Here is some stuff I’ve been working on.  I have really been focusing on printmaking since my show opens next week.  I forgot to take photos of the two prints I am working on, but I am pretty close to having my Hootie Hoo monotype done and I started printing on my Me-Yow print today.  I got some wood for the other two shelves I need for the show.  I am hoping I can use the two that are already made from the Student Show for Philip’s piece.  I will make it work.  Being sick all last week really set me behind.  I have to print a layer every day this week to get done, and I am not going to be able to do the screenprint on top like I wanted, but it will look fine without it.  I would rather skip it than rush and mess up.  I got the Buddha done.  The gold looks nice.  I also refired the animal tree because a few of the animals fell off during firing.  One cat had too much glaze and slid, taking out a couple more.  It would have been pretty nice had that not happened.  The glaze looks nice on this one, but it is still pretty lop-sided, which I am not happy with.  I need to figure out a way to remedy this.  The lean just makes it look cheap and really takes the craftsmanship down to a level that I am not satisfied with. I have also been working on my thesis.  Writing it really got me thinking about my art and made me realize things about myself and my art that I had considered very much before.  I was really thinking on a higher plane.  I was considering some pretty interesting psychological points to my work.  I have also been learning some cool stuff about my camera which will really help with the documentation of my work and my gallery card.   

Here's what I've been working on...

 With my BA Printmaking show 2 weeks away, I have been spending a lot of time in the print shop.  It has been a nice respite from the ceramics studio.  Not that I do not want to be in the ceramics studio anymore, but it is a nice change of pace.  I do also really enjoy printmaking, and I have missed it.  I had hoped to be done with this by now, but I have come down with a cold, and have opted to rest instead of push myself and get more sick (like I usually do).  But, unfortunately not meeting my art goals makes me feel bad mentally, so it is a lose lose situation.  Assuming I do not feel worse tomorrow than I do now, I will run the first layer of black tomorrow night, then the second on Wednesday.  Hopefully that will finish this one up, then I will have the weekend and next week to do the other monotype I need done for the show.  I really hope I feel better tomorrow.  I can't have another day where I lay around and don't get much of anything done. 

Plus, I need to make the shelves for the ceramic pieces I am pairing with the prints.  I am going to put a couple of the owls featured in the monotype with this print, some porcelain kitties with the cat monotype I still need to make, some little cute kitschy things with "Getting Kitschy With It," and I am working on the below Buddha for my Buddah monotype.  I put some mason stain mixed with low-fire clear on it and fired it to cone 04.  There are little dots of mason stain chunks in it, which I am not too thrilled with.  But, the glaze did stick really well to the piece and it is nice and shiny.  If it weren't for the dots it would look really good.  I am going to do some nice gold detailing, which will make it look better.  I have actually fired this guy twice, and it does look a lot better now than it did the first time, but some of those damn dots won't go away.  They are smaller now though.  After the first firing, I scraped all the glaze with one of those kiln shelf scrapers to pop the bubbles, then washed out the powdered stain that was in the bubbles.  Then I put clear on top and refired with more clear on top (with a 30 minute hold).  They are smaller and smoother now.  I don't think I have this problem with my animal stacks... I did use the same kind of glaze.  I think it is because I splattered this on and brushed on most of the animals, which smoothed out the stain that was in little chunks.  But, I feel like I spattered it on the African Lady I glazed last semester and she has no chunks on her.  She was fired to cone 7, but I do not feel like that would have an effect on chunks of dry mason stain in glaze. 

This is the animal stack I am firing right now to cone 6.  I hope it doesn't lean as much as the first one I did.  The base is thicker and I tried to evenly put weight around the whole thing.  This is firing to 6, with the first at cone 7, so that might have a little effect.  I think the colors on this will look awesome if it fires well.  I am going to get a cake stand to make a mold of to make bigger stacks.  That will be so cool.  As soon as this come out of the kiln I am going to fire a luster, for the Buddha and maybe this stack if I think some luster would serve it well.

The first week of the last semester.

This week I have really been thinking about my two shows.  My BA show is the first week of February, and my BFA show is the week after spring break.  I had a talk with Brian regarding some questions/concerns I had, which was so helpful.  I have been working on a new print for my BA show (the last 2 photos).  I'm excited about it!  I ran another color, but forgot to photograph it.
This past week I did a little glazing, but decided to wait until tomorrow to fire my kiln because I had some stuff at home I wanted to bring in to test fire.  So, I am planning on firing an animal stack tomorrow.  And I am going to test fire a Buddha for the BA show to go with my Buddha print.  I am planning on firing a cone 6 and 018 this week.  I hope these Buddhas can fire to cone 6.  They might melt.  :) They might turn out really cool.
I also worked on the class test tiles.  I am looking forward to learning about glazes.
I bought a kiln today. And a bunch of awesome molds, a lot of which are cute little animals.