First Results of the Spring Semester!

Just got my first results of the semester out of the kiln~ YAY! Though I've been working obsessively in the studio for the past 2 months, it takes awhile to see the results. While I am fine with that, & have developed some level of patience with the process, it has been a struggle to explain this process to my Studio Practice instructor. You see, in order to have the studio space, I must take the "Studio Practice" Class, which is a combo of all artistic disciplines, including drawing, painting, printmaking & sculpture. While some students in my class can work for a few hours & have a "finished piece of artwork," my pieces take 15- 25 hours to build. Then, assuming there is no cracking in the initial drying phase (which, if you recall, I am drying very slowly over 2-3 weeks, in hopes of alleviating the cracking issues I had when going larger last semester) the pieces must be bisqued, which, depending on how full the kilns are, can take another week. My glaze must be mixed, sprayed on meticulously in the spray booth, wadding applied so the piece won't adhere to the shelf... then comes the wait in line to fire the pieces.

Our soda kiln is small, and there are somewhere around 7 or so classes that are putting work in it. I took the photo above to show my Studio Practice instructor the size of the kiln in relation to my work. Due to the size of my pieces in relation to others, and the space they take up in the kiln, my work was bumped back several firings. While I understand this, despite my best efforts to explain the ceramic process to my non-ceramic instructor, it was indicated that excuses were being made as to why the ceramics students did not have finished work to show. Now, knowing me & my ceramic obsession... don't you think I want to see finished work as well?? Of course! But I can appreciate the process, and all the factors involved in ceramics, (especially the firing) that as a student, are beyond my control.

Glazed work, in cue for loading.

Fully loaded kiln. I was lucky enough to get 3 pieces in this firing. You can see how much space they take up! In addition to all the time- consuming factors listed above, it must be noted that in our student clay community, we all pitch in & help out.  That means that  loading & unloading kilns is part of the process... which I think is great, but this takes time as well. There are so many considerations to take into account when working in clay... and I feel that to compare the processes in clay to other artistic processes in the student setting is like comparing apples to oranges. But, if any of us are to have our own studio one day, learning the in's & out's of the entire process is  both beneficial & essential. 

Anyhow, drum roll please... 

my long awaited Finished Work!!

:)

#1 New Mexico Super Sculpt Cone 10 Clay Body; Soda Fired to Cone 11
Satin Mint Modified Glaze
Dimensions~ H: 16.5"  W:16"  L 16"

As you may recall, my goals for this semester were to complete a series of 10 or so bears, testing a variety of different sculptural clay bodies, to see which I liked working with, which held up to the firing in the Soda Kiln without cracking issues, and how my particular glaze worked with these bodies. (Essentially, these are large scale test tiles!) I was thrilled with the results!! Firstly, no cracking!! Yay! Secondly, while the glaze turned out quite a bit differently on these clay bodies as I was sure they would, I was quite excited about the effects on each. 

:)

While no crystallization occurred on this piece, I am still quite in love with this glaze I find the variation of color nothing short of astounding!

(Click to enlarge on any photo to see glaze detail.)

While the goal of some ceramicists is to attain fairly predictable results, I am loving the uncertainty and different effects attained by testing different clay bodies with the same glaze to see how they react to the atmosphere in the soda kiln. I love the light rose colored tones in this one, which occurred on the back & neck of this piece.

Below is piece # 2. Just a touch of crystallization on the nose & different reactions with the clay body create a totally different effect. I like the inquisitive posture on this one.

# 2 Laguna Sculpture Cone 10 Clay Body; Soda Fired to Cone 11
Satin Mint Modified Glaze
Dimensions~ H: 16"  W: 17" L: 17.5"

Another view~

The piece below was actually built last semester. It was the largest one I had done with the Ann's Soda clay body... I was afraid to fire it as my larger pieces w/ that particular clay body had been cracking in the kiln, but I decided to go for it.  While some cracking did occur on this piece, it was fairly minimal. It was too tall to fit on my photo background paper, so please excuse the amateur photography on the finished piece.

Ann's Soda Cone 10 Clay Body; Soda Fired to Cone 11
Satin Mint Modified Glaze
Dimensions~ H: 21" W: 15" L: 17.5 "

Again, I am in glaze-amazement. The effects turned out much more subtle in this piece. the surface is very stone-like, in person it has the feel of smooth walls of granite.

