Monday Mood Pit Fired

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Today is firing day, with a pit fire and raku. With all of our ceramics group we created items espacially to be fired in one of the above techniques. In the pitcures you see examles of pit fired pieces. One never knows how it will emerge from the fire, which adds to the fun. More pit fired items om etsy here. If you want to see how it works, read this blog post from last years firing day.

My creative space: auction-eye-hospital part 2

If you read my last post, you know I have been working on an artwork to be auctioned for the eye hospital in Rotterdam. The auction is now online (in Dutch) and the first bids have been placed. Saturday the 4th of July the auction ends during the benefit dinner and party.

So here a pictures of the final work:



I painted the box an off white, so the contrast with the clay would not be too harsh.  Two holes in the back make it easy to hang the box well. On the back you also find clay Two Trees logo and my signature. The batteries are easy accessible and so is the on/off switch. The white box is 25x25x6cm and each clay block approx 9x9x4cm. If you want to bid, you have to press the link "formulier" on this page, fill in the name of the work (light box) the bid you want to place and your details. If you like to see more pictures, go here.

My Creative Space - auction eye hospital

A friend of mine is a doctor for the eye hospital in Rotterdam. They have a very modern and different approach to the hospital experience as I learned when I attended TEDx Rotterdam last year:

Frans Hiddema - TEDxRotterdam 2010 from TEDxRotterdam on Vimeo.

Perhaps just as different is the charity football event which they organise for the 5th time this year. A team from the Rotterdam eye hospital plays against a team from the Moorfield (UK) eye hospital. They will play in "de Kuip" so not just any football stadium. During the after party an art auction is held to raise money for the hospital. This year I'll be one of the artists contributing. I'm happy to be part of all this.  

Cause everyone is a bit blind in the forest, as one cannot see the trees from the wood ;-) And besides there's always these unexpected creatures suddenly blinking their eyes at you. So I created 4 squares in clay with textures of tree bark.

Tiny LED lights will be inserted into the holes / eye sockets, which will give this effect when lit, 2 bright eyes:

All will be mounted on a white background, which I asked the local carpenter to make for me as I wanted it to be perfect with mitred corners and such, which I cannot do myself. The on/off switch and battery compartment will be hidden in there too. I hope it will be liked and fetch lots of money, the auction end of last year for another good cause of one of my story bowls was a great success, so I hope this will be too.

Art trail Tholen

Last weekend you could find me and my creations at the art trail in Tholen, Zeeland, the Netherlands. For me it was a first time, both to participate in Tholen and to perticipate in an art trail. For the city of Tholen it was the 15th time they organised this. It coincided with queensday, which is celebrated on the 30th of April each year. the weather was perfect and a lot of people were out and about. Besides the art trail there was a flea market too and lots of music performers. I had been assigned a space in someone's house. She "donates" a space of her house to the art trail for several years now.

 I was very happy with the location, a gorgeous old house near the church with a landlady who looked after me very well. Another upside from being at a market, to be inside, warm, with a toilet close and someone making you cups of tea :-)

The place was small, but that was perfect for my small creations, I had especially brought my collection of Dutch Folklore inspired items as a lot of them are inspired by Zeeland's folklore.

I met Andrea from atelier28 in Tholen at the opening, she is an etsy seller too and I had never met her in real life before. She gave me a warm welcome in her atelier. Her work is even more lovely in real than when you see the pictures in her etsy shop, which is well worth a visit.

I can't wait till we have a new house, we are in the middle of searching, 

and I can start buying decorations again.

Andrea wrote a blogpost about the art trail too, you find it here.