The Blank Canvas... AKA Experiments in Clay

For a painter, it may be a blank canvas. For a printmaker, a copper plate or block of wood. For a clay loving girl with Big Ideas...  my blank canvas is a couple of bags of clay & a space to work. Given some of the dilemmas in class, I decided to start working at home & see what I could do. (Have I mentioned how small my place is??) My goal was essentially just to push my own boundaries of what I could do w/ clay & to experiment w/ going bigger... with limited knowledge on how to go about doing it.

For my first work space, I covered my little kitchen table with canvas and tried to keep things neat & orderly... ha ha! What was I thinking?! It soon looked like this~

I know, I know... what a mess! But once I started, I was committed to seeing it through... which made my little apartment less of living space & more of a studio. I started with legs... building a foundation first. Beginning with the coil method, I then added slabs to build up. After many hours, I had four misshapen "legs." These I brought over to workspace # 2... just a few feet from my kitchen to my living room. (I had gotten a piece of scrap board from Home Depot, some canvas & blankets & placed on the ottoman... and Whala! A stable workspace.)

I  have to admit, I was beginning to feel a bit frustrated at this point. Not just at my lack of skill, but at the lack of adequate space... and the fact that despite my best efforts, I seemed to be getting clay everywhere! But I had to keep going!

I rolled out some more slabs and began to build the belly,

and the sides of the body. Each slab must be slipped & scored, and you must try to keep a the moisture level at a consistent level, otherwise they won't adhere properly to each other, and can crack or explode in the kiln. Hence the bag over the neck- trying to keep it moist while letting the midsection dry/stiffen up just a bit.

Adding more slabs... piece by piece. Too big of a slab will just collapse.

The body in its rougher form. Rolled foam to support the weight outside...

and inside!

Hmmmm... this is where things got really frustrating: the addition of the head. I wasn't sure if I should build a loose formed head & attach, or keep going piece by piece. I chose the former... and that just didn't work~ so I cut the head off & continued with building from the neck out.

This was tricky work!

And I found it hard to maintain the shape of the head.

The last addition... closing the form.

Still not happy w/ the shape of the head... I tried paddling it into shape, which ended up making the head even smaller. I thought at this point it looked more like a giant thumb!

So, I had to do surgery... and split his head open to try & widen it a bit.

Still too small, but at this point, having redone the head three times, I was done!

I was going to leave it at that, but it was looking a little "bald" to me, so I decided to add some features.

I'm not so great at features, which is why I usually leave the face blank! 

The semi- finished bear, shown with others I've created to show scale. It's about a foot tall & roughly 2 feet in length.

While not at all realistic (I call it my "cartoon bear") and perhaps having a head that resembles Yoda... It seems to be drying well & with only some tiny superficial (I hope) cracking on the underbelly. We'll see what happens... It's still got quite a bit of drying... then there's the transport from apartment to school... and if it survives all that, into the kiln it will go! So, only time will tell. It's all a learning experience right?

But I'll tell you what... I don't think I'll be trying to build anything this large again in my little place anytime soon!

:)

"Nothing Happens Unless it is First a Dream..."

~ Carl Sandburg

I have a crazy dream. Don't ask me why exactly... but I want to build a life size Polar Bear out of clay. Surely it has something to do with my love of these fierce, majestic creatures, but the idea has probably been percolating for quite some time. Maybe the seed was planted somewhere between making my first little clay creation here, doing this project for an entry level ceramics class at SOU, and finding Lawrence Argent's work online here. (Seriously- watch the video in that post... it's a lot of fun!) Anyhow so here I am, starting a new clay class with some pretty BIG IDEAS! So, needless to say, I was a bit deflated when I discussed my BIG IDEAS with my new instructor and was met with just a little opposition. The words that met my ears went something like this, "there's not enough space... you'd need too much one-on-one instruction... it would cost a lot of money for that much clay..." and something along the lines of "it would be a miracle... like flying to Mars." OK, OK... I get the point!! And seriously, although I was very disappointed... I could see his point. The studio space is small, and perhaps my dreams are a bit lofty considering my limited clay experience. But, dang it, that's what I'm here for... to pursue my creative dreams... no matter how lofty! And I can tell you... it brought up some of the same issues I've been struggling with for years. I thought... shoot, If I just had my own home with a little studio (or even a garage!) I could just start working on these dreams... in my own space, in my own time. But that just isn't a reality at this point. I even tried to think of how I could start in my teeny tiny apartment, but clearly in that small of a space, it wasn't going to work. Sooooooo, I said to myself: "Beck's, you've just got to put aside what you want to do at this time & just be open to all the things you can learn from this particular class." Then, lo & behold, my instructor had a change of heart. While I can't go as big as I had originally dreamed, he did conjure up some space so I can at least go a little larger... and then who knows~ maybe next semester I'll have the skills to go really big! So, my self assigned homework was to start working on techniques at home. Here's some of my results (unfired/unglazed) & process.

The thing is you can't go too big as a solid hunk of clay, otherwise it'll just blow up. So for the one above I hollowed out the center, but left the head & legs solid... that's a little risky, but I did poke holes through them to create air chambers... so we'll see. It's all a learning process at this point. On the second one below, I started from one hunk of clay, & hollowed out the whole bear.

I know, you're wondering, how do you go about doing that?!? So glad you asked... as you know how much I love to document process!

Well, you start with a wire, and cut the poor little guy in half.

I've never actually done this before, so I wasn't sure how it was going to work.

Anyhow, once you've got your two halves, you just start scooping out "the guts" until you have a relatively even shell.

Then, you slip & score the edges, apply a slurry mixture of clay & water, then kinda gently squish it back together, pressing & smoothing at the seams until it appears seamless.

 And, Whala! Many hours later- finito! I actually have no idea if this will turn out as I'm kinda winging it, but I am hopeful it will work. If not, I'll be learning from my mistakes in trying different techniques, and that is not a a bad place to be.

:)