Eva Funderburgh

I have a woodfiring coming up in less than three weeks. Since I only fire three times a year, this is a pretty big deal. I’ve been stressing a bit about getting enough done. I’ll be putting in extra studio time on nights and weekends.

However, I’m pretty excited about some of the work that I have coming up.  I’ve already taken start to finish timelapse of about 4 pieces, though I’ll have to wait until after the firing to compile the videos.  Here’s a sneak peek at some of the piece I’ve been working on.

Since I’d pretty much sold out of work, I went to retrieve some pieces from a few of my galleries.  I now have more pieces avaliable for sale online!  Check them out here!

This last Saturday, I got posted on Notcot.org, a really cool design blog.  I’d been enjoying it for a while, and their recent posts about ceramics inspired me to send in a link to my site. They were kind enough to post it, and for the past few days, people from across the entire globe have been stumbling onto my site! I decided it would be fun to collect some of blogs from around the world that have been posting my work.

Russia – http://www.lookatme.ru/flow/eva-funderburgh-zabavnyie-keramicheskie-monstryi

I had a whole lot of fun looking over this site with a Russian speaking friend of mine.  Their commentary is really interesting. Also, the phrase “Keramicheskie Monstryi” totally made my day.

France – http://marieaunet.blogspot.com/2008/11/eva-funderburgh.html

I really like their mouse icon. Also, they have a post of creepy if cool dolls.

China – http://handcraft.blogbus.com/logs/31692079.html

Great site design.  Also, I’m totally blown away by this post. If I ever break my arm, I’ll need to get one of those.

China- http://designwonderland.blog.sohu.com/105087744.html

The design of their site is amazing, and has already changed once while I’ve been watching.  This is where I got the title of the post.

Taiwan – http://www.nisan.tw/design-blog/design.asp?ano=31

This site is run by a very nice guy named Nick.  I like the tag line of “Design will save the world right after Rock ‘n Roll will”

Brazil -  http://www.bemlegaus.com/2008/11/bichos-estranhos.html

Google Translate appears to have a bit of trouble with this one.  However, I’m posted in between a post about an igloo cake tray and a Simpsons action figure set.  I’m in good company.

It’s been a long week.  I finally have all the work photographed, sorted, titled and captioned.  I’ve even sent off the first boxes to galleries and costumers.  The photo is from Monday, when I’d been pushing really hard to get off an application to an emerging artist contest thing.  I was going to just keep working on stuff on my laptop, but between the soft pillow and the soft cat, I didn’t stand a chance. However, everything is now finally up! Enjoy!

So now that I’m back from the firing, and have had a bit of sleep, I think that this was a pretty good firing.  It will be completely fascinating to see how it turns out, but I’ll have to wait until we unload on Nov 1st to see what it looks like.

I still find it weird how hot we got.  Normally, we might have cone 13 down in front, 12 in the middle, and 11 down in back.  Having 13 downs through out the kiln, is unusual, alarming, and a bit awesome.  I feel like shutting it down early was the right thing to do, though.  The risk of going on and getting everything too hot, were greater than any downsides of shutting it down 15 hours early.  I think that since we started side stoking early than normal, there won’t be much of a difference in the amount of ash especially in the back of the kiln.  However, there’s just so many variables (very tightly packed kiln, no stoking in the far back port, very hot, short firing, early side stoking, heavy reduction cooling in front, but we forgot to seal off some of the air to the middle) that it will be hard to figure out any cause or effect.  Well, no sense in guessing until Nov 1st.

In the mean time, I’ll take some time to tackle all those less glamorous tasks in the life of an artists: sales tax, expense receipts, website maintenance, and dirty laundry.

The firing is just over a week away.  I’ve been pushing pretty hard in the studio, and am quite satisfied with what I have.  I think I should have enough pieces to supply both my galleries, and our holiday sale. I’ll just still have to keep pushing though, to finish every piece that I possibly can. Here’s another peek at my drying shelf.

Here I am, working away.

We’ll be unloading the kiln on Saturday, November 1st, and it will be my goal to have most of everything photographed by Monday the 3rd.  That means that it will be a super busy weekend, but I have to send out some slides on the 3rd, anyway.  If I’m going to be applying to something, I’d like to use my newest work, even if it does mean spending another weekend in the studio.

Oh, funny thing.  I can tell it’s starting to be winter now.  Between the colder weather and the extra time in the studio, my hand dry up and take the texture of sand paper.  It’s sort of a joke, that every potter is an expert on hand lotion.  Everyone will tell you what the best brand is (always different), and why. In my opinion, Eucerin Plus Intensive Hand Repair Cream (Not the Eucerin Plus Intensive Dry Skin Repair Cream) is truly the way to go.  Here’s my winter hands, pre-lotion.  If you want to be creeped out, check it out at full resolution.

That’s how long I prefer my fingernails.  It drives me nuts when they leave little fingernail marks in the clay. Also, if they aren’t that short, they get clay stuck under them.  I’m so used to them being like that that if they were longer I’d probably accidentally scratch my eye out or something.

For months, Florentia Clayworks (our studio), has been discussing repainting our building.  We’d shuffled paint chips, negotiated with the land lady, and talked with neighbors.  We’d talked about where to get paint, who would pay for the painting, and yet, had never made progress.   However, all that changed about two weeks ago, due to a chance meeting of studio mate Randy, our land lady, and the local muralist Ryan Henry Ward.  With in two days the walls of our drab and tagged studio blossomed into beautiful blues and purples.  Now more or less complete, our studio is covered with awesome monsters with hollow heads, and giant birds.  Neighbors who had overlooked us for months began to wander by and ask about us.

To celebrate our new look, we’ll be participating in the Fremont First Friday this week. I’ll be there from 6 to 9pm with snacks and drinks! If you’re in the area, I recommend swinging by and checking out the new look.  I won’t have any new work yet, but you’ll be allowed a sneak peak at what’s lined up for the next firing, if you want. I’ll see if I can get Ryan, the muralist, to join me for the art walk, but he might already be off working on a new building.

Getting started on the mural

This is just to remind folks that the Washington Potter’s Association art show at the Tacoma Art Stop will be having an opening tomorrow night.  It’s looking like it will be a fun show, with 20 some different clay artists.  Two of my pieces were selected to be part of the show – Stilt Beast and Flora Beast #2 – Grazer.  If you’re in the area, I recommend stopping by!

The opening will be from 5 to 8pm on this Thursday, Sept 18th.  The website appears to be down, but  here’s a link to their place on google maps.  If you happen to be going through the area at another time, the show will be up until October 17th, Tuesday -Fridays 9:30am – 5:30pm, Saturdays 9:30am – 4:30pm.

I’ve been starting to prepare for a wood firing next month.  It will be my only chance to fire pieces in time for the holiday season, so I’ve been working pretty hard to get ready for it.  However, I’m quite happy with what I’ve been putting together.  Here’s a shot of the one pieces in progress.  In this shot, I still need to finish the horns, teeth and all of that, but still, I really like its movement.  I’ve since finished it up, including the fruit.  I used a different clay for the fruit, one that will turn black or purple, or maybe just brown.  I can’t wait to see how it comes out.

In this last week, I decided to shuffle all of my work between my galleries.  I just took most of the stuff from gallery A and gave it to gallery B and so forth.   This just keep everything fresh for everyone.  Part of the fun of this (besides trekking all over Seattle with a suitcase full of critters), is that most of the work I have for sale in my studio has been refreshed too! The new list of pieces for sale is up on flicker.  Stop, browse, and have yourself some fun!