Indian Creek Studios

no clay today, kicks and punches and splinters!

2009-11-07T13:24:00.000-06:00

This is my daughter M this morning, doing a demo. I had not seen her break boards before, she turned those 1 inch boards into kindling, they had to sweep up splinters off the floor after. Her dad and I are just amazed, neither of us could ever do anything like this, and her dad is pretty athletic. Me not so much. So no pictures of beads or clay, just my girl kicking butt.

Fairy Stones, Lions, Jesters, and Sunshine

2009-11-05T10:29:00.002-06:00

I grew up in rural Virginia. My Dad took us camping all around the Blue Ridge and Smokie Mountains. Several times we found ourselves in Fairy Stone State Park, and I looked and looked for one of the mysterious little crosses, but never found one. These crosses are formed with two chrystals meet at right angles. They are one of natures lovely little gifts to us. Of course there is a bit of folklore to go with them. Legend has it that these mountains were inhabitted by the Fey Folk long ago, and when they heard that Christ had died on the cross far far away, they cried, and when their tears fell to the ground the resulting mud formed into these crosses.
Well, I do not have a real one dug up by me, though you can get them easily enough on Ebay these days, I decided to make one from my own mud. I do not know if I will make any for sale, I will see if this one has any spirit in it when it is finnished. I do not know, this may be one of those pieces that is more alive in the making process than in the finished piece. I do like it alot in it's mud stage.

I have also been working on some renaisance inspired pieces since our annual trek to Ren Fest, and as always, my miniature panther is right in the middle of things. I only use non toxic materials anyway, but she makes doubly sure I keep things safe, literally putting her nose into every thing I do :-0

Have a great day everyone!

relic of the copper age

2009-11-01T14:54:00.000-06:00

Well, I have been rather quiet for the last week since the marathon posting durind last weekend's ope studio tour. However today I found in my email a post from Mary Jane ( http://mairedodd.blogspot.com/ ) who won one of my giveaways. She has used the hand charm I made in a stunning necklace. It just took my breath away, it is so beautiful. She has named it "relic of the copper age", and entered it in Humblebead's focal bead competition. Go see Mary Jane's description at the competition flicker account and read her words and leave her a comment, and also look at the rest of the lovely enties.

Thanks everyone for visiting!

2009-10-25T16:34:00.001-05:00

Little Ferret kittie on the steps down to the studio wants to thank you all for stopping by! Congrats to all the winners of the giveaways, not just here but at all the BOC open studios. Now that it is over, I am going to visit the other studios that I was too busy to look at earlier. Don't forget we are all running sales till later tonight, so there are still bargains to be found!

Pam

Fall Traditions

2009-10-25T14:41:00.000-05:00

For our last big blog post, we are supposed to talk about our fall traditions and maybe even share a recipe, so here goes! Every fall, as family, we go to the KC Renfest. This renaissance festival supports the Kansas City Art Institute, as well as being a venue for local craftsmen. It is an event we look forward to all year.

Fall is also a great time for cooking and eating. This year I found some beautiful winter squash.

I love them, but other family members are not so into veggies, so I had to find a great recipe to entice them to try winter squash. This is not so much a recipe as a guide, as it has no set amounts, you have to go by taste.

Split open and remove seeds from several winter squash or butternut squash or a mix, Roast at 350 degree F until they are soft. Let cool till you can handle them. Scoop soft flesh away from the skin and put in a blender. Blend with chicken or veggie stock till smooth, then pour into a sauce pan. Add a pinch of ground ginger, a pinch of cinnamon, curry powder and salt to taste. Finnish with some butter melted in just before serving. If you want to get fancy, you can serve with heavy cream or sour cream.
Thank you all for visiting my first virtual open studio! Don’t forget to visit my Etsy shop

http://www.IndianCreekStudios.etsy.com

All the BOC bloggers are having sales the rest of the day, so check them out too!

Winner of the second giveaway!

2009-10-25T14:19:00.000-05:00

and the winner is:

5

Random numbers generated Oct 25 2009 at 14:15:12 by www.psychicscience.org

Free educational resources for parapsychology, psychical research & mind magic.

Katie!

