Cupcakes for Claymobile

If you will be in Old City this coming First Friday, surely you would like to stop by The Clay Studio at 2nd & Race Streets where the Claymobile, The Clay Studio's educational outreach program, will be having a BAKE SALE to raise funds for the Claymobile's programs.

The Clay Studio will also be holding their opening for exhibits by John Utgaard, graduate students, and one of my previous instructors and friend, Shawn Spangler.

Hush Cups

The Clay Studio is celebrating its 35th Anniversary on October 10th with a big event throughout the whole building (they are tenting the parking lot too!) that includes live music, BBQ, and silent auction. I have donated a pair of Hush Cups to the silent auction. These are small cups thrown on the wheel, and altered by my thumbs and fingers pushing out or into the cups' sides. I had been meaning to create a kind of puffy, cloudlike vessel, which they sort of are, but even more than that I like how they appear to hold something just below the surface, a suggestion that is not entirely revealed.

The Silent Auction will be on view at The Clay Studio starting October 2nd through the 10th. I think the auction will also be accessible online and will post that information when I have it. Read more about the 35th Birthday Bash here.

**UPDATE**
to view auction items or bid online, go to the 35th Birthday link on The Clay Studio's website and scroll down to the Silent Auction link, or just click here, where you can browse all the artists, search by artist, and register to be able to bid on the auction. Bidding closes at 8:30pm on Saturday, October 10th.

Art For The Cash Poor 2008

Art For The Cash Poor is a really cool art fair event that supports InLiquid, an online artists' resource. Having just done the Art Star Craft Bazaar two weeks ago, I can't help but compare and contrast the two. I think from the outside they look like the same thing: artists and crafters set up with booths, live music, & vegan food vendors. But if you look a little closer, there is more of a fine-art representation to Cash Poor, which makes sense seeing that many of InLiquid's members are painters, printmakers, photographers and the like. Meanwhile, the vendors at the Bazaar seem more likely to be makers of really cute/ironic crafts, jewelry and silk-screened T-shirts, although certainly these folks were represented at Cash Poor as well.


It wasn't until I got to the Crane Building that I realized that Art for the Cash Poor is meant to be a benefit for InLiquid, what with the extensive raffle, and food vendors, such as the nice folks from North Port Fishington Cookie Factory over there to the right, informing customers that a portion of their proceeds will be donated. There were also a festive fotobooth, and an artist wellness area featuring massage and reiki on the spot, which I thought was really interesting, although I didn't have any time to experience it.

And not to say that anyone at Cash Poor was unprofessional, but it seemed a greater number of the vendors at Art Star were fully entrepreneurial, marketing-savvy, prominently displaying their logo and signs, business cards at hand. There were artists at AFTCP whose art I noticed, but unfortunately I can't tell you what their names were.

But here are some booths where I picked up a card: Rotorcaps- Jen Roder makes jewelry from bottlecaps, which sounds at first like a tried idea, but hers are extremely well-crafted with sterling silver, and she has a way of isolating the bottlecap imagery from its context, allowing you to appreciate it with a new perspective. Wolf Bait - Kelly Wolf was selling zippered purses made with *unbelievably cute* fabrics from Japan. They were as cute as the 4-month old biscuit-colored French Bulldog puppy named Olive who came to my table on Sunday. I can't believe I don't have a picture of her. Here is an obligatory picture of my dog Jonah instead. (p.s. this photo keeps automatically rotating itself when I upload it, if anyone can tell me how to correct it, please do)

Would I do these fairs again? Absolutely. I learned a lot at each one and saw them as fun networking opportunities; it also makes me feel like the most popular girl in Philadelphia when so many people I know stop and talk to me at my table.