Limited Edition Snowmen 2011

Just out of the kiln in time for the West Michigan Potters Guild Annual Fall Show next weekend.
New snowmen sculptures and snowmen pin/pendants with this years distinctive scarf, a red and green plaid with gold.  This year I have added some stand alone trees,  snowy hills with trees, and deer/reindeer figures so you can arrange a scenic display on your mantle or dinner table.  This and much more will be in my booth at the show.
                 Friday Nov 11 noon to 9pm
                 Saturday Nov 12 9am to 4pm
           At the Cultural Center at St. Nicholas
           2250 East Paris SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan

A Summer in the Garden

This summer was spent in the flower garden.  After many busy years of art fairs the perennial beds had become overgrown and weedy.  This summer I decided to cut back on the art fairs and do some housekeeping in the garden, gathering fresh inspiration each day for new work I am starting to develop.  The days and weeks flew by and it is September already.  As the summer draws to a close, I realize that I  have not written a new blog in a long time.  With cooler mornings I will be at the computer more as I wait for the dew (and soon the frosts) to dry off before the final trimming and raking, and I will be spending more time indoors working on all those new inspirations.

Kalamazoo Artist Eric Joseph Showing Work at the Medieval Congress

 Kalamazoo Artist  Eric Joseph  Showing Work at the Medieval Congress     

The 46th International Congress on Medieval Studies takes place May 12-15, 2011.   The Congress is an annual gathering of over 3,000 scholars interested in Medieval Studies. It features sessions of papers, panel discussions, roundtables, workshops, and performances. The Congress lasts three and a half days, from Thursday morning until Sunday noon.

The Exhibits Hall,  Goldsworth Valley III  Will be  open 
Thursday: 8:00 a.m.–6:30 p.m.
Friday: 8:00 a.m.–6:30 p.m.
Saturday: 8:00 a.m.–6:30 p.m.
Sunday: 8:00 a.m.–12:00 noon

The exhibits hall will hold nearly 70 exhibitors, including publishers, used book dealers, and people selling items of medieval interest including Medieval Style works of art by Sculptor Eric Joseph under the studio name of Griffinstone.

All works are original pieces created by the hand of the artist. These pieces are inspired form history and not meant to be historical reproductions. I do, however, strive to work within the artistic style of particular cultures at specific points in history.

“History informs our lives and leads us directly to the here and now.

My work is inspired from history. I have been interested in functional and decorative arts of the middle ages and late antiquity. The interaction between the functional object and aesthetic expression has changed since we entered an age of mass production. The disposable quality of the things around us has altered or lives and our relationship with everyday items. I believe that when a person creates something, whether it is purely utilitarian or a nonfunctional work of art, it is imbued with the spirit of that person. I hope to express myself in my work, as well as convey a sense of historical connection.”    Eric Joseph

                   Blowing Horn

                  Dagger

                                       Two Drinking Horns

For additional information on the Medieval Congress

http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/index.html

For additional information on Eric Joseph’s work

http://alicehuntstudio.com/    find Eric in GALLERY OF FRIENDS   

30th Annual Michigan Fine Arts Competition Exhibition

Luralee Kiesel’s Painting to be 

Shown at the BBAC

The Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center is again

 featuring their annual Michigan Fine Arts Competition  

Exhibition.

Opening night is Friday April 1^st  from 6-8pm

Luralee Kiesel is again exhibiting at the show and will 

show Weeping Willow # 8 this year.  It is another in her 

Willow series of colorful impressions of willow branches.

The artist, Luralee Kiesel will attend the opening night 

as will many other artists.

The show will continue through May 6^th.

The Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center   (BBAC) is 

located in the Detroit suburbs at: 1516 S. Cranbrook, 

Birmingham, MI 48009.

Their phone number is PH 248.644.0866

To see more about this exhibit you can go to their website:

www.bbartcenter.org

 Please feel free to leave a comment:  We always like to hear from you.

 http://alicehuntstudio.com

http://www.etsy.com/shop/AliceHuntStudio

Geranium Cuttings at the Studio

The sun was trying to shine between the clouds today and it looked like spring but the wind was bitter cold.  My green thumb was itching to do some work in the garden but it was just too cold.  So I did the next best thing and gardened indoors. 

