From Pendants to Pottery to Pastry

 

Since I started art school in 1991 I have been working in jewelry and ceramics.  I started out with metal jewelry before college and then made pottery while an undergrad and when I graduated I started making ceramic jewelry. I have always loved working on small, detailed objects, drawing and painting and carving into clay to make little jewels. I have dabbled in a few other things over the years, but it has been mostly the production of ceramic beads and pendants that has formed my career for the last twelve years or so. In the last few years, though, I have become restless with making beads and jewelry.  I guess I feel like I have become stagnant creatively and have run out of motivation to continue with more of the same work.  In the last year, I have edited down my jewelry component line and have been refining my finished jewelry line into wholesale only, in the hopes that I can move onto other creative endeavors.

I started to break through my creative block with a desire to draw. My newest work is focused on working in ceramics in a very different way.  I have fallen in love with hand painting overglazes onto functional china ware (often upcycling thrift store pottery). This new work is satisfying my desire to draw and doodle, allowing me to be really creative and expressive with one-of-a-kind work in a way I have been lacking, and bringing me back to my original love of pottery.  I have had some success with this new work at shows and have an etsy shop that I have started to stock with the painted wares.  I plan to continue more with this direction in the upcoming year.

I think my love of pottery has always gone hand in hand with a love of food and the presentation of food, which brings me to another new direction that my work is taking.  I have become more and more interested in cake and cookie decorating and artistic desserts and foods lately, especially since I started with ceramic painting.  I thought the overglaze painting I was doing might be similar to working with icing, so I took a few Wilton classes and discovered I love decorating with royal icing. Clay work and baking have a lot of similarities and I love working on small, detailed objects in production mode with ceramics so I can see the appeal that pastry and bakery work has for me.  Food is another layer of materials and techniques that I have little experience with and am eager to start learning about.  I met my boyfriend Jason earlier this year and he is a former professional chef and a foodie, and he has inspired us both to cook and bake.  My love of food and interest in cooking in general has really blossomed since we have been together, and we make really great meals very frequently, exploring new ingredients and techniques all the time.

 I am not exactly sure where these new skills will take me in my career and art yet, but I am excited to find out!  I decided to start this blog to share my journey, to record what I am learning, seeing, and tasting, and to help me figure out this new direction in my life and work.

Thanks for reading my first post and I hope you have a delicious day!