Crazy for Clay (most of the time)

Hiatus

2012-01-08T11:26:00.000-06:00

Crazy for clay is going on offiical hiatus for now... though its already been unoffically dead for a few months now. I just have not had much time to do any ceramics, much less blog about it, and if there is anyone out there reading this I don't want to string you along!

Hopefully once I get into grad school life will be a bit calmer, and certainly more ceramics oriented, so expect to see updates at some point in the future! My Etsy store will be up at least until I leave for grad school, though once I'm gone I may just be selling through Clayways in Austin.

-Sarah

Handmade Holiday Workshop and Mini-Market!

2011-11-27T23:17:00.000-06:00

I know that I've been neglecting my blog horribly, and to be honest I don't think it will get the attention it deserves until I've got my grad school applications in! However, I will try to post occational announcements until then :)

Speaking of which... This Thursday I will be selling my ceramics at Etsy's Holiday Workshop at Austin's West Elm store!

Event Details

Date: Thursday, December 1, 2011

Time: 6-9PM

Location: 1011 W. 5^th Street, Suite 100, Austin, TX 78703

512-320-5415

I hope to see you there!

Chili Festival, and a new Logo!

2011-10-15T11:56:00.000-05:00

Yes I am still alive! I have been very busy, as usual, and have barely had time to put stuff on Etsy, much less keep up with my blog. To appologise for my lack of updates, I have two bits of exciting news!

Number one, and probably more exciting for you than my second bit, is that I will be selling my pottery at the Natural Springs Garden first annual Chili Cookoff and Festival next Saturday October 22! It should be a fun event, with live music, all sorts of chili's and salsas for sampling, and of course the wares of various Austin-area vendors including myself! For more information, check out their webpage: http://www.naturalspringsgarden.com/chilicookofffestival.htm

The second bit of news is that I have finally finalized my logo design! I dont know if you remember this old post, or this even older one, but I have made a lot of progress since then :) This is the rough version, I will be cleaning up the lines and coloring, so expect to see it on the blog and my Etsy store soon!

Thanks for your patience, I hope to see you at the Fest, and I promise to give you an update soonish :)

2011-09-29T22:49:00.000-05:00

New Stuff!

2011-09-23T19:06:00.000-05:00

Earrings on Etsy

2011-09-11T10:27:00.000-05:00

I finally have posted my earrings on Etsy!! I am very excited to have these finished products; there are a couple more I am experiementing with gas-firing (as opposed to soda-fired as all the ones currently on Etsy are) that I should also be posting soon. I also have a bunch that are not painted yet that I will eventually get around to finishing up.

Things, as always, have been crazy, and I am about to start teaching Clayplay afterschool classes twice a week, which is exciting, but also means less time for my own work. I think I just need to make sure to actually schedule my own work time, instead of trying to squeeze it in when I happen to have an hour or two to myself. I've got to get my priorities straight, especially since I am planning on applying to grad school soon, I need to have some good work for my portfolio!

Earrings and Pendants

2011-08-01T10:27:00.000-05:00

I know I promised an update weeks ago, but again, I've been super busy! The last three weeks I've been teaching and assisting kids camps at Clayways every day, in addition to doing some project Clayplay stuff and of course glazing/loading/unloading etc. I have been doing some work on my earrings and such at home. Mostly I am painting designs on them in underglaze; some I plan on soda-firing with Ryans glazes, and some I'm going to use multiple colors of underglaze with a clear top coat and gas-fire at Clayways. Hopefully I will have some finished pieces doen in the next few weeks! I've already bought all the hooks and such to assemble them!

I am also working on a comission for some pendants, these I am carving. I am really excited with how they are turing out, so I may try my hand at carving some earrings, though I may need smaller tools :P I also have bought a number of new cookie cutters for earrings, including a cool little set of shapes, some of which I am trying out now.

I will be going on vacation for two weeks starting this Sunday, but I will try to squeeze in another post before I go; I will hopefully have some of these new shapes painted by then :)

Workworkwork

2011-07-12T20:22:00.004-05:00

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted, but the last few weeks have been extremely busy for me! I've been working a lot with Clayways, both helping with kilns and teaching kids camps, and also with some of the Project ClayPlay classes. Its been fun helping with the camps and classes especially, but with working 20-30 hrs a week at my day job and 10-20 hrs with Clayways I've hardly had any time to myself!

The only throwing I've done in the last month is a few bowls for a Project ClayPlay fundraiser, though a few weeks ago I did manage to finish up the last throwing project I had started, some butter dishes. I got the idea for these from a video I found online. You throw the rim of the bottom dish and the walls of the top dish together with no bottom, then use a slab to make the bottom and top of the two dishes after altering the sides to ovals. It was a cool idea, and I am fairly happy with the way these turned out, but the bottom dishes look too big to me, so next time I may try throwing them separately even though that will take more measuring.

I have also started a totally new and different project: I am making earrings! And possibly some necklace charms too :) I was inspired by some clay earrings I bought at NCECA (pictures in the next post). I have already painted about 8 sets, and I just cut out 6 more pairs today. I am really excited about this new project, and I cannot wait to see some finished ones. I will do a post later this week on them and include some pictures of the painted ones and my sketches.

Lastly some pictures of my awesome pots at the Clayways gallery!! If you are in Austin, stop by and check it out! I am definately still selling stuff through Etsy, in fact hopefully I will get some pictures taken and post a few more pots in the next week or so.

My work is at Clayways!

2011-06-09T20:20:00.000-05:00

Exciting news! For the first time ever, my work is available for purchase from an actual gallery! I currently have some cups, mugs, and a few odds and ends (a really amazing teapot!) for sale at Clayways's gallery. If you want to stop by, its located at 5442 Burnet Road here in Austin (78756). I hope to continue to keep pieces in the gallery, and this summer I will probably even be working at Clayways periodically.