 Above & below~ a few more views. 

I've dubbed this one "The Guardian." He's much taller than the others (close to 2 feet) & has a presence/feel as if he is watching over them.

Above is our glaze room & spray booth. Just before spring break, I got 2 more pieces glazed, so that hopefully I be able to load them up as soon as classes start up again.

I also finished # 7 above, and # 8 below. Having built 6 bears w/ a variety of different clay bodies, I returned to the Ann's Soda on these two.

And lastly, my messy studio just before campus closed for the week~ I'm running out of space!

My reflections on my coursework thus far this semester are positive, despite the ongoing struggles with the Studio Practice class. While I don't feel I am learning much from the actual class, I am learning a lot by working independently in the studio, testing clay bodies & by creating a cohesive body of work.

✫☼✫

Hopefully I'll have more work to post in the upcoming weeks, but in the meantime...

Wishing you all a very Happy Spring Season!!

☺

Pit Fire & Raku Results!

I love this part of the semester, when after 8 weeks of building, scraping, sanding & polishing... you finally get to see the final results of your efforts. Below, pictures from the pit firing~

Pots emerging from the fire~

Classmates looking at our freshly fired pots. There is generally a lot of pointing, ooohing & aaahing going on at this time.

I only had a few pots in this firing & here are my favorites~

We also did a couple of Raku firings at school~ below the kiln is being loaded.

Removing the hot pots from the kiln & placing them in metal cans with combustibles... generally newspaper and/or sawdust.

The pot is left inside for a period of time to reduce.

Testing pots over open flame.

Below, my faves from this firing~

Double click on any image for greater detail.

I have to admit,  I am partial to Raku firing & reduction of these pots. I think the surfaces achieved by this method are simply delicious!

:) 

While this class is over, I'll likely continue to build more pots over winter break, though most of my time the next 6 weeks will be spent focusing on creating more bears in my hand building class. I hope to have a series of pots & bear sculptures to present for the SFCC student ceramic sale coming up at the end of November! It will be my first time participating, so I'm anxious to see how it goes!

:)

Kiln Alchemy :)

Just got some work out of the kiln that I am really excited about! As you may recall, I was not getting a lot of results that I was super crazy about w/ the recycled clay I was using this semester. After seeing some results a classmate had using a darker (but more expensive) clay body, I figured I'd give it a go. I had actually used this clay while taking a class @ Santa Fe Clay last year & had liked some of the results, but never achieved results like this. FYI~ these were all fired in the soda kiln, which is also a new experience for me... & I find the results quite intriguing.

Laguna Dark Brown Clay- Spotted Shino inside, Coleman Teadust outside, Salt Fired, Cone 10

It's my favorite piece of the semester so far!

Check out the inside surface- It is truly Alchemy!

I tested it on one of my little bears too & thought it made for an interesting surface.

I ended up making 32 of these little guys. I was going to glaze them all like this, but I changed my mind. While I'll definitely glaze some more like this, I also wanted to test some other glazes. I currently have 12 still drying, 10 in the bisque kiln & 9 glazed & awaiting firing.

Interestingly, this bowl was dipped in the same glaze as the top one, but 2 dips instead of one- the effect came out totally different. I like it o.k, but nearly as much as the top one.

This was a test cup. The glaze was made in my glaze calc class from mixing 1/2 of the slop from my Satin Mint Triaxial & 1/2 of the slop from a classmates triaxial (Peach Bloom Glaze- modified.) It's a little drippy, but I like it for inside surfaces. (I also tested this clay on one of the bears w/ the dark brown clay- can't wait to see how it turns out!)

More test cups- using Ann's Soda Clay, flashing slip, Purple Haze liner & dip.

Ooooh, I also got all my new triaxial tests back, minus 1 tile that went MIA. (It's like the 1 sock that goes missing when you do laundry!) I retested the Ann's Soda clay body on the left, and High Hills on the right. 

Out of the 21 points on the triaxial, these 3 were my favorites. I hope to use a combo of these three to glaze the big bear, which has been patiently waiting on my shelf for the past 6 weeks or so! We are quickly coming up towards the end of the semester- just when I feel I'm getting into the swing of things. I've been super busy, trying to get as much done as I can... because the more I do, the more I learn... and that learning is just good stuff!

:)