New Treasury and New Work!

Cool news...one of my copper sand raku vases was put in a new treasury on Etsy! Thank you ArtsieLady for the addition.

Here's the link: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=71353

I also have been brewing some new pieces...check them out!

New Work, September Shows, and a SPECIAL SURPRISE!

The summer has come and gone and there has been lots to report on. After an unbelievably successful show in Fremont, I took the next month to rebuild my inventory and focus my energies in the studio towards making new pieces. The vases are just beginning to come out and with positive results. My raku work is stronger than ever and I feel as if my new "streamlined" style of vases really showcases my ceramics in a aesthetic in which they are meant to be seen.

I have two shows coming up for those of you in the Bay Area in California.
The first is next weekend (Sat. September 12th) from 12-8pm in downtown Saratoga at the "Taste of Saratoga" street fair. I will actually be sharing a booth with my uber-talented girlfriend Jeanne who does mixed media collages and other inspiring items. We've been preparing for this show for months so come early and see what we've created before we sell out! Hope to see you there!

The next is the following weekend which is sure to be a ceramic filled festival. I will be selling my pottery on my home turf at the Blossom Hill Crafts Pottery Sale. This 2 day ceramics only event boast some 30+ clay vendors and some of the highest quality ceramic work you will find anywhere. This is my home studio (where all my pottery is made) so a percentage of the proceeds go back into the studio so be sure to attend and support the arts!

The final item of news (and the biggest) is my dream has finally been realized and I've opened up my own guitar school! Yes, that's right...Chris Bryant Guitar School is now open for business in beautiful downtown Los Gatos. For those interested, my day job for the past 6 years has been teaching guitar all throughout the south bay area to thousands of students. I had a vision of opening up a place, but was waiting for the right place (and the right person) to start it with. Together with my partner Jeanne, we have created the most wonderful environment for guitar instruction. It's everything I've imagined it would be and more. For more on the Guitar School, check out our brand new website:

http://www.chrisbryantguitar.com

and please subscribe to my other blog to keep up on the latest with the guitar school!

http://chrisbryantguitar.blogspot.com

That's it for now. Happy mud time everyone. Hope to see some of you at the shows!

Fremont Festival!!!

To those of you in the Northern California area this weekend, be sure to attend the Fremont Festival of the Arts! I will be there as a vendor selling my pottery. This large-scale event boasts over 600 vendors and an attendance of over 350,000 people over the course of 2 days! I am very excited to participate and look forward to being a part of such a massive street fair. If you do go, look for the Chris Bryant Pottery banner and stop by the tent and say hi!

For more info check out http://www.fremontfestival.net/

New Postcards and Business Cards!!!

With the first show of the summer coming up this weekend, we thought it would be a great idea to update my business cards and make new postcards!!! Thanks to the amazing design talents of my girlfriend Jeanne, these cards look great! Between her photography skills, her eye for layout and composition, and her saavy know-how in Photoshop, the end result is pure perfection! Wouldn't you agree? 

New 5 x 7 Postcard (front)

New 5 x 7 postcard (back)

New business card (front)

New business card (back)

Not enough hours in the day...

My girlfriend said to me today "I get exhausted just watching you...you're so motivated to create you never stop!" Compliment or point of pure fact...the ever growing inspiration to make new things and work hard has completely taken over my state of mind these days. Not only am I ramping up the hours at the pottery studio for my 4th of July show in Redwood City, but I've taken on a new but old passion...abstract oil painting! Thanks to a generous birthday gift from my girlfriend, I've got a really nice easel which has totally reignited my passion for oil on canvas. I was smart enough to keep all of my painting supplies locked away for 6 years in a very neat and organized bin full of wonderful goodies that create wonderful colors and smells like...well, turpentine.

It's such an intense emotion to feel like I never have enough creative outlets to fill my time with. Between my mornings with clay, my afternoons at work (teaching guitar) and my evenings out on our back patio in a world of paint...there's just not enough hours in the day to do it all!!! I've got two works in progress at the moment...and again, I only work in oil paints on large canvases so things tend to be messy! What would an artist's life be without a little splash of chaos? 

Painting #1...(work in progress)

Painting #2...(work in progress)

Along with all this excitement in 2D going on...I've finally been having some success (and some slight mishaps) in the raku kiln lately. While some of my stuff is coming out with surface cracks (I tend to throw on the thin side...) I am still making progress and new work is emerging. Check it out!!! Hope to see some of you at the Redwood City 4th of July celebration so if you're in the area, come down and see some great handmade works of art!

New raku vase...16 inches high, shiny copper dripped glaze

New raku vase #2....11 1/2 inches high, clear crackle glaze

New raku vase #3...copper sand glaze

New raku vase #4...18 inches high, copper luster drizzled glaze

California Artists and My Birthday!!!

