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

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

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!

Hand Dipped

chocolate (clay) spoons.

Autumnal

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.

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.

The Journey

  Smeared. Scarred. Hopeful.

Carbon & Clay

 San Francisco's, Modern Relics, owned and operated by jeweler Alix Bluh,

is a little gem of a store tucked away in the foggy avenues

of the Richmond District. 

There, I've installed a collage of my scrimshaw inspired works on clay.

Scribed onto them are stories of love: 

Seahorses stare lovingly at one another.

Whales intoxicated from the opiate of love. 

Rivers of gold traverse terrains of the heart

A wren perches atop love itself.

 .

The pieces in the show are available though Modern Relics.  

Please contact Alix Bluh for details.

 .

The show will remain up until mid March.