'bout time!

Well... ever since I started this blog, many moons ago, I'd been hinting about my next new sculpt- a thoroughbred. I'm happy to say that I've finally started her! She doesn't look like much yet- her wire is still showing (how embarrassing!). Her pose was inspired by a partially-finished sketch I did during a morning workout at Santa Anita. (You can actually see the sketch on my website here.) It's amazing just how many projects just kept taking precedence over starting a new sculpture, but my goal was to get her going this month, and I've managed that- with a few days to spare! Now the trick is going to be working on her along with my other stuff, but I think I can handle that. Sculpting takes a different mindset to ceramic production, and I find it the difference refreshing. Oddly enough, my mind works better when it is being stretched in different directions. Helps to keep me creative. Getting back to the topic on hand, here's a look at her "glamor" side. She is going to be a small classic scale piece, when she's finished.


Anywho, speaking of new sculptures, here's a sneak look into my damp-box... I'm happy to say that my little mini foal has been molded! Yup- she needs a bit of cleaning, firing, painting, and glazing, and then I'll be ready to debut her! Look for that announcement early in 2009... (Though I may post some more pics here first!).


Okay! That's all for now! Happy Advent & Happy Hanukkah to y'all!

Etsy Shop!

Things are being listed on my brand-spanking, shiny new Etsy shop! Please go here for further Art Sale purchases:

http://www.velasquezartistry.etsy.com/

Thank you!

The Fall Art Sale!

Hey there, hi there! Happy Fall for a little while longer! I am pleased to present to you a selection of fine goodies from Velasquez Artistry. I don't quite have everything here, but this is most of it! A few more items will be added tomorrow in the new Etsy store, plus, there will be (if his last firing goes all right!) a very spotty Jitterbug POA CM up on my website tomorrow too!

How this works: Visit my Etsy store (link above) if you are interested in any of the remaining pieces. Thanks!


Now finally- the Art! (click images for larger pictures!)

Our Newest Pin/Pendant- The Ginkgo Leaf!
It's a pin... No! It's a pendant! It's whichever you want them to be! Just let me know. I have nine of these art-glazed guys. If you want a pin, I will attach a clasp; if you want a pendant, I won't. You will need to provide the chain. They do hang nicely!

New too! Bird Silhoutte Pendants!
In Chickadee or Finch styles. Hand cut clay, painted & art glazed for a bronzy/greeny fleck effects! They will have either gold-plated or silver-plated jump rings attached (let me know which one you'd prefer), but you will need to provide the chain (or cord) to hang them from. But they are super cute, and come in lots of colors! Please specify which letter you are interested in.

This is how they will arrive:

Thoroughbred Pins! $35 ppd.
In Thoroughbredy colors! Let me know which letter you are interested in! I really ought to take better pics of these though- I was having major glare issues!
P is SOLD
S is SOLD
T is SOLD

CM Rat Pins! ALL SOLD!
Thought I'd throw a few of these guys in! I lowered the price a bit, as I quite forgot how strong that pink concept paint can be- they have very pink tails! Let me know which letter you are interested in!


Blue Poison Dart Frogs! $50 ppd. BOTH SOLD!
I went with the same color on these two guys, for simplicity's sake, but I will eventually be making more in other colors!

Collages!

"Autumn Ginkgo"
9 x 12 Acrylic, Cut Paper, Colored Pencil
Ginkgo trees turn a lovely gold in the fall, and I've tried to capture the essence of that in this piece.

"Treat?"
4x 4 Acrylic, Cut Paper, Colored Pencil
A mini collage, ready to hang!

"Wasn't Me" $18 ppd. SOLD
4x 4 Acrylic, Cut Paper, Colored Pencil
Another mini collage. Cats never do anything wrong, you know.

"Nun-Finch Reflections"
4x 4 Acrylic, Cut Paper, Colored Pencil
Yet another mini collage, ready to hang!

"Mud Pony Queen"
4x 4 Acrylic, Cut Paper, Colored Pencil
Show your status as a mud-fancier with this mini!

Tiles! Yay!

