Inspiration is a funny beast.

It can strike at any time, catching you totally unaware.  Sometimes it digs its teeth in, and you can’t possibly ignore it; other times, it’s like a flash in the pan, hopefully buried in your subconscious to arise again when needed.

 Since I closed my shop, I’ve been home with my two year old son.  A lot.  Not much adult tv, and I don’t remember the last time I read a book with more than 15 pages.  But boy, some of those books are so inspiring.  In particular, lately I’ve been looking at Drummer Hoff by Barbara and Ed Emberly, and Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hawkins.  Hoff is illustrated with woodcut prints and then colored.  So bright, so graphic!  Rosie is very graphic as well–clean lines, use of color, etc.  It may not be reflected in my work at this time, but my sketchbook will be getting a workout. 

The other night we were watching the cartoon Hercules.  I looked up and there was a fantastic mosaic design on the floor of (what I believe was) the Parthenon.  Grab a sketchbook and one of Isaac’s markers, and there was another idea for a pendant design.

Children’s literature and movies are designed to catch the eyes of small kids; look to them for inspiration in color and design.

What inspires YOU???

I thought I’d give you a sneak peak of some new designs that I’ve created.  I just turned the kiln off for the bisque firing, and will be back to pick them up on Friday.  My father has kindly allowed me to bring my little kiln down to the shop in North Berwick, so I can fire my kiln while I’m doing taxes (my real job).  It’s a lot easier tending it when I don’t have to work around a toddler’s sleep schedule and walk back and forth down to the garage–not so easy now that the snow has piled up.  Anyway, here are the pictures.  Sorry about the photo quality, but now that tax season is upon me I see a new camera in my future….

Today must be my lucky day. My Helios Pendant was featured in Moondogfarm’s etsy treasury “Let the Sun Shine in”.

 Then I received a message saying that one of my cocktail pendants was featured on the Autonomous Artisans blog.  Sweet!!!  To see the post, visit Autonomous Artisans.

I’ll be firing the little kiln again on Sunday.  Pete will be home to watch Isaac, so I can tend to the kiln more closely.  I got a lot of glazing done already, and they’re on the wires and ready to load.  I’ll be able to populate my artfire shop this week, finally!!!

I have some more bisque to glaze as well, so if you have special requests for colors, now’s the time to speak up.

Like my high-tech organizer?  I kept losing track of how many of these buttons or those charms I had glazed, and I didn’t want to end up with oddball pieces glazed, so I had to do something.

Boy do I miss my macro lens.