Christmas Sale!!!

All items on my website have been

reduced from 15% to 50%!

I need to make space for 2008!

Free shipping within Squamish.

Please visit my store for details: http://www.sunnydazedesign.etsy.com/

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Happy Holidays and all the best in 2008!!

Upcoming Shows

Brennan Park Christmas Craft Fair

Saturday December 2, 2007

10am - 2pm

Brennan Park Community Centre

1009 Centennial Way, Squamish

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Garibaldi Highlands Elementary School

Christmas Craft Fair

Friday December 7, 2007

6:30 pm - 9:00 pm

2590 Portree Way, Garibaldi Highlands

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Wild at Art Festival

http://www.wildatart.ca/

March 14 - 23, 2008

West Coast Railway Heritage Park

39645 Government Road, Squamish

ArtWalk Weekend!!!

This weekend was a success with lots of sales and great exposure! Thank you all for stopping by.

I have posted all of my items online for sale. Feel free to visit www.sunnydazedesign.etsy.com to view or purchase any new items from the Sea to Sky Collection.

I will be at the Christmas Craft Fair at Brennan Park on December 1, 2007 from 10am - 2pm.

NEW Glaze and New Items

Here it is, the new Sea to Sky Collection!!!

Click on to each picture for a close up.

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The square plates are also a new addition suggested

by a friend of mine (Glenda Morin) who loved the new glaze

and suggested square plates!!

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To see all of the items of my Sea to Sky Collection

either click onto my online gallery on the left or visit:

http://picasaweb.google.com/SunnyDazeDesign/NEWSeaToSkyGlazeCollection

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Remember my upcoming studio tours/demos/sales coming up on September 22 & 23, 2007

Art at the Market

Today was a great show. I received lots of value feedback and had a few sales too! The weather definitely hindered our traffic flow but it was worth it!

Next show is the ArtWalk Studio Tour on September 22 & 23, 2007 11am - 5pm in my home studio.

New Studio!

My studio has been revamped! More space, more light and the creative juices are flowing! Thanks Greg for your help!!!

New Work

The glaze combo on the plates is called Sea to Sky.

Fresh out of the kiln this morning.

Contest Finalist!

I didn't win the glaze contest that I entered (tea pot) but I was one of the finalists! Not bad for a rookie! http://coyoteclay.com/contestfinalists.html

Visit me at the SAC building on Cleveland on Saturday August 18th as I will have my pottery on display and for sale!

Pictures of my new studio to come shortly!

The perfect colour match?

As any artist, I want my work to be unique. I guess that is what all artists strive for. I want someone see a table of my wares and instantly think to themselves "there is Lisa's stuff, I should see what she is selling this year to add to my growing set". I have been trying to create a colour theme of sorts and have been messing around with making my own glazes (commercial glazes are more consistent but WAY more expensive). I want 2 - 3 complimentary colours which I can say are mine. Above are the green and blue shades I want to work with. The green needs a little more tweaking but definitely on the right track! It's coming together. My next show is at the SAC building in Squamish, BC on August 18, 2007.

Serving Sets

Some serving sets hot out of the kiln ready

for my summer shows/sales:

Upcoming Art Shows

My pottery will be on display August 18 at the SAC building as well as I will have my studio open for tours/demos on September 22 & 23, 2007! For details visit www.squamishart.com

Crochet

Click on picture for a closer view

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Okay, so it is not made out of clay but I made it! I have recently taught myself how to crochet.

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Don't get me wrong, I love pottery but I need a good 2 - 6 hours set aside to do pottery because of all the prep work and clean up time involved. Crochet is great if I have 10 minutes here and there without clean up and can be done almost anywhere!

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So crochet is my latest addiction on top of pottery. Poor Greg, he is worried that the house will be filled with doilies soon!

Updates

Click onto any picture for a close up.

Above are some new pieces I just pulled out of the kiln. This month is was all about flower pots and vases. I have been inspired by Spring! The one small bud vase was made especially for rhododendrons just in time as my 4 bushes are opening this week!

I haven't been spending as much time on the wheel as I used to. Before I was happy just to make "stuff" but now when I hand-build or sit at the wheel, I have something specific in mind. I still try something new every single time, but I plan in advance.

I have also been enjoying spring, gardening, working a lot and teaching myself how to crochet (my mother is so proud). I have a bit of a lull in work coming up so I will be busy on the wheel as I have 3 shows coming up in August and September and I do not want to wait until the last minute!

New Stuff

Click on each image for a close up.

The wash basin & pitcher and the tea pot are hot out of the kiln.

And Another Tea Pot

My latest Tea Pot !!!

More tea pots and sea shell pottery to come!

Visuals - Squamish Valley Artists

The Squamish Valley Artists Society is a non-profit organization that supports the development, education and promotion of local visual artists.

The Squamish Valley Artists Society creates mentoring and networking opportunities for all artisans to share their knowledge and skills and will assist in the development of professional business, marketing and sales, skills.

Squamish Valley Artists Society promotes raising community awareness and appreciation for the economic, social and cultural value of local artisans.

For more information on Visuals, please visit:

http://www.squamishart.com/

Upcoming Events:

Art at the Market: June 30, July 14 & August 18, 2007

Artwalk – Studio & Gallery Tours: September 22 & 23, 2007 (I will be doing tours of my studio both days)

New! Shino Glazes

Hot out of the kiln this morning! Click on each picture to enlarge.

More on VISUALS - The Squamish Valley Artists Group and upcoming shows shortly!

The Process

For many non-potters, you probably are not aware of the process that is involved with making pottery. Every potter differs in some way but I thought I would share with you the steps I go through before I have a finished piece.

Day 1 – Hand build or make a piece of pottery on the wheel.

Day 2-3 – Trim bottoms, add handles and/or spouts

Day 14 – 21 – The piece is dry enough to bisque fire in the kiln. I allow my pieces to dry slower than most to alleviate cracking. I have yet to lose a handle in this process.

Day 14 – Bisque Fire – The pieces are first fired in the kiln to cone 06 (1798 F) over an 8 to 9 hour period. Bisque is a fired piece of unglazed ceramic. Sometimes I will candle the kiln at a very low temperature the night prior to the firing keeping it under the boiling point (212 F) to ensure everything is nice and dry before the firing, then I fire the kiln for 8.5 hours. I have to wait 15 hours until the kiln is cool enough to open the lid after the bisque firing is completed, usually when the kiln is under 350 F. I have a very small kiln which is 18 square inches, so it heats up quite quickly.

Day 15 – Glaze the bisque fired pots and pack the kiln again.

Day 16 – Fire the kiln for the second time to cone 6 (versus 06) which is 2165 F over an 9 hour period with a 15 minute soak to ensure my glazes have time to move around on my piece. I slow down the cooling the first 1000 F especially with matt glazes.

Day 17 – 15 hours after the kiln has cooled off, it is ready to be opened and unpacked within the next couple of hours.

Therefore from the time something is made until it is ready for use is a minimum of 17 days.

*~* Coming soon – Tea Pots and more Shino glazes! *~*

Wild at Art Success

The Wild at Art show was a success and I sold some of my work! The show received lots of media attention from the local newspaper; local programming show on Shaw TV; Mountain FM and CTV in Vancouver!

My pottery is on TV! Okay so it was only a millisecond but if you watch Shaw Cable TV’s local programming in Squamish this week Feb 24 – March 2 at every odd hour, they show my pottery at 15 minutes past the hour right after Cathryn Atkinson’s riveting speech regarding this year’s budget. Don’t blink!!!!

You can buy my pottery online by visiting www.sunnydazedesign.etsy.com

Visit my gallery and blog often as I update both every week with news and new pieces as they come out of the kiln! I have some new super cool Shino glazes which I will post later this week!

Wild at Art Festival 2007

The Wild at Art Festival is taking place at the West Coast Railway Heritage Park in Squamish, BC from February 16 - 25, 2007. (click on the picture for a close up).

"Wild at Art is the festival that will showcase Squamish to the world during the 2010 Olympics. This year the Wild at Art festival is growing from 2.5 days of festival, and ten days of viewing the Art Gallery, to a 10-day festival. We are building to a full 17-day festival in 2010. "

To see more pictures of my work submitted to this show, please visit http://picasaweb.google.com/SunnyDazeDesign/WildAtArtDisplaySquamishBC

Wild at Art: www.WildatArt.ca
Railway Park: www.wcra.org

Be sure to stop by the gallery. The layout, atmosphere, lighting and beautiful artwork nestled between trains dating back to 1890 is definitely worth it!

Another Show!

I received a call on Wednesday (Feb 7) with an invitation to be a part of the Wild at Art show next week. At first I thought, "I am not ready nor do I have enough stuff for the show". Then I thought I have just enough time to run the kiln and no I am not ready for something like this, but what the hell?!?!? I will probably look back in years to come and think how crazy I was to display my amateur pieces BUT right now I am pleased and proud of the results that I have had in just 5 short months.

I was wondering how I could swing it as I had a pottery course this weekend (hand-built tea pots with Kay Austen) and I needed to run a bisque and glaze fire plus clean up all my glazes that froze in our recent cold snap. This is our busiest time of year at work too (yes I have a real job) but I had just enough of a break to manage some time to make this happen. If the invite came any later I would not have been able to pull it off.

Wednesday night I loaded up the kiln and candled (low temp) the kiln all night long as some of my pieces where not dry enough. Thursday I ran the bisque fire and mixed and re-sieved all my glazes. Friday morning I unloaded the kiln, glazed everything and reloaded the kiln for the glaze firing. I was able to see the results Saturday before running off to my tea pot making course!

I still need to catalogue and price everything, plus clean the bottoms, do up my bio (bought some nice hand-made paper), update my online gallery, etc, etc, but I will be ready in time for Tuesday. I will update my blog when my pieces are displayed at the Wild at Art show.

For more information on the Wild at Art show, please visit www.WildatArt.ca. "Wild at Art is the festival that will showcase Squamish to the world during the 2010 Olympics. This year the Wild at Art festival is growing from 2.5 days of festival, and ten days of viewing the Art Gallery, to a 10-day festival. We are building to a full 17-day festival in 2010."

More Glaze Tests

I continue to experiment with different glazes as I am addicted!

To view my latest work and glaze tests, click on to MC6G Test #3 on the left hand column.

One thing I learned (the hard way) is glazes do not like to be frozen and I should have sieved them first but my impatience got the better of me!
Enjoy! Lisa

Gallery Display - Jan 9 - Feb 6, 2007

I currently have some of my work displayed and for sale at the Foyer Gallery at the Squamish Public Library.


January 9, 2007 - February 6, 2007
37907 2nd Avenue
Squamish, BC


This is my first event showing my work publically so I am very excited!

Online Gallery & Sales

Happy New Year!

Visit my gallery for my latest pieces for sale: http://picasaweb.google.com/SunnyDazeDesign

I have revamped the gallery by item type as my product line is increasing!

If you have any requests on particular items with particular glazes, please email me with your requests! Enjoy!