Kelly's Studio: The final BOYCC blog

I'm a little sad that I have to close this multi-part, mahooosive report on the amazing and awesome BOYCC 2011 Live Show, Convention and Bonanza. I hope you have enjoyed reading about the wonderful times I shared with my international friends, but I have SO much to tell you about from the months since then, so I will wrap up the series with a post about my adventures with Joanie and pals before my (eventful!) flight home.

With BOYCC finished and most people off home to recover and reflect on the Convention, I stayed a few extra days with Joanie. The day following BOYCC, I accompanied Craig and Donna on their trip to LAX airport for Donna to fly home. My motives were not purely sociable, as they had planned to stop off at a pottery store on the way to the airport and with the promise of discovering new tools and gadgets, I was keen to tag along to see if I could add to my own collection of tools.

The only way I can describe how I felt when we entered the shop was “like a kid in a sweetshop”! It was heaven – I found new, unusual and some downright puzzling tools and gizmos and educated myself on the ceramics side of things by checking out kilns, accessories, glazes, books and a myriad of new ideas. With the internet at hand I have a good knowledge of the tools available to sculptors, but I’ve never delved in to what pottery can offer an oil clay sculptor. Here is the answer:

Click the pic for a larger view, but this is what I found in the shop that I felt could transfer to my own creative pursuits:

Sanding foam pads – simple little things that I’ve not seen over here, I’m told they are easily available in the US so I may be adding them to my “things I will trade for” list.
Giant Tweezers – ok, so I don’t have a specific use for these, but AREN’T THEY COOL!?!!
Palm sized plane (no idea of the correct name for it) – I felt this would be good for shaping large areas on models I’ve already cast in resin, for instance Jasper’s barrel.
Flexible Scrapers – in three different grades, there was another very hard grade that I left behind due to the costs but the colour coding on these is handy!
Mini Ribbon Sculpting Set – Made by Kemper, these have already justified their purchase, they are miniature version of the more common ribbon tools found online.
Wire Tools x2 – I bought a few Kemper tools, now I’ve found their website too I think I may frequent them a little more, the quality of the tools is lovely, I may do a couple of blog posts just about these.
Reverse Ribbon Tool – a simple ribbon tool that is large and sturdy, great for scraping slivers from a block of hard Chavant!
Duck Ribbon tool – probably not the technical name, but this took is a ribbon in the shape of a duck’s head, or sideways teardrop shape. This shape means there are a host of different radii on one tool, I’ve already used this a little but I think it will be mostly used on future, larger models.
Large Triangular scraper tool – again, great for scraping slivers of clay from those hard Chavant blocks but also good for getting larger areas smooth
Pick (in the clear tube) – a very sharp little tool, with an angled head with two sharp edges.
Scraper/brushes – we used these during BOYCC when Addi was showing us how to clean greenware. I found them so handy that I took a photo during the workshop so I’d remember, and then when I saw these at the pottery shop I thought I’d buy a couple to used when cleaning the occasional resin, or for future use should I ever create ceramic models, as I wasn’t sure I’d find them later.
Palette Knife – always handy, if only to clean clay and resin from surfaces!
Magnets – super strong magnets that I might use to convert Medallions into fridge magnets
Small wire tool – this is a handy tool as it can get into small places but it’s rounded edges don’t catch or stab.
Double Stylus – I’ve found this tool useful for making the initial indents into a model where the muscles lie, also used on nostrils, ears and anywhere that needs small, controlled indentation or hollowing out.

Not a bad haul from just one shop! We then dropped off Donna at LAX, which has some great buildings:

Just as we were driving off after dropping Donna off, I saw this sign, I only just got a photo of it but thought it a shame Donna hadn’t seen it.

We also got to see the Goodyear Airship too, which was a treat!

We got home to meet up with the other stragglers from the show, Kim Bjorgo and Melly Gaulding and we headed out to take the ranted chair back and check out a humungous antique store where we saw these (I’m sure any HR collectors would like to see this):

and this awesome Post Office counter, had I not been on the wrong continent I would have been wanting that for my house, isn’t is lovely!

Then we stopped at a local pet shop that had some very exotic birds…

…and then went to meet Addi and her friend for lunch at a Thai restaurant called the King & I. We enjoyed some lovely food, including sticky mango rice (divine!!) and a soup served in an awesome candle burner;

Drinks, including Thai Iced Tea, which tasted a bit like a tea milkshake and was very yummy;

…and the very cool decor!

After eating we headed back to Joanie’s to take the fluffy white trio known as Casper, Yasha and Bear out for a nice walk along the coast and to enjoy the fabulous sunset:

I really love this photo, shows those Eskies doing what they do best; pulllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We waved goodbye to Melly and Kim, then it was my penultimate night. Here’s a random photo for Beccy ;o)

On my final day with Joanie and Craig, Joanie decided to leave the studio and house full of shipping boxes behind and take me for a trip out into the desert. I’ve never been to a desert (we don’t get many in England to be honest!) and Joanie and Craig live surprisingly near to one. It is amazing how just going over the top of the mountains the landscape changes so dramatically!