I need to clean house,  and all the geranium pots on my window sills have been dropping dry leaves and old flowers on the sills and floors making a mess.  I decided to give them their annual spring trimmings before I did the cleaning.  I took them one at a time to the window by the kitchen sink and carefully cut back the stems to a growing leaf and pulled out all the dead leaves.  Then I watered them well,  misted the stems and leaves and spread a small pot of fresh potting soil on top of the dirt in the pot to snug up the stems a bit.  Then I covered each pot with a white plastic grocery bag to form a little greenhouse effect to keep the stems moist.  I am hoping this little hot house for each pot will encourage the dormant buds on the stems to leaf out in the humidity and get them big and bushy before I want to plant them outside in late May.  

Then I took all the cuttings and stripped them down to two leaves and planted them in little pots of fresh potting soil and misted them and covered the pots (five or six at a time) with the plastic grocery bags for humidity put them in a sunny window and hope some of them will take root and make more pretty plants for this summer.

Do you think it will work?   I have never been this thorough with the spring cleaning of the geraniums  and have had hit and miss luck with cuttings.  Maybe the little greenhouses will be the answer to having success.   Stay tuned for the results in a few months.

http://alicehuntstudio.com

http://www.etsy.com/shop/AliceHuntStudio

Signs of Spring at Alice Hunt’s Studio

Snow drops in bloom under the dogwood tree,  daffodils pushing up through the ground as the snow melts and the fragrance of witch hazel wafting on the breeze. Robins hunting for worms in the lawn.

These are the signs of spring at the studio this week.

A pair of Canada Geese honking loudly as I walked along the shoreline, glided down and slid across what was left of the ice before dropping over the edge into the water. 

With the first spring show behind me now, new work and new displays are ready for the 2011 art fair season.  I still have more ideas to bring to light in clay and soon the ferns in my gardens will be up and I can pick them to use in more contemporary fossils creations that are piling up in my mind’s eye.

To see more of Alice's creations please check these sites

http://alicehuntstudio.com

http://www.etsy.com/shop/AliceHuntStudio

West Michigan Potters Guild Spring Show and Sale this Saturday in Grand Rapids Michigan

Alice Hunt's booth will be in this same spot again this year.


How many ways can an artist use clay?  An infinite number it seems, to anyone who has ever attended this show.  Members of the West Michigan Potter’s Guild will be showing their works of fine craft this Saturday.  It is one of Grand Rapids Michigan’s finest shows.  I am busy getting packed for it,  finishing up new work and getting ready for a new year of art fairs.

West Michigan Potters Guild

  Springfest 2011

21st annual POTTERY SHOW & SALE

Saturday, March 19 9am-4pm

Church of the Servant

3835 Burton SE

Grand Rapids, Michigan

for a link to a map see:

http://www.westmichiganpottersguild.com/Shows___Events.html

To see more of Alice Hunt's work:

http://alicehuntstudio.com

http://www.etsy.com/shop/AliceHuntStudio

Porcelain Jewelry Display a New Look

The 2011 Art Fair season will begin for me next month with the annual West Michigan Potters Guild Springfest.  It is time to reorganize the storage bins,  be sure the table covers are freshly washed and make sure the inventory is in order.  I have packed away the Christmas holiday items and the snowflake pins, made a note to make more snowmen pin/pendants for fall and started the glaze fire for new spring necklaces and earrings. 

For several years I have used Styrofoam boards covered in dark leaf green velveteen to display pins and pendant necklaces.  The first year I did art fairs,  I packed each pin in tissue and put it out for display in a case or pinned it on a large white mohair shawl at the beginning of each show and rewrapped it and packed it up again after the show.  Set up and tear down took forever until I discovered another artist who had her work pinned on cork bulletin boards.  The velvet covered boards were a lifesaver.  They are getting tired looking after all the seasons of use now and it is time for a new look.  Out with the green and in with an even more  neutral color to go with the cream colored table covers and the light wood shelving.  I have found a new velvety fabric to cover the boards for a fresh clean look.  That is my project today and when I have them covered, I will have some fun arranging a fresh spring collection of pins, and pendant necklaces.

The 21^st Annual Springfest Show and Sale is less than a month away.  Saturday, March 19^th at The Church of the Servant 3835 Burton Street SE in Grand Rapids Michigan.  Come and see all the different ways clay can be turned into beautiful and useful objects.  The Dinnerware Show will again be featured.

http://alicehuntstudio.com

http://www.etsy.com/shop/AliceHuntStudio

How Many Piercings?

