Sally Andersen shares some of her lovely watercolors, and says  "I've been busy painting..   Sure do miss the ceramic studio, though! "

From Fred Chen: "I thought it might be interesting to share some funky teapots I made in the past. These are in fact functional. I classify them as tease-pots." 

Aren't they great?

Lucia Tsang made a marvelous mobile celebrating her granddaughter, who is now 13 years old. Here's what she says about it: "The squares are watercolor pencil on watercolor paper. I did the pencil drawings when my granddaughter was only one month old. The pieces of the mobile all have the same images on both sides."

Carla Winter-Evans has been enjoying her garden, and sent some lovely photos from there.

Ellie Lannon reports, "Here are two planters I’ve been working on. The one on the right is in progress...the other is complete (but has not yet been fired)."

Meanwhile, Pat Hanscom took an online class with Lynn Wood (through the Sonoma Community Center) and made this very nice textured cylinder vase at home. It has not been fired yet.

Patty Taylor's "collage wall sculpture" (photo on the left below), is finished and now ready for bisque firing.  Patty also reports: "Shelter in place has kept me busy designing new jewelry - several necklaces and even a bracelet ." Center Photo: "The orange necklace and the bracelet were made from Air Dry Clay (no need to bisque or fire - it’s very strong),  bought online from Michaels. The green & white necklaces were created from my enormous collection of Raku-fired beads." Right photo: "three Summer necklace designs featuring "sand dollar" clay slices in white, with a splash of gray on silver loops.
 I am having fun!"

Fred Chen says "Since I cannot throw, I stroll. Idle hands find clay not, but iPhone photo knob." 

Left photo: “Hey, slow down! It says 25.” Right photo: “Sharing”

Darryla Green sent us this image of  "Eco-prints from local plants in my new outdoor patio dye/clay studio." Left photo, below.
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Josephine Wang has been doing more Chinese calligraphy: "Same poem, two ways. The one on right is in the formal style. The other one is more casual. It’s like the difference between print and script. I’ve enjoyed the lockdown. I wouldn’t have resumed calligraphy otherwise. " Right photo, below

Susan Scott is "a member of the new Orientation class that didn't quite finish so I'm not in the roster yet."  She has been "taking photos on walks around home (Entry 12 on Golden Rain). The first one (left) is of a tree I love passionately… I had to adjust the exposure to see the face clearly. I visit it daily on my walks. The eye is really there, highlighted by natural light at certain times of the day. It's a broken off branch. The nose and mouth are from a natural knothole." The next two are also wonderful photos - close-ups of nature that resemble abstract paintings.

Anne Shulenberger created the third piece in her "Storm" series (above right) with an oblong ceramic plaque (black, with a sgrafitto'd design) mounted onto an oval canvas.
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Janet Welch recently put a marvelous ceramic birdbath that she made, complete with 2 small birds on it, out in her garden area. She also has two new needlepoint designs (on the 2nd row below), which she did on commission. She certainly knows how to stay busy!

Anne Shulenberger has created another little book using an old leather checkbook cover with collaged pages inside. The title is "Waves / Motion / Emotion" and two different sorts of waves are featured in it. The section of tan pages shows people waving their hands (including 2 children wearing surgical masks). The section of blue pages has photos of ocean waves. There are also words in each section: some phrases and some verses.

Carol Medina's pictures are below - some photographs taken on her rambles around Rossmoor and one artwork (bottom right). She says about the artwork: "it is simply  crayon scratch board.   I am sure many of you have done it in grade school.   I gave it as an assignment many a time in my classes with the little ones.  Also think I gave it to the adolescents and even once in a while to my adult classes .  I always thought it was kinda fun and the kids liked it......."

FYI - here's how you do it: Put layers of various different colors of crayons onto a piece of paper, then a layer of black crayon over everything. Scratch a design with a sharp instrument through it, to reveal the colors. (It will have a black background, of course.)

Terri Snyder has been making a large cylindrical vase, as well as experimenting with watercolors and rubber stamps on  cards. Nice work!

And Albert Goldreich has been making more of his colorful & highly textured vases, in his studio in Texas. Inspiring!

Theresa Kuo has spent a lot of time sewing masks recently (below left are a few of them). She asked us to tell you that any CAC members who do not have a mask can contact her to request one.

And Pat Hanscom's photo of "my most recent bread effort" is below on the right. Looks good enough to eat!

Fred Chen reports "I hope many of our ceramic artists saw the super moon on 4/7.  If you missed it, here a couple of pictures for your perusal." Wow - almost as good as being there.

Below are 2 views of “Pastel,” Patty Taylor's latest beautiful sculpture, which she created at home during the shutdown  It is 13" in height, and sits on a base that's another 6" tall (the base was fired in last year's Pit Fire). The clay is B-mix with grog, and she applied terra sigliatta and stain colors to the surface when the piece was leather hard. Now it's ready to be bisque fired. Patty says "I may either Pit fire or Raku the sculpture."

