A busy week; a revelation

There is so much going on lately, I can barely keep my head on straight. If I were to blog about it all, we'd be here all night! I did a screenprinting workshop over the past weekend, and had a blast teaching people how to print on clay. (A friend of mine saw this on Facebook and was like "What?!? You can screen print on clay?!?!?" Mwah hahahahaha, this is how I suck you in...) I made a screen of my Picard mug designs, and ended up printing the Star Trek insignia/communicator, which I cut out and plan to make into a brooch. It just so happens that the freakin' enormous gaming convention Gen Con is this weekend, and two amazing actors, Nichelle Nichols(!!!) and Wil Wheaton, will be guests of honor there. I pretty much have to go, wearing my handmade pin, with Maddy in her Star Trek onesie. Do you think it'd be weird if I asked them to autograph my child? But I digress... I've been nerdin' out pretty hard lately, I gotta say;) Between getting to teach clay techniques and making all this Star Trek stuff, I'm pretty much exploding with nerdiness. It's making me pretty happy:D

The Kickstarter is going amazingly well - I'm at $2200 now, which is soooo amazing! I met with a program coordinator with Big Brothers/Big Sisters today, and we're putting together a workshop with 10 littles and their bigs. That's 20 girls and women getting to make awesome art, for free! And it's all thanks to you awesome people! Anyway, I've been hard at work in the studio, in my sketchbook, and on the internet sending out press releases and messages to people. It's exhausting, but exhilarating. I'm just buzzing with energy and ideas! I feel like I could do ANYTHING!

I finally finished painting these two plates I made months and months ago. I kept meaning to sit down and paint them, but I just now got around to it. They are for another show that is in the works with some friends of mine... and I will let you know all about that in the near future. SPOILERS;)

This is a jar somewhat related to the Girl Stories series. I made it before the idea had really crystallized in my head; I was thinking of girls and princess culture at the time, and had just finished reading a poem about feeling like a queen rather than a princess. I liked the connotation of that - power, strength, dignity, respect, wisdom - nothing at all like the pinky-pink princess culture we market to our young ones. The queen here is still not a girl of action, though. She was even mouthless and pale before I began filling her in. The old fairy tale princess tropes creep into my head too, I realize. I gave her a big grin, and made it so she's making the seedlings grow, rather than just wandering through them placidly. She looks a bit like my sis-in-law Mariah now.

On a more serious note, I feel like this Girl Stories project is really making me more conscious of the work I make, and what it's about. I've done a lot of pretty things, without really thinking much about the aesthetic I was referencing, or why I made girls that looked this way or that. I've been thinking a lot about the lack of girls of color in my work. My sister in law is black, and I was inspired in part by her love of nerdy things to do this project. Meanwhile, I was still drawing nothing but little white girls. I realized that just this week, and I was gobsmacked that I hadn't even noticed, or thought about it. I have to keep working to be conscious of my own sense of privilege if I truly want to help promote the voices of all women, not just the white ones.

My continuing mission.

I got my Picard mug made today. There are some fixes I'd like to make, and I think I might do a second attempt at this, but I'm pleased so far.

I used a monoprint transfer technique - I painted my design onto paper with black underglaze, painted white slip over the image and onto the clay I wanted to print, and then put the image face down on the slab of clay and rubbed the back. Voila! A nice, clean(ish) print. Some of the black peeled a bit, so it will need a touch up later on, but I really like this method of transferring drawings. I'd like to try making some screens in the future, so I can make multiple decals instead of painting each individual image by hand. On my next mug, I'll take some pictures of the process so you can see how it's done.

I printed both images onto a slab of clay, cut out the image on the slab, and attached it to my mug so the image is raised. The slab is a bit thicker than I would have liked though. Next time I'd like it to be nearly paper thin if possible, so the mug isn't so clunky. I know I could print directly onto the mug, but curved surfaces are tricky, and I like the idea of a raised image.

Once the mug dries a bit more, I plan to carve "Tea, Earl Grey, hot" into the Federation logo. I meant to include it in the print, but I would have had to flip the lettering so that it didn't print backwards, and I didn't want to be bothered today.

Engage

I've got 16 new mugs drying under plastic right now. They need a few touch ups here and there, which I'll do once they're bone dry. I'm thinking of staining then or painting on them, but I haven't decided exactly how, or with what. I think it's time to put my hours of time spent on Pinterest to good use and cull some inspiration.

Speaking of inspiration, I was amusing myself on Facebook and Twitter yesterday with pseudo Star Trek references, which led me to draw this picture of that sexy, sexy man Patrick Stewart as a bit of fun and drawing practice.

I decided that what I really need is mug with Captain Picard's commanding visage on it, and the beverage he always requests.

I am contemplating making several Star Trek fan art mugs, because goddamn, I love that show. That show inspires my LIFE, no bullshit. If people were as honorable and loyal and diplomatic and just downright awesome as the crew of the starship Enterprise NCC 1701-D, the world would be a better place. I am SO SERIOUS RIGHT NOW. I just feel like, if I could wake up everyday drinking out of Picard's face, my day would just be better, you know?

(P.S., you know you're a pottery geek when you're watching a show, and you catch yourself paying attention to the table ware they use. In the last several I've watched, they drink hot beverages out of glass mugs with what looks like a plastic ring around the base that the handle is attached to. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what mugs will look like in THE FUTURE.)

Nich and I started filming a few clips for my Kickstarter video today (doesn't that sound professional and impressive? I should have said "We started production on our upcoming Kickstarter film", isn't that what they say?). I've got an outline written for both the project itself, and what I want my Kickstarter video and page to say. I got three weeks to bang this out, guys. I'm excited!

In case you're wondering, "What are you doing a Kickstarter for, exactly?" I will reveal all sometime this week. I've got a new series of work I'd like to make, and I need your help to get it done, but I'd like to get started on it so I have something concrete to show you guys. Stay tuned!