Equipping yourself with the right tools.

As a master ceramic arts judge, I am asked from time to time if someone who is entering a piece in competition is using bought bisque, should they still be penalized for imperfections in cleaning and or casting. The answer is an absolute "YES".

There was a time not to long ago where bisque was entered into competition under a separate category, or it was judged in a craft section along with plastercraft. Today we know that this is not a feasible or appropriate resolution.

Today if you are serious about competition and still want to use a bisque kanvas to start on you should invest in a good quality Dremel or Dremel style hand held grinder/cutter. It takes a lot of practice using a Dremel on bisque, and bisque is totally non-forgiving in your clean up work.

Quality of workmanship is the first component in judging. Also always remember that there are some things you can do in the leather state of greenware (i.e. clay lifting) that you can not do in any other stage or with any kind of tool. Always make sure you have all the right tools before you start any project.

You should do every project like you intend to enter it and win the TOP AWARD!

Sell out this Holiday Season

We have talked on several occasions about pricing your wares at selling venues and also how to present your wares for maximum appeal. Check through past issues of CERAKANVAS, BLUEPRINT and MATRIX for these articles. But this is about what's HOT.

One of today's hottest artist's is Jim Shore. His style is very imitable for ceramicists. Of course it will work best if you cast your own greenware. Shore uses a country quilt approach to all of his pieces. i would suggest going to your local giftware shop or department store, and spending some time examining and fondling his pieces. THEY ARE NOT CERAMIC. They are made of cast resin, but don't let that concept sway you. His work is non-fired finish final look. You could use matte with underglazes, but I believe you will have far better results with acrylics. If you are working with greenware it is most easy to adapt a carved quilt look to the piece. If you are not familiar with quilt block patterns just go to a used book store and pick up a book for a little of nothing that will usually have thousands of patterns. You can also just look on line.

Finally I would recommend putting your piece on a base and adding the quilting to the base. You might say now I wont do this because everyone else will. A lot will think about it, a lot less will explore the possibility and only a very few will implement it. Good Luck. If you do try this report back, with pictures of your pieces of how it did.

Comfort Food for ceramicists. . .

I have had the privilege to write for most of the major ceramic magazines over the years. I have contributed a plethora (don't you just love that word) of articles both on techniques as well as sound business management principles. I was even a staff writer for Scott Publications and Ceramic Digest. But of all of these magazines it was that little Readers Digest sized magazine known as Ceramic Arts & Crafts that was the one I most looked forward to receiving every month. It became my "comfort food". Long before the days when every mold company had a technique sheet published for every item in their catalogue, you turned to the pages looking for something to inspire you for a project. With an average of over 2 dozen projects every issue, it would not be hard to find several projects that would do just that. There were many regular contributors as well. Bill Thompson could be counted on for a china painting pattern and Vivian Haussle would always have elegant lace draped figurines or porcelain flowers. there were countless others over the years who were regular faces to the pages of the magazine as well. It was a powerhouse of information in a pint sized package. I like to believe that CERAKANVAS is working it's way to becoming today's comfort food and not nu voe cuisine. We are trying to showcase new talent as well as bring you some of the masters of today. The upcoming Holiday edition is so full of exciting things. It will be the perfect close to Volume 1 and the perfect sagway to Volume 2.

How do we connect them?

There are 2 major groups of ceramicists - The traditional studio/shop and the contemporary studio. The contemporary studios are pretty much on-line and use to the social media aspect of the internet. However it appears (nothing really scientific in this observation) that only about 10% of the traditional studios use computers in mass connecting. It's not to say that they are computer illiterate, they just prefer snail mail and phone or face to face over the internet. Our challenge is to let all these other ceramicists that are not "connected" on the web to understand what huge resources that they are missing out on. The question is "HOW" do we connect them.

CROSSOVER FX - Trains for villages

Well we visited the Model Train Show at the Convention Center yesterday. It was great. Most would never think of all the materials that they sell for model railroading , and that a lot of it works well for ceramic applications. They have miniature people and animals, building accessories, light poles that actually work and so forth. There are also lots of unusual types of media. Moss for buildings, leaves for trees - fall, summer and spring style. Fabulous ground covers and gravels that bring a new dimension to your finished pieces. But most importantly we enjoyed the trains. There is a magic about model trains on HUGE layouts. The intricacy of the little scenes. There was even one of a drug bust. It was hilarious. About 5 police cars and a sports car. We'll be discussing model trains and ceramic Holiday villages in depth in the upcoming Holiday issue of CERAKANVAS. See you there!

CAG to create training webinars in 2010 (biz oriented)

As we look into 2010, so many new venues will be opening up to the CAG. After much prodding we have been asked to create some educational webinars about being successful in the ceramic business. Just recently Liz Goobie who has been associated with webinars and on line teaching since its onset, has joined our team as a special Ambassador. Anyone with concepts or ideas should send us a message or add a post to this blog entry. It will be yet another EXCITING route for the CAG to participate in. We will also be on some radio talk shows in 2010 too.

Making choices on the Village front

Well back to the building project with the EXTREME MAKEOVER - VILLAGE EDITION. The yarn Shop we are redoing has some classic finales and a fair amount of metal roofing. I decided to do it in a copper roofing. The neat thing about copper roofs is that they get a great green patina after a decade or so of being exposed to the elements. One of the most beautiful examples of this I have ever seen is on the Parliament buildings and the Empress Hotel in Victoria, British Colombia, Canada. But for the meantime back to the Yarn Shop. In order to get a shiny copper look I will be using copper leaf on top of a copper metallic stain. If I was doing this piece from the ground up I would apply fired copper to these areas but that is not possible on this remodel project. If you have never used metal leafing, this is a fun time to learn this great technique. You will paint the copper stain in the beginning stage. But the copper leaf will be one of the last items you do.