What's new, pussycat?

Sorry, I couldn't resist that title since I'm a closet Tom Jones fan. However, I love the Red Hot Chili Peppers more than any reasonable person should so making assumptions about my taste in music will only lead you to chaos and confusion. Since the world has enough of that right now, let's talk about clay and cats. Evidently there's a connection between the two since cat hair "inclusions" seem to be mentioned pretty frequently on pc message boards. Personally, I'm not a cat person but I do like other peoples'. One of my favorites was made by a very talented guild member of mine here in West Virginia, Chris Henry. This is actually a bottle of hope and I love the deco feel to it.
Judy, of Artsy Clay in North Carolina, makes some fun and quirky jewelry pieces and cats are a recurring theme in her work. She has an Etsy store, as well. I thought this guy was great and I love his bored and slightly disgusted expression.

This polymer clay toy made by Klara Kubesova of the Czech Republic brought back memories. I remember having a toy similar to this as a child. Klara works in lots of different media and polymer clay is just one of the many things she enjoys. She has a tutorial on her website showing how she put this little collapsible cat together. Very clever!

A few months ago, I had the pleasure of visiting the enormously talented Jeanne Rhea in her home in North Carolina. She's created a diorama, which is an ongoing project, called "Cat-tharsis" and it's one of my most favorite pieces of polymer clay artwork. The details in this work are simply incredible and Jeanne's remarkable sense of humor shines through loud and clear. She explains her motivation for this piece and includes lots of detailed photos of the more than 100 cats included in the work here on her website. Be sure and check out the lava lamp filled with floating cat heads and the great cat clock. Jeanne is one of those people who are truly born to be an artist and it was an incredible experience to view her artwork in person! Be sure to check out her Etsy site to purchase a piece of work from this talented lady.

Have a wonderful and creative weekend!

Dye Jobs

Last week's post about china markers and Pebeo markers and paints stayed on my mind this weekend. There are countless ways to alter the color of clay and I thought it would be interesting to share a few others.

The book, Clay Techniques to Dye For, which I worked on with Judy Belcher, Leslie Blackord, Donna Kato, and Debbie Tlach is full of projects using inks, paints, and powders from Ranger.

This bracelet project from the book is a fun example of how you can turn black and white canes into ones with an unlimited color palette. Judy applied Ranger's archival re-inkers onto one side of the unbaked clay discs and left the original black and white colors on the other side to make this great reversible bracelet. According to Judy, this technique works best using pure colors of black and white. The grey tones that result from a black and white Skinner blend tend to muddy the colors of the inks.

I recently had the opportunity to meet the immensely talented Jeanne Rhea who's been doing some amazing work with inks. I could write a whole blog on this incredible lady but since she already has one of her own, I guess I'll settle for an occasional post. She has tons of information about her process so be sure to check her archives.

And finally, Ponsawan Sila has been "painting on clay" recently and has made some lovely cabs. You can check out some other examples of new work on her site.