Art and Craft Fair Schedule, 2010

Our final shows for 2010 will be Thanksgiving weekend in Arvada, Colorado at the beautiful Arvada Center, followed by the Paonia Holiday Craft Fair at the Blue Sage Center in Paonia.

We look forward to seeing you at the fair!

You can see images and descriptions of our pottery in earlier posting of this web log.

Exciting news accompanies this announcement:
Our Peruvian Family will be joining us!

You may be aware that we have been visiting Taquile Island, Lake Titicaca, Peru since 1986 and have a deep and close relationship with extended family and friends in that indigenous community. The excitement is that a Taquile dance troupe is being brought to Albuquerque (at the U of NM Nov 16-19) and we are then bringing three of these textile artists to the two shows where you can see our work:

The Arvada Center Holiday Art Show Thanksgiving weekend:
9-5 on Friday Nov. 26 and Saturday Nov. 27. 6901 Wadsworth Boulevard in Arvada.
Our booth is #132 on the main level in the center of the room to the left of the stairs and the Peruvian Natives booth just across from ours in #119

The Paonia Holiday Craft Fair at the Blue Sage in Paonia: 3-8 on Friday, Dec. 3 and 9-5 on Saturday Dec. 4, where we will take over the whole stage with pottery and textiles plus weaving and knitting demonstrations.

Both shows will have our pottery booth with our unique Stoneware Fruit/Bread Baskets, Bowls, Figured mugs, and all the functional and sculptural work we've been making for you this year--AND a textile display from Taquile, a designated A UNESCO Cultural Heritage Site for its Textile Art, with open fingered gloves, wool hats, woven belts, ponchos, shawls and bags.

In addition, we will make two public presentations with our Peruvian guests:
in Aspen at ACES on November 29, 6:00pm, and
in Paonia at the Blue Sage on December 6 at 6:30pm.
See more information about "A View from the Andes" at www.taquilefriends.blogspot.com

See you at the fairs!
If you can't make it to the fairs, feel free to give us a call to place an order. 970-527-6570

Or, you may find what you're looking for at our Colorado galleries:
The Earthen Vessel in Durango
Handworks in Crested Butte
Working Artist's Gallery in Grand Junction
Max'ims of Greeley and Estes Park
Munson's Main Street Gallery in Cedaredge
and Toklat Gallery in Basalt.

Bowls

PEDESTALED BOWLS
Three bowls with open curved feet, glazed in turquoise and multiple green. The pedestals give presence to the bowls and also function to facilitate stacking.
Made of stoneware, as is all of our functional work, therefore dishwasher safe--and the open foot avoids water pooling in the foot in the dishwasher!
The dimensions of these three bowls are 7" x 12 ½" x 12 ½", 5 ½" x 10" x 10" and 4 ½" x 8" x 8"
We also make mixing bowls and soup/cereal bowls without the pedestals as well as other glazes, such as the Colorado Columbine brushwork, Aspen Leaves, Royal Blue and Honey Gold.

Galleries and Gift shops that carry our work

We'll be traveling until May of 2010. You can follow our travel blog at www.taquilefriends.blogspot.com
To find our work in the meantime, our pottery is sold at the following Colorado Galleries:
Earthen Vessel -- 115 W 9th St -- Durango -(970) 247-1281
Blue Sage Gallery-- Grand Avenue, Paonia
Handworks -- 302 Elk Avenue -- Crested Butte -(970) 349-6731
Munson's Main Street Galley -- 260 West Main Street -- Cedaredge -(970) 856-6070
Working Artists' Gallery -- 520 Main Street -- Grand Junction -(970) 256-9952
Max'ims of Greely -- 818 9th Street -- Greeley - (970) 352-9341
Max'ims of Estes Park -- 513 Big Thompson Avenue -- Estes Park -(970) 586-6546

Examples of slip-painted work

Tara decorates much of her wheel-thrown work using stencils or natural objects to resist pigmented clay, painting around the objects to create surface textures and adding details with sgraffito technique (scratching off the slip to reveal the lighter colored clay body underneath).

Top: 11 oz mug showing mountains. The other side could be decorated with a variety of wildlife of muscle-powered sports figures. and a 17 oz stein with a moose.

Hummingbird design on a round platter with handles, 11 ½" diameter.

Oval Platter with Elk and Hawk with Mountains and Aspen Forest. 14" x 11" x 2"
The oval platters have an attached foot ring and hanging wire so they can be hung on the wall as well as used for serving food. The raised foot lifts the platter off the table to function as a handle.

Pie plate with Brown Aspen Leaf design, 10" diameter.
Real leaves are used to resist the pigment and the veins are painted in after the plate is dry.

Spoon rest with Hawk and Mountains, 5"

Cranes dancing and flying on a round platter, about 11" diameter

All work is dishwasher, oven and microwave safe.