"Tiptoe through the Poppies"
6 x 6 unframed, hand-painted original tile. $90 ppd. ON HOLD
Somehow, this feels like it belongs in a picture-book...

"Stellar!"
6 x 6 framed, hand-painted original tile.
A Stellar Jay, with a fun experimental background of blue, jade, and bronze flecks.

"Rat Nap" ON HOLD
4 x 4 unframed, hand-painted original tile. $45 ppd.
This guy was giving me a bit of trouble, but I almost got him where I wanted him... The surface of the rat is slightly rough, hence the lower price.

"The Merry Shrubbery"
4 x 4 framed, hand-painted original tile.
A whimsical piece!

"Daisy Chin"
4 x 4 unframed, hand-painted original tile.
Pretty with a daisy!

"Chickadeee!"
4 x 4 unframed, hand-painted original tile.
I am on a winter-bird kick. The background is a grey art glaze.

"A Good Book"
6 x 6 framed, hand-painted original tile. $95 ppd. ON HOLD
I caught my cat sleeping like this once... now it's a tile!

That's all for now! Check here for an Etsy link tomorrow! Thanks so much!

Getting There!

Hi again! The sale will happen today, but just wanted to give a heads up that the soonest I will be posting anything is noon, PST. I've got too much scanning & photo editing to do! Wish I was a bit faster at it, but there ya go. In the meantime here is a quick (i.e. not so great) photo I snapped of one of the collages... Yes, you *are* seeing a pattern here... I can't help it! I like Ginkgoes! :)

Slight Delay

Hi!

Hope everyone had a very nice Thanksgiving! We are doing #2 today, so we're not quite done celebrating yet! Anyhow, I hate to do it, but I will be delaying the start date of the Art Sale by one day. My kiln was giving me a bit of trouble last night, so I didn't fire it. It's all right now, but now my schedule is off by a day, thus the delay. Other than that, the schedule should pretty much be the same- I've edited it below to reflect the change. Thanks for your patience!

Art Sale Schedule

Hi Wonderful People!

Hope your day is going along happily. At the moment it is nice & sunny here, but those bright and smiley weather people on TV say that it is going to rain for most of the rest of the week. Gasp! How will us Californians handle that? Luckily, I'm going to be curled up in my studio, finishing up the art sale stuff for the better part of this week (save Turkey Day, of course! Then it will be The Clean the House Before Company Comes and We All Go Batty and Oh, Bake Some Pies Too Marathon). But the real reason for this post was to share the schedule for the upcoming VA Fall Art Sale. I wanted to hold it at the end of November, but due to falling a bit behind (I am overambitious, yes), and realizing that the end of November was in fact a holiday weekend, I decided to push it back a few days. And thus we have:

Velasquez Artistry's Fall Art Sale!

Preview Day- Tuesday, December 2nd
(On the Blog- Items will be for sale- first come, first serve! M.O.'s, checks & Int'l orders will be accepted only on this day).

Sale Opens- Wednesday, December 3rd
(To General Public on Etsy- Domestic PayPal only)

Sale Ends- Wednesday, December 10th
(Any unsold items will be removed from Etsy)

Last Day of Shipping- Saturday, December 13th
(I don't want your items lost in the holiday shuffle!)

Okay, folks! That's basically it. If you have any questions, feel free to holler. I aim to have everything done on December first, but I just might not make it & have to list items after the 2nd on Etsy, so be aware. All righty, I wish everyone a very joyous and stress-free Thanksgiving Day. And what am I thankful for, this year? Why, just to name one thing- you guys, of course!

Tis' the Season!

To support the Red Cross! While they're still reeling from hurricane season, CA wildfires & such, I doubly have reason to support them, as my mom works for them as a Program Service Director in charge of Health & Safety and Disasters! So, to do my part to help my hometown chapter that she works for, I've created & donated a lovely wreath for the upcoming winter season- it is going to go in the silent auction of their annual fundraising event tomorrow night. I call it "Winterbird Wreath", and it came out well, so I thought I'd share. It is a natural grapevine wreath, with ribbons, "berries", a shimmery poinsettia, and hand-painted wooden bird cut outs. Here are some close-ups of the birds:



Hopefully it will do well & go home with some happy community member. And I know the money will be put to good use in helping people. Never before have I seen so many homes lost here, than in this past set of fires- around 800, I last heard. If you are interested in supporting the Red Cross, you can contribute to their Natural Disaster Relief fund here. If anything, I know all would appreciate your prayers & good thoughts. Thanks!