Congrats Katie, please email me at pam@cresswells.com

2009-10-25T13:28:00.000-05:00

About my studio. Well, for the most part it is in the basement of our house, with the kiln in the garage. I had been firing outside, but the kiln occasionally got rained on when a sudden shower would pop up and the kiln be too hot to move. I decided it was too detrimental to it’s health to be outside, so now it is in the garage. Here is a picture of the kiln, and one of the ventilation system I created to keep kiln fumes out of the house as much as possible.

ventilation system!

I have two other kilns, a medium one and a great big Skutt, but I need to get an electrician to set them up for me, they require special wiring and outlets, and I just have not had time or money yet.

I have the usual pottery set up, shelves, potter’s wheel, wedging table. However I do a lot of my bead making upstairs at a table I set up in a corner with two windows. That way I am closer to the kids and dog and other animals if they need me.

This is my beam scale that I use to measure chemicals for glaze mixing. Since all those dusty chemicals do not mix well with a camera, for the sake of these pictures I am weighing out a charm instead of silica or red iron oxide or cobalt. Safer, and I did not have to put on a mask.

Winner of first giveaway announced! Second GiveAway Pics

2009-10-25T13:08:00.001-05:00

2

Random numbers generated Oct 25 2009 at 13:0:1 by www.psychicscience.org

Free educational resources for parapsychology, psychical research & mind magic

congrats to #2, Mairedodd!

1:01 PM

Mairedodd, please email me at pam@cresswells.com with your snail mail address! Congrats!

Here are the images for giveaway #2

side a

side b

close up of egg

Please comment on this blog to be entered!

Welcome to BOC Open Studio Event!

2009-10-25T11:56:00.000-05:00

Welcome! This is my first virtual open studio, very exciting. My name is Pam Cresswell, and I live in Missouri with my husband of 27 years. We have two teenagers, 3 cats, a dog, a turtle, a couple of snakes, a big tank of fish. Two years ago we bought a wonderful old cape cod style house that was at one time a small convent. Because of it’s previous life as a convent, it is divided up into many small rooms, unlike modern houses that tend to have fewer but bigger rooms. It works for us. I have my pottery stuff taking up about half of the basement, and recently I took over the garage for my kiln. My husband never puts the car in it anyway, so I use it. now.

I have been dabbling in art in one form or another all my life. I attempted pottery in college, but I did not get the pottery bug till much later. I signed my son and myself up for a clay class at t5he local clay guild. My son enjoyed the class but was not interested in doing any more clay work, it is kind of messy. I however just could not get enough. I re-learned how to throw on the wheel, learned how to fire several different kinds of kilns, became involved in glaze mixing and formulation. I even created a glaze for the guild that is pretty popular.

Over time I have set up a clay studio at home, where I have been making beads and charms. I prefer to let the clay be itself, look like nature shaped it that way. At the same time I want each piece to feel good in my hand, to feel interesting and sensual, a little private piece of art that you want to wear next to your skin. I tend to stay away from bright colors, preferring more earthy shades.

(maybe my last rose of the year)

(I need to trim up the shrubs, getting pretty bushy)

I will have a drawing for the first of 2 giveaways at 2:00 eastern. Check out my Etsy store, I am running a sale to go along with the BOC Open Studio

Sneak Peek

2009-10-25T10:48:00.000-05:00

I cannot stand waiting, so here is a look at the first give-away. You must comment to be entered in the drawing! So comment on this blog, and a winner will be drawn at 2 oclock eastern time. Above is side a, below is side b:

and here is a close up of the star charm:

Open Studio!

2009-10-25T10:19:00.000-05:00

All day today, Sunday, you will receive 20% off your purchases in my etsy shop http://www.indiancreekstudios.etsy.com/ I will refund 20% of your purchase via Paypal!

Unloaded the kiln this morning

2009-10-19T12:31:00.000-05:00

So now I sort them into good and not so goods, clean up the holes if need be. I find a quick swipe with the diamond bead reamer improves even those that do not need it. I have to like how a bead feels in the hand as well as how it looks before it passes my inspection. I know my stuff looks rustic, but it takes a lot of work to balance rustic/primal with sensuous to hold and feel.

If I like them, then they get photographed for my Etsy, that takes a long time for me (can you say procrastinate?)

The rejects get mulled over for a while. Can they be fixed with a new coat of glaze and re-fire? Or should they be put out of my misery....sometimes I keep the bad ones around, in my pocket or wear them on a necklace, so I can better decide their fate............

