Happy New Year!

in order to bring in the new year...
i give you one of my favorite videos i watched in 2010.

i think 2011 is gonna be a busy year...so stay tuned...

Renegade Holiday Chicago

earlier in the month i traveled up north to chicago for the Renegade Holiday Fair. it was the debut of my new decals! the foldedpigs ware is now available is three colors: Black, Blue & Ghostie Grey!
here's an aerial view of my table (peddlin' of the wares...)and an aerial view of the room my table was in. tons o' people!

the new color decals are listed in my etsy shop!

halloween 2010: tetris style

before it's too late to still talk about halloween...i feel the need to share our homemade group costume this year. TETRIS!

fabrication began friday night. paul & i bound the boxes together - rain measured & cut the paper.paul spray mounted while i was in charge of the black duct taping.
i dry run of the costumes - franklin helped out too.
the stack of the 6 pieces finished!

in full effect!tom, rain, me, paul, amy, brandl

SHOWCARDS!

i shipped out new work to Baltimore Clayworks Winterfest early last week. here's the card & info.
oo la la! my plates made it on the card!
...and here's the new card to the Surface + Form exhibition in conjunction with the Potter's Council Workshop where i will be presenting at the end of January at Funke Fired Arts in cincinnati.
you can sign up here!

GRAVY BOAT SHOW GO!

i have a gravy boat in the 50 GRAVY BOATS SHOW!

my boat already sold which is exciting. :) check out all the boats...
it's an auction, so place a bid!

the mission statement of the show:
to reestablish the place of the gravy boat on the table of ceramic art

foldedpigs on tv!

yesterday my foldedpigs skull baking cups were on a morning show, The Everyday Show, in denver. it was in conjunction with my skull plates being featured in the october halloween issue of Country Living Magazine.
you can view it here. they talk about the baking cups around 1min 40 sec.

i attempted to embed the video on here...but i don't think it's working. doh.

Hello!Lucky

Hello!Lucky (a rad letterpress company) just posted a blog about my work...
check it out! yay for paper & porcelain!


here is a selection of the cool cards they make!

Comicalramics

Comicalramics is showing at Red Star Studios Oct 1st - Oct 30th. (i really should have posted this sooner. doh.)
It features work by Sam Chung, Kevin Snipes, and me!
the photos were taken quickly by me, so they are not the best, but you get the picture.
here's a grouping of some of my work as well as Sam's cup & saucer trays.


a Sam Chung ewer

a Kevin Snipes double vase

a closer look at my dinner settings and Sam's cup & saucer tray.

access Ceramics

my work is now on accessceramics.org!
it's a cool site for contemporary ceramic images for use in education. check it out.

a cool feature is you can search for artists by location.

Liquid Measure

these two tumblers went off to the Liquid Measure show at Main Street Art Gallery in Edwardsville, IL.here's the postcard with all the info for the show. woo hoo!

Potter's Council: Surface & Form

i'm pleased to announce that i will be one of the presenters at the Potter's Council Conference in January 2011 at Funke Fired Arts in Cincinnati.

here is the info on the Potter's Council page

the description of my part:

MEREDITH HOST
Learn How to Add Depth of Pattern to Your Work
Meredith will focus on her surface decorating process. Most all of her decoration happens before the bisque firing. This includes underglazes and slip for trailing, thermofax screen printing, and stencils. After the glaze firing, Meredith fires a third time with homemade iron oxide decals for one last layer. This process of adding multiple layers allow the work to have a depth of pattern and an intricate, complex surface. This method of multiple firing allows the work to be less precious and gives one an opportunity to play around with layering. It also provides an opportunity to reclaim or save a piece that is not to your liking by adding another layer of visual information.

summer update part 4: the final chapter

ok ok, so it's not really summer anymore...it's most definitely fall now but i think i have to do one final summer recap.

foldedpigs across the nation. the indie craft fair circuit is over. phew...a ton of miles were put on the car. austin, brooklyn, philly, kansas city & chicago. done and done.rain & i selling at renegade austin. look at all the pattern!
photo by the marvelous marybeth mungovan

me shopping in the CircaCeramics booth at renegade chicago. i bought a sweet orange zombie mug designed by matty8080.
caught on film by danny of renegade.

i had a week vacation in between craft fairs and was able to hang out with my philly friends and eat as much water ice as possible. one evening we made homemade fireworks (actually safer than you'd think!)
check out the video below...i posted ryan's firework spin because it was one of the better ones.


now i'm working working working in the stu stu studio...lotsa upcoming deadlines. the summer heat was brutal - working in a 90 degree studio was a bit draining.
stay tuned for more...and a taxidermy update
(i know it's what you've been waiting for).

