crafts – Ornamento

A Terrarium Class and One Big Fish

By: ornamento.blog June 8, 2017June 7, 2017

Art, art, creativity, crafts, inspiration, crafts, GardeningArt, Design, Terrarium, Woodstock Trading CompanyLeave a Comment

I made a terrarium! It is currently happily situated in my kitchen out of the reach of curious paws (Read Boris) and I am enjoying having a little greenery around me. I used to have quite a few plants before Plumpton went on a feline scratch and fern mission. I made my terrarium at a class that crafter and plant expert Masha Zelen taught at the Woodstock Trading Company in Cherry Hill, NJ (you know, the purple building with two antique hearses parked out front.)

Masha makes terrariums and fills them with succulent plants, cute little polymer clay Gnomes and toadstools. If you like, she can make you a terrarium or teach you how to make your own. Woodstock owner Gladys Glass was so taken with Masha’s work that she invited her to teach a class for Woodstock’s customers. Masha showed up on class day loaded with glass containers, potting soil, assorted pebbles glass chunks and toad stools and a group of gnomes clamoring to be assigned to terrariums. We got to work as she took us through the steps of selecting plants and accessories and making our own little gnome and toadstool habitats.

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Masha explaining how to care for a terrarium

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The Gnomes were very well behaved considering how eager they were to be assigned to a terrarium.

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Our finished terrariums. Don’t they look great? If your are interested in learning how to make your own terrarium or hosting a class, go to Masha’s Facebook page, Made By Masha, for more information and her contact information.

Aside from offering classic rock and roll memorabilia, beads, vintage posters and every type of incense this side of The Land of Frankencense, Woodstock hosts rock concerts on its lawn, drum circles, a yearly Maypole celebration and other family events. Get more information on Gladys’ Facebook page, here or follow Woodstock on Instagram.

And what about the fish, you ask? The big fish was exercising its fins in a huge tank as Gladys her husband and I entered a restaurant for dinner later in the evening. Working up an appetite no doubt.

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Sculpting a Cat Figurine

By: ornamento.blog November 10, 2016October 30, 2016

Art, Boris, Cats, Ceramics, crafts, creativityArt, Cats, ceramics, inspiration, Sculpture3 Comments

Boris was not the inspiration for this figurine although I have been taking a figure drawing class and drawing Boris for practice. No, he does not pose for me. What cat would? But he is good for ten nanosecond poses and gesture drawing. Sculpting a cat figurine sounded like a a fun idea. I have sculpted two cats before, but both were in polymer. Now that I have access to a pottery studio, I decided to try my hand at making a terra cotta cat which is a horse of a totally different hue.

Here are the preliminary stages of the figurine. You have to be careful not to leave any air bubbles in the clay. Small ones will probably dry closed but big ones can explode in the kiln. And unless all the clay is thoroughly dry inside and out, there is a danger of explosion in the kiln.

Here is where I started adding character. You will note that the cat looks well fed. In fact, I had to make his tummy hollow to insure that the clay would dry and that the figurine would not weigh a ton. I made an air hole underneath the figurine, wrapped it in plastic, and when the clay was hard enough, I put the puss on two sticks so air would reach the hole and dry inside. I put the figurine aside and forgot about it for a few weeks as it dried out slowly-the best way to prevent cracking. I did some painting with underglaze before putting the cat in the kiln. When he came out in one piece, the hard part was over,

I glazed the cat with matte clear glaze for the final firing. the white, orange, blue and other colors you see are the underglaze.

And here is the finished cat! His I.D tag, which is hard to see, says “Tiny.”

The resident art critic seems to approve.

Sculpture For Your Ears

By: ornamento.blog January 15, 2015January 15, 2015

Art, copper, crafts, creativity, inspiration, Jim SanbornArs Medendi, Jim Sanborn, King Britt, Personal History, Philadelphia, Photography1 Comment

A few years ago, I wrote a post about an intriguing sculpture in the courtyard of Jefferson University a few blocks from my house called Ars Medendi.

At the time I wrote the post, there was a dearth of information on the Internet about the Ars Medeni cylinder or the screen, which is a shame. As I was reading the Philadelphia Inquirer this weekend, I was delighted t come upon a short mention of music composed specifically for these sculptures. by King Britt called Copper Speaks to Flesh, which you can download here.

As King Britt explains on his web site

“So I was commissioned by Bowerbird of Philadelphia to create a sonic re-interpretation of the Ars Medendi sculpture by Jim Sanborn. The sculpture is comprised of many medical terms cut into copper. The sound art can be listened thru your phone by QR Code while looking at it in person or download here. I wanted to incorporate the words in my piece, so I got Ursula Rucker to say sequences of words from the piece. I then processed them through pedals and such. I also asked two people that were standing around the piece, what it meant to them and put that at the end of my piece as a perfect ending….”

Read my post on the Philadelphia Percent for Art program, here.

I hope you enjoy this marriage of music and metal.

Pancakes for Breakfast Made With Love

By: ornamento.blog December 18, 2014December 18, 2014

Art, crafts, creativity, inspiration, South PhillyArt, artistic collaboration, ceramicsLeave a Comment

Happy Holidays from South Philadelphia! We decided to make plates for two little boys for their weekly pancake breakfasts with their parents. Dad makes chocolate chip pancakes for the family every Sunday. Yum, Yum!

So, where did we go ? Why The Expressive Hand a charming paint your own pottery shop in the heart of Bella Vista. That’s owner Marcie Ziskind showing Bubbie how to do lettering on the rim of the plate.