gold touches here and there. I have decided to leave the inside white. Perhaps I'll place a small rose inside the box. I haven't decided. Right now my focus is on the Madonna and Child and is always the case with me when I am painting humans my hero Tamara de Lempicka is there in the background inspiring.