Culminating Exhibition Pictures

Close up of the Cased Spirals

Oh the joys of graduating!  After being up for only a week, last night was time to take down the show.  I kept telling myself that I wouldn't wait until the very last minute to take photos.  Did I do that? Of course not.  So I thought I was getting some pretty good images for not having a professional setup.  Then when I downloaded the images I realized I didn't have my white balance set properly.  Ugh!  So somewhere in the last four crazy weeks of school I'll try to set stuff up again in my "home photo studio" and take some more shots.  Hmm...

Left view of the gallery

I had  the reception on Wednesday night with lots of students, faculty, friends and family in attendance.  I had a lot of great feedback and my mom was a trooper for coming with and being there for moral support.  Thanks everyone.

Down the center

Right side

NCECA 2011

Susan Beiner

I finally got my BFA show installed and it opened today.  Big sigh of relief!  It looks great and I will have some images soon.  Now I can take the time to catch up on work for my other classes.  That is if I can resist finally looking through all of my NCECA photos.  NCECA stands for National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts.  Every year there is a huge convention and this is the first time I have ever been in all the years I have been involved with clay.  Phew, what a whirlwind!  I had a great time looking at all the work.  It is just incredible to see it in person.  I love the work of Susan Beiner.  The juicy, colorful glazes, texture and use of mixed media really draw me in.  I could spend a lot of time getting lost in her pieces.

David S. Smith

I have started working with cone 10 and cone 6 porcelain and exploring the translucent qualities.  I was excited to see Poison Ball, by David Scott Smith.  This is made from cone 6 translucent porcelain.  His pieces are really great in a darker environment but the detail even in the bright gallery was intense. 

Now it is back to cracking the whip.  There are only five weeks left in the semester and I want to get as much out of it as I can!

BFA Culminating Exhibition

Thinking Through Round

A Culminating Exhibition 

For The Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree

by

Kelly Daniels

English Porcelain, Cone 10 Reduction

After a hiatus of I don't have any idea how long I've finally decided to update everyone on current events.  I have been spending the last couple of months preparing for my culminating exhibition for my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in ceramics. I install the show this weekend so I have been rushing around trying to do all the last minute prep.  I am completely exhausted.  Mentally mostly.  I think its from all the expectation of the last four years.  I keep telling myself that this isn't any harder than any of the craft fairs that I've had to pack up and drive off to.  Hmm, but maybe taking three studio classes in my last semester was a bit too much.  You know, I just wanted to learn everything I could while I still had the opportunity.  I'm like a kid in a candy store.  The show opens on Monday and my reception is on Wednesday at 5pm in the BSO Gallery at Chico State.  Hope to see you there!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to all my family, friends and followers.  Thank you for all of your support as of late.  I'm thinking happy, lovely, mushy thoughts 'bout y'all.  I found this heart in Upper Bidwell Park last Sunday.  It looks like it might have been there since last year.  I like the way the grass is starting to sprout up around the rocks.  Have a lovely week!

Silk Screen Transfers For Clay

I've gotten seriously behind on posting to the blog o' sphere as of late.  I have had so many things occupying my thoughts lately, not the least of which is my rapidly approaching culminating exhibition.   I did take some time to drive down to Berkeley this weekend and attend a one day workshop with Forrest Lesch Middleton, hosted by the glorious trio, Christa Assad, Rae Dunn, and Josie Jurczenia at their Berkeley studio, Fourth & Clay.  What an awesome time I had!  These ladies are wonderful.

 

 

Applying the printing medium to the screen.

Print Samples

Forrest did an excellant job demonstrating his silkscreen transfer techniques.  Wow, I can't wait to try it out.  I actually already have a screen exposed and this was just the impetus I needed to get to printing.  I was awestruck by his method of placing the image on his forms and then continuing to throw and shape the piece.  It was delightfully inspiring.

 Ta Da!

Is this when you told us that joke? 

What's said at Fourth & Clay, stays at Fourth & Clay!

Forrest will be teaching another workshop next weekend at the Sonoma Community Center so if you didn't make the last one you still have a chance to catch up!

Santa Barbara, California

Between Christmas rain storms, I drove down to Southern California to visit family that I hadn't seen in a long time.  Here are some of my favorite shots from my trip.  Enjoy!

Santa Barbara Harbor

Santa Barbara Harbor

Goleta Beach Sunset

Mission Cactus

Solvang Windmill

Valentine Heart Bowls

I just reopened my Etsy shop early this morning and I was instantly chosen for two treasuries!

 

 My Blue Heart Bowl in this treasury.

My Red Heart Bowl in this treasury.

Paul Soldner

 

Paul Soldner 1921-2011

I am honored to have met you.   

Paul Soldner   

Woodstoke 2000 

 Penryn, CA

 

 

Janet Mansfield, Paul Soldner, Morgan Britt

James Coquia, Janet Mansfield, Paul Soldner

Persimmon Bread Recipe

Just before Christmas the sun came out just long enough for me to run out to the persimmon tree, still dripping with rain,  and harvest some fruit before the birds could eat them all.

 

Actually, the tree is so tall I could never get to the top so the birds might as well enjoy those ones. I love the way the bright orange of the persimmons contrasts with the bright blue winter sky.

 

I picked a large bowl while the neighbor cat watched the fruit wildly swinging in the tree each time I would pull one off.  She is a crazy cat.  She loves when the fruit falls and she chases them, picks them up and drags them next door to her happy mistress who loves persimmons.

I left the bowl of fruit to ripen on the counter and got ready to head south to visit family.   These were crisp, ripe and juicy for eating but I wanted to make persimmon bread with them and for that they need to be super soft and mushy.  By the time I got back they were just right for mashing and baking.  

