Break

Not much this week, just finished another tall vase.

1 Week Left

This week I did not really do too much throwing in the studio. I have the first half to another "tall" vase done but thats about it. I have been going through and photo editing some photos in photoshop as well.

Photo From Nicholai and myself giving posters to The Stafford:

Us posting one off of Lakeridge:

Same Old

Lately I have been throwing away. I made another "large" (as tall as the kiln can hold) vase and continued making tiny vases until I had 12.

So far things are backing up for glazing so that will have to come soon, as I have 5 projects waiting to be fired as well as a large plate.

Here is a photo of all three of the tall ones, besides the one that broke so far in the loft.

Still Debating Concentration

So I am going back and forth on my concentration. I know I want to do vases, but I feel it needs to be developed more. I am not sure If the coherence should be in the glaze job, or in the pots them self.

This week I made two different and completely different shaped "large" pots and four mini vases today. The mini ones I will probably develop and make around 20 of them.

Photos:

So I finally finished my tallest vase to date. It ended up being 32.5" tall, just tall enough so when it shrinks it will hardly fit inside the middle kiln. It turned out really great I think, and was fun to make. I attempted to make a second similar one of the same height yesterday, but the recycled clay gave me some issues, and although I finished it, I am not sure I 100% like the craftsmanship and form. I will see how it looks after trimming and see if it needs to be destroyed.

Here is a photo of the first one that I made: (sorry for the person in the photo)
Let me know what you think!

Photos (more)

 

 

Concentration and Photos (a lot)

So for my concentration I was thinking about doing Vase forms. I don't know if I am going to make any slight changes to it, but that is the general idea.

My 10 mugs, started with 12 and broke 2, should be coming out tomorrow morning and Ill get those ready for the wood firing. I also have 1 vase that is going to be pit fired, and I have slapped some random stuff on that and wrapped it up!

After School today I started a vase form, that might go into my concentration or not. I am working on that same idea of stacking sections to a pot to create a large form. This is my largest one yet, and I am planning on adding another two or three sections to it tomorrow, although I may have to work within the size limit of the kiln. So far it is coming along perfect, I just have to hope the recycled clay holds out :)

Below are photos of the vase so far, and photos from the trip to Japan when I visited the Anagama:

Wood Firing

In preparation for the upcoming wood firing, I am beginning to prepare many mugs, as well as a vase for pit firing there as well. After visiting Japan, China, and South Korea over the summer and getting to visit a Japanese Anagama kiln I am more excited than ever to get to take part in the wood firing. Over the summer I got to visit and see a Japanese Pottery master producing Karatsu ware, in a famous pottery village, this inspired me to create  some pots, and play around with the ware that can come from participating in a wood firing.

**Later on I will upload photos from the kiln, and studio.**

Guest Artist

This week I got the change to work with Diane Lou. She is an amazing artist and brought a bunch of "junk" for us to work with during the workshop. I have to say, at first I was skeptical about the idea of glueing stuff together for six hours, but in the end I really enjoyed it. I realized that there was more to it, and liked how much you could change a piece before adding it to your final project.

Family Project

This past week, I have been working away on my family project. I did not really know what I wanted to do with it at first, but I knew I wanted to work on the style of my mugs some more. I decided to make each family member a mug, or mugs if I have time that are really focused on design based on what type of person they are, and what they like.

For my first family member, I created two mugs in the style shown in the photo, a mug that I made last year. This shape is perfect to hold in the hand, and is the right size to have a perfect mug.

Shocking Art

Now that my shocking art is done, looking back on it I am happy with how it turned out. This was my first time working outside of clay, and it was a good learning experience on some of the things that work and don't work. I made my piece to represent the economic struggle between China and the USA.

Work

Lately I have been starting to get back into, continuing on the tall vases I learned how to make towards the end of the summer. I really like the size, and feel it is a comfortable size to work with, in two pieces, but is still challenging at that height for me at the moment. I want to make more when work time becomes available for a wood firing or such.

I found a photo of something similar to what I have been working on:

I also want to experiment more with two part pots, and the size that could be made from more then two pieces, and eventually get so I can throw it all in one lump of clay, and in one piece.

Until next time go pacers.

New piece

This week I just started working on something in the style of the guest artist from the retreat, I missed that first project and wanted to do something similar. So far I have just got the basic form down.

Also I am starting to think about what I could do for a shocking piece of art. I have no idea what I want to create or make. After watching Work Of Art Episode 4 I don't want to make something that will really offend someone but I still need to get the shock across.

As this week goes on  i will be turning the pushed in cylinder into a jar, and thinking about my shocking piece of art.


EDIT:  Photo fixed

Retreat

So after getting back from the retreat, and thinking about what I had learned and gained, I realized how important it was. At the retreat I missed the first project, but was excited for the second project on sunday. For sunday when we were doing our Andy Goldsworthy project, I started with having no idea what I wanted to do, and spent a good hour wandering the forest trying to find objects that I liked, and could do something with. I ended up finding these Huge leaves down at the stream and hiked them back up where I set them afloat in the pond.

I ended up finishing this project fairly quick and had a while left, so I went down to the orchard to see what others were doing and ended up making something else quickly, I used pears and cut holes through all of them and proceeded to stack them on an apple tree.

I also thought the retreat was important to get to know each other better and get less awkward around people that we will be spending the year with. Overall it was a great experience!