Wedding Vases

2011-06-08T17:15:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday was the wedding, and happily the vases were finished in time and they looked great! The arrangements turned out really really wonderful; I am crazy about succulents, and I pretty much thought it was the coolest thing ever to put them with the flowers! The bouquets were also arranged with the same flowers and succulents. I received a lot of compliments on the vases :)

I got to take a few of the vases home, and once the flowers wilted I planted the succulents (sorry, I don't know what kind they were :P ) in the vases. They aren't perfect since they don't have any drainage (I briefly considered trying to drill a hole in the bottoms, but I figured that would probably go terribly wrong), but I think they look quite nice!

New teabowls, and other awesome things

2011-06-01T12:49:00.000-05:00

I got some really great pieces out of the last firing! It was a good one :) These fountains are my favs, and I'm excited to get the pumps in them and get them running. I am really happy with this green one, though it is a little darker than I really prefer. I think I put this one in the Texas Clay Arts Association's six-pack show this year, its a good example of my style, and I didn't see any fountains last year, so hopefully it will really stand out (in a good way :P). This is the first year I have put something in the show, so I've got high hopes!

This one turned out well also, I am having fun trying out pieces with the flashing slip and I plan on keeping it up, they are looking quite nice. I'm hoping that branching out into some lighter, more subtle colors and surfaces will increase my sales. I feel like my pieces are unique enough that they may only appeal to fairly small amount of people. This is also part of the reason for my painted and wax-resist pieces, in addition to them being cheaper .

Some more experiments, these ones inspired by Ryan's new plates that are similarly decorated. He has been incising designs and then putting the green glaze in and clear glazing the plates; I carved my plates like I normally do, then painted both the green and the blue glazes into the carved areas before clear glazing them. I haven't really decided how happy I am with these yet. I like the overall appearance and the colors (the blue turns a great deep blue/purple color under the clear), but I'm not happy with the way the carved areas look. The clear is fairly thick, and now the carved areas just look blotchy, rather thna having that nice carved texture. I may have to experiement more to get an end product I am really happy with.

Annnnd lots of teabowls! Teabowls are probably my very favorite form. They are quick and easy, so they are a perfect form to experiement on, and they are so functional! I use teabowls for pretty much everything I drink :) With this set I was mostly doing different things with the glazes, in particular leaving bare clay vs the various glazes. I am pretty happy with the results, although some of the pieces that have glaze on the top half bled a little into the white bottom. I'm not sure if this is just because of the wax (I was having some trouble getting clean lines), or if it actually bled during the firing.

Ryan's green glaze was absolutely stunning on some of these! I got some really beautiful oranges, which doesnt always show up (like the green fountain at the top). The blue glaze turned out a little lighter than I really like, but the teabowls are still pretty satisfactory.

I'm also really happy with how this set of teabowls turned out. Right after throwing them I used a texture tool to make the ridges on the outsides, and then just lightly trimmed the bases without touching up the ridges at all once they were leather hard. This was sort of an assignment for me, because I tend to get really involved in the surface and I have a hard time not touching up and smoothing things out. But these turned out really well, and were super easy to make. You will probably be seeing more texture experiments in the future.

I also finally got this vase and pitcher finished. They have both been sitting on my shelf for quite a while now, but now my shelf is COMPLETELY CLEAR. This hasn't happened in a very long time :P Time to start throwing more pots!

Glazing some pots!

2011-05-13T18:34:00.000-05:00

This week has not been terribly productive, but I did go up to Southwestern on Wednesday to take some photographs of my pots (I will post some pics this weekend), and to catch up with my professor, Patrick Veerkamp. Patrick is nice enough to let me photograph stuff using the ceramic studio's set up, which is very handy. I love taking my sort of artsy Etsy photos, but it's also good to have some more professional looking photos around. It was great to catch up with Patrick, as I had missed him during Art of the Pot. One of the things we discussed was his retirement, and the subsequent open position at Southwestern. it was really interesting talking with him, as it had never really occurred to me that at a university as small as SU, that whoever fills his place is going to have to be able to teach more than just ceramics. Patrick actually teaches design and drawing in addition to ceramics, and the next teacher will have to be as broadly educated as him in order to fill the position. I will file that away for the future!

Today I got back into the studio for the first time since last weekend. It is still not very functional

yet, but all I needed to do today was wash some cups and get started on glazing them. I'm mostly concerned with getting some vases done for a friends wedding mid-June, but I also have a number of teabowls I am excited about seeing finished up, plus two fountains! I'm really excited about getting the fountains up and running, especially since I didn't get a very good photo of the first one I made before I sold it.

Fun tip: the way that Ryan waxes most of his pots is with a small sponge he leaves in the wax. This method is super easy and gives you really nice clean lines. We both wax the rims in addition to the bottoms, since we clear glaze most of the insides, and waxing the top ensures a nice clean line on the outer glaze. So you just place the pot on the wheel, and spin it with one hand, while applying the wax with sponge. The key is to squeeze a little bit of the wax out of the sponge before starting so it doesn't drip! To completely fill in the foot, I usually do apply extra wax with a paintbrush.

Art of the Pot 2011

2011-05-10T17:24:00.010-05:00

AOTP this weekend was a blast! Before I get into that, I just had to post a picture of this mug! The latest firing was not the best, the blue glaze in particular was a bit lack luster, but this guy turned out awesome! I really am liking the flashing slip against bare clay, and I plan on glazing some more pieces like this. I love the way the blue and green glazes look on my carved pots (when they fire well at least), but I would like a little bit more of a variety of surfaces, and in addition the flashing slip is a bit more subtle than the others.

