My friend, Mikhail

This links to the obit for Mikhail Zakin

http://www.northjersey.com/obituaries/170134366_Artist_Mikhail_Zakin_dies_at_92.html?scpromo=1



It takes a while to absorb a loss, sometimes. Especially when you can still hear the voice, or something happens in everyday life, and you imagine their reaction, before realizing, with a start, that they are no longer there. No more sharing an exciting new artist, or planning a field trip, or just a wonderful lunch and conversation.



Mikhail Zakin recently passed away. Her life was adventurous, and she really was a citizen of the world. She was a wonderful person, a teacher of great insight, a philosopher, but most of all an artist.



She brought her sculptor's eye and hand to clay, and her work has a connection to the earth itself. Here is a link of her presentation to the Potters Guild of New Jersey:

http://youtu.be/Ey2BkOFiMBk


Mikhail was my teacher, my mentor and my friend. She was so generous in sharing her studio, kiln and home. I was lucky, lucky, very lucky to know her.

This past year Mikhail and I worked on a project to make a book of her ceramic work. She had so much to share, I could barely keep up. I'm very happy that we got a chance to finish it together (trust me, I was just following her directions). Thank you, Mikhail.



http://www.blurb.com/books/3511885#

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Tomo Potters @ Peters Valley!

Itsuko, Sandy and I will be at Peters Valley Fine Craft Fair next weekend, September 29th and 30th. (please click on 'Peters Valley Fine Craft Fair' for craft fair details, including coupon)

We have been working hard, getting ready. And we look forward to seeing you! This is a lovely craft fair, in a beautiful part of the New Jersey countryside. The work presented is some of the best, and it is hard for me to keep myself inside the booth, I want to check everything out.

We will be in booth 5-108, so please stop by.

Also, the Potters Guild of New Jersey will be there, with a wonderful variety of our potters represented.

It's a desert time!

I finally found the best ice cream cup.  It's Ellen Mulligan's.  I love her heart-warming artwork.   This cup is the right size to hold one scoop of my favorit ice cream for the desert after our dinner.  I always get one for me and one for my husband so I chose the slghtly bigger cup for him.

 He enjoys it.

These cups make us happy and healthy!!  Thanks Ellen!



Breakfast with Itsuko

I have been stock-piling photos of my breakfast for a few days, so I could show the range of bowls I have by my friend, Itsuko Ishiguro. Besides being a wonderful friend, she is a very, very talented potter. And I can't resist adding to my collection when we are setting up for a sale, and Itsuko has a new series of bowls. They are just beautiful!

As usual, the breakfast is yogurt, berries and pumpkin flaxseed granola.

This bowl (I have a matching mug) is one of my first purchases:

My niece and her husband are proud owners of a dinnerware set of this pattern.

This earthenware bowl has a slightly off-center shape that fits perfectly cradled in my hand. It is used almost every day, and has the chips to prove it!

This bowl has a lovely carved pattern. Itsuko does a series of these, with each bowl having a different, intricate pattern. This is not really clear from these photos:

So I took a photo of the bowl upside down:

Today's breakfast was in a special bowl. It takes a bit more care to use, but it is so much fun...the delicate bowl, inscribed with blossoms in white-on-white, has a rounded base and sits on a dark, unglazed and textured base, with a circle cut-out for the bowl to rest in. I use it both installed in the base...

...and cradled in my hand:

(Thanks, Honey, for helping me take this photo!)

The reward at the end is a wonderful view of those delicate incised flowers:

Sorry my photos aren't better, but trust me, the level of craftsmanship is very, very high. I enjoy every moment spent with this work, and look forward to every show that we do together. The unpacking of Itsuko's new work is exciting for all of her fellow potters. Thank you, Itsuko!

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TGIF

Today's bowl is one of my favorites (I know, I know, I am repeating myself). But really! Actually, I love it so much that I am trying not to wear it out..the glaze is 'aging' a bit, but no more dishwasher, for sure.

My same breakfast, but it tastes a bit more playful today, I think..

I love monkeys, of course, but especially I love this monkey.

The bowl is by Ayumi Horie. If you are not familiar with her work, please click here, and check out her website...and take your time, it's fun there. There are videos, pots for sale and a great selection from her many fans of 'pots in action'. I can't compete with these photos, unless I borrow someone's adorable baby. But for now, my friendly monkey and bird will keep me company.

And believe it or not, I am not even close to running out of bowls!

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Clean and chewy

On Tuesday, my breakfast was in a creamy white, a little smoky bowl by Paul Chaleff. Again purchased at the annual pottery show and sale at Old Church in Demarest, NJ. I don't think that these type of dishes are the same as his usual work, maybe it was a dinnerware set he was selling as individual pieces. I bought two plates and two bowls, and I love them. They have a wonderful feel, and I just want to bite them! (i think i have...)

I decided that this time I had to show the bowl empty. Great, huh?

One of my biggest regrets of pottery-left-behind was a beautiful bucket. I think he makes these lovely buckets for potters to use while working. Just think how much better every day sitting at my wheel would have been, if I had bought one! I really regret it

Monday, Monday

So this morning my bowl is a favorite, very sturdy...with a rolled rim and a side handle. I hold it in my left hand, shovel in food with my right.

This bowl is by Lorna Meaden, a very, very accomplished porcelain potter. She was a wonderful demonstrator at NCECA a few years ago. I bought this bowl at the show at Old Church in Demarest, NJ a few years back.

