The Drift

One Year Later...

2011-03-20T20:58:00.000-06:00

You know how, in the movies, the director can quickly move the film ahead by simply inserting a black screen with the words, "One year later..." on it? Well, that's how I feel right about now. A year ago, I "retired" from the corporate world and moved to Colorado to begin a new life. I'm a lot happier now, infinitely more relaxed, and I finally have time to be creative. After first settling in to our vacation home in rural Southern Colorado, my husband and I decided to buy a home in Colorado Springs to be our main base of operations. Even though it delayed my ability to start making art, the move provided a few things we just couldn't pass up. Namely, a bigger art studio which is now operational. Side benefits include being within walking distance of Starbucks and authentic Vietnamese food.

For the last month, I have been able to squeeze out a few hours of studio time almost every day and I have set goals for producing a body of work by the end of the year to be composed of textile paintings and paper pottery. I'll also be working on a new website and Facebook page. Lots of work, I know!

I hope you'll continue to follow my progress and watch as my artwork takes shape.

A Change in Altitude

2010-04-20T08:17:00.000-06:00

Wow! It has been two months since my last post. So much has happened that it seems a difficult task to document it all. Here are a few of the more memorable events:

Sold condo in Bethesda, Maryland
Retired from corporate life :)
Drove across country with husband and puppy
Got and trained a second Boston Terrier puppy
Designed a kitchen for our Colorado home
Found a rock with a fossilized leaf
Saw eight elk in a mountain meadow
Planted columbines, strawberries, poppies, sage, and chives
Shoveled a few tons of gravel

Needless to say, not a lot of pottery was created during this period. Before I can get going again, I must finish the floor and walls in my kitchen, and locate my supplies, which are currently in a storage room 2 hours away. Once my husband arrives in a few weeks, my puppy care responsibilities will become shared and allow me time to create.

In the meantime, the creative process does not disappear altogether; it simply takes a different form (like kitchen design). The ideas are stacking up! Can't wait to start "making" again.

One Step Closer

2010-02-06T13:36:00.000-07:00

I have no new work to post this week because we have been busy selling our condo in the middle of the biggest blizzard to hit the DC metro area in almost a hundred years. Amazingly, we got two offers just as the snow began to fall. They are solid, not great, but in this economy, we are thankful for any offer and the chance to pursue our dream of living at a slightly slower pace and doing the things we have put off for so long. The snow is still falling and it looks like the totals will be somewhere around 20 inchees.

The storm has given me time to sketch out designs for new work and to think about new techniques, and how to set up my studio. In my mind, that is all good. Sometimes, I guess, it takes a blizzard to make me stop and smell the proverbial roses. Mmmmm...

The leaf bowl is finally finished!

2010-01-17T19:48:00.000-07:00

This bowl, made for a friend as a wedding gift, taught me many lessons, including how to use fishing supplies in a piece of art. The white latex tubing that forms the lip of this vase is normally used as a fishing lure (Don't ask for details; I can't imagine...). I love the strong and warm colors and hope that some of my enthusiasm found its way into the bowl.

More Inspiration

2010-01-17T10:29:00.000-07:00

Another source of inspiration for me is the glasswork of Dale Chihuly. I love his work so much that I even purchased on of his bowls a few years ago. Even thought the methods that I use in paper pottery are very different than those he uses in glassblowing, the organic nature of the pieces produced is similar.

Take a look at this Dale Chihuly piece that I find amazing:

Inspiration

2010-01-09T19:31:00.000-07:00

Inspiration comes in many forms. For me, people are a big source. Specifically, my pottery idols are Susie Cooper, Clarice Cliff, and Eva Zeisal, all strong women with great design sense. Cooper, an English potter, made striking designs in bold colors. Cliff took color to a new level with her Bizarre ware, and Zeisal (still making pottery at age 101) creates shapes that are at once unusual and organic. Take a look at my inspiration...

Cooper's Sunflower vase is cheery yet refined.

Clarice Cliff's amazing use of color and design!

Eva Zeisal's organic shapes are unmatched!

Leaf Vase - The Wedding Gift

2010-01-06T20:40:00.004-07:00

Part of the fun of making art is that it lets others see your inner self. The artist leaves a part of her energy in each of the pieces she makes and it seems to me to be the perfect way to give a really personal gift. The bowl pictured is for a wonderful woman with a keen sense of style. Making this bowl taught me several things that will improve future pieces, so it really is a labor of love in more ways than one. I hope she loves it!

Flickr Site Featuring Paper Pottery is Now Up

2010-01-03T14:19:00.002-07:00

One of the many preparatory tasks, creating a Flickr site to post photos, is now complete! Check them out at the top of this blog (they power the gadget) and at http://www.flickr.com/photos/blue_drift_pottery.

The Countdown to Self-Sufficiency

2010-01-02T15:49:00.002-07:00

Typo Vase #2, Private Collection, Evanston, IL

In less than 90 days, I will leave the warm and fuzzy cocoon of a regular paycheck and a corporate job to pursue art pottery full-time -- an exciting but scary prospect. Part of the challenge is to create enough work to sell while at the same time developing a market for them.

Lots of people ask about the process of making paper pottery and that may offer a clue about how to create a market for them. In development is a time-lapse photographic record of the incarnation of a paper bowl. Also nearing debut is a single-page website with links to social media sites on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Etsy and, of course, Blogger.

What would you like to know about Blue Drift Pottery? Comments and suggestions are welcome.

New Year, New Pursuit!

2010-01-01T13:08:00.000-07:00

Twenty-ten has all the potential of an unopened box of chocolates. Sure, "you never know what you're gonna get" (Forest Gump) but you MIGHT get everything you want! With that in mind, Blue Drift Pottery embarks on its inaugural year as an enterprise. I'm leaving the corporate life at the end of March and moving to rural Colorado to make paper art pottery.

The idea for making paper pottery came to me one weekend after I learned the results of a biopsy (benign). Whew, close one, I thought. So, now to examine my priorities and purpose in life. With a blank tablet in hand, I began writing down all the things I thought were important, a kind of criteria list for any future occupation. It had to be low-cost, reuse or recycle existing materials, give back to the community, utilize my art skills, and have the ability to be marketed from Colorado. Eventually, the answer came to me -- papier mache! That's right, papier mache held the potential to solve all my problems.Not the kind of papier mache we all made in Kindergarten. No, this papier mache would be in the form of art pottery; highly developed craftsmanship plus organic design.

I laughed out load as I thought about the idea. Our remote community lacked a recycling program, I had plenty of junk mail and old magazines, I loved to make things, it would be free or relatively inexpensive as far as an investment went. Further, I could not think of another artist currently working in this medium in quite this way. In that moment back in 2002, a dream was born. Eight years later, the "green" revolution is hot and I have experimented on the technique in the form of many bowls and vases made for friends and family.

In 2008, a designer from a Chicago-based firm walked into my office and remarked on the paper vase on my bookcase. He said it was "exquisite" and asked where I got it. After I explained that I had made it from discarded magazines, he offered to buy it on the spot! My first sale to a commercial firm had been made and the impetus for Blue Drift Pottery was born.