Wet Clay, I've Missed You...

Started out the day with this guy...

Cut out some slab phone pieces...

Double bagged some clay for school and for home...

The studio is clear, but not exactly clean...

Finished a couple of phones today...

Dia de Los Muertos

Large scale paintings...

Each year, the Pajaro Valley Arts Council hosts a community exhibit in their gallery at the beginning of November. Individuals or groups can enter to create an ofrenda or altar to celebrate the life of a loved one who has passed away. One year, before I started participating in Open Studios, I entered my third grade class. We made ceramic plates and bowls filled with ceramic foods. The students selected meals that reminded them of relatives, and of recipes that had been passed down through the family over time. It was a huge amount of work. I remember clear glazing plates of food for an entire weekend, because the third graders really had difficulty with finish glazing. Our ofrenda also featured large scale papier mache local fruits and vegetables.

This year, there were many wonderful altars in the exhibit. I particularly enjoyed looking at the small family photos. They were so personal, touching, and meaningful.

Life sized ceramic skull masks...

This was one of my favorites...

A loved one...

Remembering even our pets...

A former baseball fan is honored...

A large ofrenda in the side gallery room...

Clay sugar skulls made by children...

Love the idea of painted remembrance rocks...

Pretty wonderful glazing on this one...

Just in Time for Halloween

Love the colors and textures on these two rattles...

The vine and flame decorations are fabulous...

Overhead shot of the pumpkin patch...

Vines and stripes...

The shape was carefully modeled...

Definitely a favorite...

A twisty vine from a student who is my neighbor...

All of them are ready to go to their individual homes...

At lunch, a few students stayed in to make treasure boxes...

Colorful Weavers of Exploration Station

Eleanor and Iliana

Joel and Andrea

Vivienne and Gigi

Brianna, Bella, and Larissa

Haley 

Adina and Owen

Lamentations

Sometimes the worst things happen...

All of my work is stacked helter skelter in the shed...

I had to clear out space to roll out replacement plates...

The fifth graders next door are making Anasazi plates...

They had major cracking problems...

So, I rolled out some replacement plates...

And, I'm leaving them in my cool, cold kitchen...

Glorious Fourth Grade Color

Love those tertiary complements...

We worked on mixing secondary colors in class...

Then we talked about complementary colors and used them...

Van Gogh was the master of complementary colors...

He seemed to understand the nature of color...

Many of his landscapes made use of purple and yellow...

Ahhh, Matisse...

Blue and orange make the painting almost vibrate...

I'm a big fan of red and green together in my work...

Don't Call Me Pumpkin

Loading up the rattles...

After the bisque firing...

Love the polka dots and stripes...

I noticed that the pumpkins look a lot like their makers...

Dig the crazy polka dots...

Wild flames and neat glazing...