Eva Funderburgh

On Saturday, December 13th, 2008, Florentia Clayworks will have its second Annual Holiday Sale and Party!  This year, we will be doing a one night only celebrations of good times, from 7 to 10pm.  Come on by for a chance to check out my work in person, meet my studio mates, browse fun art work, eat, drink, and generally enjoy yourselves! We are located just South of the Fremont Bridge, in Seattle, Washington, on 218 Florentia St.  Stop on by and have some fun!

As a first this year, I will be doing a silent auction of two of my favorite sculptures.  I will donate 40% of the proceeds to charity.  Here are the two beasts, and the two charities.

First off is ‘Digger Beast with Ball”.  He is one of the best pieces I got out of this last firing.  I will be donating 40% of his sale to Child’s Play.  Child’s Play is a group that raises games, toys, books, and money for childrens’ hospitals world wide. I figured this playful digging beast would approve of the choice (as long he can keep his ball).

Second is “Discovery”.  I have to admit that I often wish I could just keep all of my sculptures myself.   I just really like the interaction I’ve capture in the piece.  I leave it up to the viewer as to how these two guys will behave, but personally, I picture the big guy sniffing the little one, and maybe being hissed at.  Nothing too sinister.  However, since real world interaction seldom end up as nonviolently, (especially between countries) I will be donating 40% of his sale to the International Red Cross.

I’m quite excited about the firing coming up in late October.  I’ve had some extra time to get pieces together for it, and I feel like it’s paying off.  I think I’m on track to make enough work for my galleries, and have a holiday sale at my studio.  I’ll post dates and stuff like that once I have them, but in the mean time, here’s more of a sneak peak at my drying shelves.

These are the ones that I finished most recently.

Also, in my studio, I have a big white board.  I use it to make random notes to myself, sketch ideas, and just doodle stuff.  I really like the idea I have on there now, but I’ll have to wait and see as to how it comes together.  I’ve been big on antlers recently, but I don’t know how well they’ll survive the firing.  They might just droop.  To avoid that, I’ll have to make them very stocky.  Also, do you you recognize the guy in pink?

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!

Before this last firing, I filmed all the steps in sculpting one set of beasts. I’ve been calling it “Trio”, but in some ways it’s also “Cuddle” #2. I liked the beasts I made for “cuddle” and wanted to see a larger arrangement of them. It was surprisingly hard to figure out how to make the three fit together. Anyway, here’s the timelapse video fully tracking them from beginning to end.

I really like arranging my beasts in groups. And this sort of lumpy, toothy form really appeals to me. For a bit, I’ve been meaning to make a pile of 10 or 20 guys. Maybe next firing I’ll have time.

I’ve just about finished photographing all of my work from this last woodfiring. I have a couple pieces left that I’m still doing some mixed media work on, specifically a few beasts that will be walking on stilts and the big city beast. The stilt beasts will be done hopefully in another day or two, but it will be a bit longer for the big city beast. In addition to having some mixed media work to go, he’s also too big for my photo set up. It’s located in the shower stall of the spare bathroom of our studio, and maxes out on any piece bigger than six inches or so. I’ll have to take the city beast out to the other side of the Sound and get Steve Sauer to photograph him for me.

Anyway, here’s the point of this post.  My new work!