            People without holes in their ears are people too. How many piercings do you have?  At a summer art fairs there is a parade of people and it is common to see multiple tattoos and multiple piercings. It may be hard to believe, but there are still many people who don’t have any of either.

              Some people have tried but are allergic to metal in their ears, or have had bad experiences of one sort or another.  Some have just never gotten around to it and some don’t even want to think about being poked and pierced.  Some aunts and grandmothers grew up when pierced ears were frowned upon (yes, once upon a time) and have never wanted them. At nearly every show I hear the comment “Your earrings are so cute but I don’t have pierced ears”

            So few artists make clip earrings that people don’t expect to find them.  I enjoy being able to tell them that a whole spinner of earrings in my booth is just for them.  Or maybe they have pierced ears but need a gift for a mom,  a grandmother or aunt who wears clips.  Often they are so happy to find them that they buy a handful.

            For a long time, I made my own cards to put them on.  I printed out cardstock cards and glued a plastic thing on the back that hung them on the display spinner.  That was a lot of work  and they wilted in the humidity and looked a mess after a rainy art fair.  The plastic cards I buy for the rest of my earrings just have tiny holes for wires or posts to go through so they didn’t work for clips. 

            Then it hit me.  Why didn’t I think of this before?  I have a hole punch and with some effort can punch through the plastic to enlarge the holes for my clip earrings.  Now, I don’t have to make my own cards, I have saved myself lots of work, the display cards won’t sag in the rain, and I have a new look for the clip earring spinner.

             We don’t realize the amount of time spent on these housekeeping details until we have to do them.  It is always a relief when I figure out how to simplify this part of my business.  I was going to say “non-creative” part of my business, but often the display and marketing part turns out to be very creative, if not very “arty” and then again sometimes it is just something obvious finally hitting me in the face.

            To  see examples of my clip and “non-clip” earrings please check out these sites:

http://alicehuntstudio.com

http://www.etsy.com/shop/AliceHuntStudio

VALENTINES DAY ON ETSY & ….

 Next week is Valentines Day.  I have been rearranging my Etsy Shop to feature hearts and the color red.  Some of my items were photographed with a red rose and look especially like Valentines, those have been especially fun to work with.  I have lots of heart items,  earrings and pendant necklaces as well as some red bird earrings, and some red spring tulip earrings and necklaces all on the first page of my shop. 

I have discovered that if I put a photo and a link on my “Fan” page http://www.facebook.com/pages/AliceHuntStudio/329394373735       of facebook, it also appears on my personal page and Twitter too

 http://twitter.com/#!/alicehuntstudio  I don’t know how that works but I am glad it does.

Happy Valentines Day to all ! ! !

http://www.etsy.com/shop/AliceHuntStudio

http://alicehuntstudio.com

The Necklace in My Head

I have this exhibition necklace I have been working on for several years.  I can see it in my head……

I could see it when I gathered wild grape leaves to make impressions in clay.  I could see it when I finished sculpting the grape leaves and grapes and made little grape beads in porcelain clay.  After careful and thorough drying to be sure there would be no steam build up inside the pieces to make them explode during the first firing, they were bisque fired. 

The bisque pieces were beautiful when they came out of the kiln.  Pure white on white sculptures.  They were so nice just they way they were I was afraid to mess them up.  What if I glazed them and the colors were not what I envisioned in my head?  Panic! 

Since I had made the components for four complete necklaces, I decided to start by glazing just one.  I have learned that if the glazes are not just right after the first firing, I can carefully layer more glaze and underglaze and fire them again.  It took a lot of experimenting to figure out how to make it work as most potters will tell you once a pot is glazed you can’t get more glaze to stick.  But they say necessity is the mother of invention.

After several attempts to get it right, I put the one necklace in the kiln for the last time and turned on the heat to let it fire.  Then I waited for it to reach glaze temperature, over 2.000 degrees and then cool down.  When I emptied the kiln, disaster struck.  As I lifted the kiln shelf that was above the shelf the necklace was on, one of the supports stuck to the bottom of it just long enough to be lifted above the necklace where it let loose and fell breaking the grape leaves.  I was so devastated, and mad at myself,  that I could not work on the remaining three bisque form necklaces for a whole year.

