It's Finished! Woo Hoo

So remember this plate of the Holy Family that I  blogged about a while ago. I finally finished it. The photo on the left shows it in "first fire". That is the first application of color. Notice how light it is.

Believe it or not it took me 10 fires in the kiln. Painting on china requires building up the color and firing in the kiln in between.

 It took that many fires to get the depth of color in the background. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. It looks much better in person. It's a very large plate...10 inches in diameter.  I still think the Blessed Mother could use a little more work on the face but for now I'm finished. At least I think so.

But you never know, I might later go back and put some kind of other detail on the edge. Maybe some enamel or luster...not sure.

Happy Paint Party Friday!  For more Paint Party Features visit: http://paintpartyfriday.blogspot.com/ 

PU What is that SMELL?

Ewuuuuu.....What is that smell? I went outside today to put away the trash cans and it smelled like something died out there. First I thought it was the trash cans but no that wasn't it.

I have looked all over the front yard but I can't find the source of that smell. I'm hoping whatever died gets eaten by some scavenger but in the meantime that terrible smell is staying with me. PU!

On a less stinky note, I had a great day today. A friend and fellow Iconographer, Rebecca LaChance drove down from Frederick. We had a nice morning sharing some painting techniques.  Then we went to Moulin de Paris...which defines itself as a Euro Asian bistro....Love that place.

Yesterdays Escape

 to Artscape in Baltimore was fun. Artscape is one of the largest free art shows/festivals in the country. I have always wanted to go but it seems like every time there would be one thing or another which prevented me from going there.

This year I went with my daughter, Jackie (on the left) and her friend Sara (right).

I don't know how many blocks they had closed off in town but it was pretty large. It is around the area of the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA).  There was the usual (and some unusual) food vendors and lots of artisans selling their wares mostly geared to the young hip crowd. I loved lots of it but just couldn't figure out where I'd put it. But it was fun to check it all out.

There was a section, the theme was carnival.The MiCA kids had all kinds of crazy interactive art there. I wish I had more time to check it all out. There were several stages of live performances. Jackie and Sara wanted to see Egg Babies Orchestra. They were mostly a cover band..they did a set of songs all with the theme Na Na Na Na Na Na....I never realized how many songs had that in them. They were very good. Then there were on street music men like the crazy guy on the left. He was too cute for words.
I loved the stage for the Rock Opera ...it was so cool. 

But I think my favorite part were the Art Cars. Cars with all kinds of things attached to them. Each one had a theme. This was my favorite one. 

What a great afternoon escape.......I look forward to next year.

Pretty Paint Party Friday

 Happy Paint Party Friday....Most Tuesday nights I go to a decorative painting class. It's taught by my friend Kathy Anthony of Beyond Brushstrokes.

It's always fun to paint with friends.  This past month we were painting this beautiful stroke work design.

I'm not crazy about stroke work but it is good practice. It's one of those things that I make myself do...like landscapes I suck at them but I make myself paint them from time to time.

The other's painted it on a very large tray. For some time I have had this green bowl with the wood top and have wanted to paint something on it. So when this project came up I just decided to do it on it. It made it a little more challenging because that meant the design was much smaller than it was designed to be but it worked out okay.

And here is the finished product!

On another topic...here's LeeLu. The other day I was sitting in my sun room with my phone and she kept wanting to "use" the phone so I turned on the camera and took a photo of her. Can you hear her say cheese?  


For more Paint Party Features visit: http://paintpartyfriday.blogspot.com/ 

Paint Party Friday on the 13th

Friday the 13th....Happy Paint Party Friday and here's hoping you have a lucky day. Maybe I'll go to the Casino LOL....Well here's my post for PPF. Once a month I go to a Ladies Night at Clay Bakers in Annapolis. It's one of those places you pick out a piece of ceramic bisc paint on it, then they dip it in clear glaze and fire it for you. Ladies Night is fun because I go with a couple of ladies I used to work with before I retired. I always paint at least two things.