Art of the Pot! I had a great time this weekend, I helped out at Ryan McKerley's studio both days, mostly by taking payments and wrapping pots, and I also went around the tour each day, saturday with my dad and sunday with my mom (great mothers day activity!!). The tour was great this year, though it was a tad bit hot in some of the un-air conditioned spaces. For the first time this year Keith Kreeger had several guest artists in his house, which was very nice. I love having the studio's on the tours, so that people can really connect with the artists, but it is also really neat to see work in someone's house. I think it really lets people visualize having these ceramics in their houses. So I was excited about that change.

In this post I'm not going to to over all the guest artists, just highlight some of them. There were two artists at Ryan's studio in addition to him and Chris Campbell, including Chris Gray (I could not find a website for him, but he works at the community college in Plano, Tx). Chris G. has some really beautiful surfaces and decorations, and some really neat forms. He makes these great morter and pestles that I definitely would have bought if I could afford it :). However he did give me a great teabowl in exchange for helping out at the studio. I haven't gotten a picture of it yet, but it is a beautiful celedon piece with a silhouette of a raven on it, similar to the piece pictured, but imagine a large teabowl instead of a mug :)

The other guest at the studio was Maria Dondero, who makes some really amazingly decorated ceramics. I just love these pieces; the attention to detail, the quality of the surface created with all the different glazes decorations, and the whimsical nature of the images. Maria also gave me a piece (all these artists are so generous!), and I chose a small mug like the ones pictured, with a wonderful little bicycle on one side, and a deer on the other. What I love about these pieces is how Maria puts little snippets of her life onto her pots' surfaces. She draws things she sees around the studio and her house, she makes little notes on them about things happening in her day, or comments on the drawings themselves; they are basically her sketch journal fractured into many little pieces. This quality makes it really fun to see a bunch of her pots all together.

The only pots I actually bought for myself this year were two lovely miniature mugs from Margaret Bohls. I really love her black and white pieces, the simplicity of their surface goes well with the little details of their construction. I really love how you can see exactly how she built the mugs; they would not be nearly so compelling if she had smoothed out the seams of the slabs.

My only regret for the weekend is that I did not by this amazing vase by Diana Fayt! It was pretty far out of my price range, and so I convinced myself to not buy it :( But I will for sure buy something from her in the future. I love the way Diana combines the organic images of flowers and plants, and in this case a lovely little bee, with geometric elements. Some day...

Featured Artist: Jake Johnson

2011-05-03T19:19:00.000-05:00

My featured artist #2 is Jake Johnson, another one of my favorite Etsy artists. Jake is a potter working in Bellefonte, PA, and according to his Etsy profile, "My work is mostly functional. I love making pieces that are unique and also affordable for lots of people. I try to give my work a sense of character and personality."

I loved Jake's work as soon as I saw it. The pieces are beautifully crafted, with a strong attention to detail in the forms and their surface treatment. Though all of his pieces are wonderful, my favorite thing about his store is the number of sets. I really enjoy well crafted sets, they have a different feel and function than individual pieces, and it is an extra challenge to get all of the part to work together as a whole piece.

I think one of the most important factors that adds to the visual and tactile appeal of these pieces is the sense of life and movement they have (though in a very different manner than our last featured artist, Natalya Sots). The slight variations between items in a set, or subtle tilts and irregularities of pieces, and in particular the way many of the trays are swept up to cradle the pieces they hold, all of these factors add to their organic quality.

To see more items for sale, visit Jakes Etsy page, and for more information about the artist and images ofhis work, please visit his website!

More new pieces, and my aloe vera plant :)

2011-04-26T17:43:00.000-05:00

Love this teapot, unfortunately it has cracks around the spout and handles because it dried too fast when it was leather hard. I tried to patch the spots, but they pulled up a little with the soda-firing. Luckily it is still very solid, but cosmetically the cracks are annoying.

This guy has been waiting to be fired for a while now, but it is finally done! The green turned out pretty amazing. He is very heavy though, the bottoms pretty thick :P

A couple more of the mugs. The one on the left has the flashing slip on it, and I used masking tape as a resist to create the white lines. I plan on experimenting more with this in the future.

Believe it or not, every single one of those plants was growing in the blue pot on the far left. The biggest one growing in that pot is the original plants, but she makes babies like crazy! I spent about an hour and a half this afternoon pulling all the babies out and re-potting them.

New finished pots

2011-04-19T18:41:00.001-05:00

Got some finished pieces out of the kiln! This firing turned out really well. I don't know if you remember this casserole, since I threw it almost half a year ago. Either the lid or the rim warped a little, so the lid doesn't sit down very snug, but it does fit.

This teapot is also from forever ago, and it turned out great, though I need to buy a smaller wicker handle for it.

Here are some of the mugs, there are a couple more finished ones I don't have pictures of yet, and a few more that have not been fired. Also, my kitty Mogget sleeping in the background :)

And some lovely pots thrown by my brother, Ethan (the lidded jar and the little vase) and his girlfriend Ciara's first pot ever, an amazing cylinder!

Teabowls

2011-04-18T20:24:00.000-05:00

Got some teabowls and small cups/shot glasses carved! There are some others that I will be painting once they are bisqued. Hopefully I will have some fired pots to show you in the next couple days :)

NCECA- You know you want to...

2011-04-11T09:40:00.002-05:00

The NCECA show I wanted to highlight in more detail than the others was held at the AIA Tampa Bay, called: You Know You Want to....

The official description of the show was "The works of four artists: Jason Briggs, Raymond Gonzalez, Stephanie Lanter, and Kelley Eggert, explore similar formal and conceptual relationships. The works of each artist explore ideas of need, desire, and sensuality. Four separate bodies of work inform each other formally in color, surface and form. They play and interplay. The viewer is enticed to touch, hold, caress, and squeeze the works. Tactility plays a vital role in the works presented by all of the artists. The artists are not bound to traditional notions of material as they work with media outside of the ceramic boundary. The utilization of material in such a manner reinforces conceptual notions rather than adhering to code of historical practice" (from the AIA website).

