In the Shop!

 

And more to come this week! Go to the ShellHawk's Creations Etsy store!

Spooks...

There's nothing like the last second push before a show to bring out your best! In this case, my annual Artist Open House this Sunday brought out these darlings! (I love them so...)

Whatever doesn't sell on Sunday will be available in the ShellHawk's Creations Etsy store next week. But I hope they all find homes! 

New Spooks...

 

AWOL!

Good grief, it's been busy! But here's a new Pumpkin Person in progress until I can get back with y'all!

Click on the pic for the video!

ShellHawk's Creations is OPEN!

Just reminding you that the ShellHawk's Creations Etsy shop is open right now! 

And you can grab a few Halloween things ahead of schedule!

I will probably be putting the shop on vacation shortly, to stock up for the next store update, so be sure to do your shopping now!

Another Batch for Midsummer Scream

 And back out to my wheel I go. This time, I'm making some jars.

In-between, I'm decorating new, red jacks!

WIP - Pumpkin People!

I'm still chugging along on making fun stuff for Midsummer Scream. As I've mentioned before, the ideas for pieces are flowing so much faster than I have time to execute them, so I have to stop myself from exploring a bunch of different directions at once and make a decision to make blocks of them, instead.

This week is a return to my pumpkin people. 

I finished one yesterday, the rest await their hands and treat bags/sacks when I get to it this morning.

And yes, the above will ultimately be treat bags.

This little guy has just charmed the daylights out of me. I feel like he's saying, "Yes, I'm creepy, but it's just the way I was made! I'm actually very sweet!" Sort of like a creepy Jessica Rabbit.

I'll be making more of these guys coming soon! I'm already looking ahead to the glazing/decorating phase!

One Day Closer

The Open House is on Sunday. The kiln is firing off the last SPN mugs to smooth out the roughness from a too-thin clear glaze application, but there are a bunch which turned out great! The above Pumpkin Person needs some clear glaze to get him finished off. The witches I'm sculpting will have to wait until after!

The last of the jacks I can reasonably finish before the Open House came out yesterday evening and got the clay dust wiped off of them so I can start glazing today. I plan to keep making Hallowe'en through the winter, as I have a couple of shows to apply for and want to show the folks who choose the work some new creations! Plus I have stock to rebuild. I plan to make time to create some fine art, too! I have had a series in mind for a number of years, and I'm finally ready to start.

It's the usual, crazy, before-show push, but I love it! It feels fantastic to get back to doing what I do best!

WIPs

It's funny how things come to be, particularly these funny little Hallowe'en characters. Much of the time, I don't have their figures set in stone in my head, nor their gestures or facial expressions. The longer I do this, the more alright with that I am, because it gives them the opportunity to tell me who and what they are as my hands shape and carve the clay.

It's interesting to see them come into being, one little piece at a time. 

There's a potter whom I admire whose name is Gerit Grimm. (No relation to the more famous brothers Grimm). She teaches ceramics now over at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, but she continues to create her own body of work with a love for the craft I find inspiring. (Maybe one day I'll go out and see her.) It was from her I saw you could throw sculptural components and then alter them and attach them to make figurative sculpture. It seems like the easiest thing in the world when she does it, but then she's had years and years of practice, plus access to the kilns that only a University or college can afford to purchase, run, and keep running.

My goal is to one day to be practiced enough at these techniques to be able to make a larger variety of expressive critters, as well as larger critters, but meanwhile, I'm fairly content with my progress.

I remember a couple of guys I used to know who were sculptors here in L.A. for the studios. They told me that hands were the hardest things to pull off, but I'm not finding them terribly difficult. I don't have to make them anatomically perfect, true, but still, I'm not finding them to be the bane of my existence they seemed to have.

I'm changing things up a little this year by adding a witch or two to the mix. I don't know why I never make them, other than I love my jack-o'-lantern obsession and the fun of having fire inside their carved heads.

I haven't done a human face in a very long time, but I think this one is starting out well... 

I can't wait to see what kind of gossip this old gal has to tell me!