Little Clay Houses

While gathering photos for my new website (still under construction) and applications for shows, I realized that I have to focus on making things that clearly identify my work.  I love to create so many different things and use different media, but my time needs to be spent on the things that I want to promote for sale in my business.

Those items that I want to focus on, include the whimsical little clay houses and accessories, bowls, cups, ornaments, and other small gift items. I also want to do more whimsical acrylic paintings, adding textures and collage elements.

Little Clay Houses

I love creating these little clay houses, and more than that, I love to see people smile when they see them! They are so fun to collect and create little vignettes around the house! Or put them in shadow boxes, or windows, or even create little terrariums with them.

Custom Clay Houses

Update* Occasionally I offer custom clay houses when I have time to take pre-orders for semi-custom houses. Based on the sizes that I typically sell during a Ready to Ship restock.

In the past, I have created custom houses that show the colors and details similar to your own house. While I loved creating those custom houses, they could be very time consuming and difficult to create without problems in both the creation process and the finishing process. Currently I do not take custom house orders because of the time involved.




I am also adding more functional, yet decorative, pieces to my work, such as bowls and plates and cups. I will talk more about those, and my textured paintings in upcoming posts.  For now...

...Have a great weekend!


 Beth♥

HeartHome Love...

I've been working on a custom clay Hearthome and I was excited to take it out of the kiln today! This special Hearthome is a going to Newlyweds. It has been personalized with their last name over the door (I blurred out the name for privacy and because they haven't received it yet!)  and their names and date of their wedding on the bottom.  It also can be used as a bank! It has a slot on the roof and a plug in the bottom to remove their savings, hopefully when its full!  So this house will soon be on its way to a home full of love and hope for the future. I've included photos of the progression of the hand built house bank made of clay, so you can see why the process can take a while. Lots of waiting for drying, then firing, then glazing, more firing...sometimes more glazing and more firing.

What a special wedding gift. Thanks to my customer for the story behind it and the idea and ordering such a special gift for her loved ones!

If you would like to order a custom house, you can look at this listing on Etsy:  Custom House Large

Bottom of house
with the plug for the bank. 

Beth ♥

October is almost halfway over? Time flies...

...when you're having fun!  Doing what I love, so the time goes by quickly!
This week I have been busy on two major projects, both that need a lot of attention.  In 2 weeks I will be traveling to John's Creek, Georgia, to a new art festival, to sell my clay houses and other "Hearthome" creations.  I'm excited about it, but I'm feeling the time pressure to get enough done in time!  I haven't gone to an art festival in a couple of years, so I want to be prepared!    I'm also trying to finish a pen an ink commission that needs to be finished now! So that will be my priority this weekend, then back to building more houses.  The photos today are small samples of what I'm working on.  The pen and ink is just a small part of the large drawing. 

Stage  2, 3, & 4...The making of a Hearthome
Sorry, no photo of stage 1.

 

In November, I will be concentrating on Christmas commissions. So if you want to order a painting, pen and ink, or custom clay house, now is the time to order.  I will not be taking any more orders after the beginning of November.  My daughter is graduating college in December, so I will be going to celebrate with her in the middle of December.  Yay for her! She is almost to the finish line and already has a job lined up! So proud of her!

Beth ♥

Happy Customers and Colored Pencil Artists

Recently I've completed a few custom clay house orders and I am working on another.  Even though I post a lot of examples of my clay houses and my owl paintings lately, I am also a colored pencil artist.  I have had the pleasure of meeting some excellent, award winning, artists through the CPSA national organization.  Recently, Ranjini Venkatachari, a colored pencil artist ordered this custom clay house (Art Studio) from me.  I've been familiar with Ranjini's work through an online forum for a few years, but got to meet her last year at the CPSA convention.  She is a very nice person, as are most colored pencil artists!   Anyway, she wanted a little house that looked like an art studio, like the one in my Etsy shop, but personalized and in her colors. I also added the Heart Magnet with her initial, because she just celebrated a birthday.  So she received them in the mail the other day and she blogged about it and posted a picture of them in her blog. I added an easel with a sign with 'Ranjini V's" studio on the tiny painting, where I used the primary colors that she used in one of her colored pencil paintings that she had posted online.  After I mailed the package to her, I found out that the painting that I was looking at had been featured in an article in a Professional artist magazine!  I thought that was so cool! And she is, not only featured in one magazine this month, but two!  Her art is also on the cover of the June 2012 issue of Ann Kullberg's CP magazine.
So, I just wanted to give Ranjini a big thank you for both, ordering one of my HeartHomes and for blogging about it!

Beth ♥

It Makes a Village...

...well, if I put together all of the little houses that I have made over the last 2 years, I would have a pretty good size village!   I haven't had much time to make many new houses lately, but I did manage to get a few done this month.  Two of these are now listed in my Etsy shop.  The third was a custom order.  I will be working on more new ones very soon.  I am also working on some new accessories to add to the collection.

Miniature Clay Heart Home

Miniature Clay Heart Home

The last one shown here, is a custom ordered Heart Home.  The customer showed me one that she wanted hers to look like, but she wanted it personalized.  I have a custom order listing in my Etsy shop for larger houses or I can create a custom listing for my customers who want to order special details to a smaller heart home or add some extra accessories that I do not have listed.

Custom Order that is Personalized on the side.

Beth♥