Road Trip to Marfa

Sean and i just did a 1300 mile round trip to Marfa, Texas for the weekend, home to the Chinati Foundation ( Donald Judd)

these are his concrete sculptures out in the desert

we saw amazing open landscapes, and so many stars, and the mysterious Marfa lights

we saw these two stags, a family of wild boar, a road runner and a massive tarantula looking furry spider

we were warmly greeted by an interesting artist and craftswoman (Catherine) and got shown round her shop - Wool and Hoop and next door, Fancy Pony Land ( I want one of their skirts)

we ate some delicious food at Cochineal - this is their lovely red tree in the courtyard

saw proper autumnal colours

got stopped by Border Patrol ( we were very close to mexico) and I was given a warning for not carrying my residents card ( woops),

it was like a scene from Thelma and Louise out in the desert, except it was me driving with Sean and we weren't running from the law

we saw some fantastic art - Donald Judd and Dan Flavin

we had a hilarious ride on george and lisa's yellow tandem bike, video to follow soon

All in all it was a really good trip and will have to go back again

Cactus Gardens

I've had a good time filling my newly cast and glazed bowls with cactus gardens, I got some rainbow gravel too which is quite colourful close up , and I'm happy with my new grey glaze, soft and matt

I need to keep most of them out of my shop for a while until the little plants 'take' before I can ship them anywhere, but I'll be selling them at the Craft Sale @ G Gallery next weekend.


The other exciting thing that happened this week was that I found several mentions about McCheek's Mayhem on different blogs - so I'm tooting my own trumpet - if thats an expression! and letting you know, they're all good names, but the one i like the most for its originality is called Far Out Brussel Sprout, by a girl called Siobhan from Sydney and seeing as I want to go there next year, I was even more into it.

you can see them here (Love Natalie) and here ( Sweet Sweet Life) and here (crystaloicle)

Its your turn- tea towels

well, it was me and Sean in the studio today, he was helping me to print the new Its Your Turn tea towels. each tea towel is a different size, so the registration was way harder than we expected, and we'll never divide the image onto two screens again, but you learn a new lesson each time, don't you?

So the next one which is in mid design stage, will be sooo much easier.

But it was good to get them done, and I even did some printing myself, which i hardly ever do.

They're hand dyed before and then screen printed with water based inks for softness

new work fresh out of the kiln

I've got a load of new work out of the kiln, i had a good day doing all the decals last week, they're now in my shop

Not All Glam

Its not all glamour at McCheek's Mayhem.

To get more decals made by Sean, I had to don a serious vapour mask as the stuff is very toxic, but we got them printed, and today I have made lots of new mugs and bowls, covered in decals, now waiting to be fired on Sunday, hopefully in the shop on Monday!

WOOO HOOO

New fancy font alphabet decals

Swedish Inspiration

I don't know how I came across this blog all about the Dos Family and the things they make and their house , but I like their style and their house, simple, and filled with light, very inspirational .

Check out this fantastic kitchen cupboard, what a simple idea, but not one I 'd thought of , well, i'd considered spraying ours myself, but thought better of it and now I'm just trying to figure out how I can get our three kitchen lockers into the back of my VW golf to get them spray painted fancy colours too.

Anyone have a truck I can borrow?

Photo collages of the interior of their house

If you ' Dos Family ' ever want to swop your house and have a holiday in Houston , Texas, come on down, I'm up for a trip to Sweden

Roadside Distractions

Sean ( my husband) and Gabby ( my step daughter) are curating their first show together, it opens this Saturday in our new Gallery 619. It features new work by Give Up, Dual , Eyesore and Trash and Garnish.

Robert Ellis and Fat Tony are playing on the opening night.