I was invited to the opening of the show (not that it was invitation only) by the curator and participating artist, Raymond Gonzalez, as he was the volunteer coordinator at NCECA. The main reason I chose to highlight this show was that all four of the artists were there, and it always makes a show more interesting to actually be able to speak with the artists.

I find myself both repelled and fascinated by the sculptures of Jason Briggs, which I am sure is how he intends the viewer to react. All the different textures just beg you to pick up his pieces and feel the surfaces, to explore the folds and loops of clay; but at the same time some of the bits are a little bit off-putting when you see them as almost organ-like shapes. The furry parts are especially interesting; they are tempting to touch, but also seem to be more like pubic hair than anything else. Very interesting stuff! I spoke to Jason about how he creates these; because of the complexity of the detail, I was curious if he mostly added pieces of clay onto the main body to get the different apparently overlapping parts, or if he just did a lot of carving under lips to make it appear that there were additions. He said that he does both, but most of it is just really careful, detailed carving. He said he pushes the clay around on the surface a lot, to build up ridges, and then carves under them to create the appearance of a layered surface.

And then there is Raymond Gonzalez. Of all the artists in the show, Ray's are the most playful; though all of the pieces are about touch and the tactility of the art, these guys really do look like some sort of toy, they are objects meant to be handled. I think Ray employs the tension between the piece as an art object and an object meant to be handled even more than the other artists. The other pieces in the show beg to be touched because of their varied surface qualities, but they look like pieces of art. Though I appreciate the aesthetic choices made in their creation, Ray's pieces look more like objects meant to be handled regularly than artworks. My favorite piece at the show was similar to the one pictured, but instead of the rhinestones, it had blinking lights in all the dots. The best part about it was they were set to blink fairly infrequently, so you had to really watch it to prove that it was actually blinking. All-in-all, very fun pieces.

Unfortunately I could not find any images of the actual pieces Stephanie Lanter had in the show, but this piece is similar. The sculptures she had in the show were all reminiscent of phones, some more obviously than others, with lingerie-like crocheted additions. When I was speaking with her she said that it originally never occurred to her that the crocheted bits really did have the feel of lingerie on her pieces, but she decided to take the idea further with one of the pieces that was in the show, and put actual fishnet stockings on the sculpture. The clay with these textile pieces and the actual phone cords is an interesting mix of materials. The clay surfaces almost seem like bones, with a lot of carved texture on them that, as always, makes you want to pick them up! It was fun talking with Stephanie, we both agreed that knitting/crocheting is a great way to relax at the end of the day :)

First of all, I have to apologise for this really out of focus picture. Like with Stephanie, I could not find pictures of any of Kelley Eggert's pieces from the show, and I only took this one terrible picture on my phone! But I had to show it anyways, because this was my favorite piece, though she has some really amazing work online. I love the play between organic and mechanical in her art, not only in the shapes and forms, but in the materials themselves. Though clay can be formed into objects that don't look very organic, the material itself is very organic, so combining the clay with metal parts ties together the different aspects of the form.

A much better picture of a really amazing piece that was not in the show.

fun with textures

2011-04-06T21:02:00.000-05:00

Yes I am still throwing stuff every once in a while :) I have been dealing with a finger that is swollen and painful (Dr says the joint is infected) for almost a month now, and I didn't really want to even try throwing with it! But the antibiotics seem to be working, and the finger has been feeling better, so I tried some small stuff today. And teabowls are my favorites. I tried out a texture tool that I got at NCECA to make the stripes on some of the bowls.

I like the way they look right now, though I had to restrain myself from trying to clean up the lines :) I'm going to make myself leave them alone until they are pretty dry. The unlined ones I am planning on carving, but only the tops, and for both sets I want to glaze the textured parts and leave the bottoms white.

Lastly, we haven't had any animals lately, and DeeDee wanted some face time :)

NCECA

2011-04-05T19:28:00.003-05:00

I am finally back in town! Most of last week I was in Tampa for the NCECA conference (the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts). This year was the first time I had attended, and I had a wonderful time, although the weather was rainy up untill the last day. There were a million things to see and do, so this post will just highlight some of my favorite pieces and events.

My favorite part by far was the demonstrations. As a relatively new ceramic artist, and especially as someone who does little altering of forms and virtually no handbuilding, it was really interesting and informative to see these artists demonstrate their techniques. The four artist that demo'ed were Deborah Schwartzkopf, Brian Kakas, Juan Granados, and Esther Shimazu. Though Juan and Esther were also very interesting, for the above reasons I was particularly interested in Deborah and Brian's demos.

Deborah Schwartzkopf makes some really beautifully altered functional work, and as a functional potter I was particularly interested in her techniques. As somone who doesn't alter a lot, it is sometimes hard for me to imagine how potters get to their finished products, and it was wonderful to watch Deborah's process. Watching her demo made me want to get into the studio!

Brian Kakas, on the other hand, is a purely sculptural ceramic artist, who make truely amazing abstracted pieces. Similarly to Deborah, it was particularly interesting to watch him work because I had absolutely no idea how he arrived at his finished product! His method is very architectual in my mind; he uses a lot of cross-supports and such, and it was facinating to watch him work.

Of course there were also all sorts of wondeful shows and exhibits inside and outside of the convention center. There was a collection of semi-performance art pieces that were a part of the NCECA Projects Space, called Migration.

My favorite of these pieces was Of a Reciprocal Nature by Dawn Holder. She actually sculpted the land out of wet clay, and spread clay around the bases of the wooden pylons, then stuck ceramic grass and mussels into the clay. It was really interesting to watch it going up in stages, and it was a really beautiful scene when completed (sorry about my terrible quality iphone pictures!).

Best of all, on the last day of the exhibit she invited passerbys to take some of the grass and mussels (I grabbed a couple, they are really beautiful little pieces, she managed to get the color just perfect).

