How Miranda got her Glaze back.

          I spent quite a bit of time glaze testing this week.  Overall I am optimistic about this approach.  I believe the things that did not turn out as planned can be modified and improved upon.  These colors were achieved by mixing mason stains with low-fire clear.  I fired these pieces to cone 7, per the recommendation of Ms. Ashley.  I am really a fan of the colors she has achieved on some of her pieces, such as her owl and mushroom cups, guns, and lemons.  Some of the colors I was most excited about did not come out as I would have liked, and many of the colors changed more than expected during firing, however most of the colors are nice.  The goldenrod color I mixed did not turn out well (some of the detail areas on the big owl and mug to the left) and the pink is white (Miss Piggy mug).  I am most disappointed with the pink.  And there were two colors I mixed that appeared to be shades of purple/fuschia (which is my favorite color), but they turned pretty dark blue in the kiln (ie the body of the owl mug on the right).  I am hoping that adding some mason stain to the pink and goldenrod might brighten them up and adding some more clear glaze to the blues might lighten them up a little.  My next plan is to order some gold luster and perhaps some bright pink and/or fuschiay-raspberry colors.  Pretty!! I think some luster would be wonderful on the big owl.

          My first animal stack was a smashing success.  The peacock looks really dark in the photos, but it looks better in person.  Perhaps that glaze could use some thinning out.  It is very opaque.  Some of the detail on the animals is done with underglaze, and some with my mason stain glazes.  The pinks on the cats is underglaze. I like both. There was a little bit of running in the details that were done with the stained glaze (such as the deer) but I am not opposed to the way it looks.  I glazed some of the animals with painstaking detail, and others with just a flat, solid coat.  I was undecided if I wanted to drip glaze over the whole thing once I assembled it.  I did not, but there was a little natural running, which I like.  I also glazed a few of the little animals with cone 6 glazes.  I like the variety.  I included several before and after photos.  The patty was stuck to it pretty good, but miraculously I managed to get it off without destroying the piece.  I spent some time today going at the bottom with a Dremmel cleaning it up.  I thought this test was going to be a disaster, but I really like it.  I fully expected to open the kiln and find that all the animals had slid and stuck everywhere.  There seem to be a couple places where there might have been some shift, but only a few centimeters.  I think this is going to work!  Now I just have to wait for the base to dry (as well as make some more bases), bisque it, then fire on the animals.  I hope to get the base bisqued and a bunch of little animals glazed this week.

I purchased my first knitting needle and skeens of yarn this weekend.  Adrienne said we have to love our yarn.  If we don't like our yarn, we will think we hate knitting, but really it is that we hate our yarn..Well, I am in love with my yarn.  They are the most delightful shades of fuschiay purple and tealy turquoise.  My dilemma now is going to be deciding which to use first... and which to use for the scarf and which for the hat.  Perhaps I will have enough to make one of each with each.  I officially start learning to knit tomorrow.  Unfortunately the knitting club meeting is at the same time as the Dirt Bags meeting.  I hope this isn't always the case.  I hope I am good at knitting and I pick up on it fairly quickly.  I am afraid if I suck at first I will get frustrated and give up, as I am known to do.  Generally if I am not good at something from the start I don't like it and never want to do it again.  Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming, swimming.

Yay for arts and crafts. 

 

This week I was feeling rather irritable.  I was not in the best mood conducive to creating.  I made a mold of this cute little guy.  I have not poured it yet, but it is a good one!  It is drying in the anti-fridge currently.  It is quite a bit smaller than my other cupie doll molds.  He will make a good addition to the collection.

I worked a little bit on the base for my first animal tree.  I am pleased with it so far.  It does need some more work and cleaning up, but I think it will work well.  I have put the bigger one together, and I have part of a smaller one that still needs to be attached.  I have a bit of planning yet to do, and some things still need to be worked out.  After I finish with this base, I suppose I will fire it and attach already bisqued animals to it, then glaze it as one.  I have a couple other assembly options to play around with if I am not satisfied with the outcome of this approach.  I am still not dead set on a glazing method... as far as technique, colors, and cones.  I am undecided, and that is throwing a wrench in the process.  I need to just make a decision and do it rather than thinking and thinking over it.  I can always make another one.

