Remembering our beloved Fred Chen (who passed away on January 9, 2022).

The Ceramic Club’s General Meeting on January 11, 2022 (held on Zoom) featured an informal session in honor of Fred Chen, who had passed away on January 9, 2022. Fred was such an important and well-loved member of our club! Included in this session were several of our members’ reminiscences and slideshows of Fred in our Ceramic Studio, as well as some photos of his wonderful pottery. A few photos of Fred are below. Also there's a video recording of the online memorial available for our members to view on YouTube. (Note: it’s about 31 minutes long.)
 LINK: https://youtu.be/3JdX3Up-CLo

This meeting also featured a wonderful Show & Tell session of all sorts of things made by our members in recent months – and not all of them are ceramic, since our studio is still closed. In addition to pottery and sculpture, there were handmade books, jewelry, and knitted hats & scarves, among other things! See below for some of the pictures. For a more complete version (and to see exactly who created which pieces), check out the video of this session, which is available for our members to view on YouTube – click on the link below. (Note: it’s about 30 minutes long.)
LINK: https://youtu.be/SsbEbEHn8mo

Good news about the the Ceramic Arts Club's Open Studio sale on December 5;, which was held outside of the studio's front door. CAC cleared $925 for our club in the 4 hours of the sale! The five CAC members with their own sale tables did well, too - and of course all of them contributed 10% of their sales total to the club. Unfortunately, due to changing COVID-19 conditions and new lockdown orders, the second day of the sale - which had been planned for December 9 - was canceled.

The Show & Tell session at last week’s CAC Zoom meeting (attended by over 40 CAC people on December 15), was amazingly varied and lots of fun to watch. If you missed it (or want to watch it again), you can view that part of the meeting on YouTube, thanks to Linda Mariano. (FYI: it’s private & can only be located via our link.) Here is the link to the video: ​https://youtu.be/dRVIqydOBh4

Below are some of the artworks that were shown during the last meeting's Show & Tell. First off, Amy Pitt's beautiful (and delicious) challah loaf, and Anne Shulenberger's second piece in the current "Trashformations" Art Tag cycle, which was created using various ceramic odd & ends as well as some cut-up images of her old artwork, all mounted on one of her own ceramic platters.

Hetta Malone, one of the people in our latest Orientation Class (which was interrupted by the pandemic/lockdown), shared some of her beautiful photographs.

Mary Ann Stanley shared her story of ceramic loss and redemption. Below left is a photo of a ceramic sculpture by the artist Barbara Sebastian, which she purchased several years ago at one of the CAC's Fall Bazaars. The center photo shows its downfall as the result of a small earthquake. On the right is Mary Ann's reconstruction of the piece into its current wabi-sabi incarnation. What drama - with an excellent ending!

Pat Hanscom's wonderful paper sculptures, below on the left & center, are made out of old/recycled paper that she had collected. The leftmost one is her "Green Man," and was created for the current "Trashformations" Art Tag cycle.

Shown below on the right, Patty Taylor shared 4 of her beautiful ceramic faces decorated with several different non-traditional materials, including "Buff & Rub" (metallic wax), acrylic paint, and fingernail polish. Her preferred methods are pit-fire, saggar or raku fire, but with the studio closed and all the usual materials/equipment unavailable, she has been experimenting - with amazing results. Can't keep a good artist down!

On the left below are two views of Kathy Jepson's intriguing ceramic sculptures: a tree and a portrait bust (both unfinished).

And from Theresa Kuo: "Here's my contribution to the Show and Tell on the 15th.  I felted the slippers from rovings that were left over from spinning wool.  The felting is not as tight as it should be, but at least they fit, unlike the first pair.  The first pair would have been perfect if I had one foot size 9 and the other size 4.  The soles are from leather scraps a friend gave me years ago.  Being a pack rat has its advantages!" 

Theresa is such a versatile artist/craftswoman!

Terri Snyder shared two paintings and a hanging sculpture, all of them created as Art Tag projects. Both of the paintings are on the earlier subject "Shelter," while the sculptural piece is for the current "Trashformations" Art Tag cycle. Love what she's doing!

Carolyn Tertes, a member of our latest Orientation Class (which was interrupted by the pandemic/lockdown), shared an intriguing wall installation that she's been working on during the lockdown. The long view of it is below on the left - you can see more detail by going to the video of the Show & Tell session (the link to that is above, in the 2nd paragraph from the top).

Jim Anderson contributed the photo of his darts hitting the bullseye, below right. During normal times he likes to compete with others in local pubs, but since March he has been honing his skills at home. Looks like it's paying off, too!

Sue Wetzler shared two images during the online Show & Tell: a beautiful photo taken on a hike in the mountains, and a charming little sgrafitto plaque she made, which was recently bisque-fired.

Below are some photos from our Fundraising Sale at Gateway, on the last three Fridays in October. CAC raised $3,704 during the this sale - and then we rounded it up a bit, adding a little more than the equivalent amount from our own treasury, resulting in a donation of $7,500 to the Contra Costa Food Bank! This event was not only a wonderful thing to do for the community, but it was also great fun for the CAC volunteers who participated (led by Betty Baker & Patty Taylor), as well as all of the other Rossmoorians who browsed and purchased the beautiful ceramic pieces.

Theresa Kuo reports, "The quarantine has challenged and inspired me to create. The Rossmoor bubble we live in protects those who take precautions and enjoy life to the fullest!

"The chihuahua quilt is for our daughter-in-law and the poodle one’s for a sister who is a poodle aficionado.  The stockings and house calendar are for the little grandkids (I just finished the Christmas calendar but the numbers for the days have not arrived yet - they were ordered online). The Zoe calendar (I messed up the "Z") is for our 17 year old granddaughter."  

Inspired by the "Mini Totem" demo in our October Zoom meeting, Darryla Green created several of the little totems at home (below left).

Ana Resnick enjoyed painting the beautiful silk scarf that's shown on one of her sculptures, below right.

​Phil Kramer has been painting faces on various rocks with interesting shapes lately, using acrylic paints. They have so much personality!

Mary Ann Stanley recently created a truly unique wall piece as her first in the "Trashformations" Art Tag cycle (shown in the 2 photos below), using some broken frames from her neighbors' trash and round pieces of colored paper, among other materials.

Anne Shulenberger used a lot of glaze samples that she's made and saved over the last few years, as well as the lid and broken-off handle of one of her ceramic teapots, to make the collage below. It's an 18" by 24" board with a lot of other things glued onto it as well, including cardboard, a fabric gift bag and some "silk" flowers. This is her first piece for the current Rossmoor Art Tag cycle all about "Trashformations." 

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