We stopped for breakfast at Potato Shack where I enjoyed the largest pancake I’ve seen in my life (called a manhole sized pancake, and they aren’t kidding!!)…

…then we drove out into the desert. We went up, and up, and up….

Over the top…

On then THIS HAPPENED:

The photographs just do not do it justice, this was VAST!!

Joanie had brought me to the Anza Borrego State Park and it was just breathtaking – look it up on Google Earth or maps if you can, it is mind-boggling big, hot and frightening to think that, should Joanie have chosen to leave me out there I wouldn’t have lasted a couple of hours!

We stopped at the visitor centre and took advantage of their handy guides to the mountains…

…and plants

Then we carried on driving, Joanie was heading for Font’s Point but I was mildly concerned when she turned off the road into the desert, to see this sign:

It was great fun in the truck going along the sand dunes, we stopped off and Joanie took this photo:

This photo was taken from the same spot, but turned the other way, it gives an idea of the scale of it all (and look at that lovely blue sky!):

We jumped back in the truck, ramped up the air-con (thank heaven’s for air-con!) and headed off to Font’s Point. When we got there, we found this sign but not much of a view….

…but as we approached the edge…

This AWESOME view appeared (bear in mind that’s about a 100ft+ drop from the ledge):

We came across this small monument, it’s a bit like Geocaching from what I can tell, people hunt for these and sort of “collect” them, although obviously they leave them in place. They are rewarded healthily for finding these with the mind-boggling views!

I started looking at the stone around, there were some very interesting ones (I’m not a stone-buff, but I found these intriguing):

Here’s one that looks like Mary (to my eyes anyway, hehe)

Here’s one for Jenn Danza:

And here’s one that Joanie explained to me as having sun-bleached over thousands of years, one side was very dark and the other side was golden – it takes a long time to bleach a rock!! I was a little bit naughty and brough a couple of pebbles home with me including this one (I left Mary, I felt someone else would find her far more interesting than agnostic me!).

FOr all it’s barren beauty, there is life in the desert! Even though it was just after midday (I know!), this hawk was on the prowl:

There were also some tiny little birds but they were far too quick to capture on camera.

After drinking in the beautiful landscape we hot-footed back to the cool sanctuary of the truck (quite literally) and headed home via Assaggio’s, an Italian restaurant with a small airport that was in the middle of this sandy basin, but not before a small detour to check out a local artist’s work. This was my first view of some of his pieces:

Over a several mile (maybe 10 mile) area, this man has created dozens and dozens of these metal sculptures, we stopped off to meet a couple – Joanie got a bit too close to this one!

I thought I’d add this pic as it has us both on it, but from this angle it looks like Joanie is giving as good as she got, roflgigglesnort!!

Seriously though, this guy’s work is incredible and even while we were driving through, the man was there and Joanie stopped for a little chat. He was working on a monstrous creation that was in pieces when we were there, I’d love to see how it finished up!

We had to get back to Joanies after this but it was such an amazing day, the landscape, the heat, the art, the company – all wonderful memories I’ll treasure!

When we got home, Joanie indulged me and treated me to a tour of her collection, I hope she won’t mind my posting this two photos:

Here is Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig’s medallion, when I saw this I just had to agree:

And this one is a one-off hanging bat in this beautiful albino colour, I think this was one of Addi’s but I’ll have to check that.

Then, all too soon, it was time to leave the United States and fly home. I’d had 10 days of super-intense hobby fun/socialisation/friend-making/creativity/cocktails/FOOD/ and a so much excitement, I left with a happy heart.

Before my flight Joanie treated me to one last American breakfast at an undeniable French Cafe:

And we drove to the airport, I had to capture a quick snap of these, what amazing architecture!!

I flew from LAX to Ohare, in Chicago…

This is the bridge that had me intrigued when I first arrived in San Diego:

I love how organised everything in America is! With squares…

…and circles!

An interesting, random sight – 3 lakes, three different colours! I wonder what minerals make that happen!

As we approached OHA, I was in awe of this – this is a photo of about 100 miles of cloud rolling in, this was the edge of the weather, in a perfect straight line!

OHA wasn’t as much fun as I’d have liked; we weren’t given much time to get from one flight to the next, and I realise when we’d landed that I didn’t know if I had to pick up my luggage or not, so after going through security (where I had to take my belt off – this is relevant), I had to RUN through the airport to baggage reclaim…

(but I did get to see this, which was awesome – this is a rushed photo taken whilst running, trying to keep my glasses on my face, holding my book, on-board luggage and trying to keep my trousers up!)

…only to find out that my bags had been transferred for me!! So, bag, book, glasses and jean tops in one hand, camera in the other (I’m a cereal photographer, I can’t help it!), I RAN back through the airport…

…to get to the gate as the made the FINAL call for me! So, sweaty, wheezing like a trooper, tired and in quite a state, I boarded the plane in a cloud of “sorry”, and promptly collapsed into my seat for the final leg home. I was supposed to sleep on this 7 hour flight, but I couldn’t too many amazing things to see like these:

(sun going down)