She's Creative! Part Two

So awhile back I shared a dark Creativity Confession with you, my faithful followers. The truth is, once upon a time, I was creative. I wonder to myself, what happened? Was there some event that utterly convinced me I had no creative bones in my body? As I got older was it no longer cool to ride my bike to Color Cafe? I guess I'll have to do a little more soul searching before I can reveal the answer to that one! In the meantime, I'll continue to post evidence of my past glory days. I'm finding it is SO much fun to stumble upon these ceramic pieces I haven't thought about in years! Here's my latest discovery, which, as you can see, is circa 1998:

Call me crazy, but I don't think that's half bad! I was clearly partial to the French Dimensions and Concepts back in those days. I still am, actually, with a new love of Crystals Glazes! For this project I used FD 258 Pure White, as well as CN 261 Light Grape, CN 041 Light Papaya, CN 061 Light Salsa, Cn 181 Light Kiwi, CN 121 Light Nautical, CN 123 Dark Nautical, and CN 142 Bright Aqua. Wouldn't it be so fun to try to do this project now?! I'm totally inspired to give it a try! Stay tuned to see how it turns out. Until then, I'm going to keep digging around my parents' house to see what else I can find. Do you guys have any long forgotten ceramic pieces laying around? Send me pictures and I'll share them with everyone! Happy hunting!

Interview with Ceramic Superstar Suzie Shinseki

iLoveToCreate, a Duncan Enterprises Company is known by many as "the most creative company in the world"! We got this name in large part due to our AMAZING team of designers. These people are so creative, it's ca-razy! All of our ceramic pieces are designed by Suzie Shinseki. Check her out in our Duncan ad!

I asked Suzie a few questions so all of you could get to know our celebrity a little better!

So Suzie, how old were you when you first started doing ceramics? I was in my 50s!

Really?! So what drew you to the Ceramic Arts? It was the other way around - Ceramics drew me. I was introduced to ceramics in my first position at iLoveToCreate (then Duncan Enterprises) as Color Tile Technician. It was my job to learn about ceramics and cleaning greenware, and to paint small tiles using our product. Today we have so much more product!

I bet! Speaking of Duncan product, what's your favorite product to create with, and why? If I had time to do anything of my own, my product of choice would be E-Z Stroke™ Translucent Underglazes, Concepts® Underglazes, and other products (like Crystals™ Glazes) t0 add interest in areas. My background is in Fine Arts and illustrative work, and these two products lend themselves to achieving the details and capturing the realism in a piece.

What's a typical day like for you? Give us the inside scoop on being an iLoveToCreate designer! A typical day as an iLoveToCreate designer? Let's see... I start off the day at the computer checking e-mails and our computer system for my daily tasks. From there, it's juggling the jobs and taking on the most urgent. My tasks may range from one end of the spectrum to the other, so it can be challenging!

It's true! I've seen you go from designing a ceramic piece to sewing an apron, all in one day. I know it's probably tough to choose, but what's your favorite piece you've created? I think my favorite would be a piece I created with E-Z Stroke™ Translucent Underglazes many years ago!

Any words of wisdom you can pass on to aspiring ceramists? The only thing I can say (and I apply to myself, as well) is to do what you enjoy and keep at it. Keep painting and creating...you can only get better each time and learn!

A big thank you to Suzie for taking time out of her busy day to chat with us!

Every Cube Needs Some Flair

While 80's inspired trends like bleached jeans and neon pops of color rule Back-To-School this year, I'm still into last years skull trend. I might be a little over skulls on clothing, but I'm definitely loving this Paul Frank Skurvy bike and this Skull bow from Tarina Tarantino's new City Girl Collection and this super cute Babydoll Skull plaque! It's been awhile since I've done a project, and I've been wanting to try out the X-Treme Dimensions™ line, so this project seemed perfect! Plus my cubicle at work could use a little flair. I'm the only person at iLoveToCreate who's cube isn't plastered with projects! Here's my finished project, proudly displayed outside my cube:So cute! My only disappointment is that the black ran a bit. Oops, I guess I was a little too anxious to brush on my Pure Brilliance! If I were to do this project over, I would definitely let it dry a little longer, and also sponge on my first coat of Pure Brilliance, and then brush on my second coat. One other issue I encountered was that my X-Treme Dimensions™ were pretty old, so they had thickened and were hard to squeeze out of the bottle. Luckily this problem has a quick fix! I just added a few drops of Duncan Thin 'n Shade, stirred it into the X-Treme Dimensions™, and they worked perfectly! It was totally worth the extra work. The multi-colored specks (you can see them better in the professional photo) give the piece such a cool effect! So this is what people see now when they walk into my cubicle. Pretty intimidating, right?! Yea, I'm hard core :)

Some people get all the talent...

In my early blogging days, I told you all about the IADCCT regional and the 50 Duncan Certified Ceramic Teachers that took iLoveToCreate by storm. As a thank you to iLoveToCreate for hosting the event, Arlene Smith and the Southern Stars chapter of IADCCT presented this beautiful quilt to Larry Duncan. Check it out:
These people are amazing ceramists AND quilters?! Not fair! I’m working on developing just ONE creative talent! This quilt is not only beautiful, but it has special meaning to the iLoveToCreate team, as every square contains a picture of something Duncan related. If you look closely, you can see pictures of Erma Duncan, the Duncan family, pictures from the IADCCT regional, and the Duncan University logo. Thank you SO much to Arlene and all the members of the Southern Stars chapter. The quilt is such an amazing gift, and we’re working on finding the perfect place to display it so that all iLoveToCreate team members can enjoy it!