Chip and Dip/ Pasta Bowl sets

Three examples of Chip and Dip/Pasta Bowl sets.
The large bowls are approximately 3 ½" x 12" x 12" and the accessory bowls are 2" x 6".
The top right is in multiple green glaze and shows the opening of the curved, pedestaled foot as it appears sitting on the table with and the dip bowl in the center as it would traditionally be used. The lower left, in the honey gold glaze reveals the detail of the curved foot from the bottom and the hanging wire. The Hummingbird design is "painted" with pigmented clay slip and this view shows how the rims are altered from round with small indentations around the rim. Each comes with an accessory bowl, which is also a nice size for desserts. The upright inner curve of the big bowl is traditional for serving pasta.

This form is available in various glazes: cobalt blue, columbine brushwork, and other slip-work figures, such as Elk and Mountains and Aspen Leaves.

Fruit Baskets

Three examples of open structured coil built constructions, each 7" x 11" x 11".
On the left is a branching form glazed in spotted shino; the graceful form in the center is glazed in our popular multiple green blend, and on the right is a spiral form in red shino.

These stoneware "baskets" are functional as a fruit or bread baskets, or displayed as decorative objects.
High Fired to 2,300 F., they are very strong.


Two stoneware baskets showing their uses with fruit and vines. These are our more economical “garden” shape of repeating loops, available in many colors, here shown in turquoise and royal (cobalt) blue, 6" x 11" x 11"

Showing various expressions of the "basket" form: Top left, Sculptural "Grove of Trees" roots glazed in honey gold and multiple greens in the branches. Top right, "garden" shape glazed in strong royal blue dated with white accents. Lower row from left to right: "berry basket" shape in sky/sage; "Spiral" shape in multiple-green/teal glazes; two small "soap" baskets, wiggly in honey gold and flattened coils in royal blue.

Sam works on a basket in our basement studio.

Slab Bowls

These soup/cereal sized bows are about 8" in diameter and hold about two cups. The rim is free-form, but each bowl has a place from where you can drink. The bottom is textured and the wheel-thrown foot lends a refinement to the hand built form. The honey-gold glaze is sensitive to the texture and shows the dark and light combed slip in the inside of the bowls.

The first one I made just for me, just for fun. I had it at an art fair, eating my salad, when a patron said, "I want one like THAT!" and I've been producing the ever since. I still eat from my own every day; it's my favorite bowl.

Welcome to Tara Miller Claywork's new blog

Tara Miller Claywork consists of the husband-wife team of Sam Brown and Tara Miller. Tara has been playing and working with clay since 1972; Sam since the two were married in 1984.

Tara does all of the work on the potter's wheel, including hand building with altered wheel-thrown forms, brushwork and other surface treatment. Sam does most of the clay preparation, hand building (especially the coil lattice fruit baskets), stencil work and other surface treatment. Although special pieces may be made in raku, earthenware, or porcelain, the main body of their work is in a light bodied stoneware, hand formed from the wet clay, decorated with pigmented slips (engobes) and glazes, and fired to cone 9-10 with propane. They work both collaboratively and individually, especially glazing work the other predominately made. Most pieces are functional and under 20 inches. The hand building skills of the two give their work a striking uniqueness.

Sam's educational background is in zoology, natural resources, and recreation. He was employed by the National Park Service as a back country ranger for several years. Thus, he brings to the claywork an interest in subjects of wildlife and outdoor activities, science and geometry.

Tara's educational background is in literature, education, and pottery. Her main ceramic education has come from taking courses at Anderson Ranch in Snowmass, Colorado, with such masters as Paul Soldner, John Glick, and Victor Babu. She was once employed as a high school literature teacher, is a poet as well as a potter, and thus brings to the claywork an interest in broad cultural and human issues as well as abstract forms.

Both have traveled in Central and South America, and have been influenced strongly by the cultures, crafts, lifestyles, and environments experienced in traveling. The great variety in their pottery derives from harmony and tension of contrasting skills and interests coming together in collaboration.

They are solar oven experts and have taught construction and use of passive solar cookers in Peru and in Western Colorado. They are committed to helping make a world in which human beings live lightly upon the earth, respecting earth's limits and long term health. They’ve received the E-Town Award and the Smart Shelter Award for this work.

They have shown at various group invitational shows including the Aspen Art Museum in Aspen, 20 and More at the Western Colorado Center for the Arts in Grand Junction, Women's Work at Gallery Connections in Hotchkiss, Objects of Desire in Cinncinnati, Ohio, and Harvest Festival Art Show in Paonia, Colorado where they won the Reader’s Choice award, as well as numerous quality juried Arts and Crafts Fairs. Historic examples of these fairs include The Estes Park Art in the Park, Paonia’s Cherry Days, Carbondale Mountain Fair, and Ridgway Arts and Crafts Rendezvous, Golden Fine Arts Festival in Colorado, , and Santa Fe Fiesta in New Mexico.

Their studio is located at their home one mile south of Paonia, near the West Elk Wilderness, in Western Colorado.