I bisqued some more little figurines.  I have so many little animals around.  I am running out of room.  I really need to proceed on to the next steps before I make more!!  I am looking forward to clearing some out.  I attained a new mold as well.  Again, another collection getting out of hand.  I need to slow down on my acquisitions. How fitting with the theme of collections!  Both of my wet boxes are full of things waiting for me to finish.  I am glad I am feeling better so I can spend a little more time in the studio this week.  I have gotten a bit of reading done for my art history class.  I am looking forward to our senior seminar meeting at venues tomorrow.  I hope we come to a decision soon so we can start planning for our show.  This is going to be a good experience.  It will be very valuable setting up a show and having an opening.  I am glad I get to do it with such good friends as Philip, Chris, and Ashley.  And there are a lot of talented artists in our group.  We are a force to be reckoned with.  I hope I have some really good stuff come out of the kilns this semester to put along side the great works of Ashley, Philip, Chris, Aberlyn...  It should be a good show!

I might start going to Adrienne's knitting club.  She said today she wants to expose us to 3d as a craft... or some jist of that statement.  That was really interesting to me because I have recently been thinking about the "distinction" between art and craft.  Some of my favorite art I think could be considered "craft."  I love glass and ceramics, and fibers.  The best "art" I have seen was in Charlotte at the Mint Museum of Craft and Design.  I am in love with it.  The exhibits were fresh and the art all interesting.  It was eclectic.  It was very now.  There were a lot of fibers, clay, and glass.  Most of the pieces were 3d.  I was not bored by stuffy oil paintings of landscapes or still-lifes...   although they did have a Kehinde Wiley, which I was excited about. Their special exhibit of the time was "Contemporary British Ceramics."  This exhibit really confirmed to me that I want to be a ceramic artist.  I was so upset no photography was allowed in the room.  It was phenomenal.  If the art in the Mint is considered "craft" then I want to be a craftsman above artist.  I also usually really like the work in the KMAC.  I need to further explore the idea of craft as art, and how it relates to me.  Is what I do more craft or more art?  I need to dwell on this a bit.  I was definitely thinking about the craft of doll making this summer as I made my dolls, but I was using craft as the art object, as well as using the doll as kind of a kitsch symbol for lost innocence and nostalgic longing.... But, I need to think about craft some more.  I am interested to hear Adrienne talk about it some more.  I love listening to her talk about art.  She blows my mind.  Whether I learn to knit or (k)not (haha), I would enjoy spending time around her.  There is also a bead-making class coming up at Glassworks that I would like to go to.  I may have to work, but it would be cool.  It is a torch working bead class with a fairly renown bead-making.  There is quite a little cult around beads, which is pretty funny.  Glass art kind of has that "craft" stigma. Chris called it "Mickey Mouse," I believe.  I think it's pretty cool.

Respect my conglomerate

 I have begun collecting things for my kitsch conglomerations.

When I was a child I went to church with an old woman who did ceramics.  I was quite close to her and her husband.  I still have some painted porcelain casts she gave me as a gift. She passed away a few years after I had stopped going to church.  Her husband knew I was into art, so he gave me all the unpainted bisque ware that was left in her studio.  This was at a time in my life that I was pretty unsure about what I wanted to do, and frankly didn't much care about art anymore.  So, I packed them up and stored them in my parent's basement.  I even tried to sell them at a yard sale at one point when I was 19.  A few months ago I was scouring all the stuff at my parent's house, tirelessly searching for some of my grandmother's things, such as her old bed pan.  Well, in my search I found the boxes bisque ware.  I was so excited.  There are precious little lambs, ducks, and bunnies.  They are pretty much perfect for what I am doing now.  I never would have thought I would love them so much.  This story fits in so well with what I want to do.  I am pleased that I will be able use these little relics and give them a new life.    

