New Website & My Blog Has Moved

Hello Friends,

I am happy to announce, that after years of many unsuccessful attempts, I finally have a shiny new website!  Also I will no longer be posting blog posts here as I have a new blog on the website. 

My new website has everything in one place so no need to have blogs and shops and who knows what else spread all over the interwebs. You'll find it all here!

Please visit!

 

The Clayer: Surfacing is Back!

Hello Friends,

 I am excited to announce that registration for the Winter/Spring session of my ecourse, The Clayer: Surfacing (Part One) in now open!

 

Please click here for more information about the course and how to sign up!

*See* you in class!

Diana

Get Creative!

2012 was a fun year. A very fun year! 
I launched my e-course and had the most amazing experience of meeting, teaching and interacting with a virtual class, from all over the world, of 139 students.  I traveled to many wonderful locations and taught workshops at places that, I never in my wildest dreams, thought I'd be invited to teach at.  Then there was Creativebug.  This new start up company in San Francisco, brainchild of the the enthusiastic and effervescent Jeanne Lewis and her fabulous creative team,  offering a smorgasbord of craft and art classes, online, via a monthly subscription, Not only does Creativebug offer an amazing array of classes, a part of their profit is donated to non-profit art organizations.  An all you can make smorgasbord while giving back! 
I spent a couple of weeks filming with the talented, fun, kind, interesting and goofy film crew from Creativebug and got a wee sense of what it feels like to be Martha Stewart.  A beautiful trailer was made about little ol' me.  Classes to make handmade clay spoons, driftwood mobiles, the ever elusive Mishima technique and most recently, printed ceramics with your own carved rubber blocks, stream, effortlessly in sections that let you keep pace of what is being taught, along with plenty of close up shots so you can see how things are done. I know, you're dying to watch them yourself to see (and learn how) to make all these fun things. Well, it's easy. You can do it two ways. One way is to sign up for Creativebug's monthly membership, which will get you into ALL the classes. So you can get your sew, knitting, bookmaking, soap making, felting AND clay on.

 Or you can do it A' La Carte style and just take the class you want.

Sign up here for the monthly subscribtions.

And if you'd like to only to take my individual classes, here are direct links to mine.

Mishima
Hand Stamped (Printed) Ceramics
Ceramic Spoons
Driftwood Mobile

Go on now. 
Get creative!
Diana

Painting Rocks With Louie

There is a sweet video up on Creativebug of me painting rocks  along with my dog Louie being cute.  

If you ask me, Louie steals the show!

 

This is how you paint rocks with a dog in your lap

Also, Creativebug will be adding my  new "Printed Ceramics" online workshop on January 24th. If you haven't already seen my Mishima, Clay Spoons and Driftwood Mobile workshops, sign up to watch them here. 

If you'd like purchase my painted stones (and clay scoops) you can do so here at my new rock shop, Stone & Clay. Sorry, the dog is not for sale. ; )

The Clayer: Update

Hello and Happy New Year!

I've been receiving many emails asking me when and if I will be re-launching my online e-course The Clayer: Surfacing? The answer is, yes! I had initially intended to have it start up again in January (if you go to the page, it says as much.) As often happens, my good intentions have been a bit delayed as I am still finishing up some projects in the studio from 2012 and haven't had much time to sit at my desk and get all the details together to re-launch it. It's almost there, so please hang in there. I will post it here, as well as on facebook and twitter when the registration opens. Also, if you haven't already, please sign up for my newsletter (here on the blog, in the sidebar) to be notified when it will begin.

 Thank you SO MUCH for your interest in the class, I can't wait to run it again and meet YOU!

Terrain & Heath Ceramics

This autumn I've been very busy working on two great projects with some great clients,

 Terrain and Heath Ceramics.

Earlier this fall I created this collection for Terrain. It was fun to work within a theme, indigo and copper and really exciting to create my large one of a kind works for a change. So often I am asked to make my smaller items, which is okay, but my larger one of kind pieces has always been where my heart is at. 

The pieces from this collection are available for purchase, online, here.

*

Canteen Vases

Currently I am working long hours filling a very large order for Heath Ceramics. I've been creating seasonal vase collections for them for the past four years, which is such a delight!

Pin Vases

My work for them is not available online but if you are in San Francisco, you can find my work at their Ferry Building location or in their Sausalito Store.

Gizella vases

Zsuzsi Vases

My Creativebug Workshops Are Here!

 

Check out my latest workshop collaboration with Creativebug! I had so much fun filming these workshops for them even though they made me say my lines over and over again until I got it right. 

The Clayer: Online Ecourse

I've been mulling this idea over for a while now and am SO excited to be finally announcing that it has become a reality! I will be teaching an online e-course, The Clayer: Part One: Surfacing, form February 27th to April 8th.  This is an intermediate course and will cover surface applications on ceramics as well as a couple of basic handbuilding techniques.

