Sunshine Cobb Visits CSU Chico

I have been a teaching assistant this semester at CSU Chico and one of the added benefits is getting to know about the visiting artists!  On Monday and Tuesday we were honored to have the talents of Sunshine Cobb as she gave a ton of amazing demos.  I first learned of Sunshine about a year ago and have been a big fan since.  In May she was featured on the cover of Ceramics Monthly so we felt pretty special having her visit.  She squeezed us in between having just returned from presenting at Utilitarian Clay VI at Arrowmont  in Tennessee and just before leaving for her residency at the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana.  Phew!  Great job, Sunshine.  Thank you so much!  It was wonderful meeting you.

Lidded Boxes in progress.

Showing us how she uses a cheese cutter to trim the tops of her boxes.

My sweet score is this delightful garlic storage vessel which now sits on the shelf in my kitchen.

Paperclay Vessel

All the beautiful flowers blooming and the early morning coolness on my front porch enticed me to stay home and experiment with some paperclay ideas.  In July I was able to work with ceramic installation artist, and professor at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, Rebecca Hutchinson.  She was our last visiting artist in Clay as a Medium for Sculpture at CSU Summer Arts in Monterey, CA.  She taught us an amazing array of techniques for "breaking the rules" when working with clay. She taught us about the different kind of cellulose fibers to use and what kind of stuff to dip into paper clay slip.  She also showed us how to make durable, non-fired pieces and how to incorporate silkscreen and stencil use with colored slips for surface decoration.  It was a ton to cover in just three days.  If you ever get and opportunity to go to one of her workshops I would highly recommend it!

I thought I would start out simple with these little clay medallions I made by dropping dollops of paperclay onto a plaster slab to stiffen up.  Need more plaster slabs!  And minions to make these little cookies while I construct the forms.

The construction process was oh so delightful! I started the base out on an upturned bowl covered with paper.  I left it out in the sun to stiffen up and then took it off the mold, turned it over and started adding my cookie "shingles."  This stuff is amazing.  I love that you can add wet pieces to bone dry work.  It is also really easy to rehydrate areas with a spritz of water as the paper keeps the clay from weakening.

Day two.  You can see where the bottom section has dried and I continued shingling on the fairly dry rim.

I really wanted to continue and make the form even larger if it wasn't for a few crucial factors.  One, I ran out of slip!  Two, I needed to make the base thicker and better able to take the weight of the piece and not be topsy.  Since I started out with all these cookies of pretty uniform thickness there just isn't enough weight at the bottom.  I think the next one will have a thicker pinch or coil base to start working on. The last issue is transportation.  Oh yeah, when one does not have a kiln...  You get the idea.

I love how the interior looks like scales.  I might flip the cookies around on the next piece so the flat, scale-like surface is on the outside.  Now to figure out how I want to finish and fire this piece.  I am thinking of the soda kiln but not sure if it will fit.  I might need to make some smaller ones for that little kiln for sure.

Recent Soda Firing

Opening up last week's kiln load. Or was it longer ago than that?  I'm not sure where the time keeps slipping away from me!  Anywho, check out those cones on the bottom.  Cone 12 maybe?  All I know is my tumblers were on the bottom and I had a lot of bloating.  Maybe B-mix at this temp is not so good.  Or maybe we just need to figure out how to get the kiln firing a wee bit more even.  I know!  I'll just put my stuff on the top next time.  What a concept.  I know, sometimes I'm a tad slow.

Here are the four tumblers that came out good.  One still is pretty bloated but I turned it around for the shot.  I actually had eight tumblers but four of them cracked.  Pretty weird cracks too.  I'll have to get some pics of those too show y'all.  Could use some postulating on causes.  I have a theory but we'll see.  

I've got some bowls just like these tumblers going into the kiln next week plus I think I'll put in a couple of porcelain pieces and see how they do.  B-mix on the top, not sure where to place the porcelain but I think it would withstand the bottom.  Hey, I could put a porcelain one on the top, one in the middle and one on the bottom.  I astound even myself sometimes.  Just kidding!  Oh, and as for surface technique, that is paper stencil with a baur flashing slip brushed on.  I also used the little sewing wheel thingy texture maker and then bisqued.  Then a black slip was rubbed into the texture.  I glazed the inside with celadon but it doesn't look as good as I'd like.  Maybe not enough reduction on the bottom.

The recycle clay is liking the soda.  And check out that design and texture!  Wish I could claim those as mine.  I am thinking of stealing, ahem, borrowing, the technique.

Happy mugsy.  My tumbler in the back, otherwise known as a giant test tile.

Good Morning Breakfast

I love it when I actually take time to cook something for breakfast instead of just having a smoothie or pineapple and cottage cheese.  Mmm, saute'd veggies and scrambled eggs with fresh basil from my garden.  I have ruby red chai in this mug I made at Penland in the spring.  There were glazes left in the studio from the fall intensive with Suze Lindsay and Kent McLaughlin. I love how the layered glazes turned out.  Now if I had only gotten the recipe, sigh!  Molly Kite Spadone, a core fellow at Penland, taught me how to make that handle with the nice little ridge on top.  

