How time flies!

I can hardly believe that I am halfway through my eighth and last week at Penland.  Boo hoo!  I have made far too few posts while I have been hard at work.  Yesterday and today were the hardest, busiest, most challenging and yet most rewarding days here.  We have been loading, firing and reloading kilns back to back to get everyone's work finished and out on time.  This piece was one of the first pieces I made when I got here. I am just now getting around to taking photos of my work and there will be a bunch more when kilns get unloaded tomorrow.

With both of these jars I used a technique called sgraffito which means to scratch or carve through.  I applied black underglaze to the surface and then when it was leather hard, like hard cheese, I carved through the black to white clay underneath to create the designs.  The first jar was glazed with a clear, transparent glaze.  With this second piece we had the transparent glaze colored with a bunch of different oxides and stains so I glazed each individual section with a different color.  Indeed, it was laborious but worth the effect.

We have had two wonderful core students in our class, Molly Kite Spadone and Rachel K. Garceau. Rachel mixed up a new clear that was supposed to fit Helios porcelain at cone 6 so I was very eager to try it out.  I glazed up this tumbler and put it into her small test firing last night.  Tiny kilns are wonderful in that they fire fast and cool fast.  I was able to pull this piece hot out of the kiln although I had to carry it around with my t-shirt while I admired it and showed off.  I promptly glazed up a bunch of other pieces with it.  Actually, I trusted Rachel's experience with this glaze so I didn't wait for the piece to come out.  I actually was in the studio at 6:30 am to unload kilns and get started on some glazing before the class showed up.

Speaking of our core students, Molly and Rachel are both in the Containment III show at Crimson Laurel Gallery.

Acrylic Resist with Water Erosion on Porcelain

I've made progress on bowls that are part of the rewards for my Kickstarter fundraiser for my trip to Penland.  These are cone six porcelain that I have brushed acrylic medium on and then used the water erosion technique to achieve the texture.  I like to make two layers of texture which can be kind of dicey.  I started to see the inside of the bowl getting pretty wet in a couple of areas. Yikes!  I can't wait to see how transparent these will be when they are finished.

And here is the cute little covered jar from the last post with this technique.  Still needs some cleaning up but I love how it is progressing.

I also got started on some prototypes for some teapots.  When I finally get around to putting the handles on ( I've been misting them for four days) I will get some pics of those.  I don't have much experience with teapots so I am working on my learning curve.  On Friday, I did a fun demo with laser toner decal transfers and my students absolutely loved it!  I tried to shoot a video so that I could post it but I didn't have a large enough memory card and I had the resolution set too high.  I only got the first five minutes,  doh!  So yep, off to the store for the big mama sd card.  I think I will give it another try if I can keep myself focused.  Feel free to bug me if you don't see it sometime soon:P

New Work Images

I absolutely cannot believe there are only three weeks of school left.  Normally next week would be dead week, but since we clean the studios during finals week that puts the art students ahead by a week.  Yeah! I do say this sarcastically as the realization sank into to my unprepared brain that this week would actually be dead week.  Hell week would really be a better term for it.  I vowed I would go back to school after dinner and stay up all night working but I couldn't convince my sleepy self to do it.  Tomorrow I will have to be better prepared with packed meals, snacks, rewards, anything that will keep me going because I have tons of stuff to do.  Did I say TONS of stuff?  Oh boy, I do NOT have time for sleep.  So bring on the veggies, vitamins, brain food and could you throw in some extra energy, pleas

By the way, here are some more images from my culminating exhibition.  I can barely believe I will be graduating in three weeks.  It felt like it was going to be so far away and for so long.  Not anymore.  I will officially graduate in three weeks with my Bachelor of Arts Degree.  Excited and relieved are understatements.  I am falling asleep as I type so forgive me if anything is illegible.  Have a great week.

Porcelain Carves Like Butter!

Good morning everyone.  Spring is almost officially here!  It is so exciting.  I thought I would make this quick post before I head off to my super duper busy, catch up on everything day so I can take some time for myself soon. Phew.  This piece is in the bisque as we speak.  It's a slightly different form from what I have been working on.  I was getting tired of the sharp angles where my round forms would me and I wanted a more gradual transition for easier carving and resist work.  Everyone in the studio, including myself, thought it looked kind of like Mickey Mouse.  What can I say?  I grew up in Southern California and Disneyland was a very regular destination.  Can I help it if those Mickey ears are ingrained in my brain and influence my subconscious choices in form? 

I am really enjoying the way it has turned out, being a small test sculpture as it is.  This is made from cone 10 English Porcelain from Laguna Clay Company.  I love this clay.  It fires very white in reduction, is translucent when thin, has a slight self-glazing characteristic and is relatively easy to throw with.  And did I mention, it carves like butter!  I am in love.  I took my slop clay from my slip bucket and turned it into a thick slip and then added about a teaspoon and a half of commercial black stain,  Then I brushed three coats on the piece and let it set up before carving.  It was interesting to find the right consistency for carving and how effective it was to carve different areas that were drying at different rates.  It turned out being on the dryer side of leather hard made for cleaner carving.  I can't wait to glaze this up and see how it turns out.  Wish me luck.