The main NCECA Gallery was equally exciting, and was full of interesting functional and sculptural work. I was tempted to buy everything, especially this handsome set by Julia Galloway. I love the forms themselves, and with the addition of the sort of wrought iron design... just lovely. The design compliments the form, and there is enough white space to balance it out and keep it from getting too busy. This is an artist I vow to buy something from at some point! Preferably this set :)

The K-12 show was really impressive; it is absolutely amazing what some of these kids are making! There are 12 year olds that can make sculptures better than I have tried to make :) Seeing this exhibit made me which I had gotten into clay earlier in my life. My favorite piece was by Adrian Sanchez, these wonderful horned lizards. I love horny toads and these are so well done!

In addition to the shows within the convention centers, there were several shows that were around Tampa and St. Petersburg that were concurrent with NCECA. The first I stopped by was at the Clearwater SPC Crossroads Art Gallery, in Clearwater. This show was intitled Islamic Influences, and had some amazing work in it. This show was all functional work, and all of the pieces were beautifully done; some were painted, some were altered, and some, like this piece by Steve Roberts, had some really wonderful textures. As you know, I am all about carving and I love textures, and finding glazes that really interact well on a highly textured surface, and the celedon glaze on this teabowl is amazing.

The other gallery I stopped by was the Florida Craftsman Gallery in St. Petersburg, which actually had two shows running. The first was Hot and Humid, which featured a great mix of sculptural pieces and vessels, both functional and otherwise. My favorite artist from this show was a potter named Judith Berk King, who handbuilds these platters and then paints on their surface. I love the detail of the skull and the aged quality of the ceramic surface, juxtaposed with the whimsicle aspect of the ice cream cones. I dont know if the broken bit was originally intentional, but I think it adds to the piece. I love that you can see the texture of the clay; it really looks and feels like sandstone.

Munemitsu Taguchi was one of the artists that were part of the second show, called Fluid: The New Wave of Celadon Artists. All of the pieces were great, but this pottery just caught me! It is so clean and simple, and the celedon glaze is just flawless. The exposed porcelain on the bases is so smooth it is reflective, these things are just wonderful to hold and feel. I would have bought one of the small cups but they were already sold! And these pieces also follow along with my NCECA interest in altered forms.

So those are my main highlights of NCECA, for now. Later this week I will talk about one of the shows I saw that I did not mention here, and I will probably do a Featured Artist post on an NCECA artist at some point. Until next time!

Sarah's Featured Artist: Natalya Sots

2011-03-24T18:39:00.012-05:00

After reading an Etsy article on blogs, I have decided to try and revamp mine. This blog is in a large part for myself, so that I can easily look back over my work and designs, though I hope at least some of my friends and customers enjoy seeing my process and my works in progress! However, I do want to have my blog function in line with my Etsy store; I want people who check out my blog to be interested enough to visit my Etsy store, and vice versa.

Much of the advice given in the article warned about having you blog completely focused on your own work, and recommended trying to include things from your life and even featuring other artists work. So as my first step to a more exciting and accessible blog, I am going to try and feature a different artist on my blog on a regular basis. Though they will probably start out mostly being ceramic artists, and mostly from Etsy, I may expand the media and sources as this progresses. Lets see how it goes!

Featured Artist #1: Natalya Sots
For my first ever Artist of the Week, I have Natalya Sots, an Etsy seller who makes some really spectacular hand built work. I discovered these wonderful pieces about a year ago, and I am constantly impressed with the imagination and skill with which Natalya creates them.

Coffee cup with pants (red with multi-color polka dots)

This piece is currently for sale on Etsy!

These polka-dotted pieces are only a small fraction of the works displayed on her Etsy page, which range from beautifully crafted birds, to vibrantly colored poppy plates, to fantastic figurines. I just happen to particularly enjoy the polka dots!

Blue cup with Polka Dots

By far my favorite pieces are her teapots, which apparently are also popular among her other customers; they never last long in the shop before being snatched up! I just love the whimsical life and energy these pieces have. The teapots with 'pants' (which look similar to the first two cups pictured) are particularly animated, but the color and stance of her teapots give them all a lively personality.

Purple Teapot with polka dots

Natalya is one of my very favorite artists (not to mention ceramic artists) working on Etsy, and I hope that you will enjoy her work too!

Here ends the first installment of Sarah's Artist of the Week :)

Fountain #2

2011-03-24T18:27:00.000-05:00

Finally got the second fountain carved! I'm excited to see theses guys fired and functional!

2011-03-24T17:24:00.002-05:00

Getting my blog registered on Technorati!

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Ready to fire!

2011-03-12T21:59:00.000-06:00

I finally got the pitcher painted!

I've got two boards of pots ready to fire! Hopefully I will post pictures in the next couple days.

Carved fountain and new fired pieces!

2011-03-08T20:41:00.000-06:00

Finally got one of the fountains carved! I like the way it turned out; I cant wait to see it finished! :)

And got some stuff out of the kiln finally! Some of these pieces have been on the shelf for a while.

The plate on the left was the first one I had tried experimenting with wax resist to make the pattern with plain clay and a flashing slip. I am really happy with the way it turned out, a little bit more subtle than some of my other stuff. Expect to see more!

painted vase

2011-03-06T19:12:00.000-06:00

Got the vase painted today, I should get the pitcher tomorrow, then the fountains :) The wonders of masking tape!

one last plate...

2011-03-02T18:27:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I did the trapezoids first, but then I thought it looked too much like a sun, so I added the triangles. I really should probably sketch out all my ideas before carving them out :P Next up will be the painted pieces, hopefully I will get at least one of those done tomorrow.

Plates plates plates

2011-03-01T18:31:00.000-06:00

And as promised, some carved plates! I've got one more plate to carve, plus the two fountains and their bowls, and then I have a vase and a pitcher to paint. Expect to see more this week! I'm hoping to get some stuff into Ryan's firing in a couple weeks, to clear out my space a little!

Still playing with shapes inspired by Native American pottery, and I'm like how these are turning out!

Nothing terribly interesting...

2011-02-26T10:34:00.000-06:00

So again, I don't have any actual studio pictures, so you will have to make do with my teapot with squares and my ever so curious cat, Sammy. She thinks everything might have food in it :) I was not the happiest with this teapot, mostly because I was frustrated with the blue glaze (it is a pain to apply, and it ended up with a very obvious overlap stripe in the middle), but its not bad, and people seem to like it on Etsy.

At the studio I still have one fountain bowl and the big plate to trim; they were both a little too wet on friday when I went in and trimmed some other pieces. Probably the most frustrating thing about not having the studio close by (college completely spoiled me) is trying to time the drying! I have to wrap up my pots fairly securely, because its usually at least a day or two before I will be back in the studio, and I never am positive when I will be next stopping by. So it takes forever for things to dry, as I would rather err on the cautious side.

I also have a couple of the plates at home ready to carve, so those should be showing up in the next day or two!

Fountains and plates

2011-02-18T20:45:00.000-06:00

I've been meaning to make some more fountains since I sold my first ever fountain at EAST last year (it was so awesome it sold before the show even officially started!), and I finally got started! These will look a lot like the one in the post linked above, though I don't think either one will be quite as round as the original, and I intend to stay with the geometric carvings with these guys.

I am so happy with this platter! It is going to end up a present for a friend, and I will be doing lots of awesome carving on it! Very excited :D It turned out perfectly, and I think it is one of the larger plates I have ever thrown. I'm a teensy bit nervous about trimming it...

The space on my cart is getting really cramped! I haven't gotten a chance to get stuff fired in a bit, so I have pieces that are glazed and waiting to be soda-fired, pieces that need to be bisqued because I dripped wax in the wrong place, bisqued pieces that need to be glazed, and semi-dry pieces that need to dry and be bisqued, in addition to the wet pieces!! I don't think I can really afford to throw much more until some of these pieces get finished.

(I had to stick several of the shorter ware boards in between the regular levels of the cart to fit everything in!)

New pieces on Etsy, vases for a wedding!

2011-02-16T09:19:00.001-06:00

I finally took nice pictures of the few finished pieces I have around (two bowls, a teapot and a large jar) and put them up on Etsy. Check them out!

I also got a couple more plates thrown yesterday, and threw three test vases for the wedding; I'm trying to get the size just right! Since they are just cylinders, I hope to get these dried and fired pretty quickly so I can start making the actual vases.

Plates and logo

2011-02-13T14:02:00.002-06:00

I've been so lazy lately! I went into the studio yesterday but all I made were these two plates :P Admittedly some of my time was spent showing the studio to a friend who stopped by while she was in town, but thats not really an excuse. The first one I made (on the right) was perfect! The second one collapsed three separate times, and only on the third attempt to save it did I realize that was not happening, so I cut off the rim and made a smaller plate :P Oh well. I am about to start working on some vases for a friend's wedding in June, but I want to do a test to make sure I get the size right.

Also, the most recent draft of my prospective logo! Those wierd things in the background are my simplified take on indian paint brush :) Anyways, this is just a draft, so I will probably put a little more detail into them before I'm done, and I need to color a version on my computer instead of just with pencils. All in all I like the way it's coming along! I really like this more stylized version of the lizard (there is an earlier version somewhere in the blog archives).

Mug sketches

2011-02-08T20:17:00.000-06:00

I haven't actually done anything useful at the studio this week, so here is a page from my sketchbook with lots of mug designs. All of these are inspired by design elements from native american pottery.

And because I dont have anything else pottery related... my dog. Looking very silly.

And a ferret in a tupperware! No I didnt keep her in there for very long, but she fit so perfectly! She actually sat in it for a minute more when I took the lid off; ferrets love little spaces :P Hopefully I will update soon with more awesome pottery! I am thinking about making some more plates, and maybe a couple fountains!

More carved mugs

2011-02-04T20:34:00.001-06:00

Got the last of the carved mugs done! I have another 5 that I will be painting, but I have to wait for those to dry (oh so slowly) and get bisqued.

This one is my favorite!

And it was a snow day today!! I know 1 inch isn't very impressive for a lot of people, but here in Austin it's a pretty big deal :D I don't think I have ever seen this much snow before (in Austin :P ).

Carved mugs and cold doggies

2011-02-03T20:17:00.000-06:00

Yay some carved mugs! This is my favorite so far:

This one's pretty cool too

Doggies trying to stay warm in the studio. For Texas, 25 is really really cold! More carved mugs soon!

Assembled mugs

2011-01-31T12:21:00.000-06:00

As promised, pictures of the assembled mugs! With very dramatic shadows :)

Close up of the handles. I couldnt decided exactly how I wanted them to look, so I tried out two different versions; there is a smooth curve (like the one on the left), and one that squares off a bit at the bottom (the two on the right). I still haven't decided which I like better, I'll have to wait and see what they look like finished.

I spent most of yesterday afternoon sanding lots of Ryans pots! I especially love the plate set (plus they were the easiest to sand :P)

Millions of mugs!

2011-01-28T12:16:00.000-06:00

Well not millions, but it sure felt like it when I was pulling all the handles :P I did get them all done yesterday, but I wrapped them up before I remembered to take a picture, so thats for next time. I'm excited to start decorating these!

This time birthday kitty was napping in a crate of newspaper. She seemed to like the rustling noise it made when she changed positions.

Mugs

2011-01-23T22:09:00.000-06:00

Mugs! Or they will be; for now they are just cylinders. Mugs are wonderful and easy to throw, but next week I get to pull a ton of handles :P

While Ethan was home for the Christmas break he brought his girlfriend Ciara to the studio and they threw a couple things. The little short cylinder was Ciaras first pot ever! Ethan threw the little vase and the jar.

