Vacation December 2011

Well, I hope you are all having a fabulous holiday and have a PHENOMENAL New Year.
We have been in Steamboat, CO... and although we did the SNOW DANCE...
No snow...just ice, rocks and grass...
Just Ice...
So... YESTERDAY I got out there with "the boyz" on my snow board...
after a break the day before when I had a back spasm after 2 days of snowboarding...
Anyway, the boys have been spending a lot of time jumping around in the terrain parks...
which is not really my cup of tea...
That said... here is a little video when sam put the GO PRO camera on Sam's helmet and
he zoomed through some of the stuff in the park...
Be looking for me at the end and you will see my little CAMEO!

Blah, Blah, Blog...

Here I am... blah blah blogging in the Garden State(late night).
Getting ready to go SNOWBOARDING in Colorado on Friday...
I know... NO SNOW.... a bit of a problem.
That said, I have a back-up plan...
It involves a friend with a studio(and clay) in the destination we are heading to
and the kindness of strangers..

(By the way...Don't get any bright ideas my stalkers or thieves...
My friend is staying with my PUPPY and she knows JUJITSU- HI YA!.)

MEAN WHILE, I have had quite a few last minute shoppers the past few days
and I must say, they are quite the shoppers...
I have sold some great stuff and all to people who appear to be quite cool...

These babies sold on Etsy:











And then we have some studio visitors grabbing a fabulous white piece and this favorite:










And one like this was someone's purchase as a Secret Santa:










A few necklaces were purchased and were picked up and are being shipped out...
I have another piece in the kiln(I've made 8 and they keep cracking... positive vibes my people...)
for a special order... and ornaments for teachers and other lovely people...
And a few more people want to stop in before I board the big "bird" to God's country in Colorado...
Or is it the Flying Tomato's country....















That was last year's outfit and this year's is so cool,
I am afraid the snow will just melt right out from under me...
THAT and my purple and fuschia hair highlights(to match my board and outfit...duh)
Photos will have to wait until I get out in that snow...
Somebody start doing a snow dance PLEEEZE....
Pow Pow...Pow Pow...Pow Pow....
Happy Holidays!

Rest In Peace, Malcolm Davis

So sad to have lost such an amazing, interesting, jovial man.
He started throwing at age 40... this gave me hope.
He is the king of shino and at the first workshop I attended(he was demonstrating along with Stephen Hill,Jeff Oestreich, and Lynn Smiser Bowers),
I learned about shino as he threw and cracked jokes and passed around an available box of cheetos.
I would see him selling his wares at Demerest each year... but not this year.
Malcolm was born the year before my father.
The winter holiday season continues to baffle me.
May your memory be a blessing Malcolm.

The beat goes on...

Well.. my official SALE is over...
BUT
I am happy to have anyone ring me up to
see what is left.
I had a productive two days...
BUT
since I have been rather prolific as I experimented and developed over the
past year with very few sales outlets...
(I have been waiting to have a cohesive statement in my new work)
I still have plenty to sell.
Again, I actually did quite well but I really want to move
(at least the older work)
OUT.
So... I have decided to open a new separate Etsy SALES Shop
for liquidating perfectly fine work that for whatever reason is not representative
of my current body of work. It is called jtceramicsales on Etsy.
Older work, experimental, and slightly flawed.
That's my plan.



















I want to separate the two shops visually yet link them with mentions on each...
The original shop will have new face to it with ONLY items from my current body of work.
It will be more of a gallery shop.
It is still listed on Etsy as jtceramics.



















This is my plan for now... trying to get organized as we approach the new year.

Game on!

Well... the sale started today-
Open Studio Sale and Showing of New Work.
I am pleased with my customers but hope to see more
TOMORROW: MONDAY 9-9!
I parted with a very special piece... I will survive... just barely.
However... I am told that I can visit the piece and borrow it back as needed.
PHEW.

Really worried...

Will THEY...
The collective THEY(customers, collectors, designers...etc)
truly understand my changes?
I am not looking to do more of:
"Can you make another one just like that?"
I will create new work, perhaps in the same vein as the work they are looking at...
but not DUPLICATES...



















I am truly going the "One-Of-A-Kind" route...
I hope people understand...
I am not trying to be a B$@#H....
I am making a life choice.
An artistic choice.
I am moving away from what I WAS doing...
Which means I will be saying "NO" when people ask for work that I used to do.
I really hope they don't HATE me...
That said...pricing is the follow up issue...
Heather has a great post on it HERE!

Hurry Hurry, Read All About It!!!!

Love the PR in our Local Paper... The Two River Times !

Thanks to the style editor Julie Davis, you can see a wood fired pot HERE !
And my Chip and Dip HERE !

