Ceramics by Cathy Gee

Blog (Tag: sitenews)

Misc. and house cleaning

Wed May 13, 09:46 AMBy Cathy Gee

I have added (not me personally ::) a glossary to the blog for anyone interested in terms - I find it useful for myself as well as to try to supply proper definitions of stuff - alot of thanks, of course, goes to Wikipedia. And Tom. You can see it automatically linking words (like unfired) to the entires throughout the site.

I'm ready to get back to doing some work after sick me, sick baby, broken toe and other stuff. I'm trying to find local craft shows to get into (anywhere in Toronto) that don't require large booth fees, tents or proof of sales in other large craft shows. Toronto Craft Alert is a great site but I still can't seem to find anything of a smaller nature. When I speak about "large" shows I mean the One of a Kind show, Cabbagetown show, the Distillery etc. For all of these kinds of shows I need to have a tent, as well as table and display stuff, not to mention a hefty (for me right now) booth rental fee. Prior to investing in a tent and devising some kind of professional display I need to get some smaller shows under my belt. If anyone hears of any please pass them along.

Tagged: sitenews, personal, craftshows

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Uploading new images

Mon Apr 20, 10:18 AMBy Cathy Gee

I've spent 4 hours this morning photographing some bowls and vases using the lightbox. Of course, after finishing for the day, putting away the lights, lightbox and all of the other stuff required for a photoshoot, I discovered that I mistook one particular bird bowl for another (as they look very similar) and so only managed to capture one decent image of it....I'm making an effort to have at least 3 web-worthy images of each piece....showing all of my drawing details but also the shape and different angles. I really can't face dragging the lightbox out again right now :) So I shall pretend that I haven't really noticed and take more snaps of the particular bowl the next time I haul out the lightbox again. Now I say "drag" and "haul" which is kind of unfair considering its a homemade jobbie made out of foamcore and waxpaper, which is very lightweight. :) So new to the bowl section of the site are a series of 6 bowls - showing my little hand-painted birds/branches and berries. I'll also be adding today (if I have time) a few other bits and pieces that will show up in the Vases and Buildings (soon to be added section) sections. By wedneday or thursday of this week, I will be picking up a load of new pendants which will eventually show up here. Tomorrow, I will be finishing some of the green pendants (see below) and posting images of my progress on them.

Tagged: sitenews, lightbox, bowls, new

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Cathy's First Post

Mon Apr 13, 01:10 PMBy Cathy Gee

This is my first post - the building of the site has taken awhile as its been written from the ground up! Not by me, I might add :)

This is where I plan to talk about what I'm working on currently, my successes and my frustrations and other stuff as well – in a very casual and perhaps lazy fashion.

Lately I've been experimenting with different built-in hanging methods for my pendants....and by that I mean making the opening for the cord, or necklace, or chain, virtually invisible. Up until now I've been punching holes in the tops of the pendants and using leather or silk cords - this works ok - it suits some of the images on the pendants, but I wanted to do something a little finer - where the hanging solution wasn't obvious and therefore didn't conflict or detract from the image/piece.

So, i've come up with two solutions, both of which I stupidly didn't photograph while being built or green (air-dry) - but I plan to remedy that in the future. As in, photograph and post my processes.

I currently fire at a studio outside of my house, but do all of my building at home - so there is the problem of transporting my stuff to and from the studio (1910 Danforth) and also the frustration with turn-around time. I share kiln-loads with other artists – as most of my pieces are quite small – I'd be working for weeks and weeks and weeks to try and fill a smaller kiln on my own – kilns, if you're being responsible, are always completely filled as much as possible before being fired up – for energy and environmental reasons. For anyone that doesnt know here's a REALLY basic breakdown of the process: A piece is built or thrown on a wheel, it then dries a bit (to a leather hardness, more or less.) Its then cleaned by hand (all of the surface finishing of the clay itself). It's then exposed to the air and allowed to dry (this is now in a state called greenware.) This is where I generally do my painting using underglaze – the piece then gets fired for the first time – its allowed to cool, then gets glazed again – its then fired for a second time – thats a very basic breakdown without getting into kiln temperatures, different clays and glazes or anthing else (I don't understand the half of it - click here for more detailed explanation)...but as you can see, its a long process, anybody who works with clay knows that this is a medium where there is no instant gratification! :)

I plan to buy eventually, once I've saved up enough, a table top kiln for home – that would allow me to fire something as large as an 11inch dinner plate, but would be great for small jewellry pieces. Because the interior of a table top kiln is so small, the heating up and cooling down process is ALOT quicker – so the information i need re: glazes etc would be pretty much instantaneous.

Right now I'm in the process of re-shooting all of my work in a new lightbox – pieces will be posted shortly. I will also be shooting and posting the newest pieces as I've described above.

I'm extremely happy with some of the newer pieces and am anxious to get them back from the studio (some will be bisqued this week, and some will be coming out of the glaze fire).....

Tagged: sitenews

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