JOIN US!
For the closing event at Taller de Terreno with the Cascabel Mountain Collective and enjoy an afternoon of art and mezcal sipping followed by panoramic views of sun set on the ocean.
Saturday April 6th from 4 – 7
Taller de Terreno | Las Playitas | Todos Santos
Here’s the monthly wrap up of everything going on at the studio…
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Went back up to Taller de Terreno to check my big piece which has been exposed to the elements on the roof for just over a week now. The acacia wood tendrils have dried from green to brown and I got some pics of some beautiful cracking in the clay starting to happen.
Being in the full sun, the piece is drying quickly causing the clay to contract unevenly, leading to the cracks, which of course was the whole point of this ephemeral piece. I love how beautiful these crack lines are and wonder where the tension point is for the piece to no longer be stable.
Come see the changes in this piece for yourself at the closing event Saturday April 6th from 4 – 7pm at
Taller de Terreno | Las Playitas | Todos Santos | BCS
I am very thrilled to announce that I am finally be done painting the outside of the studio and I’m loving the way it looks! It took me a bit longer to do than expected since I got side tracked making my big piece for the show, the wind was very uncooperative in the past few weeks, and I also had a color matching snafu at the paint store when I went back to pick up a little more paint but that got sorted and I was underway again to finish the project. A few touch ups and clean up spots but other than that I’m done – phew!
I cut another batch of bottles up for my bottle window project. Loving all these green shades in the sunlight. I think I have enough bottles for one window to be completed, so now I’ve only got about 100 more bottles to go!
I’ve also just scheduled our solar to be installed next week – so very, very soon we are going to be powered up at the studio, which will be game changing! Lots more projects to check off the list…. poco a poco!
Big thank you to all who came out to see this exhibit and gave kind words about my work, it was wonderful meeting so many new people. If you missed it, it was a beautiful afternoon overlooking the desierto y el mar and eventually watching the sun set. Here’s a few pics to inspire you to come out on Saturday April 6th for the closing of this exhibit…
I managed to get four cinderblocks and 20 buckets of rocks up onto the roof to create a level pedestal for my piece. Then we hauled all 100lbs of my sculpture, out of my studio, drove it up the road and carried it up onto the roof and somehow, it all worked out beautifully. My goal was to get the piece to silhouette against the sky and I think that was pretty successful. The acacia branches I inserted into the end of the work, moved and bounced in the wind. And with the blazing sun, we even got some small cracking starting to happen as the raw clay dried rapidly. It will be interesting to see its state by the time of the closing of the show.
A few of the other talented artists’ work in this exhibition…
Excited to setup my ephemeral site specific piece on the roof of this gorgeous structure in the middle of the desert! Join us for an afternoon of art and mezcal sipping followed by panoramic views of sun set on the ocean.
Saturday March 16th from 4 – 7
Taller de Terreno | Las Playitas | Todos Santos
When given the opportunity to create a piece for the event ABC Art Baja 24 with the Cascabel Mountain Collective, I knew that I couldn’t create a fired work. There just wasn’t the time or resources but I embraced the idea of making an ephemeral piece for the the green roof of the main house designed by Taller de Terreno Arquitectura. The house is the vision of Kevin Wickham and is a cast in place concrete structure of angles and grandeur all the while it is quietly hidden in the desert landscape. The sculpture is responding to the house’s shapes and angles while also responding to the desert landscape in which is resides.
I created a small model in clay of my sculptural form and then scaled it up in cardboard. Using the cardboard model as a template, I created large scale panels in clay that dried enough to hold their form and be attached together. Getting the clay dry enough to hold its shape and still wet enough to be modified while taking the desert climate into the equation makes for a tricky balancing act. While building this piece, I realized that it is probably the largest single item I’ve made. And the reason I’ve never attempted to make something this big is that it simply wouldn’t have fit in my kiln, so it’s kind of a why bother. But on the flip side, it’s liberating to make a piece that will be ephemeral and kiln size isn’t an issue and just to challenge my skills to see if I can actually do it. And I did.
We still need to transport it from my studio, up the hill, and onto the roof. And I need to attach the rods that will move in the wind. And we will see how it degrades with wind and moisture, so there is still a lot of uncertainty but that is also what I love most about this process.
Studio updates and other fun and random things that have happened lately…
The big news is that I got the entire outside of the studio primed for painting and as of this posting one wall done with color. It’s funny because the color is so close to the concrete color, it almost seems like a fruitless effort, but it is a little warmer and browner than the concrete, plus of course the walls are sealed and protected. Over the coming days, I’ll slowly get the rest of the walls done. It’s a bit of a frustrating process since the blazing sun and/or whipping winds seem to make it impossible to get the job done and I’ve had to start painting just after sunrise to avoid both of those elements.
I also made my own plaster wedging table for the studio, which if you don’t work in clay, it is used for recycling clay on and as a surface for wedging or kneading your clay. It’s a pretty simple thing, just a low wooden frame with plaster poured into it, but it’s the kind of thing that I generally rely on my husband Nate to help me make and this time I did it all on my own. I’m pretty good with most power tools and making basic stuff but I’m not super confident with using the skillsaw and that was a requirement for this project. So while it’s only a box, I’m pretty proud of myself for this one!
And in other news…
A cow kicked my car door while I was passing it on the road, that was a first! I bought an entire used kitchen cabinet set from a local online buy/sell/trade group and the sweetest couple delivered it to my studio. I fixed up a few rust holes in the roof of one of our shipping containers, only to discover there’s a few more that need my attention, so that’s not great. I had my first Santa Cruz visitor come to the studio; artist Sandy Cherk and her family braved the dirt roads to come say hi and see the studio, we had a very sweet visit. I was gifted some Oregon cheddar cheese (which I’d very much missed!) from my friend Mike and it was delivered courtesy of Sandy. A mouse ate a huge chunk out of one of my crochet projects. I was given fresh cut roses and basil from the woman working the counter in the paint store while I waiting for my paint to be mixed. And I figured out how to ask for a door sweep and plaster at the hardware store in Spanish. Let the adventure continue!
Here’s the monthly wrap up of everything going on at the studio…
Want to get the monthly email right in your inbox?
Join our safe subscribe monthly mailing list:
The Ceramic School is an online classroom for all things clay and they are having a 29% off Leap Year Sale right now!
So if you haven’t taken my online class about working with high temperature wire or one of the other hundreds of classes they offer, now is the time! Valid through March 1st.