OK, I really need to go put some time in organizing the studio, see my previous post as to why. See yall later, pam

I was given a gift.................

2009-10-17T17:57:00.001-05:00

An old pottery friend has decided to go for a less messy artistic venue, graphic art and web design. A few years back he was given mountains of ceramic glazes and underglazes from a friend of his who had run a paint your own pottery shop. The shop closed up, and my friend Kevin was gifted with the inventory. Now Kevin has passed these treasures on to me, as well as two heavey duty shelves he made to hold these goodies.

We had to get a uhaul, there was so much. He had them all organized and labeled, but we got them a little mixed up in transit, so I have some organizing to do, but eveything is in my basement studio area. Look at those beautiful shelves! Clay folks can never have enough shelves.

Next weekend is the virtual open studio, so I have to get organized quick. This is going to change/evolve the way I work, since I normally use glazes that I make myself, and that fire at a higher cone than most of these glazes, though there aresome high fire goodies in here too. There is going to be many test fires in the near future, I love it.

Thanks Kevin, if you are reading this!

2009-10-15T11:50:00.001-05:00

Marsha Neal Studio

MaryHardingJewelry

Chinook Jewelry

Diane Hawkey

Marsha Hedrick

Joan Tucker

Indain Creek Studios

Lisa Peters

Kristie Roeder

Tracy Isley

Jennifer Davies-Reazor

Melanie Earthenwood Studios

Winchell Clay Works

Sunmers Studio

Jessica Sharrah

Creative Impressions in Clay

What a great list! This is going to be fun, with give aways and specials and insight about our studios and art!

Waxing around

2009-10-12T10:56:00.001-05:00

Mass production! I have a batch of coin/rondelles to glaze.

Step one is to wax the center hole. Pretty easy if you put your liquid wax in a ketchup type bottle. The biggest problem with the waxing is when you get the wax on your paws. I hate it when that happens!!!

My kiln is working, whew!

2009-10-09T14:47:00.000-05:00

I was up bright and early to set up a bisque load. My husband said his off to work goodbye to me as I was putting the last items in the kiln. I set the sitter, timer, made sure everything was "off", then connected the kiln to it's power source, pressed the plunger, and nothing..................no buzz or hum or lights. Tried it again and again. Nada. Hmmm, maybe it got damp even though it was wrapped up tight and in a protected spot outside. I got a big fan and turned the fan to blow on the control/kiln sitter area for a few hours. Still no juice, like the power was not connected.
Not happy. I unloaded it, brought the kiln into the basement, and with help from Ferret the cat, proceded to give it a complete check up. I took the cover off the controle box, checked all the connections ans wires and stuff, nothing wrong that I could see. Put the cover back on. Ferret was in the kiln watching me by now. Wonder why I fire outdoors? So I shoo her out of the kiln and out of the basement too, and went back to the kiln I plugged it in, and voila, it works fine. I did not do a thing to it, just looked under the hood, but it is working again. Maybe it needed a cat to sit in it to make it work again, cats being magical, and solid black ones even moreso....

It is too late to fire today because I am going to watch Woody kill zombies tonight, so first thing tommorow morning I will try that bisque again. No pictures of me doing nothing to the kiln, so I offer you pictures of two of the furries. BTW, photoing a solid black animal is difficult. Here is Lancelot, he is half lab, half akita, we got him from a local shelter last year, he is about 18 months old, but still completely a puppy.

And here is my little helper/shaddow Ferret, aka Inkie

Beads-Of-Clay Bloggers Open Studio, Theme: Fall

2009-10-07T12:46:00.000-05:00

Beads of Clay

Beads of Clay mailing list

Sunday October 25 (1-4pm EST)

Beads-Of-Clay Bloggers Open Studio, Theme: Fall

Be sure to check it out. There will be discounts on ceramic beads at several shops, giveaways, tours of our studios, pictures, inspirations, things we are working on, finished stuff, good times. Just like a real life open studio, except you can visit in your jammies and fuzzie slippers. It will be a Sunday after all!

So far I know that

Marsha Neal Studio

and

Mary Harding Jewelry Bead Blog

and myself will be participating, and I expect others as well. I will keep you posted!

