My Fridge... The Original Pinterest

It occurred to me this evening
as I spent waaaaaay too much time poking around Pinterest
...instead of working in the studio...
that I've been 'pinning' things for years.

Custom Mug

This is a custom mug I made for my friend, Stephanie, last year.
It was to be a surprise gift celebrating their dog, Hogan, and new puppy, Bogey.
Steph sent me several pix of the dogs, including one of Hogan, the dachshund, in his
 life jacket!  There were also plenty photos of critters from the garden.
It was great fun incorporating them on the mug.

Although I thoroughly enjoy doing this technique it is very time consuming
and requires 3 firings instead of the usual 2.  I use an underglaze pencil for the outline
and amaco velvet underglazes for the color.

Hogan swims inside the mug, while Bogey is on garden duty.   

Hogan, chipmunk, baby birds and hummer.

Hummingbird, purple coneflowers and strawberry-thieving chipmunk.

Leigh sent me an 'action shot' of Hogan swimming in her morning coffee. 

Children's Museum of Oak Ridge

I am so honored to have been asked to paint a birdhouse for the
Children's Museum of Oak Ridge's Annual Gala!
Several area artists were asked to decorate wooden birdhouses
which will be auctioned off to help raise funds for
this wonderful museum.

I was on a roll and stayed up pretty late working on this.
Apparently Guido got tired of waiting for me to go to bed.  He found me and seemed to
decide that if he refused to budge maybe I'd give up, and we could go to bed.
He makes a very soft and patient arm rest!

I found this little brass chicken in a box of odds-n-ends at an auction years ago.
It's a happy way to keep my 'palette' from sliding around. 

I love the pop of complimentary colors together. 

This was great fun!