And in this photo you see the luscious drop of glaze, hanging off that side handle! Breakfast for a winner!

Friday's Breakfast Buddy

Today, same boring breakfast as yesterday, but an exciting bowl! This is Jeffrey Kleckner, whose work is incredibly well-made, and beautiful. This bowl is as light as a feather...

Breakfast Buddies...

So I decided to share some pictures of the lovely pottery I get to use everyday, a short-and-sweet share.


Wednesday breakfast: Pumpkin Flaxseed Granola (really delicious, and from Costco!) and skim, in one of my favorites, a Sandy Pancrazi bowl:

Thursday breakfast: some yogurt, blueberries, and more of that Pumpkin Flaxseed Granola, in my new, and very lovely Brenda Quinn bowl: (if I took picture after finishing breakfast you would see the lovely imagery in the bottom of the bowl...next time)

And a bonus: my new table-top trick...ta-dah!

and, no, I don't really have that much time on my hands, I'm just procrastinating...

A Celebration!

We had a wonderful opening reception last Saturday, for our Underground Potters show. It's always great to have friends and family, and pottery!




And a great big 'Thank you' to our friend, Andrea, for writing about the show, and taking some great photos! Please check out her wonderful blog here, and read about her beautiful jewelry (for sale here), garden and artwork. Her figure drawing is very special.



Andrea's jewelry is beautiful (see butterfly ring at left), and someday my potter's hands may be pretty enough to sport one of these!


The Underground Potters sale continues through May 12th, next Saturday. So please stop by and check out the beautiful handmade pottery. There are plenty of great Mothers' Day gifts.

Underground Potters: a milestone

Hello, I know I've been quiet on this blog, but life certainly hasn't been a mellow affair. We've all been busy - last weekend we were lucky enough to be invited to show at the 'Taste of Spring' in Rahway, NJ. I'm sorry it wasn't mentioned here, but we were all a bit swamped. Because just a few short days later we had the Spring show and sale with the Potters Guild of NJ in Mountainside. It's a great show, with dozens of different potters showing their latest work. And the potters have a great time visiting with each other. Another show comes up in November, and I promise I will post the information in advance.
But our biggest show of the year opens this weekend. Sandy, Itsuko, Cynthia and I will join Allan Drossman, Susan Bogen and Margit Ergas-Werner for the 10th annual Underground Potters show and sale.
We all studied ceramics together at the Art School at Old Church in Demarest, NJ. This was a wonderful place to learn, with some of the best instructors around. I was lured in by attending the annual Pottery Show, curated by Karen Karnes. I was floored by the quality of the work shown, and took classes there for seven years. It was my home away from home, and it is a very cozy place for us all.
Well, Cynthia, the 'thinking' potter, did some calculations and realized that this is our 10th year! A certified milestone! We all have been working away in our studios, and the opening reception is this Saturday, April 28th, from 2-4pm.

my new version of a flower brick...will be on sale

We'll all be there, and would love for you to join us. We have a brand new banner...

Happy Birthday, Mom!

I am lucky to have talented moms.

My mom has been doing French embroidery for almost 50years. It is a part of her life now and helps her to keep busy at quiet night, especially after my father passed away three years ago. It is fun for me to check out what she makes every time I visit her. And always some of them go home with me.

And my mother-in-law has done stained glass for 10years. Lamp shades, Japanese lanterns, small to large...

And now she started learning a Japanese flower arrangement. Last Xmas season, she requested me to make a flower vase. Since she made many pieces of staind glass for me, I was happy that she wanted my pottery.

Today is her birthday and I am in Japan! My husband And I are very happy to be here to celebrate her 78th birthday.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Dirty Little Secret

I have a dirty little secret - I choose to work in total chaos. I don't mean disorder, I mean upheaval.


I have a fairly small studio--compact, I like to think. I also think that I am damn lucky to have my own studio at all, considering that I am not really a team player. Occasionally I have someone working down there (in the basement, behind the furnace) with me...my lovely niece Caitlin comes once a week, as she has for a few years, and she produces some beautiful work.


But in general I work alone, listening to the radio or podcasts. I try to stay a bit organized, and I do keep things clean enough for Caitlin to be able to produce her work.


I noticed, especially today, that when I am working alone, and getting very involved in a specific project, the tools go flying, the clay is all over, and the only thing in sharp focus is the piece I am working on.

I finshed the series of pots I had been working on, and I was just about to turn out the lights. I was going over in my head the plans for tomorrow, which meant changing my clay body back to porcelain. 

Oh no, time to clean up...forget the Oscar red carpet! Porcelain is a little princess, and just a touch of contamination is no good, no good at all! Every tool, sponge, bat, all the tables had to be scrubbed clean, for a new kind of chaos, tomorrow!

Dining in Denver

delecTABLE: The Fine Art of Dining    

Presented by The Art Students League of Denver

April 6 – 27, 2012

Online April 1^st at www.ASLD.org

Bamboo Plate

It’s official; I must now squeeze another file into my already overflowing drawer of show rejection letters.  This time I get to add a letter into my “Acceptances” file!

I am quite honored to have my work please the discerning eye of the esteemed juror, Nick Joerling.  I share that honor with 22 other potters, including a potter whose work I have long admired, Monica Ripley. 

Berry Bowl

So my Berry Bowl and Bamboo Plate are off to find a new home in Colorado. Hmmm, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea…