Details in the surface...

The Glazed Surface: Cone Ten Glazes 

In Surface we spent the semester testing and learning about traditional cone ten glazes. To practice these new techniques we slip casted a simple form that would allow us to use it as a blank canvas. Here are some photos of my final results!

Shino with Red Iron Oxide painting

 Tea Dust with tulip wax resist carving

Oribe with black underglaze painting

 Eggshell, with Shino and Temmoku on top!

 Cobalt decoration paintings of Purple Loostrife

 Celadon with carved greek inspired vegetal forms.

Throughout the course of this class, I became more and more confident with my understanding of glazing and I started to see more and more possibilities open for exploration. I look forward to using this knowledge in future work!

Final Installations

It really pays off to finally see your work installed!

Ceramic Sculpture: Project One: Details of Darwin 

Project One was a long time coming if you ask me! 

I had decided not to glaze this piece for many reasons. Firstly, I didn't think it would be appropriate to cover up such a beautiful clay body- one so rich and full of depth. In addition to that I didn't feel my original concept called for anything added to the surface..the piece itself is so tactile, any type of additional ceramic surface treatment would take away from it. 

Secured to the wall with six perfectly shaped nails by one of my closest friends (due to a couple 3rd degree burns on my fingertips!) this piece hung perfectly with some mood lighting!

Here's some great detail shots! 

After a giant explosion, lots of procrastination, and hard work that did a number on my hands, its really nice to finally see an idea go from a simple sketch to a reality.

 Ceramic Sculpture: Project Three: "Persona"

 Time for my little homes to find a home!

My delicate nests were carefully bisque fired perched atop cups made for my surface class. And when I say carefully I mean I fluttered to and from the kiln room and my space carrying one nest and a cup in each hand- arranging them ever so perfectly and efficiently on the shelf! I had also fired some test pieces with which I sprayed different iron oxides on to test color opinions. After sitting with the test results for a while, I decided to fire my nests to temperature without any additional surface treatment. I felt that the mature white porcelain spoke to that sense of calm and clean that I was looking for. 

Installing was particularly nerve racking since 

I totally couldn't see what I was doing!!

Relaying on help from a friend to guide my one good hand, I placed my nests in the nooks and crannies of the stairwell in the Fine Arts Building. During the firing each piece slumped just enough- naturally and organically, so when I eased each one into its home it sat easily without rolling around. Before I slipped them into place I gently put some of my nondescript "rocks" into each one.

The space I chose worked perfectly with my concept, keeping the pieces out of reach and creating a slight tension with the viewer. It also became a game of eye-spy (which is always fun!), causing the viewer to really search around for all the pieces. 

It was fun to use the surrounding area for once in an art installation rather than just hanging something on a wall. I really enjoyed this new way of integrating myself into the world and I hope to do it again soon!

Meanwhile...

in all that spare time...

Remember how Project One, lovingly referred to as my acorns, exploded those many months ago?! 

Oh yeah. That.

Well, it's time to get going on that one!

So I filled my other wet box with pulled petal-scalies...

and started to puzzle them together!

I decided to work a little differently this time.. carving the wall hanging bit in the back first and dividing the piece into thirds before I began attaching anything. It seemed to work a lot better! 

Meanwhileeeee times twoooo....outside the studio...

All the way across the sky! OMG!!

awesome.

annnyyywayssss...

Done!

Now we're just gunna let this guy dry out for a good long time...

Nesting...

Ceramic Sculpture: Project Three: "Persona" November 2010

       For our third and final project, we were to reflect in upon ourselves. Thinking along the lines of what makes you, you- the last assignment was a type of self portrait. It took me a long time to get started on this one. I went through many ideas- even settling on a few but I could not bring myself to make any of them. Finally, one night it just clicked and I knew exactly what I had to do.

I had to nest. 

I decided to use Paper Clay for this assignment- something I've never worked with. The Paper clay recipe I used was essentially a cone ten porcelain with ripped up toilet paper pulp. The addition of paper to clay can be beneficial in many ways, including the ability to go thinner and more delicate- a property I definitely needed for this body of work. The paper also burns out in the firing - making the finished object much lighter. 

I started my process by rolling out many skinny irregular coils.

I tried to keep each coil as organically formed as I could.

My next step was to take a bunch of plaster hump molds and 

drape, arrange, and weave the coils together, as organically as I could, 

to form a stylized bird's nest.
I was even fortunate enough to have a bunch of real nests
in front of my as I worked, courtesy of a nice friend! 

I also created a bunch of "stones" to fill my nests. 

Representing nothing in particular but everything at once, these stones were great fun to make. I just rolled small balls of clay and threw them on the table to get some interesting angles. I then waited for them to set up a bit more before I spent some quality time smoothing the sides out with my thumb.

Here's a look at my ten finished nests ready for bisque! 

Putting the pieces together...

 Out of the glaze firing and ready to get on that wall!

The way I was to attach each piece to the wall was extremely

important and really had to be considered.

My plan was to assemble the pieces together across the space 

so you felt a sense of organic movement and flow.

If I was to use nails or something similar to hang them on, 

I was afraid it wouldn't develop naturally- and instead look stiff and constructed. 

Another problem with a nail-like situation would be that each piece would then be governed by gravity, 

and therefore would not be able to keep particular angles.

Solution: Thumb Tacks!!

With a giant pair of wire cutters, I successfully
snipped off the end bit of each tack. 

I then hot glued each half tack into the back of each piece!

Creating over 200 push-pin-able pieces!

Now comes the tricky part...

assembling!

Going into installation was a bit nerve racking. 

Out of every part of the process that got me this far

this was the most frustrating yet most fun and rewarding.

I worked naturally and organically. 

I had a general sense of what I wanted it to end up like 

but I mostly relied on my feelings as I went along. 

Working on the bulletin board to the right of my chosen wall,

I created there and then transferred sections over one at a time. 

It took a good long while,

many breaks where I just sat across from my progress and stared, 

as well as some of my favorite songs on repeat...

but here it is!

Let's get down to business..

to glaze!

Once out of bisque I divided them into respective sizes

and then again into buckets of almost equal groupings for my three variations.

Talk about a difficult form to glaze!

 I ended up rigging this fork to stick into the back hole 

of each form so I could then dip them completely-

It ended up being a really great system! 

ready for the glaze firing!