 

These are the Fuyu variety of persimmons which can be eaten while still hard and crispy but I am more used to baking with the Hachiya variety which cannot be eaten until it is soft as it is bitter and mouth puckering when still crisp.  However, if you wait for the Fuyu to get really soft they work just as well and there isn't a taste difference in the bread.   It was too bad the fruit wasn't ripe enough to bake with before Christmas.  When I got to my cousin's house she told me about all the fond memories she had from eating persimmon bread, especially with vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two slices.  Yum! As a New Years Eve celebration,  I baked persimmon bread.  Today I went and got vanilla bean ice cream for it even though it has been freezing and raining!

So here is the family recipe I promised I get to my cousin so she could make some more memories with her family.

Persimmon Bread

Cream together:     1 Cup shortening (I have always used butter)

                               2 Cups sugar

Beat in:                   2 eggs

Add:                       2 Cups persimmon pulp

Sift and add:          3 1/2 Cups sifted flour

                               2 tsp. baking soda

                               2 tsp. cinnamon

                               1 tsp. ground cloves

                               1/2 tsp. salt

Beat together

Add:                        2 Cups raisins or dates

                                2 Cups chopped nuts

                                (I prefer my bread without nuts or raisins)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease two loaf pans and fill with batter.  Bake for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours.  Test by inserting toothpick in center of bread.  Bread is done when the toothpick comes out clean.

Sorry I don't have a picture for the bread and ice cream.  I am too cold after eating it to get out the camera!

Earth Lovers

I made it into a lovely treasury today!  Yay, and finals are almost over.  Better hurry and get out of here for my last critique!  Plus I just put some fresh pieces in my Etsy store.

My first YouTube Pottery Video

I finally figured our how to upload a video from my dslr.  Then I had to drop it into a few different programs before I could do some editing. Still can't figure out most of the program but here it is so far.

Jason Briggs Inspired Sculpture

I went to Horseshoe lake recently to capture some sunset images.  Before the sun went down I saw this great dead tree with great textures and holes.  It instantly reminded me of Jason Briggs and the workshop I had with him at Fresno state last summer.  That was so much fun and he gave us some great demos and the most ridiculously entertaining lecture I have seen! Thanks, Jason! These pictures are for you.

 

 

Here is one of the sculptures I have been working on that was inspired by the workshop.  I haven't decided how I am going to finish it yet.  Hmmm...

Tis The Season...

...to be in another wonderful Etsy Treasury!  That's my Winter Evergreen Eco Mug down there.  Yay!

Tiles Inspired by Jenny Mendes

Last spring ceramic artist, Jenny Mendes, came and spent a month at Chico State to prepare a body of work.  She graciously shared her knowledge and let me sneak (hehe) into her work space to pester her.  Just kidding.  I really enjoyed getting to talk with Jenny and getting to know about her and her work.  These tiles were inspired by Jenny's work.  I started them just before she left in April and I just now got around to taking pictures of them.

I'm thinking of trying some more things out with this terra sig work.  I made these tiles on some recycled clay which was NOT a good idea.  It seems like the sig wants to jump right of the edges if I even look at the tiles.  I did throw some platters out of some earthenware and have started applying some imagery to those.  I am quite interested in making some more tiles.  The problem is just to figure out how, when or if it can even fit into my schedule.

Trying out different configurations.

Poladroid Pictures

So last night I stayed up way too late.  I got sucked into dropping my photos into this polaroid simulator called Poladroid.  I like the way my images look with this treatment.  The way they turn out is completely random, much like old polaroids.  I might try making my own polaroids so that I have more control and predictability.  Yeah, like I have the time for that.  At least there is no school today so I can either catch up on housework, work on my papers or completely enjoy the day doing neither!  Have a great Veteran's day.  Here is some more eye candy.

Satin Mint Organic Sculpture

I recently donated this piece to an auction fundraiser for the University Art Gallery at Chico State.  This was a new glaze that I had been testing out and I absolutely love it.  It is called Chung's Satin Mint and I got the recipe out of The Complete Guide to High-Fire Glazes: Glazing & Firing at Cone 10 by John Britt. 

What is amazing to me is how much this glaze changes depending on thickness and atmosphere in the kiln.  I got a lot more reds and pinks than I expected.  I had a couple of pieces come out completely pink from a heavy reduction and a few pieces that didn't get as much reduction had more greens and yellows.  

This piece was thrown with recycled clay and then given a coat of white slip and porcelain slip trailed dots before bisque firing.  Lush!  I can't wait to do some more work with this glaze.  If I have time, I want to take the base and try some other color variations.  Fun, fun, fun.  I love glazes and glazing!

 

Still here, part two...

 

Yes, I have been pitifully absent from my blog as of late.  What have I been up to?  Not much, really.  I made it through our BFA open studios event and coinciding BFA exhibit in our student gallery.  I got tons of positive feedback.  I still need to get some images of the work I showed for that.  I have two term papers to write that are due after Thanksgiving.  Yuck!  I have lots of sculpture that I have been working on and I am gearing up for my culminating exhibition next spring.  I have my show six weeks into the new semester so I am trying to make some preliminary headway on that.  Making work is the fun part.  Writing and the business side?  Well, necessary.  

And then there is Etsy.  I was spending way too much time on my store and it was proving to be too much of a distraction from my studies.  I decided to leave it alone for awhile, but recent sales and the holidays coming up have tempted me back to it.  Here is my most recent listing for this gorgeous chili bowl.  I love how this rutile glaze turned out.  Delish!