Pam

2009-10-07T09:50:00.000-05:00

This a not turning out to be such a great day. I had planned to do a bisque fire today, but it is supposed to rain big time tonight, and I do not want to leave the hot kiln out in a flood, so I am waiting for the next patch of clear weather. My husband and I had planned to take our daughter and her bff to see Zombieland tonight. What to do in case of a zombie invasion has been a typical dinner table conversation with these girls for years, and we were all looking forward to it, but my girl woke up sick today, fever and puffy face, hope it is just a cold, but we have put off killing zombies till she is feeling more human. *sigh*

I am going to play around a bit with gimp, I already turned my my little Ink cat into a cartoon. She was not amused. Maybe the dog will like being a cartoon better.......................

skulls!

2009-10-06T19:10:00.001-05:00

Well, I had a graphics oriented day, I finally got around to photographing my skulls for Etsy. Then loading them into photoshop to tweak the colors so the pics look like they do in real life. I like photoshop, but I rather have clay on my hands!

I also needed a graphics app in my little netbook computer, so I went looking for a freebee, got Gimp, and loaded it up and now need to figure out how it works....

Most fun was loading four new skulls in my Etsy shop! wooooowhooooo!

playing with copper

2009-09-30T16:18:00.002-05:00

I really should be photographing pieces to add to my Etsy shop, but it is in my nature to procrastinate whilst playing with something new. Today's guilty pleasure is forging/hammering copper to make a bail for this clay donut I made a couple of weeks ago.....

This is the start, a piece of copper wire. Just ignore those smudges of clay on the table.................I put the wire on my cool little anvil and hammer the hell out of it!

Then drill holes in it and bend it.....

then use a smaller gauge wire to pass through the holes....

well, not sure about it, gonna play some more, but I like where this is heading. I made some hammered copper paddle earings, but my teenage daughter grabbed them before I got a picture, which is more gratifying then blogging about them, so it is good.

I think clay and copper have a future together here at the studio

kiln opening, a few shots of new ideas

2009-09-28T16:20:00.000-05:00

I fired over the weekend because the weather was so nice for having the kiln out on the back patio. I love early fall, it is still green outside but there is a wonderful coolness in the breeze, and the queen anne's lace in my weed patch looks so pretty!

Here are a few jumbled treasures strait from the kiln, and a few groupings of hands, skulls, and stars:

2009-09-19T11:56:00.000-05:00

new things from the kiln this morning...................

scary stuff in the studio....

2009-09-12T18:18:00.002-05:00

no, I don't mean the mess.........

or my box from Amazon and it's contents.....

no...............

it's clay! oooowwwww

I like to work with clay a little on the dry side, could you guess? Yeah, I could roll out sheets of perfect clay and use a cookie cutter, well sometimes I do, but there is something so primal and satisfying (hmm, is that spelled right?) about squishing a ball of clay into a pancake with fingerprints and cracks! By request of my daughter, I am making some gothic pieces, I hope she lets me keep a few to sell, but it doesn't look good......

Star Charm

2009-09-10T14:37:00.000-05:00

Here is a new little guy. This little stoneware charm is something new that I will be adding to my Etsy shop soon. It has a base glaze of black, and then a ghosty frost for a top layer of glaze that pools nicely around the star. More to come!

Glazing beads till the cows come home

2009-09-06T09:40:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was glazing day! Fun but hard on old eyes. I had a few beads getting re-glazed and a bunch of bisqued beads going through the process for the first time. I have a BBQ skewer stuck in a ball of clay that I use to hold the beads while I brush on the glaze. Works pretty good. If it is a re-fire, I like to warm the bead up with a little torch while it is on the skewer, I think I got a little to hot yesterday, I burnt the tip of the skewer off!

My glazes are mostly mixed up by me, cone 6 range. In this tub is my speckled glaze, it has gotton a little thick, way too thick for dipping pottery, but ok for brushing onto beads. It looks like a bowl of brownie batter, doesn't it?

Of course no glazing day is complete without the supervision of a cat or two. Here is my son's cat Ferret, aka Inkie, sitting on top of a snake cage watching what I am doing. She is not supposed to be up there, she knows well. Once she fell through, caved the screen in, and was face to face with a snake. No one was injured, but pride was hurt on both sides.....anyway, she can look over my shoulder from up there. I had to take a quick pic of her before making her get down.

Here are beads in their homemade racks, glued down and ready for the trip down the treacherous basement stairs and out the basement door to where the kiln awaits.