Uncategorized

Where's My Breakfast?

in , ,
367px-pitcher_iznik_louvre_oa7595 I managed to get about half way through my studio clean up yesterday.  I swear Karma has sheaded off enough hair to make another small dog.

I've also been pouring over books and internet sites looking at Iznik pots and imagery and at German folk pots.  I expect to be making some work later in the week, maybe, and playing around with new ideas from these sources.

I made a few pots at Penland with botanical deco. and I think that may be a direction I take for a while as I explore my animals in my sketchbook (instead of on pots).    The two will probably merge later.

I'm sure I'll come no where close to the beautiful palette of those Iznik pots.  I'm gonna be busting out some of my old glaze tests searching for a blue that I like. ( I wish I'd played around with more of those Amaco glazes at Penland).

I still haven't completely unpacked my truck.  All my tiles are in there and I want to get them out and have a look again.  I'm meeting my clay pals Amy and Jen tomorrow for a couple hours to talk pots.  I look forward to that.

Okay well, it's time for breakfast.  For some reason it's not ready and waiting on me here like it was at Penland......bummer.

Rested

in
I slept a lot over the weekend.  I feel like my body is back on it's normal schedule this morning.  I'll be posting all week, for now though I don't have anything thought out so check in later.  My studio is in a mess so I'll be cleaning up out there most of the morning.  Stay tuned.

Last 12 Hours

in
Here are some images from my last 12 hours at Penland.  We had a class crit. and then the school had show and tell.  There was so much good work!  Sorry to lay this on you all at once but  I figured you'd like to see most of this.

Click for larger images.

[gallery link="file" order="DESC" columns="2" orderby="ID"]

I am home now.  It's so wonderful to be back home with my Sweet Wife.  I'll be writing a lot over the next week so check back in.  Remember you can sign up to be on my email list by using the form on the right side of this page.  Thanks for visiting!

Last Day

in
We are all winding down this morning.  It's been a great experience and I'll continue to write more after I get home.

Last night was the scholarship auction.  All the teachers and many students donated work to raise money for scholarships.
I rescued this small snake that was in the Main office this morning when I went in.  It looked very lost so I put it outside on the rock wall.

[gallery link="file" order="DESC" columns="2" orderby="ID"]

We have a class critique in 15 min.  Better go.

Glazing!

in
Wow this glazing is some experience.  We are using a commercial clear glaze.  Some potters call it the 'evil pink' glaze.  It does turn clear.  Ayumi uses it all the time and it works for her.  I'm not one to argue with that.  (Though at one time I would have turned my nose up to using a commercial product like this).

We have a high bisque, cone 02.  So the glaze doesn't go on very well.  After dipping the pots are left to dry upside down on dowel rods.  Any bare spots are touched up later.  We are using a variety of glazes for 'dots'.  Some are even mixed very thick into a paste and glued into place with more pink glaze.  These pasty ones are the 'runners'.

We had some Talking Heads cranking while glazing this afternoon and everyone was in good spirits.  Keep your fingers crossed that we have good glaze firings.

Click for larger images. Some of these pots are mine, some are Ayumi's, and some are other students.

[gallery link="file" order="DESC" columns="2" orderby="ID"]

Blanks

in
img_0539Yesterday was our last wet day.  I have about 25 pots to decorate today.  I've made some small adjustments to some of my pots that I think are good improvements.  Mainly in the foot departement.

I am struggling with my decoration.  I really have no idea what I want to put on these pots.  Most of the ones I've finished have been a hodge podge of experiments, some all on one pot.  I'm trying to break away from the cartoon-y-ness of what I was doing, but that's going to take some study.   I have worked on some pattern and some domestic object drawings, oh and some clotheslines of course.

It's uncomfortable, but if I'm not struggling I'm not growing right?   Today should be good, I'll finish up my pots, we'll have a demo and more internet talks.  Way too much to digest in the short time I'm here.

More later, if there's time.

Tiles. Round 1.

in
I drew on my tiles this morning.  I had 95 to do and I ran out of my general ideas after about 15.  But I went on and it was fun.  The assignment Ayumi gave me was to work on pattern and repetition.  Just to draw and draw.  I had fun ways of coming up with new ideas.  Like I thought of my cat, Mouse, and how she stands up and dances, so I drew some repeating abstracted ballerina feet/shoes.  Here are some images. Click for larger.

[gallery link="file" order="DESC" columns="2" orderby="ID"]

I have now gone back and slipped all the backsides of these so I'll 95 more to draw on.

Drawings

in
Here are a few of my pots that are going in the bisque tonight.  We are pretty far behind as far as firing goes.  Hopefully we'll step it up over the next few days.

[gallery link="file" order="DESC" columns="2" orderby="ID"]

Field Trip

in
Hey, we went out and about today and visited some local artists today.  Not much time to tell you all about it but here are some pics.  Busy, busy, gotta get some work done.

[gallery link="file" order="DESC" columns="2" orderby="ID"]

Why I'm Here

in
I had a one on one with Ayumi yesterday and we talked about my work.  It was just what I needed.  Basically she told me I needed to explore my imagery more, go back further and see where what I am trying to do comes from.  Also she said it would be good for me to try out different tools to draw with, work with line, expression, and such.  She mentioned looking at real animals, studying proportion and anatomy of those creatures that I am drawing, break out of the somewhat generic quality that they have.  There was more but that was the jist of it.

I wrote a grant and got money to come here.  My goal for the grant project was to improve and explore surface, so now that I've been here almost a week and had some feedback I am going to delve into that.  Which probably means making lots of slabs to draw on and less pots.  Which is cool with me.  I'm not here to make pots to take home, I'm here to move forward in my work.  To take some risks, take the next step.
I'm ready.

Slip It

in
We've been in a holding pattern as far as moving pots through the process goes up until tonight.  The school did not order the stains for the slips and we finally got them today.  Rachelle and Josh (the AWESOME assistants) have been busy getting all the slips mixed up tonight.  (This pic was taken at midnight!) (Thanks guys!) (I did get Rachelle's approval before publishing this pic since she's showing a bit of skin).

slip mixing

Ayumi got all her dishes slipped so tomorrow we'll get to see her in action doing some drawings.

slipped_sm_ayumi