Delivered some tiles to a customer and they showed me their tile installation.
Pulled up to the gas pump and spied nearby this raven snacking on a spilt bag of Dorito’s.
I had some custom frames made by a family run wood working business in Ohio. The edge that the tile is resting on is behind the tile. For the smaller sizes, the oak frame costs more than the art tile. The tiles are $42 for the 4″ size, and the frame is $55.
Most of my tiles are online now and should help with sales during the winter. This past year has been the only time where the inventory was in good shape. Usually I can’t keep up with sales. The Anchorage Native Heritage Center will be reopening for the Summer Season on Mother’s Day. The main ingredient in the tile body is the glacial clay from the mudflats next to Anchorage.
Made another 6″ x 4″ ceramic covered sketch book. Put holes on the front part to add more stitching with maybe a fireweed twine. The backside has ten stamps that were stained red. The stamps usually mark the backside of the art tiles.
Making some 4″ x 6″ book covers from the glacial clay from the Anchorage mudflats. Its a work in progress. Used coptic stitching so the book lays flat. The paper is 140 lb. cotton rag water color paper.
Made ten nice 4″ daisy impression tiles with several different background glazes and added them to the online store. Alaska has its own wild daisy variety. I’m waiting for the fireweed to blossom out so I can make some tile impressions of them too.
I’ve started to add 4″ plant impressions to the online store. Here is a dogwood blossom with leaves. More will be posted over the coming weeks.
Finally getting around to stringing pendants with a 2mm leather lace. A couple of batches have been sent to two art gift shops here in Alaska, Octopus Ink in Anchorage, and Bunnell Street Gallery in Homer. Each pendant is 1-1/2″ square and made from the glacial clay from the Anchorage mudflats.
Decided to make some pendants with more than one glaze color. These pendants were made with small matte board plates, similar to how I make tiles. Before, pendants were made with clay stamps. Four sets of these will be made with four different background colors. My personal favorite would be the coffee cup.
Finally moved over to an online store format, though the blog posts are still part of the store.
This is the tile wall behind a wood stove that an acquaintance installed in his house. I also made the field tiles surrounding the art tiles. It will be featured in the next quarterly issue of Alaska Home magazine. The nice speckled brown field tiles are all the same glaze, so the difference in appearance is due to the placement in the kiln. An enlarged drawing of the entire area was provided so that plate/stencils could easily be made, especially for the odd shaped tiles, near the top. All the tiles are made from the local clay from the Anchorage mud flats, a part of the Boot Legger Clay formation, and they are stamped on the back with “Cook Inlet Glacial Clay”.
The Fur Rondy sales begin tomorrow at the Dimond Mall (in Anchorage) and I will be heading to the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona for the Indian Art Market on Thursday.
I’m working half time on tiles while I prepare taxes and work on the fish-skin coat that will have some of the buttons from the previous post.