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October 21, 2005

trip to georgie's & to w.c. winks

by sven at 8:31 pm

Today I squeezed in a visit to Georgie's Ceramic and Clay Co (756 N. Lombard). Within five minutes of walking through the door, the thought that went through my mind was "I'm in heaven." ...After a longer browse, I think I'd downgrade that sentiment -- but still, it was really thrilling.

See, I've only ever been to general art supply stores, such as Art Media. I haven't been to a store that specifically deals with clay and sculpture. Until now. There were potters' wheels, and a billion glazes, and wax in bulk, and sculpting tools, and wiring for electric lights, and books... I can hardly wait to go back and take another look around.

Perhaps the best discovery: I'm not crazy! I found a book about sculpting styrofoam and then smearing paperclay over it! The book is Easy Sculpted Foam for Your Home: 25 Fantastic and Fun Accent Pieces by Koren Russel. ...The projects aren't very appealing to me -- but the technique is exactly what I've been trying to invent by myself. It even talks about something I just figured out last night: that you can fix cracks in your clay with spackle -- since spackle (unlike clay or plaster) doesn't shrink.

The book passed the "Will I regret not buying this if I never see it again?" test, so I bought it. I also purchased a copy of 500 Figures in Clay: Ceramic Artists Celebrate the Human Form, edited by Veronika Alice Gunter. I've come to realize that I'm most interested in art that has a human form of some sort in it. This book is just up my alley -- it's going to be great for inspiration.

On a separate errand, trying to get some specific metric screws with which to fix our couch, I found my way to WC Winks Hardware (200 SE Stark). Wow -- this is a really interesting and extensive hardware store! I came right as they were about to close, so I didn't get to look around much -- but the staff were extremely helpful, and I saw things that I wanted to spend more time exploring. Like a very small hand-held rotary saw (yum). ...I did, however, manage to pick up a little tub of spackle before checking out.

Wow! How often do you discover two great new stores in one day?

posted by sven | October 21, 2005 8:31 PM | categories: sculpture