foldedpigs in the Kansas City Star

sunday august 15th - foldedpigs made it into the house & home section of the KC star newspaper.

here is the link to the article, but it will probably expire at some point -
so below is a screen capture of the article.

summer update #3 : intro to taxidermy

i'm not sure if i've mentioned it before, but i am a huge fan of taxidermy. growing up my mom started a taxidermy collection with a deer shoulder mount from an antique mall. the deer was mounted on the front of the house - soon after an antelope joined the deer. in order to complete "home on the range", a buffalo head joined the others.
so yeah, we were the weirdos on the block with dead animals on their house.home on the range.

i started my own collection about a year & a half ago. my dining room is the taxidermy room....and man o man, it is looking good if i do say so myself! i still need to hang up some of mounts, and as soon as i do - pictures will be posted. the last few months i kinda have gone into a taxidermy frenzy - which ended with attending a taxidermy auction in the middle of missouri.
not my room unfortunately. this is just one small section of the auction.

it was AWESOME. it was my first time with a real auctioneer and it took about an hour for me to figure out what was going on and another hour before i had the guts to bid on anything.


this whole room was covered with shoulder mounts. it was incredibly overwhelming. i ended up bringing home a few gems.and like i said before...as soon as all my mounts are up, i'll post pictures.

cloud talk building part 2

i have mentioned my dream building before (here) and i'll mention it again. it's the old luzier cosmetics factory & i drive by it almost everyday.

it was designed by Nelle Peters, who designed quite a few awesome buildings in Kansas City.
today was an awesome day. i happened to notice as i was driving by that the back door was propped open. (yes, i'm a building stalker) i wandered in and was happy to find that the building is actually in use! victor owns the building & runs a restoration company. his workshop is in the building & when i ran into him he was working on a plaster architectural form for a historic building. we had a lovely chat and i was given the grand tour. i took a few pictures of the interior.

it's still a really raw space. victor's workshop is all on the 1st floor, and the 2nd floor is completely empty.
the larger side - 2nd floor
smaller side - 2nd floor

victor in his workshop on the 1st floor.

summer update #2

while in philadelphia this summer, my Dot Dot Dash show came down and the work traveled around the corner to the clay studio.
i was lucky enough to witness the work on display in the front window! oo la la!

RIC RAC ROUNDUP!

attn: Kansas City

RIC RAC ROUNDUP!
SATURDAY JULY 24 9-4pm
Parking Lot @ 300 Westport Rd.

i'm actually doing a craft fair IN TOWN! please do check it out - i will have the normal foldedpigs line as well as the foldedpigs 2nd sale! woo hoo! buy one 2nd, get one 2nd half off!

summer update #1

my good friend whitney got hitched a few weeks ago & i was lucky enough to be in the wedding party. the whole shebang was beautiful & the flowers were dynamite! i pulled my bridesmaid bouquet apart and put it in a Paul Donnelly flower brick. it looked so great that i had to take a picture & post it!i love love love the color combo.

more summer updates to follow...

victorian hair flower workshop

last weekend i took a workshop on how to make victorian hair flowers. it took place in "leila's hair museum" in independence, mo, and was taught by leila herself.
we started out with "flatwork". basically like decoupaging with hair - also has a bit of paint by numbers quality. here is a detail from my flatwork project.
it's like hair veneer!
then we moved into learning the basic "stitches" of hair flower construction. i did not made these "gimp" stitches, this just shows what it's suppose to look like and to show how small it can be...just wait until you see my attempt. ugh.here are a couple stitches i made - the "fold" & "loop". for all the stitches, they look different depending on how much hair you use and the length.
now if i made a ton of these, i could make 1 flower. ha.
here's the ATTEMPT at the "gimp". it's the most used stitch as far as i can tell and i'm totally determined to master it! my first attempts are really not so good. it's wrapped around different size knitting, crochet, or darning needles, and are wired stitched together. once again, each different size needle used & amount of hair will change the look. you can use really small amounts of hair: 2 -4 stands. i could never get the wire tight enough!
now for the pros...
i was able to take some photos in the museum. the quality is not the best because they're all under glass, but you'll get the idea. here are a few of my favorite wreaths. this one is GIANT!
a few details from the above wreath. there are some extra beads here and there that make up some of the centers of the flowers.
a more fine line wreath. it's unique in that every single flower in this one is different. only 4-6 hairs were used in each petal.
this one is made completely from dyed horse hair - in theory it was made by a native american woman. i really do love the color and it makes me want to get my hands on some horse hair.
a detail of the dyed horse hair. it almost looks like fishing line in person.
leila took a picture of me in the museum... it's a bit blurry, but it gives an idea of how large her collection is. the entire museum(2 rooms) is covered floor to ceiling with wreaths.
this will be an ongoing project for me!