Victoria Day Weekend

This May 24th Weekend (actually May 18-21), my friend Alexis Templeton and her family will be coming to Brookfield to spend the holiday with me and mine.

Here is some of Alexis' Salt Fish line from a previous visit to Norton's Cove.  She also makes stunning Iceberg pieces, Crystaline Glaze pots, Sea Urchin bowls, etc.  What will she bring with her this time?  You'll have to visit to find out!

Alexis will be bringing some things for you to see, and I'll be doing some printing over the weekend, but we're making time for family fun too, visiting the beaches, the museum, etc.

We'll be in the studio this weekend by chance only- mostly when the weather isn't fabulous!  If you want to check to see if we're here before making the trip from any of the nearby towns, just give us a call at the studio: 536-2533.

These are snowflakes that Alexis & I make together.  I print the damp clay using a linocut plate and her slab roller, and she glazes the dry clay to make two sided ornaments.  These are available for purchase at both our studios.

Happy Long Weekend, everyone!

Canada Summer Jobs

With assistance from the Canada Summer Jobs Program, Norton's Cove Studio is now accepting applications for one position:


Studio Assistant


This position is for 7 weeks at 30 hours/week, $10/hour + vacation pay.  During the period of employment, the student will receive free art classes/workshops and an employee discount.  Bonus pay may be applicable for exceptional service.


The student will be involved in all daily studio activities:

• assisting with printing copper etching and lino-cut relief prints
• cutomer service
• special events
• art classes and workshops
• regular studio maintenance
• giving tours of historic structure
• assisting with printing copper etching and lino-cut relief prints
• cutomer service
• special events
• art classes and workshops
• regular studio maintenance
• giving tours of historic structure
• assisting with printing copper etching and lino-cut relief prints
• cutomer service
• special events
• art classes and workshops
• regular studio maintenance
• giving tours of historic structure
• Students of an art program such as Textile Studies, Fine Arts, Art Education, etc., will be preferred.
  From Service Canada... To be eligible to participate in Canada Summer Jobs, individuals must: 

• be between 15 and 30 years of age at the start of the employment
• have been registered as full-time students in the previous academic year and intend to return to school on a full-time basis in the next academic year
• be Canadian citizens, permanent residents or persons to whom refugee protection has been conferred under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act6; and
• be legally entitled to work in Canada in accordance with relevant provincial/territorial legislation and regulations.

Resumes with a cover letter stating the reasons you would like to work at Norton's Cove Studio are being accepted until June 14th... 

• in person at the studio
• by email nortonscovestudio@nf.aibn.com
• by fax 709-536-5795 or 
• by regular mail: P. O. Box 223   Wesleyville, NL   A0G 4R0   

In the midst of a print run...

Printing a complete line of cards, mini-prints, and bookmarks for spring orders as well as stocking my own shop shelves takes a while... When I started Norton's Cove Studio almost ten years ago, working a 12 or 16 hour day was fairly common.  I'm not up to that anymore though- aches and pains and grumpiness come from long hours doing the same thing now that I'm forty.  So I take it slowly but surely.  One colour of ink per day, taking days off in between, and keeping up on other projects at the same time make for a much happier middle aged Janet!

Today we'll (my mother, Ollie, is my co-worker again today) be printing black.

I've also added all the new images to the Norton's Cove Cards product line page.  Have a look!

Gull Island Iceberg

This picture was taken from the wharf in Cape Freels...

Centreville Academy Mat Hooking Project

Tara Bryan: Visiting Artist

Norton's Cove Studio is very happy to announce that Tara Bryan will be giving us her company and expertise next week!  Tara will arrive on Thursday, March 29th, and will be staying until April 3rd.

We will have a little meet & greet on Thursday night (see the events section), and Tara will be teaching Oil Painting in the loft on Friday & Saturday.  She'll be spending the rest of her time working on her own projects.

Tara is bringing with her some t-shirts, art cards, and other goodies to sell, so stop in to shop too!

From Tara's 2011 visit!

New Cards: First prints..

Labrador

Caplin

Codfish

Lobster

Polar Bear

Caribou

Eleanor [my trusty clean hand helper] and I printed about 100 cards yesterday, in yellow and red, including the six new designs.  [The colour here is a bit off- more of a candy apple red than the bright orange-red you see here!]  When I get more colours printed, I'll have good scans for the card & mini-print page of the website...

New Cards and Minis in the Works

Starting 6 new plates for Norton's Cove Cards & Mini-Prints.
Drawings first,  on paper and then transferred to linoleum with carbon paper.

The drawings are more defined with India ink- what's black stays and what's white gets carved away.

Labrador Puppy: Ready to be cleaned of the drawing material.

A replacement for my worn out & popular Caplin.

Two new images: Caribou and Lobster.

A replacement Codfish.

And a new one, a Polar Bear, still being carved.

I'm getting ready for a huge print run of these as well as my older images: Cod Jigger, Dory, Mussels, Salt Fish, Sand Dollar, Schooner, Spring Ice, Squid, Starfish, & Teapot.  Lots of paper needs to be cut first, and I need to count my current stock to make sure I print the things I don't have lots of already.  For my wholesale customers out there, this is a great time to get your order in!

Surfacing I

Oil on plywood, Janet Davis 2012

This is my newest painting, finished just yesterday.  It's sitting in my shop window for now, to be framed and priced once it's dry.  My toughest critic told me it was "really good", which shocked my eyebrows to my hair line last night!

I'm hoping to have a photographer friend get a better picture of it for you soon...

A mat is SURFACING

I started hooking a new mat, as part of my Surfacing project.  I'm following the photograph that you can see in my sketchbook, with blocks lined off on the burlap to match the blocks that I've split the photo into.

The first block in progress...

The mat has much more work put in now, but taking close ups like this makes me feel like I have more finished!
I'm not sure about the way it's looking so far, and it's one of those projects that will be difficult to really see until it's mostly finished.  I'm a little nervous...  Oh well, it'll be nice to stand on while washing dishes if it doesn't turn out fab just to look at!

Snowflakes in Progress

A slab of clay with a linocut plate of the same size, fitting six different snowflake designs on each  slab...

The printing plate on top of the clay, ready to roll through the slab roller...

The plate is peeled off the clay...

And the printed slabs are placed on boards to dry a little bit...

And then each snowflake is cut by hand from the slabs while the clay is still damp.

After this much, I'm out of the picture for a while.  The snowflakes, after drying some more between flat boards to keep them from warping, get the edges smoothed by rubbing a damp sponge over them ever so carefully.  They go in the kiln to be bisque fired (I think that's the term- Alexis, leave a comment to correct what I get wrong!), then get some of the beautiful crystaline glaze added to the smooth side of the snowflake, get fired again, and they're ready to go to their new homes!

Here are all six finished snowflake designs.  Each one has a lino cut image from me on one side, and Alexis' glaze on the other side.  Their prices go by size: $10, $11, $14, $14, $17, and $22 plus tax.  (Alexis' prices are slightly different as her prices include the tax)

They are available here at Norton's Cove Studio, and also at Alexis Templeton Studio.