Happy New Year

Hello everyone and a very Happy New Year.  I hope you all had wonderful holiday seasons filled with family and friends and lots of good activities to remember.

Looking forward into 2010 it is looking like a great year from here.  I've been busy working on the Native pottery for the Heard Show which is a show I've tried to get into several times without success but now for 2010 I am in the show.  I think sales maybe picking up a bit as well which is always a good thing.  I hope the rest of you have wonderful things to look forward to in this new year as well.  I have finally put up some new photos of the finished pieces of Native pottery in the gallery on my Native American website at http://choctawart.com  I've posted one of my favorite pieces here but do go have a look at the other terracotta pieces on the website.  This is a water bottle reproduction.  In the book it is listed as an owl but I really think it is a parrot.  The shape of the head and the beak are just not right for an owl.  In the southeast where these pots originated there are many small native parrots, so I am pretty sure it is a parrot.  I think this piece came out exceptionally good and I am very pleased with it.

I am now working on porcelain murrinis which I plan to fire the samples of today.  I usually cut off the ends for a sample of the design and fire them up separately for reference on the colors and design.  I hope to start making pots using the murrini this coming week.

Native Pottery so far

Just a quick little update here.  I fired the pots I have finished so far last night.  Here is a quickie picture of them.  This isn't the best pic in the world I'll have to take better ones but I just wanted to get a little of a look at them for everyone.  Thanks for looking.

Big Fat Momma

Ok so she is not really 'Big Fat Momma' She is known as the 'Old Woman who never dies', but I call her my Big Fat Momma because she is huge for me. Any of you that know me know that I do tiny things. But I figured for the Heard Show it would be good to have a variety of sizes and types of pottery. This is the largest pot I've done in ages I've left the work table background so you can see just how big she is. She isn't quite done in this photo I still need to work on the burnish a bit and put her tattoos on her. I am pleased with how she has come out. I find it amusing that this form is identified as an old woman. I'll let you guess why. I'll just say that some of the features are just not typical of an old woman and let you figure out the rest.  Another thing I find interesting about this form is the fact that although she is very fat she has this backbone showing.  Almost like a dragon spine down her back.

Tempe Art Festival

Yesterday I attended the Tempe Art Festival Winter edition. There seemed to be a pretty good crowd there. I saw lots of pretty beaded things. One gal that had lots of peyote and had some that was ruffled that was really pretty and sort of unusual. There were at least three or four bead embroidery people. Their offerings varied from simple beaded cabs to elaborate embroidered neck pieces. One lady had some really nice crocheted wire and bead things. She had purses, headbands, necklaces, barrettes, etc. With delicate crocheted and beaded flowers. Lots of work there.

There were lots of silver jewelry people some that were forged, some with original castings some that were apparently pmc. There was a guy there from Hawaii, he was probably freezing his patooti off, that had some interesting organic vines, flowers an various delicate cast shapes. One lady had all sorts of jewelry with little sayings and words on it. One that caught my eye was a simple metal plate with a cross stitched square that said 'a stitch in time saves 9' around the edge. Also several variations on pottery.

One guy had some fabulous crystal glazed pottery. One booth with some very interesting gourds. Lots of glass. Overall it was a lovely show with a nice mix of interesting art. The weather ended up not too terrible as it warmed up toward noon. I had a good time but in the end I was sort of glad that I missed the deadline to get into that show I would have been freezing standing in a booth. Kim who I had gone down to see specifically looked a bit cold and said she was cold the day before too. But she reported that her sales were pretty good and that is always a good thing to hear.