Sarah Chapman is back!!!
She’s had a rough go of it over the past few months. A lot of personal things to deal with, the passing of her mother, as well as moving her studio space to a new location. But now she’s slowly getting settled in again and back to making stuff. Including her July entry in the Holiday Ornament Challenge. She may have missed June, but she back with July’s entry… on the very last day of July!!! Just under the wire!

For July’s ornament, Sarah’s been playing with a new technique in her studio. Experimenting with a knot design embossed in copper sheet using the hydraulic press and finished with a black cotton cord.

Meanwhile, I was having a little trouble getting my mind wrapped around the July ornament. So I literally wrapped them around! I went with twisted spirals with stamped textures. They’re assorted styles, sizes & patterns. Each one fo them different form the next. My plan is to fire them in the soda kiln for some earthy-naturally-random flashing marks.

After stamping all of them, and letting them dry up a bit to make them more manageable, I added some colored flashing slip details. Hopefully that little dab of color in each stamp will give them each a festive little pop of color!

And you know I can’t make just ONE of anything… so I made a few…

A few days later… I made even more. So much fun to stamp & twist. The more the merrier!!!

This month has been a tough month for both me and Sarah Chapman.
More so for Sarah than me. I was out of town for three weeks working the Firefly Music Festival. Long days of putting everything together. Lots of rain, mud, mulch & sweat. Getting everything ready for the onslaught of 65,000 concert-goers. Very little time to work in the pottery studio.

Meanwhile, Sarah’s Mom lost her battle with cancer. Always smiling, always chatting, Nancy was known to many of Sarah’s customers who met her on the art fair circuit. Our thoughts & well-wishes go out to Sarah, Julie and their family on their loss. And to remembering better times. Like this wonderful portrait of Sarah, her brother and her mom Nancy.

Cherishing the memories… remembering the good times… reflecting on the past… and giving Sarah a well-deserved “pass” on her June ornament entry. She’s been understandably distracted. And suddenly, a little holiday ornament challenge is not quite so important.

My ornament for June is a small porcelain fortune cookie. I’ve been making a lot of textured fortune cookie rattles over the past few months, and I decided to try a smaller ornament version. I’m not quite sure yet how I’m going to finish them. I’m leaning towards a light iron oxide wash to “toast” them a bit and help accent the textures. But then again, pure white porcelain is pretty darn sweet too?! Maybe a few of each…

Done. With not even a day to spare.
My friend & metalsmith Sarah Chapman and I have been making ornaments every month as part of our “Monthly Holiday Ornament Challenge”… clever name, huh? I’ve been a little busy getting ready for last weekend’s Schaumburg art fair, so it was nice to finally take time in my studio last night working on my ornament. Sarah sent hers to me awhile ago… I was the slacker this month. But we made it… today is the last day of May. So technically, we made it just under the deadline!!!

Sarah’s ornaments for May are made of brass with a hydraulic pressed and hung with a red silk cord. Peace, love and hope “ribbon” ornaments for the holiday season.

I decided to tackle the porcelain again for my monthly ornament. I made large disks of clay and then pierced them and stamped them. Lots of dots. Lots of circles. Lots of fun. I’m kind of hoping that people’s Christmas lights will shine through some of the holes when the ornaments are hanging on their tree?!

They still need a little touching up. Some cleaning. Some finishing. And then some bisqueing! I’m thinking these porcelain ornaments will be glazed in a few different colors… and then have a wire hoop added to it for hanging. So far, so good… I’m trying to keep them flat… and in one piece. They’re kind of thin. And they’ll get even thinner as they shrink. I may need to make another batch?!… or two!

Yep… made ’em in February.
You know, part of my monthly Holiday Ornament Challenge with Sarah Chapman.
Then it took almost three months to get them into a final soda kiln firing.
But I think they were worth the wait.

Now I just need to add wire rings to hang them from. Here’s a few sneak peeks…

Well, it’s April.
Which means it’s also the fourth month of our Holiday Ornament Challenge.
Metalsmith Sarah Chapman and I have been working to make a new ornament each month. She’s making her’s in metal, while I’m making mine in clay.

This month, Sarah made her ornaments by creating bell shapes with copper screen, brass hooks and a beautiful torch patina. While these are great holiday ornaments… I’m sure Sarah has some customers who would also consider wearing them as earrings!!!

My ornaments took a more contemporary approach. Sleek. Stylized. Porcelain.
I’m digging the stylized ornament shapes. The clean lines. The surprising lack of texture?!
I’m thinking they will stay clean & white with a simple metal hoop to hang them from.

Once again, my ornaments aren’t quite done yet. They’re drying and ready for bisque firing. Although I must admit that I am more than a little concerned about them. They’re pretty fragile. Too fragile maybe. In fact, I broke two of them while I was cleaning them up. So I may need to consider making another batch… slightly thicker, and slightly smaller… as these are pretty large. Too large?… I don;’t think so. Let’s just call them dramatic!

We’re getting down to the last few days of March…
and you know that the plan for metalsmith Sarah Chapman & me is to create a new holiday ornament each month this year! And here they are for March… just under the wire.

Sarah as been working feverishly to get her ornaments done in time! She’s bee busy in her studio making other pieces, including a special commission piece for a commercial photo shoot! Yeah Sarah! So I was excited when she finally showed me her finished feather ornaments!… complete with textures & patinas. Two of my favorites!

From Sarah: “The theme for March’s ornament is a feather. These are copper with embossed and roller printed textures, hanging from loopy brass wires. I’ve been a little obsessed (researching, drawing, standing in front of people’s houses trying to figure out what kind of bird is making that sound) with birds for a while now and these are among the first pieces to emerge in this theme. I had to keep myself from referring to a particular bird’s feather and just go with featheriness.”