Anne Shulenberger has used her tablet & several different apps to make a some digital "prints" from photos of flowers taken around Rossmoor. On the left is a clump of narcissus; on the right are poppies.

Darryla Green says "My patio is now a dyeing workshop. Here is a testing sample - I used local plants over madder root on the fabric." (left photo below)

Maggie Michelitch made a wonderful long scarf (shown below on the right) with the help of YouTube videos. There's no end to what you can learn while sheltered at home!

Barbara Wightman reports, "I have a lot in Rossmoor’s garden and I wanted to start seeds at home. I didn’t have any pots, so I made them out of my neighbor’s newspapers. I eventually made 70 pots (shown below on the left) - and all the seeds sprouted!

"The photo on the right shows what I did with some of my scrapbooking paper. I decided to clean out a closet and saw my stacks and stacks of scrapbook paper and wondered what to do with them. So I made some envelopes and then matching cards (unfortunately,  I still have stacks and stacks)!"

Sandy Walker sent us these two "pictures of my quilts that I've been working on during this stay-at-home time." Wow - they're wonderful.

Albert Goldreich (still in Texas, alas), has been making some lovely textured vases, 3 of which are shown below.

Phil Kramer has been constructing a small totem pole with individual pieces that go together, all mounted on a pole (below left). It was started before our closure and he's been adding more to it at home. Can hardly wait to see it once everything is colorfully glazed and high fired!

Meanwhile we can see how Drue Kramer has been "filling time waiting to return to the studio (photo on the right).  I made the ceramic hat bases in the studio, then decorated them at home with a bunch of craft dough flowers that I made several years ago, and hot glued them all together. These are tiny tiny (and don’t fit my model, sadly)."
No matter - they are terribly cute, aren't they?

Barbara Wightman has been very creative during this time - very inspiring, and all done while recuperating from surgery. Have to say it again: you can't keep a good woman down!

In Barbara's words, "In the first photo (below on the left, with hand painted envelope), I did a watercolor seahorse for my granddaughter’s birthday.  She graduated from UC San Marcos (about 30 miles north of SD) and has decided to make her life around that most beautiful part of our state. She’s into everything and anything that has to do with the beach and sea critters.  I chose a seahorse because the males do the pregnancy thing and have the babies. I’m not sure, but it may be the only species where the females get a break from bearing the kids."
And on the right: "I made a wreath for my front door. I go walking on our 18-hole golf course every day for about 2 miles (yes, the hip has healed nicely!). I came across a huge eucalyptus limb that had crashed to the ground right next to the path. So for the next day’s walk, I took my clippers and a basket and helped myself to loads of branches. I made quite a mess of my dining room table and carpet, but I did manage to come up with a wreath for my front door. The leaves will eventually dry and curl, giving another effect."

Darryla Green has been sketching with sumi ink and brushes lately. The picture on the left below is of a landscape near her home, done with a brush she bought in Japan last summer. On the right are some of her own hand-made brushes with local gathered seeds.

Below are some ceramic pieces made BEFORE the shutdown. On the left are a selection of Theresa Kuo's wonderful hand-painted bowls, and on the right is a stack of colorful bowls by Nancy Meaden. Just below the bowls are four of Nancy's lovely hand-painted cups.

Albert Goldreich sent us a photo of one of his beautiful vases (left photo). He's currently at work in his studio in Texas, but hopes to be able to come back to California soon, which is good because we really miss him!

[NOTE: on the right is Lucia's book - see below for more information about it]

Lucia Tsang has made an amazing hand-bound book while sheltering at home (see photos above). It has a Coptic binding (her favorite kind), which allows it to lie flat when opened. She used a curved needle and waxed thread to bind it.
 
Lucia says "The book's title is 'WE' - inside I will write down some simple stories about my husband and me.  The shadows on the front cover are mine and my husband's. It will be kind of like a simple 'family tree' book." She wrote the title (in both Chinese and English) on separate clear acetate sheets that protect the front and back covers, which are mono-prints. The covers are made of printmaking paper; the 44 interior pages of drawing paper.

Bella sent some pictures of her tulips and one of the masks she's been sewing. Beautiful!

Fred Chen says "No wheel to turn, no pot to throw, so I turn to bird watching. Keeping the feeder well stocked becomes my daily chore."

Look at those wings - what a great sense of motion!

And from Mel Bricker: "I'm enjoying the creativity of nature interfacing with the pots I created in the studio.  It is wonderful to be greeted by both the plants and pots, although the pots are a little hard to see through the foliage. Here are photos of two of our favorite plants that are really blooming right now."

(They look great - but it's too bad we can't see the pots better. They looked really good before anything was planted in them!)

On the left, Terri Snyder with some more of her ceramic works-in-progress - looks like she's having fun! And on the right is a new sculpture that Gaby Miller has started at home. She said it's the first time she's tried making a head, which is quite impressive!

Below are two acrylic paintings by John Rose. On the left are the Hills of Rossmoor. The landscape on the right was done while watching a demo on YouTube  - he said that he used a palette knife on the tree. Very nice work!