I was so glad that only one necklace had been under that kiln shelf!  NEW RULE ,   the necklaces can only be put on the TOP shelf !!!   I began again very timidly.  The colors were much too pale the first time.  This allowed me to layer more colors and glazes but took a lot of time and since I work with small items it take a while to fill the kiln even for a glaze fire, so another year or so went by with several firings getting the glazes right. 

Finally, all the grapes and leaves were the colors I had in my head and I could add the finishing touches with China Painter’s Gold.  This was a labor of love, and since I had come this far with the pieces I wanted to be sure it was perfect.

Again the necklaces went into the kiln.  ON THE TOP SHELF !!!

And again, they were so beautiful I was afraid to start putting them together.  How would I assemble them to create the necklaces that were in my mind’s eye?  I began to sort through the amethyst and peridot, fluorite and serpentine beads in my bead drawer.  Seed beads and pearls were also selected.  I ordered some special head pins with green swarovsky crystals.  How many strands of beading wire would I need to use to get the effect I had in mind? 

I have started to put the beads on the first wire and string it through the grapes that are attached to the leaves.  Will two more strands of beads and grapes be enough to create the full effect that I can see in the necklace in my head?  And when I get the right fullness of grapes and beads on the collar of leaves,  how will I secure all the strands together and finish the sides and back of the necklace and clasp it?

To see more of my work please check out these sites.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/AliceHuntStudio

http://alicehuntstudio.com

Getting Started and Then Finishing

I have been thinking about this blog for two weeks.  How do you blog about Studio cleanup? I started with the question, “What do I want to accomplish this year?”  That led to a whole list of things besides art work that need to be done.  If I could only go through every drawer and closet in the house and clear out enough stuff to make room for the new things I want to create. And, if I could just get around to finishing projects I have started I could get them out of storage and make more room too.  The hard part is getting started. 

I have had the idea and the fabric for two patchwork bedspreads for over ten years now.  I should get them made before I have to repaint the bedrooms !

I think the hang up has been that I don’t know how to finish off a quilt.  I have decided to charge ahead and cut the fabric and sew the pieces and worry about that when I am finished piecing the quilt.  I hope I can find an experienced quilter to hire to put the batting and backing on and quilt it on a big machine. 

Then there are all the boxes of family photos collecting dust bunnies under the bed.  They need organizing and I want to digitize all of them by scanning them into the computer or taking close up photos of them and downloading them into iphoto so I can clean some of them up and print them out to make family story books for the grandchildren.  I especially love the photos of my grandparents when they were dating.  My grandmother was a beautiful “Gibson Girl” and my grandfather’s hobby was photography so we have lots of  photos.  He printed some out on blueprint paper or something as many of them are not sepia tone but shades of cobalt blue.

When I bought my Mac a few years ago, I signed up for the one on one training at the Apple Store and learned all about iphoto for editing the photos. I also learned how to edit music. The stereo’s turntable in the living room doesn’t work anymore and I can’t listen to records.  I had purchased a turn table from a catalog that assured me it would play my old LPs into the computer where I could edit them into CDs.  Nothing is ever that simple.  The guys at the Apple genius bar and the trainers were able to make it work and after several training sessions, I learned how to do the editing.  Thankfully, I took serious notes on how to do it. I was known as the lady with the notebook as I would make them slow down so I could write down every step.  I started to edit some favorite Christmas records but never finished.  So, another New Years project this winter is to finish the CDs I started to make and begin to work on some more favorites.  Now where did I put that notebook of instructions????

There are the recent family photos that I want to edit and print so I can get them out of my camera and computer,  the family videos too,  both the new ones that are digital in my computer waiting to be made into DVDs and the old VCR ones I wish I could edit…. and that leads me to another gadget.  I bought a DVD/VCR player/recorder that is supposed to “tape” from the TV, play DVDs, play VCR tapes and be able to convert VCR tapes to DVDs.  When I try to set it up all I accomplish is to get the TV/Cable setting so messed up it takes us all day to find our way back to being able to watch the TV.  I wish there was a genius bar for this machine.

Getting back to my art studio……..  I have this exhibition necklace I have been working on for several years.  I can see it in my head…… but that is anoher long story I will share in the next blog.  This one is already too long. 

Alice

 http://alicehuntstudio.com

http://www.etsy.com/shop/AliceHuntStudio