Today we’re working on some watermelon paper mache bowls using a balloon as our mold. We’ll be looking to the color wheel to learn about complementary colors and choose which pair of colors we’d like to use to paint the surface of the melon bowls. I think an abstract purple and yellow watermelon would look pretty tasty!
We’re in full swing of week two of our summer sculpting workshops at the studio. We started off the week with clay succulent containers that have texture and pattern decorating the outside. We also made balance bowls, students were challenged to create a bowl that did not touch the table with a flat bottom, this has yielded some interesting results! Next up, we’ll be casting our arms in tape to create figurative sculptures with a focus on form, working with wire to create creeping spiders and painting our clay projects. Its going to be a busy week at the studio!
A few spots are still available if you’d like to join in on the fun: Sign Up for Summer Workshops Today!
Summer Sculpting Workshops launched this Monday at the studio with fun clay projects and new techniques. Students ages 7 and up made pinch pot pools for their coil built flamingos and we used an ink transfer technique to get cute animal images onto our slab built boxes. While our clay projects dry and get ready for the kiln, we’ll be busy working with paper mache, wire, weaving projects and more!
A few spaces are still available for young creative artists…
Join Summer Sculpting Workshops for Kids
B CR8IV!!!
I’m so excited to see my favorite artist friends at Atis Rezistans (Resistant Artists) from Port-au-Prince Haiti here in California! My good friend Kathy Barbro who owns Art Projects for Kids and an art teacher in LA ran a campaign to get Romel Jean-Pierre, Claudel Casseus & Racine Polycarpe here to teach art at her school for a week. I’m sure that the kids at her school are so thrilled and had such fun art adventures this week. After the week is up, they are all road tripping up to Santa Cruz for a visit and I can’t wait! In addition to the three guys coming, it just happens that my friend Nadine Dolores Francois who runs an orphanage and girls empowerment program in Port-au-Prince will be here as well. This is her first trip to the US, so its extra exciting to have her here. You can learn more about my connections to Haiti and the projects that I’ve done there with these amazing people by checking out the Philanthropy Projects page. More pics to come of our epic art adventures during the Haitian Invasion week!
Here’s the monthly wrap up of everything going on at the studio…
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I have been teaching clay classes to kids and adults through a variety of programs for nearly 20 years and I’ve held classes out of my home studio since 2005. I have seen students go from little 5 year olds making cookie cutter smilely faces to mini-artists making masterpieces. Here is just a sampling of my talented students working on the wheel and showing off finished work. I’m so impressed by their attention to craftsmanship, their patience to work on a project week after week and their ability to let go when its just not working out. I’m so lucky to get to spend time with these guys!
To learn more about classes at the studio for kids, teens and adults, click the link: earth art studio
Its just a few more weeks until Summer Sculpting Workshops start at the studio! The workshops are filling up, but there’s still a chance to snag a spot for your cr8iv artists! Click the link for the schedule and details. B CR8IV!
My students have been working on a special Van Gogh inspired sunflower installation that will debut at the Spring Studio Sale. Here are just a few teaser photos of the work in progress but be sure to come by on Saturday from 11- 4 to check out the whole installation. The kids will be busy glazing away this week to have everything ready in time.
And remember that all of these beautiful flowers will be for sale!
JOIN US! Saturday May 2nd from 11 – 4 for our 10th Annual Spring Studio Sale!
For event details click here!
When new students come to my studio for classes, typically the first thing they want to do is learn how to throw on the wheel. I don’t blame them, its messy, fun and frustrating and it was the first thing I wanted to do with clay too. In the beginning, I thought I would try to make a living selling mugs but when I realized all the possibilities of hand-building, I never went back to the wheel. And if it wasn’t for my students, I’d get rid of the two wheels in my studio altogether.
A lot of times my students ask me if I’ve made all of my dishes and mugs and the truth is that I’ve hardly got any handmade ware in my cupboards- WHAT?!?- the pottery community gasps! But, when traveling to NCECA this year and staying with my college roommate, I found this cute little thrown mug in her bathroom that I’d made when I was in school. Its got a beautiful pink blush from a soda or salt kiln and a not so bad handle on it, the lip could be a little fatter and the piece a lot lighter but the fun in finding this relic from the past brought me back to a time when I did (attempt) to make pots and I thought I’d share. Enjoy!