Just a reminder that it’s Free Shipping February so be sure to take advantage of it and explore our online shop! Enter LOVEFREESHIPPING at checkout and the shipping fees are on me. Here’s a selection of pieces available to bring intrigue to your creative place…
“My mission is to create abstract interpretations of nature through thoughtfully crafted ceramic sculptures that reconnect you with the natural world.” -jw
For all the home school families out there, I’ve recently partnered with Outschool, they are a new resource that helps you find and book in-person learning activities for kids.
I’m offering two 4 week clay classes designed for just for home school kids with small class sizes to allow for personalized learning opportunities. Please share this with any home school families you think might be interested.
Here is the link to view the details: Outschool | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture
I took advantage of the extremely low tides this past weekend and got out for another In the Field installation. The area of the beach where I placed these pieces is normally completely inaccessible to explore and is only cliff and ocean. I’d been planning this one for so long and finally there was a time that the tide was low enough and everyone could make it out to document the installation. Here’s a sneak peek video of the install, but there will be more to come soon AND these pieces will be reconfigured for installing in your home and will be available in the shop very, very soon!
Photo & Video credit: Sequoia Kimmel
These beauties just came out of the kiln! Swing by the studio this week and pick one out for your love!
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Also available at the Santa Cruz Art League and The Homeless Garden Project Store
Anyone who has ever worked with clay knows that it’s a love/hate relationship.
There are no guarantees of what will happen in the building process, the drying process, the kiln firing process, the glazing process, and not to mention any other random accidental events. While you can build your skill level and knowledge of your material to get an edge on most of these problems, there will always be that time you push the material farther than it wants to go and usually it will win. Despite all this, I still keep coming back to clay.
There is something about this uncertainty and lack of total control that is luring and downright in-your-face challenging. That said…
Today’s score: Clay 1, Jenni 0
Just got the first batch of new bone pieces through the bisque firing and more are drying as I type. I plan on glazing these in a matte white to give them a soft even surface but I’m testing out a few options on some maquette pieces before I commit to glazing the final forms. I’m hoping not to lose the subtle textures in the clay with the thickness of the matte glazed surface.
Here’s how I’m planning on displaying them for an in the field installation most likely on a beach. I’d like to play with suspending these somehow for a gallery installation, but I’m going to have to doodle around with some ideas of the best way to make that work.
I love how once you have an idea in your head, you start seeing everywhere you go. We’ve had some pretty big storms lately and that has changed our beaches quite a bit, washing up all kinds of debris and detritus. The other day I found a piece of metal that was wedged in between some piers and buried in the sand just right so that from a distance it appeared to be a bone structure tapering from large to small just like my bone series pieces.
I walk on the beach or in the forest nearly everyday, it’s my time wander, be inspired and explore. I usually end up collecting something along these walks; a stone, a piece of wood, today it was a vertebrae from a seal that had washed up in a storm.
Over the years, as my bone collections have grown, I’ve really studied the shapes, the curves and the textures. It’s made me realize that what I’m attracted to about these parts is that I love to see the insides of things and understand how things work, how they are put together and how complex yet how simple the puzzle of our bone structures are.
My Bone Series has been inspired by these explorations of structure and form. I’ve recreated these structures in clay by emphasizing the fibrous texture through all the holes cut into my pieces, focusing on how our internal structures shape our outer form and contrasting the balance of strength and fragility.
When I create series of work I play with the variety of ways that they can be displayed, so the Bone Series has been suspended in a museum, taken 70′ under the ocean, pushed into the sand on the beach, connected on a frame to create a wall of bones and displayed in galleries under bell jars. As much as I’ve done with these pieces, I feel like I’m just getting started and that this series will be coming out of the studio for a long time.
View more pieces from the Bone Series here…
This past weekend, I spent the better part of Saturday in the forest with my amazing team of art sherpas, videographers and photographers installing a new In The Field piece from the Lichen Series. We packed up over 50lbs of ceramic sculpture parts and all the gear to hike into an area of the forest I had scoped out weeks earlier. The recent rains storms had flooded the creek making for a trickier crossing than anticipated but we were able to cross with everything in tact and dry gear. Shaded under the redwood canopy, the contrast of the white glazed surface of the pieces against the dark forest floor made the installation appear to glow- it was a beautiful! A portfolio page and new video will be launched soon with details of this installation but until then, here’s just a sneak peek of what we did…
photo credit: Sequoia Kimmel
Do you love free shipping? Enter the code LOVEFREESHIPPING at checkout and the shipping costs are on me!
If you haven’t been able to make it to the studio or a gallery opening to start collecting my work, now’s your chance! Work from the Rock Candy, Hive, Specimen, Nest , Bone and Seed Pod Series all qualify for free shipping for the month of February.
Are you feeling the love?
Free Shipping coupon is valid 2/1/16 – 2/29/16 in the US only and excludes gift items, books and classes.
Here’s the monthly wrap up of everything going on at the studio…
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