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Prairie Grove, AR, 72753
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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: tiny art

Little Pocket

Jenny Dowd

Several months ago I was invited to make a piece for a show at Mystery Print Gallery in Pinedale, WY and I think the prompt was one of my all-time favorites: Tiny Vacant Spaces.

I had so many ideas right from the start, but also completely discounted each one of them as they didn’t fully fit the theme.

I thought about the pocket my mom made for me that I would put under my pillow at night with a tooth for the tooth fairy.

I thought about my school desk in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade when I was convinced a mouse lived in there at night. Before leaving every afternoon I would arrange my books and school supplies to create little stairs, hallways, and nooks for the mouse. In the morning I would wonder at what antics it got up to while the school was quiet.

I thought about envelopes and hollow mushrooms and clouds and ladders and how the moon appears so tiny.

At the absolute last minute, the day before the final shipping deadline I came back to the pocket.

I found a tiny 4x4 inch frame and created a stack of fabric to fill the space, and then made a teeny tiny pocket for the top of the stack. The thick frame means the piece can hang on the wall or stand up in a nook.

These are my thoughts on pockets, and specifically - Little Pocket:

Too often there are no pockets where there should be pockets. All the possibilities of the myriad of things that could go in those pockets are lost. Little Pocket is a shadowy ghost of the pocket that should be.

As much as I enjoy coming up with ideas, I also like a good challenge in packing and shipping my art - so here was my solution -

After placing a protective front over the open frame the whole thing was wrapped in foam, and held in place with not only strawberry tape but also a rubber band. Then I popped it into a little box. Pretty easy compared to some!

The exhibition will be on display at Mystery Print Gallery until December 30, 2023 - if you are in the area stop by and see how all the artists interpreted this theme. And keep an eye on the Mystery Print FaceBook page for photos of the show!

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categories Art Exhibitions, Process
tags fabric art, little pocket, tiny vacant spaces, tiny art

Flower Stand 2.0

Jenny Dowd

The Flower Stand is back!

The first time the flower stand showed up was in 2016. The original was made for a tiny art show, every piece included was required to be less than 12x12 inches. Since the show was at a farmer’s market I decided my art should reflect the vibe. (Check out the story here)

Since then the flower stand has had a few evolutions - a concessioner’s tray in 2017 and a full size flower cart in 2019 (that story is here)

Now I need a small portable flower stand that can sit on a table or a shelf and can accompany me to street fairs.

I love working with corrugated cardboard! I just dug through my recycle bin to find the right box to tear up. This flower stand has a little stage for vases and bouquets as well as a front area with blue foam for single flowers to be stuck into.

This time I decided to make nicer tiny vases, so I threw some on the wheel. These tiny forms were tough! That’s the first time I’ve thrown that small, for scale the cylinder to the right of the vases will be an espresso mug.

After making additional white flowers - porcelain flowers with wire stems get dipped in a powdery white solution with an acrylic medium - the fun part begins!

Each bunch of flowers gets wrapped up in scraps of colorful fabric with a bit of ribbon. Looks like this flower stand will be just right!

Merlin may be a studio cat, but he doesn’t like everything made in the studio. He hates these flowers. I have to store them far out of reach or he will destroy them. But I did let him sniff a bouquet. He was not impressed.

Bouquets will be available at street fairs and are also available on my web shop! They make a fun gift to send by mail, plus these flowers will last forever!

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categories New Ideas, Process
tags tiny flowers, tiny art, tiny bouquet, ceramic flowers, flower stand

Just in case

Jenny Dowd

Early this year I created a prototype artwork for Art-o-Mat. This is something that I have wanted to do for years, probably since I first heard about this project. Art-o-Mat machines are retired cigarette vending machines that have been refurbished and now dispense tiny artworks.

Before realizing how wild this year would be, I came up with an idea to use the billions of porcelain teeth I had carved for past projects. (See some here) I always get a kick out of reactions to these teeth, it’s either a laugh or a cringe, never anything in-between. Last fall I started making little cards, similar to a spare button card, with “just in case.” I gave these to a few friends to see how they reacted.

A few prototypes later, I was ready to test my idea for Art-o-Mat (if you are interested in submitting a prototype check out the info here) In late January I found out that my prototype was accepted, so I put together 50 boxes for my first delivery. Each tooth is numbered and packed in a cigarette sized box. I decorated the boxes and wrapped them in acetate so they will vend.

The neat thing is not knowing where my tooth-filled boxes will end up. There are Art-o-Mat machines all over the country and each host decides what artwork they would like to fill their machine with. When everything shut down this summer I lost the drive to post about my new artwork and the excitement of being part of this project.

But just a few weeks ago I got my very first Green Card! This card shows how many Helpful Objects have been sold and where the machines are.

So, when you are out traveling again, keep an eye out for an Art-o-Mat, who knows what you will find!

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categories Process, Projects, Sculpture, New Ideas
tags art-o-mat, tiny art, tooth, tooth sculpture, Helpful Objects

A New Flower Stand

Jenny Dowd

My flower stand has a new home with a yard full of flowers!

The flower stand has had many evolutions since its first appearance at a Tiny Art Show in 2016. Now I’m happy to announce that it lives in Market, a shop inside of Vertical Harvest in Jackson.

I picked a few icy cold blue flowers and made a little yard with a white picket fence to grow extra flowers.

There are lots of tiny vases available and visitors can make their own bouquets or just select a few blooms.

This is a great gift for those of us who are not so great at keeping house plants alive (or out of the mouths of our pets.) And a nice way to brighten these snowy days!

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categories Sculpture, Shops with Pottery, Studio
tags tiny art, sculpture, cardboard sculpture, tiny flowers, flower stand, Market Jackson Hole, Vertical Harvest