Joanna Mendicino at East Bay Open Studio

Joanna Mendicino's beautiful & charming vases will be on display at her studio Earthworks during East Bay Open Studio.

After browsing Joanna's pieces, you may also see Earthwork's other 7 artist's artwork and the many other artisans whose studios in the Sawtooth building will also be open for this wonderful event.

East Bay Open Studio
Hours are 11-6 Saturdays and Sundays on June 6,7, 13 & 14. For more information about Open Studios, click here.

News from NCECA

Well, it's official, I think I have taken over the Earthworks blog.  So keep an eye out for a posting with my own spin-off blog.  I think it is time to start my own!  

Brandon Reese's Sculpture

NCECA was amazingly fun and inspiring as usual, my crew and I skipped the clay conference itself and instead rented a car and visited all the beautiful galleries.  By far my favorite show was Brandon Reese (link to more pics) of Oklahoma, my Mom's home state so I may be 

biased. His use of clay and wood together was fantastic and a major inspiration. Some of the best contemporary clay work I have seen.  I also got to have a religious moment with a Hans Coper vessel that is similar to the pic on the left right, at the ASU Ceramic Research Center (link) , a wonderful collections of ceramic work and a must stop for any clay lover.

Cheryl Tall (middle) and friends

My other favorite show was mine!  The gallery owners Daryl and Michael of Costello-Childs did a beautiful job combining two and three dimensional pieces and were wonderful to work with. Here are some pictures of the opening.

Deborah Rael-Buckley, Maria De Castro, Cheyl Tall, Ceil Sturdevant & me

Cheryl with her pieces and Susan Beiner's work in the background.

Bye for now - Erin McGuiness

Gallery Opening - Hybrid Nation

Are you headed to NCECA or to the Phoenix/Scottsdale AZ area in April?  If so, please join me to celebrate a show my work is part of, Hybrid Nation.

Opening Reception - Thurs., April 9th 4-8pm

Costello Childs Gallery

2724 N. 68th St., Suite 1, Scottsdale, AZ

www.costellochildsart.com

Show runs through April 30th

Show features work form Susan Beiner, Maria De Castro, Aurore Chabot, Karen Gunderman, Priscilla Hollingsworth, Erin McGuiness, Deborah Rael-Buckley, Virginia Scotchie, Ceil Sturdevant and Cheryl Tall.

-Erin

Spring has Sprung

As a California girl, I always feel so lucky that we have flowers blooming even in the winter. This pic is from someone's front yard in Alameda.

Even so I love seeing so many plants start blooming this time of year, I can't wait to head out to Point Reyes and see all the wild flowers. The best part of spring is the time change. Now I can stay later at the studio without my circadian rhythms telling me I should be home eating and vegging.

Happy Spring! - Erin

My Favorite Things...

Yeah for cupcakes, these are from Betty's To Go on 4th street near Earthworks. They are by far my favorite in the Eastbay and they are pretty too! -Erin

Happy New Year & SF Design

Happy New Year! I am really looking forward to a fresh start and a new prez!!

To kick off the new year, I have exciting news. The De Sousa Hughes showroom at the SF Design Center will be showing a number of different groupings of my hand coiled ceramic vessels during the events they are hosting as part of the conference/event Design San Francisco (formerly winter market). I dropped off my pieces last week and they were busy getting the showroom ready for the event and I had to stop myself from drooling over all the beautiful and unusual objects and furniture they have!

Here is a link to more information about Design San Francisco and the De Sousa Hughes showroom. Also, if you would like more updates about upcoming events for my work, click here for my most recent newsletter or click here to join my mailing list.

Thanks and happy new year!

- Erin McGuiness

Girl Power

Well, not really girl power of course - woman power. You've seen the photos of our beautiful work; now you get to see a little of the nitty gritty side of things. Our electric kilns are heated by coiled elements (like in a toaster but much bigger and tougher) to over 2000 degrees F. That's power. Over time the elements weaken and have to be replaced, so that's what we're doing here on two of our kilns.

The first photo shows the switch box opened; this is where the current enters and is fed to six elements.

In the second photo Diane R. and Joanna are putting the new elements into two of the sections of the kiln that have been set up on a work table for easier access.

The last photo shows Glenda finishing up the wiring on the other kiln. Here you can see the sections of this kiln have been stacked together again, before replacement of the switch box cover visible in the background. Looks like we were having fun. We were.

- Diane W. (who also helped)