My Creative Space - auction eye hospital

A friend of mine is a doctor for the eye hospital in Rotterdam. They have a very modern and different approach to the hospital experience as I learned when I attended TEDx Rotterdam last year:

Frans Hiddema - TEDxRotterdam 2010 from TEDxRotterdam on Vimeo.

Perhaps just as different is the charity football event which they organise for the 5th time this year. A team from the Rotterdam eye hospital plays against a team from the Moorfield (UK) eye hospital. They will play in "de Kuip" so not just any football stadium. During the after party an art auction is held to raise money for the hospital. This year I'll be one of the artists contributing. I'm happy to be part of all this.  

Cause everyone is a bit blind in the forest, as one cannot see the trees from the wood ;-) And besides there's always these unexpected creatures suddenly blinking their eyes at you. So I created 4 squares in clay with textures of tree bark.

Tiny LED lights will be inserted into the holes / eye sockets, which will give this effect when lit, 2 bright eyes:

All will be mounted on a white background, which I asked the local carpenter to make for me as I wanted it to be perfect with mitred corners and such, which I cannot do myself. The on/off switch and battery compartment will be hidden in there too. I hope it will be liked and fetch lots of money, the auction end of last year for another good cause of one of my story bowls was a great success, so I hope this will be too.

My Creative Space

Currently I'm making more bowls for the fair on the 12th of September in Lommel. As you may know a lot of my bowls feature animals. Sometimes I need to see some pictures just to get the shape and porportions right in my head. I google the animal in question and look through the pictures.

I already made a bowl with a standing bear today and wanted to make another one in a different position. Browsing I came across this story and I just have to make a bowl with bear and a cat now.  If it survives the firings you can come and see it at the fair in Lommel.

My Creative Space

Today I'm getting ready for Saturdays fair. I hope tomorrow the weather will be better so me and hubby can enjoy the last day of his holidays together. The preparations involved besides pricing, packaging, something with plums too:

I made ...... (you'll get to know what this Sweet Saturday) as a give away to the persons who come to the Hand-made in Belgium-fair in Hasselt and who buy over 30 euro of my creations for as long as my stock of this plum-recipe lasts.

My Creative Space

Making bowls, brooches, buttons, ....... for upcoming fairs and shops which sell my items, 

while Max is keeping a close eye on things. 

My Creative Space

Playing with silk, porcelain, cord and glass today to make a piece of wearable art. I had thought of making more bowls, but once rummaging around in my atelier I suddenly found the right combination for all these bits lying around. It happens more often, suddenly an idea comes together, if I would have tried to find it I would have been strugling. So I always wait until it apperas by itself. Even if I have an idea of something I want to make the final result is never firm in my mind beforehand and appears while working on it.
How does that work for you, do you know from the start what the finished product will be?

My Creative Space

Today I had a lazy morning with an early visit to the dentist, just the half-yearly check and luckily all was fine. Than a visit to my parents and popped into my sisters house just for a minute too. I saw them all last Sunday when my sisters baby girl was baptized, so no mayor news to exchange. No news is good news as they say. I gave my brother a hand installing some software and looked at some gold-smithing tools with my sister, she is the real gold smith in the family :-)
Meanwhile the kiln at home was cooling, it had been on since yesterday evening, but firing till 1220°C and cooling takes it's time. You don't want to open the kiln to early and give the pieces a temperature shock. By the time I got back it was getting cool enough to open. I had a peep and saw that the red clay had turned a really nice color, remember the garden ornaments from this post, well here they are after the final firing:

As you can see I fill the small places in the oven with small items, so I'll have lots of rings and brooches to make this afternoon, I made roses, hearts, more jewelry inspired by the folklore form Zeeland, little animals, and little blue twitter birds. The last I'll make into little hangers which I'll give as a present with a sale.