My SALE AND SHOWING OF NEW WORK
is
THIS COMING SUNDAY and MONDAY!
12/4 12-6pm and 12/5 9am-9pm!
I love visitors...
I will show my new work for sale and have
excellent buys on my older work and pendant jewelry!
Just in time for Holiday Gift Season!!!

You don't have to buy ANYTHING...
just come visit and see what I am up to...

jtceramics@aol.com
732 539 7009
10 tyson lane rumson

BLACK FRIDAY DISCOUNT

WELL!
Every STORE is starting BLACK FRIDAY SALES EARLY...
So... I am starting NOW.
I am having my OPEN STUDIO SALE and SHOWING OF NEW WORK
Sunday, December 4th 12-6pm
AND
Monday, December 5th 9 am - 9pm
BUT for those of you who can't make it...
(to the LOVELY GARDEN STATE....)
Feel free to use this coupon:
BLACKFRIDAY20
to get 20% off prices of all work in my
ETSY SHOP !
It's a pretty awesome bargain!
So go for it!
I won't be shipping until Monday, 11/28 ...
FYI...

The coolest thing?

So...I get this email today from a friend from high school that I haven't seen in about 20 years....
That's cool.
BUT...
It gets BETTER!
She was Debbie Freedman in high school..
However, she is now this accomplished writer/play write and goes by (her middle name) Colette Freedman.
Pretty cool name...
Gets me thinking... Alayne Tavill.
I digress.
So, she basically tells me she was thinking about me because she had a dream I was in...
Well, get your head out of the gutter, it wasn't like that...
She blogged about me HERE.
I DO love the GHOST reference...













You can find out more about HER HERE!
But this give you a taste:
COLETTE FREEDMAN – An internationally produced playwright with over 15 produced plays, Colette was voted “One of 50 to Watch” by The Dramatist’s Guild. Her play Sister Cities was the hit of the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe and earned five star reviews: It has been produced around the country and internationally, including Paris (Une Ville, Une Soeur) and Rome (Le Quattro Sorelle). She has co-written, with International bestselling novelist Jackie Collins, the play Jackie Collins Hollywood Lies, which is gearing up for a National Tour. In collaboration with The New York Times best selling author Michael Scott, she has just sold the thriller The Thirteen Hallows, to Tor/Macmillan, which comes out Dec 6, 2011.

Needless to say, the whole description was lovely and flattering, I am over the moon.
I always thought of her as a really great person(who was pretty!!!)
She seemed to really have it together...
She played the cool sports and was academically really strong!
I was cheerleading (became CAPTAIN!) because I never made the cuts for sports ...
BECAUSE I SUCKED!
She was always a great friend and solid human being and I am so pleased for her success...
Of course NOW I want to see every show she wrote and read every book...
One of these days I will get back in the studio....

Happy Birthday Eva! 105!

What a life.
What an amazing woman.
What an amazing artist.
What an inspiration.
Wow.
Read more HERE!

Infatuated

So Jenny Mendez posted this in her blog this morning:
Title: Beauty
and captioned:
“The human heart stripped of fat and muscle, with just the angel veins exposed.”
















So I was obsessed with it...posted it to facebook and i kept feeling that it distinctly reminded me of nature....
Then I decided to rotate it and I was completely enamored with this HEART!
LOOK:



















Do you see it?
And the delicacy of the form is so wonderful AND strong.
ALSO
It beautifully demonstrates the fibonacci theory that
SIR Chris Gustin taught us in his workshop at Anderson Ranch 2+years ago...
that one did NOT fall on deaf ears!

And... after seeing my Dad's heart on a video screen when they were about to insert 7 stents...
I must say,
this is a truly beautiful thing.
It's fascinating to me.

NEW WEBSITE

I am pleased to announce my new website is LAUNCHED!
old address! new site!
http://www.jtceramics.com/

Some More Pots

GOOD WITCH

COUPON CODE WITCH31
31% off now through Halloween in my ETSY shop!
Because I am a GOOD WITCH.

New artist statement and a few new pots

About to launch my new website that I made using Big Black Bag...
You may be able to check it out HERE... temporarily...
That and a show I was entering forced me to focus on a new "Artist Statement".
Here is my latest:

After spending many years of my life as a fashion and textile print designer, creating forms and fabrics for the human figure, I found clay.
I realized there was an entirely different creative and artistic world out there that I never could fully explore in my lifetime.
This was a world that was centered around mud.
My experience with this medium has been, and will always be, a journey.
It is something I have realized after many ups and downs since I first touched clay nine years ago.
I choose to work in a manner that stimulates me creatively.
Investigating and exploring, I may have an initial idea of where a piece is going.
But then I will veer off in a different direction to allow for a possible fresh approach or, unfortunately, a possible failure.
As Beatrice Wood said, "My life is full of mistakes. They're like pebbles that make a good road."
Moving from fashion and textile print design to “mud” was a transition I never could have predicted.
However, there actually is a thread that seems to connect my previous career with my work today.
This connection involves attention to the human form and gesture of line.
My work frequently involves a focus on this as well as the pervasive development of texture.
The human body, nature, and environment absolutely inspire me.
I am not interested in replicating these but, rather, to reinterpret their energy in my work.
My true passion is in the process of creating the work.
The hand-to-clay contact is both meditative and stimulating to my spirit.
I usually throw a form on the potter’s wheel, alter it, then allow for a period of drying.
After the drying, I continue to alter and carve interchangeably until the piece is complete.
The piece is usually bisque-fired in my electric kiln before any glazing or special firing preparations are made.
At this point I move forward with the final firing.
Experimentation remains present in this part of the process as well.
The work continues to change and evolve as I do.
Initially, I was particularly focused on creating functional forms.
Now, I have shifted to emphasizing the vessel as a sculptural vehicle.
I enjoy creating work that relates in a group, or vignette, as well as stands alone.
I envision my work going out into the world and finding its own place for others to enjoy its presence as much as I have enjoyed the process of its creation.

Here are a few more photos:

ALS= Lou Gerrig's Disease

My friend Pam, who has ALS(Lou Gerrig's Disease),was diagnosed about 5 years ago and has really hung on(her diagnosis at onset was 1-2 years at best.


****I was going to post a much more recent photo but it's pretty devastating.****


Some people(Steven Hawking) have a much slower progression.
Here is my blog post about her May 3, 2009:
(the photos appear to not work...)
Jane Fonda met her and wrote about her on her BLOG.
Today Pam is completely immobile, breathes with a trache and vent, feeding tube, everything.
She can move her left eye to the right only.
She can feel everything.
She is completely aware.
Her brain is not effected.
It is terrible.

TODAY is her BIRTHDAY.
I know there is nothing she would want more than to know that no one has forgotten how important this is to her.

We hope to see forward movement in the research to end or at least stall this disease .
(which in 10% OF THE CASES IS GENETIC and in OTHER CASES SHOW IT COULD POSSIBLY STRIKE ANYONE)
The Copper Canyon Restaurant is donating a portion of all proceeds from dining at the restaurant this week as well as cards to purchase at the bar, which will be given to her after the event.

I happen to know that ALS TDI is doing some very important work that I believe will be announced at a conference they are having in early November in Boston.
This is very exciting.
TDI is closer than ever to therapies and can only work as fast as the money comes in....

I really hope you can put this on your list of causes to contribute to.

***To give you a little perspective, years ago, people didn't even mention "cancer" as it was considered a death sentence.
It was not until ATTENTION and MONEY went to various cancer researches(breast- for example) that people became educated and contributed and more and more therapies were able to be developed. Today, not only can people talk about the disease openly and honestly ,but, REAL STRIDES have been made to halt and end death from horrible cancer illnesses.***

This is a real possibility for the future of people diagnosed with ALS.
Especially those NOT YET DIAGNOSED.
Please think about it and do what you can to bring awareness to this illness and possible future therapies.
NONE of us would want to see ANYONE go through what we have seen Pam and her family go through these past several years and this is a real shot at keeping that from happening.
Pam's dad died from this illness. She has 4 boys.

Sorry for my soap box.
You just never know unless you try.

I just feel that, if nothing else, we can continue to try and help work toward a progressive end ,or at least a HALT, to ALS and all that it means.
If you can, please donate HERE:

Any amount is appreciated.
And most importantly, realize that this is a cause that needs ATTENTION.
With so many people with illness dying before anyone knows what it is or how they can help, they really struggle to get noticed.
Tell people about it.
Let them know what it is.
EDUCATE THEM.

Some Oldies but Goodies for SALE

BIGSALE10 is the coupon code in my shop until I pull it!
It gives you10% off everything!
Making room for new work!
These are some of the pieces you will find:
IN MY ETSY SHOP!

Uncommon Goods Challenge

Hey guys!
Just thought I should tell you about this OPPORTUNITY!
I will probably go for it my self but either way my potter/ceramic friends should know about it!
So go check it out!!!

Revisitting: electric,red and,raw

These were where I was going pre- wood fire... and I need to get back here a bit I believe...
At least when I want to fire at home...

You win some... You lose some.. again.

WELLLLLLLLL...
Not thrilled with my glaze attempts in the electric kiln firing I just did... These piece REALLY do not do well with glaze.... I mean, the could be glazes all over...but I feel like thy become too ...shiny? finished? blurred??? Back to the drawing board... maybe they are left unglazed or stained with other color clays or stains, or oxides...rubbed in... Whatever it is, it has to be more...subtle.
SOOOOO...
I will not be showing you photos of the yuck...
INSTEAD....
I played with my white balance and macro settings and here are a few tasty photos from the September wood firing!