Eye Candy

A follow-up of the previous post, here's a website that is pure design and form.

There isn't a single thing here that I don't admire and love.

Inspiring and beautiful, the presentation of sculpture and objects is done wonderfully with the use of stands that enhance the object.


Copyright © 2008 Lamont Design Company All rights reserved.


The website design isn't bad either, by the way.

Artisan's Market Show

Last weekend was the Tucson Museum of Art 's Artisan's Market. It was a nice show. The Southern Arizona Clay Association's area was a good one--right at the entrance courtyard.

Outside of set-up and take-down, I was there for my work shift on Saturday morning only, but we were busy the entire time.
This is good. There's nothing worse than sitting around at a show with only a trickle of patrons coming through.











The over-all quality of the show was really quite high with a good mix of choices from two-dimensional work, fibers, sculpture, jewelry,etc.

I was hoping to be able to take a good turn around and spend some time looking at other booths, but didn't even have time to take a break; we were that busy.

There were 17 potters participating in the Southern Arizona Clay Association booth and the variety and range of work was, as it usually is, wide and varied.

My general observation is that the brighter, more colorful work sold best. And as usual, things in the lower range did well--$20.00 to $40.00 or thereabouts.

The customers were a good mix of young and older, men and women. Usually women buy the most pottery pieces.

Some of my best customers have historically been people of Asian heritage and other artists. This time it was a bit different. I usually sell some of my teapots, but didn't at this show, although I did well as far as sales go.

I really enjoy the contact with customers and like to meet people and talk. I got over being shy about my work a long time ago.

Sculpture

Lately, I've been converting old slides to digital files and came to realize I've done a fair bit of sculpture including a couple of commissions--one for our local library and another that is installed in an estuary park in a town nearby. (I keep telling myself I HAVE to get back there and photograph it.) That's for a later time.

The library commission started with a quotation:

"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." Francis Bacon, 1561-1626
















Making the piece was a great challenge. After I found the quotation, it was a matter of a lot of thinking-time to figure out how to show the idea in a visual way. Now, librarians might cringe at the thought of books floating around in soup, but the unspoken idea of alphabet soup was just too good to pass up.

The book tidbits are like short stories on a plate--a little sweet bite to be savored and enjoyed. I thought long and hard about adding "Curiosity" to the handle of the spoon. And in the end, decided it was a good thing to do. Intellectual curiosity is a valuable quality to have and the tool to learning new things. I made the base from a clay that fires black.

The photo was taken before the piece was mounted on an additional, larger birch wood base. I wrote the quote in script lightly in green at the top and bottom of the wooden base. The work rests quietly in a conference room in an acrylic case.