I fired a kiln this weekend.  

I have a few more babies to fire tomorrow.

I threw some pieces this weekend which will become my bases for my animal trees (hopefully).  I'm hoping I will be able to put the two pieces in the front right together (2nd from left will be flipped over).  The conical piece on the left will be the inside of the tree.  I am planning on attaching animals or what not to the outside of it, so that they will look like a continuous stack of figures.  I want to make some that have already bisqued pieces put together and some that I actually attach the pieces when they are wet.  I am not sure which I will like better.  I am also a little undecided on glazing.  

I also got some nice glass to play around with for adorning my chamber pot.  I made some little dichro pieces to mess with too.  We will see what works.

At it again...

Well, here we are... in for another semester of grog blogs.  I suppose blogging is good for me... it helps to align what I'm thinking about as far as my ceramics go.  In addition to showcasing what I am working on it will mirror my sketch book.  I use my sketch book to write about what I want to do rather than sketch about it. 
I have been racking my brain for the last few weeks, trying to think of a great way to conceptualize my work.  The first few days of class were good for me in that way because I thought of some things that I think will really help me out in these last two semesters I have.  I am excited about some of my ideas.
I kept going over and over again the pieces I have done in the last year and thinking about my ideas and concepts.  I asked myself what art I like and what art I want to see in a gallery, or in a text book, or from a visiting artist.  What interests me?  Maybe I should make that art.  My friend, Chris Little, the other day said, "Nothing is precious," and was talking about a piece he wanted to do about how art is not precious.  That got me thinking about how art is precious to me, and more particularly the art object, and the art objects I hold precious.  What are my relics?  Come in my house and look in my curio cabinet at my collection of animal figurines (particularly the cats).  That is what I want to look at.  That is what I want to see in an art museum.  That is what I want to make.  Cute animal figurines. 
I have been looking at Wendy Walgate for inspiration.  How amazing!! 

I decided I wanted to do this, or at least that I loved it, a while ago, but looking at this work has really given me the courage to do it.  I think I was scared I would be told it wasn't "real art."  I am really into mixed media and found object right now.  Why does ceramic art have to be all clay?  I think I was stuck behind the assumption that ceramics had to be vessels (whether functional or not), even though I was looking at other artists that made work to the contrary.  I do like ceramic vessels, one reason being to tradition, but I feel some sort of new freedom because I have decided not to make a vessel.
I started off the semester by making a list of words I want to focus on this semester.  I am really thinking about adornment and how I can fantastically adorn my work in order to achieve a more unified surface/piece.  I am thinking about lineage, unexpected beauty, relics and the stories they tell, a living standard (form and decoration), the precious, homage, intimacy, my autobiography, sentimental appeal, cute/kitsch objects, nostalgia, artifacts, display/collections, mementos, reference to lost innocence and nostalgic longing, and light-hearted and whimsical.
I have also been looking at some of the objects I have collected that I wish to reference in my work.

 
I would like to do at least 2 fruit tree-esque pieces, one with animal figurines and one with kewpie doll parts.  I am thinking about doing something with the oil lamp.  I really like the form.  Also, I am going to make a chamber pot, which I will adorn with glass pieces, I am thinking. 

I got some glass that I think I might be able to do something nice with, similarly how I used the rhinestones on one of my basin and pitchers, but I am hoping it will look more integrated.  I would love to get a luster to use on it.  I have a lot of testing and experimenting to do.  There are a few ways I can think of that might work to make my animal trees.  I need to talk to Brian about it in more depth to see what he thinks. 
I am going to use a combination of handbuilding and molds this semester.  I like to handbuild because I am able to forge an intimate relationship with the pieces, but molds allow to really get the craftsmanship and sleek look that I am drawn to.