Usually I know just want I want to do but this month I was stumped about what to paint so I was flipping through some of their books there. I found these whimsical aquatic designs. I really liked them. So here they are.

What to do with them. Keep them. Give them to gifts. Put them in my Etsy shop? Oh I know. I have a friend who's opening a shop in Chincoteague Island, Virginia. She's been at me to put some things in the shop which will open next season. So maybe I'll paint more in this design and send them there...it's right up her alley. What do you think?

For more Paint Party Features visit: http://paintpartyfriday.blogspot.com/ 

Fun Afternoon

Market Street Frederick MD

Today I met my friend Rebecca in Frederick Maryland for lunch. I love Frederick. It is such a quaint little town with lots of boutiques, antique shops and eateries. It's a little hike (about an hour away) but it's a nice drive on mostly high speed highways! We ate at the Orchid on Market Street. I had gazpacho and a Polynesian stir fry...yummy.

Patrick Street

Polish Art Glass

After lunch I took a stroll around town in and out of some of the shops. One of shops I love is Amber Coast on Patrick Street. It has lots of items imported from Eastern Europe. I bought a piece of Polish art glass. This is my second piece. The last one I bought in Laurel. It's a wine glass...cobalt blue .I love the Polish pottery & glassware and cannot help thinking about my grandparents who immigrated from Plock Poland in the late 1800's when I look at it.

 It was a tough decision to buy the little bird because they also had Polish Pottery which I absolutely love.  But they didn't have my patterns so  I passed it up for the cute little bird. She looks cute in my window.

If you are ever in the area, visit Frederick, you won't be disappointed.

Paint Party Friday!

Before

After

Happy Paint Party Friday! I love painting these rosary boxes. I painted this one and then I thought to myself...it needs something else. So I went and mixed up some "pen oil" with my china paints and penned in some scrolls. I think it looks much better. Excuse the green cast on the second photo. I tried to fix the color in photo shop but I'm not so good at that sort of thing.

The coloring is more accurate in the first photo but you get the idea with the scrolling. The crazy color cast was because I photographed it on a green back ground.  I need to rephotograph it so I can get it up in my Etsy shop...

Speaking of rosary boxes. I had someone ask me to paint one for a man. She wanted a flower on it..single rose but I was thinking, that's not very manly. She was from Arizona so I looked on line to see what their state flower was. Turns out it is the Saguaro Cactus. It occurred to me that cacti are more manly than a rose so I asked her if she minded if I did the cactus and here's how it turned out. She was more than delighted and I was very happy with how it turned out.

Happy Paint Party Friday.

For more Paint Party Features visit: http://paintpartyfriday.blogspot.com/ 

Mason Adventures

 I am having such a fun summer with my 5 year old grandson. Recently my son received 50 percent custody of Mason. On Joe's week, I take care of Mason when Joe's wife Diana has to work. This week, Diana is in New Mexico. Her grandmother has been ill. So I've been with Mason every day.  I try to keep him busy doing something all the time.

This morning started off with him wanting silly photos at Joe's.  He has always loved hamming it up for the camera....He's just like his Dad was at that age.  Then he wanted breakfast out so we went to Burger King. He discovered French Toast slices. I love to be with him when he finds something new he likes. He's always making ummm sounds and saying this is delishus (delicious). 

Afterwards we went back to my house  where I taught him to shuck corn. What a hoot. It was entertaining to say the least as he wrestled with the corn. I was going to take him to the bouncy place at the Mall but he informed me that is for babies. So we went duck pin bowling. I invited by brother's girlfriend Megan and Diana's brother Jeremy and his 7 yr old son Alexander went. We had a great time.

On the way out of the bowling alley we stopped to play the arcades. The boys had a blast. Mason loved the skeet ball game. He gets it honestly. My husband is a big fan of that game too. He was so tickled several times he managed to get the 10,000 point spot which is not easy to get. Thursday is going to be movie day...we are going to see Brave. Can't wait for more Mason Adventures.