When I started my ornaments for March, I decided to go with a snowflake theme. So I build myself a couple snowflake stamps that I could use. Once they were bisqued, they were ready for pressing into the clay. I cut them out, puffed them up a bit and made them into ornaments.

Once I had several of them done in stoneware, I realized that maybe I should have done them in porcelain?! So I made another batch. I think it will be fun to have both versions to play with for different finishing effects.

Once they’re all bisqued, I will need to decide how I’m going to finish them. At first I was thinking of glazing them in clears, whites and blues. But now I’m considering rubbing some underglazes into the textures first… maybe leaving them unglazed?! Or underglazed to accent the textures, and then clear glazed over? Luckily, I have a lot of them now to play with!!!

My friend Kristen brought her son AJ to Lillstreet today for a kid’s birthday party.
Kristen and I went for ice cream, hot fudge & more hot fudge while he played at his
party. Afterwards, AJ came up to my studio and made a few holiday star ornaments
of his own! So adorable. So much fun to have a little studio “apprentice” today!

Rolling the clay… pressing in textures… and cutting out stars. Instant ornaments!!!

So here we are… Month #2 in our Holiday Ornament Challenge!
Sarah Chapman and I have committed to creating a new ornament every month.
Mine will be clay, her’s will be metal. Who knows?… some day maybe a combo?

Sarah’s ornament this month is copper with brass chain connecting the pieces and has
a “torch” patina. She made the copper bells using a form folding technique called the
“Heisted Cup.” Here’s a link for all you metal’s people out there who would like to try it.
Click here… “Heisted Cup.” The process is magical. And I especially love the “torch”
patina effect on copper. So much fun… and maybe three angels will get their wings?!

My ornament started out as a star pillow, but then I got a little carried away. I decided that
the “pillows” don’t need to be closed.  So I left the sides open, leaving a nice void inside.
My plan is to soda-fire these – and I hope that the inside gets some groovy flashing marks.
So far, the plan is that one side is painted with flashing slip, and the other side will have some
glaze inlaid into the impressions. Once they’re fired, they’ll also get a metal hoop going
through the middle of the star to hang from like my original ornaments.

Unfortunately, again this month, I don’t have any fired ornaments to show off yet.
I’m still building enough work to fill the kiln before I can fire it. So the pieces are piling up.
Once I have some pieces fired and ready to show… you’ll see these and all previous
ornaments again. Finished & fired… not just greenware… again!

During this past holiday season, my metalsmith friend Sarah Chapman and I were already
planning the “next” holiday season. You know how we’re never satisfied… that’s us, always
moving forward… always working on the next project. So there we were working in Sarah’s
booth at the “One Of A Kind Show.” We both decided that she needs to try making Christmas
ornaments. And you know I’m always up for a challenge… always willing to “gently push”
my friends to play along with me. Thus the “2013 Ornament Challenge” was born.

So here’s the deal…
We’ve both committed to making a new & different holiday ornament every month in 2013.
I will post all of our ornaments here on my blog and we’ll both link to it on Facebook so
everyone can keep up with us. As we get closer to Christmas, there’s a really good chance
we may be asking for your input as to which of the monthly designs were your favorites
to help us decide which ones to make more of to sell for the holidays. Some ornaments may
be one-of-a-kind… some may be production… some may be a disappointment…
some may even be a Gary & Sarah collaboration of clay & metal.
Who knows where the ornament challenge may take us?… dare to dream, huh?!

Here’s Sarah’s entry for January. With a wonderful message to kick-off the New Year.
And according to Sarah… “It’s what everyone could use more of !”

And here’s my entry for January. Mine’s not quite a “done” as Sarah’s is. That’s me… slacker.
But working in clay is a little different than metal. It’s really tough to fire just one piece.
Or even five pieces. The problem is, you need to fill an entire kiln before you can fire them.
So I hate to say that the majority of mine will be somewhere in the leatherhard or greenware
state. I’ll try to re-post them again whenever they’re glazed and finished. So my ornament
this month is a wreath… trying to stay in my own style, use my own stamps, but still making
something new! I made five wreath ornaments so that I have a couple to play with when I get
to glazing & finishing. Hoping at least one of them turns out great…

Well, there it is… the kick-off of our “2013 Ornament Challenge.”
Our plan is to keep this up every month. To push each of us out of our comfort zone…
and force each of us to work on something new & different throughout the year.
And a great chance for Sarah & I to play with each other even though she’s
up & moved to Minneapolis. With this, we get to play long-distance every month!!!

For more about my metalsmith friend Sarah Chapman…
WEBSITE: Click here to see more incredible work by Sarah Chapman.
FACEBOOK: You can also follow Sarah on Facebook by clicking here!

Click here to follow me and Fire When Ready Pottery on Facebook.
Just be sure to click the “LIKE” button… and to “SHARE” with your friends!

As part of the Holiday Opening Party last night at Lillstreet Art Center,
they also had an open Art Fair on the third floor with a lot of students & friends
selling their wares. Obviously, I had to add to my crazy-cool Terry Hogan collection
of pierced porcelain! You know I’m a sucker for repetitive patterns & textures!

As if the her pierced “pods” weren’t cute enough… now she’s making Christmas ornaments
which are equally cool. I couldn’t decide… so I had to get all three! Each cooler than the next!

And a tw0-sided mitten… I think I like the snowflake side the best?

And a precisely pierced porcelain precious perky pup… priceless!!!