ShellHawk's Creations is Open!

These guys are available for a limited time in the ShellHawk's Creations Etsy Shop! I usually sell out every year, so hurry over there!

Plus, you'll be keeping me in clay and glaze. And electrical. And tools...

 

It's a Process

Just a big ol' photo dump! You guys know the drill by now! 

OK, small explanation here. These guys are all for the Raku firings I do. They get a special type of glaze.

Homemade Raku kiln, below.

The guys above before the excess carbon was scrubbed off after I pulled them out of the post-firing reduction.

These cuties are scrubbed and ready to go! I may end up doing a "mug shot" shoot this weekend.

I actually had to stop before all the firings were done on Sunday, due to simple exhaustion. Multiple Raku firings in one day really take it out of me. But the results are delightful!

WIPS and Other Needful News

Gawd, I love making jacks!

It's a terrible addiction, really. I'm sure there are folks out there who have been following my blog for a while and are wondering when, exactly, I'll move on to something different. While that's a valid question, my answer is, at this time, "Yeah. No. Probably not going to happen."

I do love sculpture. I have roughly a million ideas for different fine art sculptures and various forms of functional pottery and oh! SO MANY, MANY THINGS! But those jacks, with their smiles and their snarls and grimaces and frowns and most of all, the knowledge that a candle put in their hollow bodies will make those faces come alive... They entrance me. They captivate me. They call to me and beg to be made, to be given life. To be given to others who see their faces and are instantly hooked. 

I don't know what it is about the addition of that live flame makes me so happy, so engaged, while I'm carving the faces they tell me they want to wear. I look at each jack-o'-lantern as I would a fall pumpkin, turning it round and round to find the right spot for the face. A place where the stem I made sits just so and becomes an extension of his visage, adds a kind of animation and expression to the face, itself. 

Maybe it makes our jack look wistful, or comical. But I think ahead to the finished little guy, all glazed and fired and sanded and ready to go to his new home, and I take that one extra moment to think of the light he'll have inside and how he'll look when he's all lit up. I have to imagine how that light will look coming out of mismatched eyes and a huge mouth. Or the flickering from a tiny mouth with enormous and watchful eyes.

And the ones I've included here, fresh from being carved, but still with their original clay color, will be fired and then I'll Raku fire them for their glaze firing, because I love what the crackle does to their surfaces, carbon lightning stabbing through white or aqua or red glazes. They're even more special!

In other news, the Etsy strike has come and gone without any kind of acknowledgement from the company, which is what I anticipated. A friend of mine commented that Etsy has become "Wish" for hipsters, and I have to say, I can see their point.

That and the numbers have made me decide to leave the platform after twelve years. It's just not sustainable for me, and it's time for me to have my own website. So I'm building it through Square, since Square is already my point of sale and they have basic website-building tools. It's been an expensive year for me, si unfortunately, I can't afford to pay someone to do it for me, but I feel like I can cobble something functional together and pay someone at a later date to upgrade or overhaul as necessary.

I'll let you know when the launch will be!

And lastly, Midsummer Scream is on its way at the end of July in Long Beach, California! Remember to buy your tickets in advance and use my code at checkout for a discount!

Can't wait for you to see the jacks, all finished and ready for you! 

New Needful Things!

 

At last! The ShellHawk's Creations Etsy shop is getting updated! Some jack-o'-lanterns, some other cups, and finally, the Supernatural cups!

The last firing got more good results and only a few imperfect ones, which are in the shop at a discount. They're not all in, yet, so keep an eye out in the next week or so.

The shoulder injury I suffered earlier this year really set my schedule back, but I still managed to get a few things (over a hundred, I think) done. I really had a thing for cups, mugs and tankards this summer. Don't ask why, because I have no idea!

In other news, the Open House went really well! Totally worth the time, effort, and lost sleep!

Everything skeleton was gone! Bowl and mugs! And it really made me so happy that the kind woman from the ceramics studio bought four of my jack-o'-lanterns to take to Canada as gifts for her friends. It's incredibly satisfying, knowing my creations are going to loved ones!

I'm resting my shoulder for now, but soon, I'll be back at it. I'll be pushing through the holidays, stocking up on my Halloween things to apply for shows happening next years. It feels like a triumph to be doing what I do best and making my fans happy!

Tiffany Jack

Via Pinterest. Not sure who to give this picture credit to!

Available at Zappy Sales. I really love this! He'd be perfect for an end table...

Pumpkin House

The Pumpkin House, in Kenova, West Virginia.

Article about the Pumpkin House here. More pictures here.