 

 

 You can find out more about it here

I hope to meet you in class!

Royal Winter

Each season I work together with Heath Ceramics and we come up with a unique palette for me to create my pieces in that compliments their seasonal collection.

This winter we are going royal.
Violet, sapphire blue, rich chocolate brown and cool grays.

Hand Dipped

chocolate (clay) spoons.

Autumnal

Sampler

I am still at it with the red.
Now with my new block prints.
I like.

Patterning

What I am doing when I am not drawing on pots.

Spooning

I am not sure why, but at this time of year, I am compelled to make spoons.
This years' spooning is happening with rich brown clay that looks and feels like smooth chocolate.

It's taking all of me not to take a bite out of the hunk of it sitting on my table

Raven to Raven

This piece began as demonstration for one of my workshops.
The green part was supposed to be white.
Not sure what happened.
Either way,
I kinda like it.

Weeping Pods

and critters.

~On view~
Blue Spiral Gallery
38 Biltmore Avenue
Asheville, North Carolina

October 6th ~ December 31st

Clay As Canvas

I am one of twelve ceramic artists participating in the Clay As Canvas show
at
Blue Spiral Gallery in Asheville, North Carolina.
The show opens October 6th and runs through December 31st.

Squam

Welcomed by the rising sun in the east.







Shacked up with some incredible talent.







Jumped off this dock butt naked with five other women.







My one minute alone.







How do you say cheeky sausage in Hungarian?







Making friends with a fellow cheeky sausage.







Even the mushrooms were being cheeky!







Talented singer songwriter who photographs her mother's nose.







My other minute alone.






Warmth, Joy, Friendship, Laughter on every path.


- Posted by Diana Fayt copyright 2011

Workin' the Workshop

Well after two weeks of working behind the computer I am happy to announce that  something has come out of it.

Unfortunately it's NOT my new website. Yet. 

It's almost done. I promise. But dang it sure is a lot of work.

 I've been wanting to host a lighter style workshop in my studio for the past year and a half in a more regular way but I always seemed to get derailed by other projects.  So before the year became over scheduled I decided to block out dates and make them happen.

I am happy to announce that I will be hosting three workshops out of my Bayview studio. 

One in February.  One in March.  And one in April. 

 

  We will work on tiles and focus on various surface techniques. The workshops are designed for all skill levels in clay so if you have no idea what a cone or quartz conversion is you'll still be good.  I do want to mention that these are not the same as my longer workshops that will be I teaching in July and September here and here.  I will not be teaching my etching techniques as the process is quite extensive and takes more than one day to teach.  I promise though, you'll come away from your day in the studio having learned some inspiring new ways to work and that can be translated to any clay surface.

Here are the details.  

Cheers!

Properly spiced & Ready to go

It's chilly out.

Even here in California. 

Cold. Dark. Rainy.

I am hunkered down enjoying the quiet of January. Everything has slowed to crawl giving me some  much needed time to re-do my poor neglected website. As I rummage through my thousands (this is not an exaggeration) of photo files and write copy I find myself wanting 

to sip on something to warm me up. 

Chai.

Not the overly sweetened weak oddly spiced kind you often find
at coffee shops or in a box at the grocery store. 

But a simple five ingredient chai.
(All my favorite recipes have five ingredients.)

Warmed with ginger and a hint of cardamon and brewed with a strong straight forward black tea. I like to to add milk to soften the tea

and drizzle some honey in it for a touch of sweetness.

Here is how I make it.

Ingredients

5 or 6 1/4" slices of fresh ginger

approximately 15  whole green cardamon pods

3 bags of PG Tips black tea

6 cups of water

milk to taste 

(soy, nut or coconut milks are yummy too)

honey to taste

 

 Place the water, ginger and cardamon pods in a two quart heavy bottomed saucepan and bring it to just under a boil.  When it begins to boil turn the heat down to a low simmer.  Cover the pot (otherwise a lot of it will evaporate) and simmer slowly for about 45 minutes.  Do not cook too long otherwise the ginger will be too strong and overpower the balance of the chai.

 Once the cardamon and ginger finish simmering add your three bags of PG tips.

(I sometimes use loose leaf black tea from this company if I want a stronger brew.)

Let the tea steep in the infusion for about 3-5 minutes 

depending on how strong you'd like it to be.

Then remove the tea bags.

Let the chai cool a bit then pour it through a strainer into a pitcher for storing in the refrigerator.  

I use this ceramic teapot to store mine. 

 When I want a cup of chai, I take my pitcher of brew out of the refrigerator and pour some into a small enameled pan, add some milk and honey, warm it up and then it's ready to sip while I continue uploading photos to my website.

 Of course, I like to drink my chai out of one of my new tumblers.  If you can't make your own chai yourself, my tumblers are made to go (they fit in a car cup holder) so you can take the tumbler with you to your favorite cafe and order a coffee.  ;-)

 Here's to staying warm, properly spiced and ready to go.