Chrissie & Hank Fabian each have made some lovely and unique garden ceramics - Hank's is the one on the left, while Chrissie's sculptural pot is on the right.

Anyone who spends time in the Ceramic Studio has seen Janet Welch's work: colorful jewelry, quirky sculptures, portraits of dogs & other animals on small ceramic plates. Above on the left you can see another skill that Janet is a master at - custom needlework design. And it's another wonderful dog portrait!
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Anne Shulenberger has been doing some sgrafitto on unfired tiles she brought home when the studio closed. Above on the right is one called "Catitude," which is a work-in-progress. "It will look very different once it's fired - for one thing the clay that's so dark now (i.e., the color of the cat in the center) will become a light speckled tan. That's what makes ceramic work so exciting. You never know exactly how things will turn out; it can be like alchemy!" Anne says.

Terri Snyder not only brought some clay home and started to make a cylinder with it, but she's also been teaching her husband Ron how to do it. What a great way to shelter in place! Ron is a very talented painter (you can see some of his work on the walls behind them) who is not yet a CAC member - however I think we'll be seeing more of him in the future!

Above  are images of John Terlip's work, and these are his words: "Here are a couple pieces of my recent clay work. The bottle is sagger fired, and the other pot was purposely broken and each piece fired with a different type Raku. I have also included a poem I wrote last week (shown below), with the view I see every morning from my desk. I'm currently the ceramic artist at Villa Con Cuore (an Art Retreat in Fallbrook, CA in the San Diego area). I'm living in my RV across from the art studios, and I have just extended my trip for another 3 months."
 
We look forward to seeing John (and his amazing work!) when he returns. For information about the place where he is staying right now, click on this link: www.villaconcuore.com 

During the current shutdown Ana Resnick has used some of her spare time to knit a scarf for a sculpture of a woman that she had created a while ago - see below. Presto - a mixed-media artwork is born!

Also below is Chrissie Fabian's acrylic painting "Cat......astrophe" - which she says is a picture of her daughter's cat. Some of us have seen sculptures of Chrissie's in our studio which seem to be of the same critter.. some cat!

Jim Anderson has been creating square vessels with bird features in our studio for some time now, and folks often ask what he does with them. Well now we know - there's a whole flock of birds on his desk, all put to good use!

Patty Taylor's composition below shows one of her beautiful sculptures (a work in progress) temporarily "muzzled" by COVID-19. However on the right is her new home clay studio. Which just goes to show - you can't keep a good woman down!

Working at home, Anne Shulenberger transformed an old leather checkbook cover into an accordion book with the title "Storm." She glued in colorfully collaged handmade paper as the pages, then made a latch for the little book using part of a wooden chopstick with a bead on top. The left side pages are about fires destroying wildlife in Australia; the right side is about the genesis of our current Pandemic.

While the Ceramic Studio is shut down (along with almost everything here) due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of our members have been making art at home - and not necessarily out of clay!

The work above is from Josephine Wang (who is our current featured artist - you can check out her beautiful sculpture & pottery in the Ceramic Studio's display window if you happen to be down there). Here's what she has to say about it: "I did some Chinese Calligraphy for the first time in many years.  These are two different styles. The one on the left was the style of calligraphy used during the reign of the emperor who ordered the construction of the tomb with the Terra-cotta Army (i.e., in the late 200's, BC).  The one on the right matured in Tang Dynasty and is still the classic style today. A great exercise in centering oneself and whiling away time"
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Below is a fabric piece by Darryla Green, who said "This fabric with big black blob-shapes was purchased last year in Kyoto, on our Japan trip. I didn’t buy quite enough, being unfamiliar with meters - so I've added a strip of fabric that's sort of fringe-looking, to lengthen the bottom. I am only hand-sewing. In no hurry, since this period of our lives may last a while."

Below is a charming ceramic tile (still unfired) by Sue Wetzler. Sue says "This week with little to do, I did a sgrafitto design on a small tile I had made during the class, that had gotten bone dry. I had painted several of them with underglaze and brought them home.  It’s no great work of art (I really can’t draw) but I like it. Hope you are doing well and staying healthy. I miss the studio!"

Check out the paintings by Sally Andersen. Sally's words about them: "I've been painting watercolors every day!  These are in progress...  Not finished yet." Well, you could have fooled us - they look beautiful!

CAC's first-ever Artists' Soiree was held the evening of February 28, 2020 at the Rossmoor Event Center. It was a wonderful event, featuring two of our very creative members: Gaby Miller and Karen Hoyt. Each of them had a table devoted to displaying a wide selection of their ceramic pieces, and Mel Bricker, our CAC Rossmoor News correspondent, interviewed the artists about their lives and creative experiences.

There was a lot of animated discussion and mingling before the interviews, fueled by some wonderful live jazz, wine, and delicious "small bites" (provided by members of the CAC Board). It was a lovely celebration of ceramic art and our warm community!