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Journal

News from Dowd House Studios: places to find our pottery, exhibitions, classes & workshops, new forms and exciting projects.

Filtering by Tag: jenny dowd sculpture

Tiny Desk Adventure

Jenny Dowd

Earlier this year I saw an interesting call for entries at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia. The exhibition Small Favors called for objects that fit within a 4 x 4 x 4 inch plexi cube. I love making tiny things and brainstormed for a few days with my dad about a subject, we had some funny ideas but both liked the idea of making teeny tiny bookshelves.

I used a red stoneware for the shelves and books, and white slip with simple sgraffito designs on the books. One idea my dad and I had was to balance a little cup of tea on one of the shelves. I made the tiniest little cup with a handle and a saucer, but after dropping it a few times decided on a little vase with flowers.

Looks huge laid out like this, but the shelf this is resting on is from a little test kiln and measures only 9 inches wide. After firing and assembly, I had some fun posing the shelves for a photo… light switch for scale!

Titles are usually the hardest, I gave this one the name: Tiny Desk Adventure after sharing the photo with a friend who said it reminded her of the Tiny Desk Concerts on NPR. Books are such adventures and with a tiny bookshelf on your desk who knows where you will go!

I was pretty excited when this little piece was accepted into the exhibition, it’s on display until June 2nd but will be visible online for much longer. This is the 50th anniversary of this themed exhibition and almost 500 tiny sculptures are included. See all the work here: (although some images are still being added, so mine might not be at this link yet) https://www.theclaystudio.org/exhibitions/small-favors-2024

All the pieces are online for viewing and purchasing, the link to the whole shop is here: https://public.theclaystudio.org/public/shop/collections/232/Small%20Favors%202024

And the link to my piece is here: https://public.theclaystudio.org/public/shop/item/47767/Jenny%20Dowd/Tiny%20Desk%20Adventure

Source Comment
categories Art Exhibitions
tags small favors, jenny dowd sculpture, tiny sculpture, ceramic sculpture, ceramic books

Tiny Food

Jenny Dowd

Tiny Food!

What is cuter and more mouth watering?

I do not know.

When the Fayetteville Public Library Innovation Lab asked me to teach an air dry clay workshop earlier this month I could not stop thinking about making tiny foods. (If you live in or near Fayetteville, be sure to check out the events at the library - the workshops are free!)

It’s been awhile since I have used air dry clay, but I remembered that working with Fimo is fun. Plus it comes in lots of bright colors and has a long working time.

I spent a couple of afternoons at the kitchen table, giggling while I made some of my favorite foods. Making waffles might have been my favorite, I was pretty excited when I realized a match stick would be perfect for making the square waffle-spots. Unfortunately, the experience was not all giggles. I managed to burn / melt the first batch in the toaster oven (probably not the best for even and exact heat.) I was so sad that I didn’t take a photo, so you’ll just have to imagine a bunch of sad-burnt-melted tiny food.

During the 2-hour workshop my students made the coolest tiny foods! I brought boxes for everyone to transport their foods home in, so those got decorated as well. S’mores, sushi, pies, cakes, popcorn, pizzas, cakes, noodles… oh we had a great time and were all rather hungry when we left!

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categories Community Projects, Education, New Ideas, Sculpture, Workshops & Classes
tags tiny clay food, polymer clay, fimo clay food, fayetteville public library art workshop, jenny dowd sculpture

Park(ing) Day 2019

Jenny Dowd

PARK(ing) Day happened on September 20th in Jackson. This is a day (all over the country) where artists reimagine parking spaces into places of possibility. This was the 5th year Jackson has been involved, organized by Jackson Hole Public Art, and my first year participating.

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Check out last week’s Journal entry to see how I built my cart…

Once the cart was finished, I could focus on the final touches. A fabric canopy was made to provide shade, I kept this simple by sewing a piece of fabric then drawing a little embellishment on the edge. It’s rather rickety - so at this point I started hoping for a day without wind.

I’ve been making flowers for the cart all summer, some even came from past projects. I put my dad to work cutting stems (wire) for the clay flowers. Each type of flower made from porcelain.

After bisque firing the flower, the stem is attached, then it gets bathed with color… I used a mix of acrylic and whiting (calcium carbonate) and then layers of watercolor.

The finished flowers were poked into the styrofoam inserts that line the cart, and after a test of the awning, plus the addition of signs, it was ready for a parking space!

On a wet, cold, rainy Friday morning Jeny’s Flower Cart opened! I had to set up a tent over my parking space so it wouldn’t melt. I was located in front of Hand Fire Pizza on a very busy Cache Street.

The gloomy, cold day was made cheerful as I invited people walking by to make flower bouquets for free! I have no idea how many flowers I made, and no idea how many I gave away, but I probably went home with less than half of what was started with.

For a little history on the flower cart…

In 2016 I was invited to create an artwork for a Tiny Art Show curated by JH Public Art. Since the show was featured at the People’s Market (a farm & art market in Jackson) I thought a tiny flower stand would be welcome. I made a little cardboard shelf that would hang on the wall and filled it with clay flowers, bouquets, and vases.

A year later after Penny Lane Cooperative opened on Scott Lane, the businesses on that block had a “Midtown Throw-Down” and invited artists to sell their work during the evening event. Since I was already selling my pottery in Penny Lane, I decided to make a concessioner’s tray full of flowers, and walked around during the event selling flowers.

It seemed that the next logical step would be a flower cart, it took me a few years to find the right venue and to plan and build the cart.

Not sure what’s next, but I’m looking forward to a break from making flowers!

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categories Art Exhibitions, public art, Problem Solving, Process
tags parking day, jh public art, flower cart, flower factory, jenny dowd sculpture

Sketch to Life

Jenny Dowd

My sketching process is really messy, sketchbooks get torn up and little scraps of paper usually hold the best ideas. Often I can’t figure out how to define the idea on paper and the sketch becomes 3D - clay or wire, and then gets recycled.

The past few weeks I’ve been cleaning and organizing my studio space as well as attempting to wrangle art images into files and onto my websites. This is a good way to find odd things and reminders of past projects. Here are 2 of the most vague sketches I found and their resulting sculptures…

Believe it or not this was the final sketch for a ceramic and steel chandelier made for a project in 2016. It was just enough information on paper for me to move on to clay. I remember showing this drawing to a few people who seemed to understand it and were really excited… maybe my verbal description was more coherent, or maybe they were just being polite. Either way, this is what the sketch turned into:

Wyoming Sky Lantern was commissioned by Agnes Bourne for the foyer of the Designer Show House at the 2016 Western Design Conference. Read all about this project in this past Journal entry. The chandelier is now permanently living in a private home, the owner shared these images and I absolutely love them. I never would have guessed how the porcelain would change color with the lighting and environment. Maybe that is why my sketches are so vague?

This sketch was from a project last summer, I collaborated with Matt Daly to make 12 thaumatropes that were installed around Emily Steven’s Pond. This project was part of FoundSpace, a project designed by Jackson Hole Public Art and the Jackson Hole Land Trust. Once again, a very simple sketch became something quite complicated.

Read more about this project and see images of all the thaumatropes on my website.

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categories Problem Solving, Sculpture
tags jenny dowd sculpture, foundspace, sketching, Ceramic light shades, thaumatropes