a little publication

i recently found out that one of my pieces was included in the Ontario Craft Council's Annual General Report. it's just a little photo of my labyrinth bun cage "sometimes goodbye's the only way," but it's there.

above it is a piece by the very talented miss julie moon. i was fortunate enough to see her MFA thesis work at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition last weekend and it was ah-mazing.

i especially love this piece and want it in my home:

a sneak peek

i finally took some pictures of my newer work. here's a select few.

newish stuff

my ring is finally finished :)

to see the process look here and here.

teaching art

last month i started being an assistant art teacher in a local elementary school. i work with a large group of 9-10 year olds and a small rotating group of special needs children. the job can be very demanding, though it is always rewarding. Connie comes up with the assignments and Joyce and I work one on one with the kids helping them complete their work.

so far we've made paper mache bowls, totem poles, clay beavers, and paper flowers.

at first i thought the kids were using coloured sand in their flower pots, but Connie had actually got them to colour salt using chalk. the little hands here are David's and the other two are Joyce's.

here are some of the beavers. one of them looks like a rhinoceros and another like a walrus...maybe they're hybrids :p

installed

here is a crappy documentation photo of there was a crowd of seeds.

i hope to take new photos when the grass is green, and there are no fallen leaves or snow.

steel, organza, silk, thread

below is a detail of the organza flower.

and below this is the model - it was smaller and less detailed. 

another injury...

i am now working on the final version for there was a crowd of seeds. metalshop is a very different environment for me versus the jewellery studio. everything is dented, dinged up, and unergonomic to my jeweler body.

anyways, i was hammering my leaves yesterday at a VERY low tree stump (knee height) when in jewellery it is at waist height. i strained something in my lower back, and i am in mucho pain.

i want to keep going...but i know its better to rest injuries than to work through them...

there was a crowd of seeds

for the past week I've been using all my spare time to get into the metalshop at OCAD. welding has become easier for me now :) we had to create a model for an installation that will be going up in december. this one is about 19" high, and the final will be about double the size.

"there was a crowd of seeds is a work about hindered growth. how growth should be fostered, appreciated, exclaimed, and how there is no need to spread out and push down.

there are times when one can feel as if they have no room to grow, to breathe, to be – when one has lost their sense of place. i'm using the concept of aggressive plants to symbolically depict a person who has no room to flourish."

can you see the small, spindly, wilting flower in their midst that is unable to receive its own share of light?

the bottom photo is a visualization of the piece in its intended space.

remnants from my summer throwing class

i love working in ceramics. i can't say it's my forte, but the medium, the method, can be very soothing to me. but of course that doesn't encompass all the heartbreak that can occur when your glaze doesn't turn out right, or you get a crack, or your piece explodes in the kiln. oh well...i still enjoy these pieces, they are the survivors of this summer :)

i took as many ceramics classes as I could during my undergrad, and i'm so glad i did.


bud "bowls", ceramics, thrown and manipulated, 2009


bud "cups", ceramics, thrown and manipulated, 2009



i know something is missing, thrown and manipulated, ceramics, 2009

i really loved this piece in its entirety...i meticulously attended to it so it would dry properly for 2 weeks...but it exploded anyway. I glazed the pieces even after the explosion, they're still pretty :)

well now you know whodunit...

it's me!

flow sweetly and hang heavy
ceramics, watercolour, MDF