Friday, July 25, 2008

So in case you can't tell, the subject for this post is paisley patterns. So for a little history, our friends at Wikipedia say, "[Paisley] resembles a large comma or twisted teardrop, the kidney-shaped paisley is one of the most recognized patterns in the world. The lacy pattern is Persian in origin, but its western name derives from the town of Paisley, in central Scotland. Pakistan Paisley designs are widely termed as the "Carrey" design. Carrey in Urdu means the Mango seed."
For a few modern uses of the paisley pattern, check out this leather settee from Horchow. Love the more traditional style mixed with the fun, more modern paisley adaption. They had a few other very fun paisley pieces such as a few rugs, a chair, and a upholstered headboard!


As far as wearing paisley, there are many current options for that as well. I have to say, those paisley sandals (Privo by Clarks) are my favorites!






One day when I have a studio, I want to buy cards like the one above and make an inspiration board. I think it will actually make my work much stronger to see these things as I'm making.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

So I know it's been awhile since I've posted anything on here but I have been very busy in the studio (a real studio in fact) at my teacher's house. They were on vacation and I was house sitting and keeping their dog company. So without further ado, here's a few pics from my time there.


So on top of having the use of a studio for a few weeks, I also really enjoyed being able to use their dishes since they have quite the collection of pieces from other ceramic artists. I think this mug was my favorite while I was there. I want to say it was made by Sarah Jaeger but I'm not entirely sure. I just thought that it looked like one of her pieces. On a side note, that Mortar and Pestle set are something that my teacher made. Also, I can't forget little Ida who is the sweetest dog anyone could ever ask for (even if she is a little neurotic!).


I'm really happy with quite a bit of the things I did while I was there. Although most of the pieces were mostly pretty simplistic shapes (vases, bowls, etc), I was exploring shape with them and found a few that I really enjoyed. I made one vase in particular that I think the shape would be fabulous for a set of covered jars. Also, in the way of decoration, I went further with my vines and leaves.

So one of the new things I played with was confining the floral patterns to the slipped blocks of the pieces. I like to think of those as barriers for the pattern at times and then also at times I like to completely disregard those edges because they look like too obvious of a place to end the design. I played a very little bit with the deeper carving again that I did a lot of at the end of last semester.


I was happy just to see how much I enjoyed the repetitiveness of making the same forms over and over again. I did rather like that part about it. These forms pictured here are only about 5 days of the work that I made. I also made two more pitchers, finished the two tea pots, made 8 more bowls and 8 more cups. Those last bowls and cups still need to be decorated though. I will call over there tomorrow and see if I can bring those things here because I don't really want to be in their way in the basement. Also I think I left my CD in the CD player. :)