Heart Frame Tile

I haven't posted in awhile because I've been feeling creative frustration lately. Work and life have been very busy and stressful lately so I haven't had much time for creative time at home. I hope that will change soon. I need to make it a priority again, for my own sanity. I need to turn off the tv and stop watching the news. All the economic and political turmoil is becoming negative energy. I want to create for the sake of creating, but when I think of the economy, I begin to wonder if there is any point. But I will keep creating, despite the bad economy, because that is what I do. I don't feel like I've accomplished anything if I go very long without finishing a project. I just posted this little clay tile frame with hearts in my Etsy shop. I've got a few more clay items that I will be posting soon.

"The Ritz" - Custom Tile Finished!

My latest clay tile is finished and on its way to its new owner who plans to give it as a gift. It has taken many weeks for this process to be completed because of the many steps that are required to finish a clay piece. First I made sketches from the description that the customer gave to me for what she wanted. In this case, she wanted a lakehouse. She made a couple of suggestions for changes of little details. Then I created the tile in clay, which took me 3 to 4 hours. Then the drying and waiting time began. To avoid warping of the tile, I loosely cover my tiles for several days to start the drying process, very slowly. After it is leather hard, I start to uncover the tile for a little while each day. I don't want the little details to dry too quickly. Eventually leaving it uncovered to completely dry out. Some of the edges are cleaned up, then I put it into the kiln to fire. After it is bisque fired, I apply black glaze to the surface and wipe away the black on the top surfaces, leaving black in the creases, lines, indentions, etc. The black glaze makes the texture and the depth show up better. The glaze colors are painted on, then refired. The best part is opening up the kiln to see the final result! Hopefully, it looks like I planned. Sometimes it does not. That can be disappointing. Although this process can take several weeks, I enjoy it and the creative process.

Memphis Chapter CPSA Art Show

I don't have much news this week, except that I have two drawings hanging in the Memphis Chapter of CPSA show at the Bartlett Performing Arts Center, Bartlett, Tennessee. This show will run through Oct. 29th. As I mentioned last month , I had my latest baseball picture and my Tree Scribbles framed for this show. You can see these hanging in these two pictures. That's my baseball above the woman's head in the picture. The collage tree with scribbles is in the 2nd photo in the middle. The opening reception was held last night.

"Stars, Stripes, and Stitches
"Colors of the Seasons"

New Clay Tile

Last week I posted a picture of this tile before it went into the kiln. This is how it turned out. This little cottage garden was inspired this summer when I was in France. As we were driving through the country and the villages, I noticed that many of the homes had flower boxes and pretty gardens, and they all had shutters on the windows. I have always been interested in architecture and I had plenty to look at in France. I have many reference pictures that I hope to use for future drawings and possibly more tiles. It is now in my Etsy Shop.

Garden House Tile

Beth S. Macre

© 2008

SOLD

My Etsy Treasury

I have had a shop at Etsy for several months now. Etsy is very busy, large and growing larger all the time, so it is important to promote your shop so people (buyers) will see your work and, hopefully, buy something from your shop. One method of promotion at Etsy is through the Treasuries. But the idea behind the treasuries is to promote other artists that you like in the treasury. A showcase of your own favorites or members of your 'teams'. It is, however, a challenge to get a treasury(that would take a whole post to explain how to get one and to create it). I've only made 2 treasuries since I opened shop. This is a snapshot of the one that I made last night. It features some colorful pieces from some of my favorites from 'team' members of the 'Mud Team' (clay artists), and a few from Arkansas artists, and some from online forums that I have gotten to know over the years that have recently opened new Etsy shops. Some of the new shops that have been opened are Cindy Haase, Paula Pertile, and Fannie Narte. They are very talented and friendly artists who have been kind to me and I wanted to show them my appreciation by helping to promote their shops. So I hope you will drop by their shops and see what beautiful things that they have been creating!

Another week of school done and I'm beginning to get caught up and ready to start working on some things of my own. I have some clay tiles and some smaller pieces that I need to glaze and fire to add to my Etsy shop. I hope to do that soon. Here is one of the tiles I'm working on before it was fired. I will post an update as soon as I glaze fire it.

Getting Framed...

School started 3 weeks ago and I've been busy with work and no energy left at the end of the day to post or create. But hopefully things will start to settle down with school and I won't have as much work to bring home soon. I do have a few clay tiles that have been drying and waiting to be fired, so I hope to get to that soon.

I will be in a group show beginning around the end of this month, so I've gotten a couple of my most recent colored pencil paintings framed. The show is the Memphis Chapter of CPSA that I belong to. Their annual show will be held September through October at the Bartlett Performing Arts Center in Bartlett, Tennessee.

One of my colored pencil paintings is my 'Tree Scribbles' that I worked on in the last year. It is a collage of colored pencil on stonehenge pieces, glued to a black stonehenge background. The Colors extend onto the black stonehenge, which is hard to see in the photo. You can see a better image of the drawing unframed here. I've been debating on the title for awhile, but I think I've decided on "Colors of the Seasons".

This was another loose piece that I enjoyed working on lately. As soon as things slow down at work, I hope to do some more colored pencils pieces using these loose textural strokes.

Another piece that I will show is my latest cp piece, "Stars, Stripes, and Stichtes". Here it is framed. I think it turned out very nice in the frame. I ordered the frame and mat online, but the mat came slightly too large for the image, so I had to go back and add a quarter inch around the edges so it would fit, and I like the way it turned out. You can see a better unframed image of this one here.

"Stars, Stripes & Stitches"

Beth S. Macre © 2008