Sketchbook page! The first in a while I know :) Several of these have already shown up in earlier posts.

And some design ideas for the mugs once they are all assembled. I will probably carve some of these, but I am really enjoying painting my bisqued pieces and will probably focus on that (in part because I think I threw most of the cylinders a little too thin to carve).

Birthday kitty taking a nap.

Painted pots, native american designs

2011-01-14T11:06:00.001-06:00

I got a couple more pieces painted this week! I think many of my designs have already been unconciously drawing from native american pot designs (like the stair step one), but with these two I actively looked at designs to find new geometric elements to use in my designs. I am really happy with the way these two turned out, especially the pitcher.

The vase turned out well too, but I didn't think the design was quite as exciting. I should be getting back into the studio soon, after this rediculously long break, so expect to see some new stuff! I am considering applying to be in an art festival in Sunset Valley, so if I want to go for that I really need to make a lot in the next couple months to get a decent amount of stock. I also need to get started on my friends wedding vases, though I have until June to finish those.

In much more boring news, I went and got my sales tax permit yesterday! Now I really feel like a real business :)

Christmas, christmas presents, and christmas cats

2011-01-11T10:38:00.000-06:00

This will be a long post since I have been a slacker and have a) not posted in forever and b) not had much to post because I've hardly been in the studio. This is a combination of being busy, being lazy, and my back hurting. My little brother was home for the break, and I was spending a lot of time with him, especially the last couple weeks before he went back to school on sat, and my grandma and aunt were in town for a few days a week ago. I think also the holidays have made me feel like I'm allowed to be a little lazy :P My back was pretty painful for a while, but last week I finally went to see a specialist, who had me get an xray (have not heard back about that yet), but more importantly he put me on celebrex, a prescription anti-inflamitory. It is AMAZING. I feel so much better! I was basically in pain whenever I was sitting down, it just ached almost constantly and was really stiff when I stood up after sitting for a while. Now I have almost no pain, and it is much less stiff. I am still trying to be careful with it, but man it feels so great to not hurt!

Yes I am still carving stuff every once in a while :P I still have to paint some of the other vases. Below are the bowls I made for my grandma before being fired. I forgot to take a photo of them finished before I gave them to her, but frankly I like them better before... They didnt turn out bad, but the yellow of the petals was so pale that it really needed an outline. I suspected this before I fired, but I had just spent 6 hours painting pots, and I really needed to start the firing, so I did not outline them. They are visable, but looked more striking at this stage.

One of the other rushed Christmas projects were these little cups a coworker ordered. These were also painted with underglazes and fired in the electric kiln. I kind of enjoyed painting on the b-mix, I think they turned out pretty well!

Christmas kitties! Cinnamon and Sam sleeping in front of the tree :)

In case you were interested in the other forms of art I dabble in, here is an acrylic painting I did for a couple who I dog sit for. Their oldest dog, Maggie, passed away in December, so I made this for them. Its been forever since I've painted anything, so I was pretty pleased with out nice this turned out. I was mostly concerned with ending up with something that was recognizable as Maggie :)

Nesting bowls + handles = non-nesting bowls

2010-12-17T20:50:00.000-06:00

Before I put the handles on, the bowls actually nested! This is the first time I've ever made a set like this, and I am super happy with these!

Of course, once I put the handles on, they can't nest any more :( but maybe I can still set them inside each other? Anyways, I think my Grandma will love these, especially once I paint them (I'm leaning towards a daisy design).

Also got the vases trimmed. I think I will carve a couple of these and paint the other two. I've been cramming to try and get some of these projects done before Christmas; I'm going to try out a high fire electric glazing, expect to see those next week.

Vases and the last mixing bowl

2010-12-06T20:04:00.000-06:00

Doing some vases for a coworker's request. These were kind of a pain, I am still having some issues with the clay getting a little off center while opening, and this become much more pronounced with tall thin objects :P But they came out alright. I will probably throw a couple more wed or thur.

Also got the third bowl done for my Grandma's christmas present! This one doesn't match quite as well... it's a little bit too short, but I think they will look nice anyways. Plus, they wont be able to nest because of the handles I'm going to put on them, so it won't be as noticable :P

Still dealing with my back pain, which is extremely frustrating. I can throw without too much trouble, but doing it for more than a couple hours makes me kind of achey. Today the physical therapist basically told me to expect this to last for a while, like wearing my brace for the next year. I am not really looking forwards to that...

Painted pots, christmas gifts

2010-12-02T19:42:00.000-06:00

I got a couple more things painted with underglaze last week, including this pretty little plate! I am very happy with the way this turned out; I like the plate itself (I plan on making more with this wide rim that is so very paintable), and the design is great! I am trying so hard to not use stripes too much, and I even noticed that most of the things I sold during EAST were more complicated patterns like this one. So I will make an effort :P

Also got this teapot done, I am very happy with the petal shapes (a million times easier to paint curved lines than to carve them), but I'm not positive I like the spout. I'm going to leave it that way and see how it looks complete! I think it is a little overwhelming right now, but I'm hoping once I get a colored glaze on it the piece will be balanced out a bit.

Also working on some last minute Christmas gifts! My grandma mentioned a while ago that she used to have a mixing bowl with a spout and a handle and requested I make her one, so I am going to try for my first ever set of nesting bowls. We shall see how that turns out, I'm not sure if I can get it to work with the handles, but I will try :) These bowls and the pitchers reminded me how much I hate making pulled spouts. They are no fun.

New pots on Etsy; Holiday specials!

2010-11-29T10:20:00.000-06:00

Thanksgiving is over, and now everyone is looking forwards to the upcoming holidays! I just posted a bunch of new pots on Etsy, and as a holiday special, I am giving any blog fans a 10% discount on their next purchase! Just enter the coupon code "FAITHFULBLOGFAN" at checkout. In addition, purchase anything before Jan 1st, and you will receive a coupon code for a 15% discount on purchases made after Jan 1, 2011. Enjoy!

