It seems that my work life these days can be summed up in two words: “slow” and “patience”. Even though I finished the Roundabout cob sculpture back in April, it feels like it doesn’t exist for me because now the production of this work is in other peoples’ hands. I am trying to be content in waiting-mode for my “new” sculpture to arrive—and to get them into your hands. I have no new word of when more resins are coming, and I don’t want to pester Barry over at BearCast LLC so I have not been asking. I did talk to Donna Chaney over at Alchemy Ceramics in the UK, and now the Roundie bone china molds are scheduled to be made in August. Which means we will get the first ones in mid-September. Patience…

You would think that with nothing new to glaze in the chinas department, I could still be productive with my old molds and custom glazes and the fun of customizing the older sculptures. You would think. Instead, I keep having epic FAILS. Like this most recent Halfling Boreas, which I broke at the bisque stage:

This leg popped off right at the join when I was sanding down the legs. I thought at the bisque stage a piece would be “safe” from my mishaps. Not! I tried doing a repair using clear gloss glaze and firing that, but it didn’t work.I may try again next time I have a glaze fire to run.

I am still breaking off limbs when cleaning greenware. It makes me so afraid of these fragile pieces that I’m not loving the process any more. I think I am trying to run when I haven’t learned to crawl, and should stop spending so much time resculpting these pieces because it is so heartbreaking and a huge waste of time to break something after doing all that custom work. I have had some successes with very simple customizations like new manes and tails. I should probably stick with that for now. Like this one:

This “Heart of Darkness” bisque now has a simple loose mane and forelock (instead of braided), and he’s ready to glaze.

This month I switched over my overglaze colors to a new brand of lead-free glazes. After making up new batches of airbrushable glazes, I tried them out last week and I think they will be fine. Different base colors mean I will have to get used to mixing them to the horse colors I want, but that is not difficult. These glazes also fire cooler than the ones I used to use, so firing time will be a little shorter.

The other word to live by for me this summer is “slow”. Because I really don’t feel like working that hard. Paul is in retirement and so, apparently, am I. I am SO glad I got the sculpture done last winter because I am not motivated to do ANYthing. My life has become so deliciously slow and mellow and lazy. Tennis. Summer hiking at the condo in the mountains. Walks with the Boyz. Reading by the pool at the tennis club. Therefore I ask that you, dear reader, might go by that other key word I mentioned, “patience”. Because I have officially stopped making promises of completed work until further notice.

I have a new email address that I would like you to use from now on. It is:

kyg@wizardsvalearts.com

The old email address will still work for another month or so but I plan to cancel the account for it eventually. Soon I will be taking down the westerlydesign.com website and moving (a lot less of) the content to the new domain here at wizardsvalearts.com.

In other news, I am finally ready to start working on chinas again in the studio! I am over both the “BOYCC burnout” and some travel in June. I will be doing both glazing of my backlog of bisques (which will be for sale) and casting new pieces in the molds. I’m not ready to work on any commissions; I’d prefer to glaze some artist choice pieces this summer.

I am slowly getting Roundabout resins. So far there are 11 of them out in the world. More will be on the way but not at any fast pace. My resin caster is caregiver for his spouse recovering from surgery so we must all be content to wait while the healing takes place. 🙂 I’m not advertising the Roundabout resins for sale in the larger “world” — other than this blog and the Facebook page — until I get a large enough batch in to hold a real sale. For now I’m just offering them here if they arrive in small lots.

Thanks for your support and patience!

Email Karen

All of the first 10 unpainted resin Roundabouts are now spoken for.

The next batch that comes in will be devoted to my UK buyers; if you live in the UK and aren’t on my list yet, they are $150.00 postage and customs PAID. Send me an email to reserve yours. This is a one-time offer as I’m working with a friend in England who is going to receive the one big box and then mail out the resins from her house. After this, if you live in the UK and want a Roundie resin you’ll have to pay the customs duty yourself. 🙂

I have to admit that the Roundie resins aren’t exactly flying out of here… but I know most of you are waiting for the chinas (I sure am!). Fortunately I don’t need Roundie in resin to sell out. I just have to sell enough to pay back the molding costs. I needed several good casts to send for china-molding so a resin mold had to be made no matter what. I will cast as many as people want to buy until the mold plays out. It might be that Roundie resin buyers will end up having a fairly exclusive edition!

Continue to watch this blog for news of the next resin sale. And I hope to have news of the bone china production in July. Many thanks for your support. Have a great summer!

Email Karen

It looks like I will be getting a batch of Roundabout cob resins this week. It might be as many as 10. I’ve got 6 of those spoken for as donations, gifts, and other commitments. But I’d like to sell the rest quickly if I can… I’m going out of town all next week and want to get them in the mail by Friday!

Because this is a small quantity I won’t be sending them to my Etsy page.

I DO allow customization of Roundabout resins. So you can go ahead and make him a “hairy” Gypsy Vanner or whatever!

If you want to buy one of these unpainted Roundabout resins:

•  You must pay in full via PayPal only, by Thursday 9pm mountain time.

•  They are $150 US postage paid. If you are in the UK please wait as I will be having a separate sale for you the next time I get a full batch of 10. But I will ship outside the US; we’ll split the cost of shipping.

•  If you want to buy, send me an email if you are interested (link below) and I will contact you with the PayPal instructions.

Email Karen

Thank you!!

Sheila A. Bishop agreed to paint the first resin copy of Roundabout for me and she delivered him to me yesterday. Isn’t he stunning! The quality of this finish work is why I have gracefully retired from painting resins. I will never be able to paint like this!

Initially Sheila and I had agreed that she would paint the first resin I received, and she could sell him or whatever in exchange for letting me use his photos to promote the resin sale. But I love this work so much that she allowed me to keep him on some very good trade terms. 🙂 THANK YOU SHEILA! She gave him to me at a model horse show here in Colorado yesterday and he already earned his first NAN card in breed halter.

I have named him “Dreams of the Thames”. When we were in the UK we lived only about 2 miles from the Thames and I spent a lot of days exploring its length on foot and bike. Roundie was “born” over there on days when I stayed in… and I still dream of the Thames.

I hope I will have Roundabout resins to sell in June, but I don’t have a date for you yet.