Art Sale Thoughts

Hi!

As y'all can well imagine, I am wading through the production of a pool of tiles, ornaments, pins, collages and such that will become my art sale at the end of this month. I am very excited to be transferring the ideas I have in my head into tangible items for you guys- some of which will be very shiny! One of these shiny items is a new sculpt that I did as a commission a couple of months ago (and made a mold on). He is a poison dart frog. Eric the Poison Dart Frog. Though in the incarnation below, he was claybodied into a Green Tree frog; he's still cute that way, so I thought I'd share. The Art Sale offerings will be however, poison dart frogs (now to decide the colors!).

In other Art Sale news, I am toying with the idea of offering a "Preview Sale" here on the blog, the day before my items go up for sale on my new Etsy store. (Yes, I will be opening an Etsy store!) That way, you, my dear, loyal readers get first dibs before the general public, and also, anyone interested in paying via Check or M.O., or wants to order internationally, has a chance, as I will only be taking domestic orders via PayPal on Etsy (somehow dealing with the general public makes me a bit more nervous!). But that's what I am thinking. I will keep you posted. In the meantime, enjoy this picture of Eric the Frog!

New Pin(s)!

Happy Monday, everybody!

It's a shiny new work week for me... Anyhow, just thought I'd share the finished pin sculpt I shared with you last post! I ended up doing two versions of this pin... well, cause I could! After I molded it the first time, it was still in pretty good shape, so I changed the mane, and voilà! So, I'm hoping to have a few of these boys (girls? I don't know!) in the Fall Art Sale (yes, I am planning one! Perhaps at the end of November??). Now, for your shiny pin pleasure, pictures! Enjoy!

Seven Years

Howdy, folks!

I'm happy to say that I remembered that it is Velasquez Artistry's 7 year anniversary today! Yep, it has been seven years since I officially started my shiny little business on 10/10/01 from my not-really-shiny little apartment in Long Beach, CA. (And yes, the fire department let me run my kiln there!). Seven years since I was a junior in college at CSULB (I'm getting old!), majoring in art at school, and selling art from home. How lucky was I to be able to do that?! And I still have sitting on my desk, a picture of the little Highland pony that started it all for me- Skara Brae. Boy, she took a long time to do! Some 50 OF's, and numerous customs and bisques. Looking back, I'd like to think that I've learned a lot since her, and yet I know that I still have a long ways to go. God willing I'll get close someday! I must say that I am feeling rather refreshed and renewed in my work that the Jitterbug OF's are finished. Right now my brain is buzzing with ideas beginning to take form. I will happily share them with you, as they become more developed. But in the meantime, I've numerous other projects to finish (including my mini foal- which should be done soon!), though I will leave you with a picture of little something new. It is but a pin, and is quite unfinished, though I hope to be done with it really soon. It is a thoroughbred:


All righty! Thanks so much for the seven years of shininess! I couldn't have done it without you! Blessings to all!

-Adalee :)

Jitterbug Lotteryness!

Hi!

It's Tuesday again, so that means something else is happening with the OF Jitterbug edition! Today is the official start of the lottery! Yay! That means, if you are a member of the VA Yahoo Group, you can now put your name in for a chance to win the ability to purchase one of the remaining OF Jitterbugs (if you haven't already entered, of course)! Whew, I've got to get off this computer & back to work. All morning I've been posting everywhere I can think of about the lottery- I'm trying to get ahold of all of my customers, as my contact list is rather old & out of date! I'm still finishing the last few Jitterbugs this week (they take a long time with that crazy pattern! What was I thinking?!), so they'll be all set when I pull the lottery on the 23rd. I might just take a break for an hour or two though, as I woke up this morning feeling rather congested. That happened to me last week, so I rested for a bit, and it really refreshed me. Hopefully I can repeat that a second time! No time to get sick- too much to do! And hopefully soon, a new horse...? ;)

Jitterbug!

