Spring Break or The Move

This week we have been moving into the house.  I have not had time to go into the studio, so I will share some shots of my house.  This week has been crazy busy.  I was hoping I would at least have one day over spring break that I could relax, but that has not and will not happen.  We have been working so hard to get moved in, but it seems to be never ending.  No matter how much we get done, there is still so much to do.

Here is a shot of the foyer stacked with boxes and the front door.  As of now, this space is filled with empty boxes.

Here is a shot of Philip's room.  My ugly couch looks so much nicer in this room than in our apartment!

 Here is the front room (which will be called the Christmas room once I get my green leather couch in there) so far.  You can see the red wall I painted.  I am going to hang my light bulb plaque over the fire place.

 Here are Philip and Ambrose hanging out in the living room.  I love our new red couch.  The door on the right is the kitchen and the door on the left is the sun room.

 Here is our new refrigerator.  I do like it even though it made me slightly sick to my stomach to spend all that money.  The drawers are clear.  Now I won't forget about the food that is in there. 

 Next are two shots of the sun room.  Ambrose doesn't seem to care that I put up his kitty tree, but he does like to look out the windows and lay in the sunlight.

 Here is the bedroom.  I still have not bought box springs or a frame for my new mattress.  I guess we can do without that for a little while.

 Here is part of the downstairs bathroom.  I am pretty excited about the new shower curtain.

 Here are some shots of the upstairs.  This room is going to be the guest room.

 This is going to be my studio.  I am pretty excited about the possibility of doing some work at home.  I was hoping to get it all set up over spring break.  I'm not sure if I will have time to get it finished though.

I still haven't gotten any art up on the walls.  I'm not quite sure where I want what, but I do have quite a bit of my pottery out.  I am enjoying the new house. 

On Monday I practiced to print some of my Buddhas on my cylinders.  It was a decent attempt.  I think I will be able to tweak the process and make it work well.  My next go at it will include a less detailed image, and thickened under glazes.  If I went ahead and fired the few I tried it might be cool, but it is not exactly what I envisioned, so I will wash it off and try again.  I am pretty excited about it.

On Wednesday I glazed all of my bowls and my stoneware mugs.  I glazed my bowls and mugs to be pairs, so hopefully they will match.  I am planning on giving my uncle some of my red ones.  I think I will make more bowls and perhaps more mugs to give as gifts.  I want to keep the ones I have made so far.  I am so bad about keeping everything I make.  Pretty soon I am not going to have anywhere to put everything!

I hope I have time to come in the studio over break.  I want to get everything done at the house over break so I don’t have to worry about it when school starts up again. 

On Monday I practiced to print some of my Buddhas on my cylinders.  It was a decent attempt.  I think I will be able to tweak the process and make it work well.  My next go at it will include a less detailed image, and thickened under glazes.  If I went ahead and fired the few I tried it might be cool, but it is not exactly what I envisioned, so I will wash it off and try again.  I am pretty excited about it.

I loaded the gas kiln this week.  I couldn't be happier with the way my bedpan turned out.  I am so pleased with the prints on it.  It is an improvement over the similar-style vessels from last semester.  So, all in all it is a step forward, which is great.  I am not trying to sound big-headed or anything, but I really love it.  It turned out exactly like I wanted.  All the trouble to make it it was well worth it. 

I also got some mugs out of the kiln. None of them stuck to the patties, which is promising.  I am happy with the colors.  Only one of the pieces in this whole kiln ran, so I am wondering if maybe it didn't get as hot as before. 

Here are six lidded vessels I finished this week.  As stated previously, lidded vessels were a challenge for me.  I guess looking at them now, they aren't as bad as I thought before, but still not my best work.  I went out this week and bought a bunch of new ceramic tools, calipers included.  I am hoping to practice lidded vessels some more.

Here are some prints I have been working on.  I am planning on doing some screen printing this weekend.  Pako, Philip, and I went to One Stroke and bought some new screens today.  I'm excited.  I also have some images ready for printing on some ceramics.  I have been halted on that front though because the liquid glycerin I bought to thicken my under-glaze did not work, so I am waiting for the air to thicken them.  Hopefully that will work.  I have also been working on painting my new house this week.  I will hopefully finish that today.  Also, at my new job I have been getting some experience with kilns.  Granted, those kilns do not get as hot as ours, but damn they have some huge kilns! 

I got a lot of art supplies this week.  Today, I bought some baby dolls and doll heads.  I am going to make molds of doll heads and put them all over the next thing I build, like I have been with the buttons.  I haven't completely decided what I will put them on.  Maybe a gravy boat.  I don't know.

This week I glazed portions of my bedpan and loaded it into an electric kiln with low-fire glazes, underglazes, and high-fire glazes.  Yesterday that kiln was ready to be unloaded.  Last night I sprayed it with Steven Hill clear and wiped it off the highest areas of the buttons.  I put it back in the kiln room.   I'm excited to see how it turns out.  I hope it is similar to one of the pots I did last semester as far as colors go.  I tweaked a couple things to hopefully make it better.  I also glazed some of my mugs. 

 This is my pitcher and basin I finished this week.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  I am a little on the fence as to whether the buttons on the pitcher feel right just yet.  I might need to add more.  I can't decide if I want to glaze it like my bedpan or go for just white on this piece.  White feels right for it, but also white would have been appropriate for the bedpan and I chose colors for it.  I don't know.  I was considering doing white cone 6 and clear to give it a sheen.  Or I could do the same technique with it as the bed pan so it will match.  I did opt not to do the prints on this piece.  I am ready to try some new techniques of printing on ceramics.  I got my book and have researched a few techniques.  I need to go to the store and get some foam and glycerin.  Also, I need photo emulsion (for this and printmaking).  I just haven't had time to go shopping.  I wasted so much time last week searching for crackle spray paint for my print.  Which I never found. 

It seems that our blow-out kiln was a failure.  That is so disappointing.  I was really excited to see how it turned out.  I really hope we can try to fire some of my teddy bears again.

 Here are some of the lidded vessels I have been working on.  I am not too proud of them.  I don't know what it is, but lidded vessels just are not clicking in my brain.  I feel like I did a really nice job on my bowls, but now I have taken a step backwards.  The vessels themselves even are just mediocre.  I can make a lid, but then it is so hard for me to make the right container to go with it.  And I feel like I totally mess them up when I handle them to make sure they fit properly... and also when using a chuck to trim.  I guess I have not mastered that yet.  I still need to trim several of these forms.  I'm hoping once I trim and clean them up I will like them better.  Part of my problem might be that I want to throw bigger.  I am still throwing these little vessels, and I am just not impressed by them.  Every time I attempt to throw bigger it collapses.  I am getting frustrated (and overwhelmed with everything) and it is affecting my work.