In my last post I told you about my garden and flowers, so here are some eye candy pics for you.  This is the flower bed right out my front door.  My little bunny sculpture that I made in Susannah Israel's workshop just had to situate herself right in the middle of all the loveliness.

Snow and snap peas, kale, chard, bok choy, cilantro, carrots, lettuce.

Rainbow chard before the neighbor's kittens had a wrestling match in the middle of it!

Darn kitties!  But check out those luscious blue eyes.  Oil spots on the nose from hanging out under the cars.

Volunteer Four O'Clocks!

 Neighbors Rudabeckia

Next blog post I will have some pictures of the soda firing from last Tuesday.  Gotta go pay bills now.  

My New Obession - Soda Kiln Firing

I am so excited to finally be taking photos of my new soda fired work!  I really was starting to question what was wrong with me.  I didn't want to take photos, or post them to the web, or to my Etsy store, or to my Facebook page.  Truth is, I've been in kind of a funk for the past few weeks.  Maybe it has been a bit of a let down after having been to so many wonderful workshops over the past few months.  Coming back home and having to face the real world and try to catch up with things has affected me more than I thought it would.  

But I think I am finally starting to feel a bit better.  The new semester started and I am a teaching assistant in ceramics at Chico State University.  Plus, choir started and I get to do some singing which is always cathartic and uplifting for me.  On top of this, I moved into a new place where I finally have sun in my yard.  I moved in just days before going to Monterey for CSU Summer Arts.  I've been home for about three and half weeks and I guess I am nesting.  Furnishing and decorating my new digs and rushing a winter veggie garden in before I run out of time.  Oh, and the flowers.  I HAD, HAD, HAD to plant flowers! 

Sunny in Santa Cruz

I finished my first two week class at CSU Summer Arts and had the day off so I decided to get out of the fog.  I headed up to Palo Alto for ACGA's Clay & Glass Festival.  I saw a lot of wonderful work, but for some reason was shy about taking photos of anyone's work.  However, I had the delight of running into this Patrick Dougherty sculpture outside of the Palo Alto Art Center.

Here is a video of the construction of the sculpture.

After being in Monterey's 60 degree foggy weather for two weeks I was eager for the sun and warmth which I got in Palo Alto.  It was about 78 degrees and I felt like I was in an oven so I hopped back in the car and headed out to Santa Cruz.  Yeah, I know, go figure?  

This is the view from the pier look south towards Monterey. Yep, that's the thick grey blanket I have been living in lately. 

But turn around an this is what you see.

 The sea lions migrate up from Southern California to feast and rest in the marine sanctuary.

Smile pretty for the camera!

 I love architectural elements,

and the different blues of the ocean and sky here.

And when I finally drove back to Monterey, I found out it had been sunny here today.  It figures.

Photo Mania in Monterey

The last couple of days in Monterey, our class has had the opportunity to work with the wonderful photographer, Dan Burkholder.  He has been teaching us the ins and outs of iPhone photography using an amazing array of apps and techniques.  I don't have an iPhone yet but I have been lucky to have great classmates who allowed me to take some shots with their phones and run the apps.  I'm hooked and ready to get one!

Beach Bummin'

Carmel, CA

I have been so busy lately that it seems like yesterday that I last posted when in fact a whole month has slipped right on by.  Let's see if I can get y'all caught up.

Fort Ord Dunes State Park

Texture on the dunes

Sand City, CA

I am currently in Monterey at CSU Summer Arts taking a photography course called "Exploring Photography Through Three Centuries.  I've made it a point to get to the beach while I am here and have visited three so far.  I can't wait to go explore some more.

Taking a group photo.  Say Cheese!

The course is coordinated by Brian Taylor, professor and chair of the art department at CSU San Jose.

Professor Taylor has brought in three awesome guest artists for this two week class and we just finished up with artist, Dan Estabrook who is amazing!  He taught us salt, gelatin-salt, and gold toning, now considered an alternative process which was revolutionary in the 1880's when it was fist invented by William Henry Fox Talbot.  The three prints above are the ones I completed.  The first, on the left is from an image I shot (cough) about 18 years ago.  This one is a salt print.  The middle picture is the interior of the craft house from my recent trip to Penland and is a gold toned gelatin-salt print.  The last photo on the right is from a farmer's market picture of turnips and is a gelatin -salt print.  This process is quite user friendly I would like to explore it some more when the class is over.  

I am currently in the thick of mixed media with our second guest artist, Holly Roberts.  She is teaching the class mixed media techniques using photography, paint, and collage.

Susannah Israel

The weekend right before I left for Monterey I was able to attend a workshop with Susannah Israel who taught us coil building techniques for figurative sculpture.  I am so glad I was able to go to this as Susaanah is an absolute delight to work with and an incredible instructor!

My bunny sculpture from Susannah's workshop.

Soda kiln results

And then there was the soda firing.  It was a mere two weeks ago and already it seems like so long ago. 

I was able to participate in a couple of firings and I am truly addicted.  Phew, that's a lot of activity with more on the horizon.  I have another week in this class and then I will be starting the final two weeks with Clay as a Medium for Sculpture.  I'll try to keep you updated when I can find the time to breath!