Happy day after Labor Day, folks!
Hope you were able to spend your holiday differently than I- laboring in the studio (unless that's what you do for fun!). But that just means I now have the ability to say: Jitterbug is debuting! The official announcement is coming today on the VelasquezArtistry Yahoo Group... that is, if I can find where I put my camera so I can take the official photos...! (Sigh... what am I going to do with myself...?) Anyhow, yes, I'm going cross-eyed, I'm seeing blue masking tape in my dreams, and my hands cramp up at the end of the day, but I think it is all worth it. I wanted him to be kick-butt! Speaking of that, the previous project mentioned here got set aside for a while. I finished the claybody Brig & fired him, and started to paint him (dapple rose grey), but the dappling process was kicking my butt, so he was put on hold. I needed to get back to my plethora of in-progress JB's.... In case you are curious, my plan right now is: Announcement- Tuesday 9/2, OF Jitterbug Sale (10 pieces, first come-first serve) Tuesday, 9/9, OF Jitterbug Lottery (10 pieces) Tuesday 9/16. There will be 20 OF pieces in the run, plus one Test that I will be keeping. So, without further ado, here is a larger, unofficial picture of the boy. Enjoy!

Getting There...

I really hate to keep interrupting my Jitterbug run production, but I've got a few more bills to pay soon (yay for orthotics!), and then yet another claybody idea popped into my brain, so here ya go. He's very close to being done, well- ready to dry & be bisque-fired, anyways. I had forgotten just how big this puppy is at his full size- way bigger than the bone china! He just barely fits in my wee kiln, Petra. These are some in-progress pictures- wish I'd thought to take some when he had but two full legs and only one hoof! It may be hard to tell here, but he's had some extensive work done. And look ma... no base! I'm praying that he fires well, so I can get to painting him. Right now I'm thinking I can see him as a dapple rose gray.... :) Oh- and for those anticipating a Jitterbug, I think I'm still on schedule, so fear not! Here's hoping...!

Summer Art Sale- Part II

Hello again! The sale is all up now. There are a couple of items left from yesterday, with a bunch of new items today. You can see it all at this link:

Summer Art Sale!

Thanks to everyone for your support, kind words, and for your purchases! It is exciting to play with new media and go off on tangents every once in awhile... Perhaps I'll have to do this again someday! Till then, it's back to the horses- great things are on the way, and great ideas are being formed.... That's all for now- don't forget to post a comment on yesterday's give-away post if you want a chance at winning a drawing!

Art Sale Give-Away!

It's noon now... gotta keep moving! But first, a little something fun... It's pretty simple, but I hope you'll like it. Up for grabs, is a pen & prismacolor drawing on 9 x 12 art paper, entitled Spotted! Just a wee spotty mouse, scampering across the page, looking up at you. There will be a drawing for this drawing (hee!) on Saturday, July 26th at 6 p.m., PST for the readers of this blog. To enter, just post a comment in the comment section of this post. A winner will be drawn at random for the artwork. I will contact the winner, and mail them the art via USPS. Okay! That's all! Good luck & have fun!

Spotted! detail:

Spotted! Click for a bigger view:

Summer Art Sale- Part 1

Hiya folks! Well, despite going to bed late & getting up early, it doesn't quite look like I'm going to make my exact deadline of noon today to start the sale, but hopefully, it won't be too much later! I always forget just how long it takes to edit photos and scans. Anywho, all my pictures are ready, so it is just a matter of posting them here & on my website. The sale will officially begin when I have the items up on my website, along with their prices- click the link below to check on the status:

Summer Art Sale- Part 1!

But, since you were kind enough to check in here, you'll get to see what's for sale today first! That, and check out the give-away which I will be posting about momentarily. Without further ado, I present today's offerings (details and more detailed pictures will be up on my website!):

"St. Francis Basilica", OF Ornament ~ 2005

"Pine Nuts!"

That's all for now! Thanks!