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.