I think you can feel my excitement...It's 5 minutes before the day of my 31st birthday and today I found out I got accepted to California Artists! For those of you who don't know (or aren't from the area) California Artists is the largest art and wine festival coordinating group in Northern California and once you're juried in and accepted into the organization, you are then able to participate in any of their scheduled events. Needless to say, my summer just got that much more exciting...and busy! Here's the list of dates of shows I will be participating in. If you are in the area or planning on attending any of these events, don't miss my tent...just look for the big "Chris Bryant Pottery" banner!

July 4
Redwood City Fourth of July Celebration, 23rd Annual
Downtown Redwood City, Middlefield Road
Presented by the Peninsula Celebration Association
75 Artists and 35,000 Attendees

August 1-2
Fremont Festival of the Arts, 26th Annual
Paseo Padre Parkway at Mowry and Capitol
Presented by the Fremont Chamber of Commerce
Over 600 Artists and 400,000 Attendees

August 15-16
Los Gatos Fiesta de Artes, 38th Annual
Los Gatos Civic Center on East Main Street
Presented by the Los Gatos Kiwanis Club
Over 150 Artists and 35,000 Attendees

September 12-13
Mountain View Art & Wine Festival, 38th Annual
Downtown Castro Street, between El Camino Real and Evelyn
Presented by the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce
Over 575 Artists and 250,000 Attendees

October 3-4
Los Altos Fall Festival, 17th Annual
Downtown, parking lots off of San Antonio Road
Presented by the Los Altos Chamber of Commerce
Over 150 Artists and 35,000 Attendees

In light on my newly dawning art and wine festival ventures...I bought a new tent for my exhibitions! It's the E-Z Up Express II...built for the arts and crafts side of things...complete with sidewalls and everything. Nice!!!


So that's the excitement for now. Be on the lookout for Chris Bryant pottery this summer in Northern California. If you attend any of the shows, stop by and say hi!

Raku redux and future projects

Yesterday I got my first taste of the raku kiln up at Blossom Hill Crafts. It's one of those nice side loading ones from Laguna which was interesting considering I've been using a homemade top loader made from a barrel and kiln fiber for the past 4 months. So I got my vase glazed up, learned the ropes on how to run the kiln without blowing myself to smitherines, and then it was on! I decided to go with a rainbow gloss for my first shot at it...just to see if I could get some different results than what I was getting previously with this really strange shiny copper raku glaze somebody concocted up at the college...it literally looked like liquid powered cocoa when it went on...bizarro indeed. Anyway, I digress! Fired up the burners...waited 15 minutes, turned em up a second time, waited 15 more and then maxed them out. From the only "peep hole" (a little hole on the kiln to glance at how your vase is doing in the heat) in the kiln it looked glossy and ready to be pulled. I was excited...'It's TIME!' I thought to myself. Got my gloves on, readied my surroundings, threw the gas off and opened up the lid. Ohhhhh's and Aaaahss could be heard from friendly observers as I started to take my tongs towards my 1800 degree piece of fired clay. What I DIDN'T see however was the bottom of my vase was looking like a lunar surface which means it didn't get hot enough in the kiln. I actually didn't see it until the moment I placed it in the barrel and flames were igniting which means it's time to close the lid. 'Oh dear...maybe that'll look cool!' I said. 2 hours later I pulled the piece out and saw my results...underfired masterpieces!!! 'This is unacceptable' I thought. 'There must be something I can do!' I inquired to a colleague of mine about what to do about it...his response... "Fire it again!!!!" And so the notion was born that if this piece could survive another firing...it might look cool!' So I darted down to the studio this morning, fired up the kiln a second time and really went all the way with it this time. The result? See for yourself!!! This is the piece after the SECOND firing. Shiny copper goodness!!! I'm happy and glad to have learned how to do things right the first time!

In similar news, I was approached by some friendly people today who wanted to fire 2 pots right as I got the kiln lit this morning to which I replied "Sure!" They were planning on doing a really neat thing called "Horsehair Raku" which consists of firing a bisque-ware unglazed piece in the kiln, getting it nice and hot, pulling it out and placing the piece on a brick and then draping the hair of a horse over it to create a very abstract yet beautiful line effect. I got to witness this process today, which was awesome. The best part about it, one of the people doing it actually owned a horse and offered me a whole grip of horse hair! You can bet I'll be dabbling with this stuff in the near future...and I'll be posting the results as soon as they arrive! Anyone know of a good floorwax? I need it for sealing my next pieces after the horsehair technique is done!!

Here's a sneak peak at some new work just created...and some more coming down the pipe. Like I said, I'll be keeping you updated so until then...clay is the way, happy throwing, and enjoy your blown out cylindrical bliss!