The Bears, Kiln Magic & The Best News Ever!!!

Though I meant to get these posted in December- time seriously got away from me! It was crazy busy at the end of the semester... getting things fired, photographing work, critiques, moving out of the studio & then driving home to spend time w/ family for the holidays & then right back to work & starting up new classes... whew! A whirlwind of activity, but finally here they are- the 8 salt fired bears from last semester's continuing Polar Series.

(posted from lighter to darker rather than in numerical order of how I built them)

#1 below is one of my faves.

 Polar Bear # 1
H: 14"  W: 11"  D: 21.5"
Ann's Soda Cone 10 Clay Body- Salt Fired to Cone 11

Alternate View

 Polar Bear # 2
H: 15"  W: 17.5" D: 16"
Ann's Soda Cone 10 Clay Body- Salt Fired to Cone 11

Alternate View- my fave angle :)

Polar Bear # 3
H: 15"  W: 13"  D 18 "
Ann's Soda Cone 10 Clay Body- Salt Fired to Cone 11

Alternate View 1

Alternate View 2

Polar Bear # 5
H: 16.5"  W:16" D 15"
Laguna Sculpture Cone 10 Clay Body- Salt Fired to Cone 9 Oxidation

Alternate View 1

Alternate View 2

Alternate View 3

# 6 below quickly outranked #1 as my all time fave when it came out of the kiln. This glaze + this clay body + salt firing, in my humble opinion, produces the most amazing results! Click twice on any image to enlarge to see the effects of this Kiln Magic in greater detail.

:)

Polar Bear # 6
H: 14.5"  W: 16"  D: 21.5"
Death Valley Red Cone 10 Clay Body- Salt Fired to Cone 11

Detail~head/neck

Detail~foot

Polar Bear # 4
H: 16.5"  W: 16"  D: 19"
Laguna Dark Brown Cone 10 Clay Body- Salt Fired to Cone 11

Alternate View

Polar Bear # 7
H: 15"  W: 13.5"  D: 23.5"
Laguna Dark Brown Cone 10 Clay Body- Salt Fired Cone 10

Alternate View

Polar Bear # 8
H: 15.5"  W:13" D: 26"
Death Valley Red Cone 10 Clay Body- Salt fired to Cone 11

glaze detail 1

glaze detail 2

The glaze detail on # 6 above only goes to show you... if you love a glaze enough, it truly will love you back!! 

:)

Below is my studio at the end of the semester... all cleaned up & turned into an impromptu photo studio using natural light, as my apartment is far too dark to photograph in.

And below, the bears out of the studio & in the classroom during critiques.

"The Last Great Migration" (Prototype)

My reflections on this past semester are mostly positive. While I am not crazy about every single piece, I am crazy about at least half of them, which is good!

 (I used the same glaze & firing methods on each piece above, changing only the clay bodies to move in gradation from variations of white/gray to black to symbolize the Polar Bear as a messenger for the environmental challenges we face.)

 I love this glaze, I love hand building these forms & I love salt/soda firing!!! Though I did get a little clay obsessed between the bears & the micaceous pottery... quite frankly, I would have done much, much more if I didn't have to do things like sleep & work! I think the obsession comes in part from not having my own studio... I feel like when I am taking classes, I need to squeeze in as much studio time as I possibly can, in order to maximize my learning & growth in the wild world of ceramics!

:)

On that note, I am super excited about sharing

THE Best News Ever!!!

One of my pieces has been accepted into

The 6th Annual Juried Exhibition

"Beyond the Brickyard"

at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, Montana!

I am totally honored to have my work included in such an amazing exhibit, at such an amazing place, with such an amazing group of ceramic artists.

The show opens next weekend, so if you're in the area... go!

If you cannot make it, the exhibit will also be online Feb 3rd, so be sure to check it out!

:)

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!!

☺

I Love This Glaze!!!!! And other Clay Updates :)

 Polar Bear Sculpture
Ann's Soda Clay Body~ Cone 11 Soda Fired~ Satin Mint Modified Glaze
Dimensions: H: 7.25" W: 9.25" L: 7.5"

Just got this little guy out of the kiln on monday, and boy am I pleased. I am so completely in love with this glaze, I can't even tell you! 

Below are a couple of different views... click twice on image to see detail in the glaze!

After finishing "The Beast" just over a month ago (he is still in queue for the soda kiln... but I promise I'll post just as soon as he gets fired!) I needed to take a break from larger works & play around w/ some smaller forms. While I was quite happy with the form on the one above, the one below fell short. So much so, that he almost ended up in the dumpster... but I figured what the heck... glaze it, fire him up & see what happens. While I am still not crazy about the form (part polar bear, part seal, part poodle???) I do enjoy the way the glaze melted & reacted with the texture in this piece.

Dimensions: H: 13" W: 7.5" L:13"

Once I finished relaxing over a couple of small pieces, I went back to the larger series.

I finished this one about 3 weeks ago & it just came out of the bisque kiln on monday. It had developed some hairline cracks during the drying phase, & I was worried about them cracking open during the bisque- it did just fine, though I do worry about it cracking in the high heat of the Soda Kiln. (fingers & toes crossed!!) I just mixed a new batch of my favorite glaze on monday, so I'll glaze him up today & anxiously await the final firing!

:)

Out of the Kiln~ Soda Fired Polar Bear

I just got my first piece of the semester out of the Kiln this week & I'm pretty excited about it!

:) 

I used the same glaze that I made last semester in glaze calc class as I really loved the variation of color & texture that was achieved with that glaze in the Soda Kiln.(Click on the sidebar Polar Bear for details.) It was a difficult piece to photograph. I really need to take the "Photographing Your Artwork" class offered, but at this point, that would just take time away from clay... & I simply can't do that now! I took shots from a few different views to show the variation as best I could. 

Click on image twice to enlarge for greater detail.

Detail of Crystal Formation on the Neck

Soda Fired Polar Bear
Dimensions: Approx 12" H,  21" L, 9 " W
Ann's Soda Cone 10 Clay Body
Satin Mint Green Modified Glaze

Despite using the same clay body & glaze as I used last semester, this piece, while retaining some of the variation as last semester's bear actually came out quite different, but I am totally happy with it.

:)

In other clay news... my 2nd Bear made it through the bisque & is now in the Soda Kiln & will come out next week~ I'm really excited to see how this one turns out! This week is also the last week of my Micaceous Clay Class~ we'll have firings Friday & Saturday, so I should have some new pots to post in the not too distant future. I also finished working on what I have dubbed "The Beast..." a killer 3 week project involving 100 pounds of solid clay... details forthcoming.

:)