Also got one of the pitchers carved! I'm really happy with the way this guy turned out :)

E.A.S.T. week 2

2010-11-29T10:04:00.000-06:00

The second weekend of EAST went well, though it was a little slower than the first. I had a great time hanging out with all the artists and visitors, and I sold a few more pieces! All together it was a great experience, and maybe next year I will cough up the $100 and officially take part :)

EAST week 1, pitchers

2010-11-18T19:09:00.000-06:00

The first weekend of EAST went great! I sold some pieces, and had a lot of people interested in my work, which was super exciting :) This is my set up, I took some nicer pictures with my real camera, I'll post those after this coming weekend. If you want to stop by, my stuff will be in the studio both days, and I should be there 3-6 sat and all day sun.

Also finally got some handles on those pitchers! I plan on carving some and painting some.

East Austin Studio Tour TOMORROW!!

2010-11-12T21:11:00.002-06:00

Come see me and my beautiful pottery!! :D E.A.S.T. starts tomorrow, and I will be at Ryans studio on 2710 E Cesar Chavez from 11am-6pm and from 3pm-6pm on Sunday. I am super excited! I will post photos of the event tomorrow :)

And because its a photo blog, and it needs pictures, here is Peanut Butter. She is curious about my phone..

More pitchers, and a working fountain!

2010-11-05T18:29:00.001-05:00

I made two more pitchers! I like the way these guys turned out, but I think I like my little pot-bellied ones a bit better. They have so much personality :)

I am actually very happy with these; I had trouble throwing all four (with the back problems and general business I've been throwing very sporadically), and I was very happy to end up with good looking pots! I guess thats what really shows my progress, I still have problems throwing sometimes (mostly its been problems with things getting slightly off center as I am opening and doing the first few pulls), but I am getting better at working through issues and managing to come out with a pot rather than having it collapse on me :D

Lastly, I finaly finished this project from October of 09! I was taking a class at Clayways, and our instructor Kelly was showing us how to make a simple fountain. I threw and carved this guy and got it bisqued, but I wanted to salt-fire it, and its been waiting to get fired at Ryans for almost a year! Today I went to Armadillo and bought the pump, and put it all together. This is super exciting for me, I've never assembled any sort of working device before, no laps, clocks, or even a soap pump. My cats love it; I'm not sure if they will let me sell their wonderful new drinking fountain.

Finished pots!

2010-11-04T18:25:00.000-05:00

Here are my fired pots!! This was an exciting firing; it had some new stuff (like the painted cups, these are the first painted pieces I've gotten completely fired), and some stuff that had been waiting a long time to get fired (the bottles and jugs). I am super happy with the way everything turned out! The more I see of the blue glaze, the more I like it. I think next firing I will also try some with a flashing slip on them, maybe with the carved out portions to contrast the slip? We will see. Expect to see these on Etsy in a few weeks; I'm going to wait to post them until after EAST, as I am hoping some of them will be bought!

Pitchers

2010-11-02T12:12:00.001-05:00

I have a coworker that wants me to make a pitcher for her, and I haven't done anything like that in a while, so I decided to make a few. I just got around to making 2 yesterday (I need to buy more clay, and my back was bugging me), but I plan on making at least a couple more. I am trying really hard to make a minimum of 4-6 of anything I make; I think its a good exercise, and gives me more product to sell! I particularly like this guy, hes short and got a potbelly :)

This one I was trying to make taller and more slender, but it ended up kind of potbellied too :P I should try to make one that is top heavy instead of bottom heavy, but at least the bottom heavy ones balance out nicely with their handles. And I like the character the bellies give them :) This one was also being difficult, the clay was soft (and I am not throwing enough) and it was being a little difficult to control.

As was this guy... he didn't turn out so well. I also had another coworker who requested a vase, and I was going for one with a little belly at the bottom and then a more slender neck, but it wasnt working out, and I kept pushing at it anddd... he didnt like that. I kept it, because its still kind of interesting, but I'm guessing I might get some cracking where it pushed down. We will see.

Lastly, I finally got a ton of stuff fired this weekend! I will take some nice pictures soon and post them :)

The Texas Clay Festival

2010-10-27T11:10:00.000-05:00

This weekend was the Texas Clay Festival in Gruene, Texas, and it was lots of fun! Unfortionately I didn't make it down until Sunday, and while there were still plenty of pots, they were out of my sized t-shirts :( I had fun looking around at everything and hanging out with Ryan, Chris, and Keith, and meeting plenty of new people (and dogs).

I got a couple of pots, first a nice little mug by Frank Campbell and Barbara Buell. I was really tempted by a small vase with octopi carved on it, but I decided I'd rather get a few smaller items and went with these little lizard guys :)

Then I fell in love with this teapot by Randy Brodnax, and ended up using the rest of my pottery allowance on it anyways. But this fishy teapot was worth it!

In other news, I will hopefully get all of my almost finished pieces fired this weekend! Last week Ryan didn't have room for it, but he said he should get it in this time, so that's super exciting! Expect a long post with pictures of those guys. I should be doing some more throwing sometime soon, I've just been working around my regular work schedule and dealing with this lower back problem, but I hope to get some more stuff finished before EAST.

Teapot carved

2010-10-15T10:42:00.001-05:00

I got the one teapot carved :) I am pretty happy with it, but I'm still not sure if carving the lid was a good idea. I thought it would bring the whole piece together, but now I feel like it may have looked better plain. We will see, its always hard to really tell how much I like it until its completely fired.

Speaking of which, Ryan is firing tomorrow, and I'm hoping to get a lot of stuff in this one! I have a lot of pieces that have been sitting around in the studio for a long time, and it will be great to get them done, if only to get some more shelf space. Also, I will be going up to Southwestern University (my school up in Georgetown,Tx) for a show that Patrick Veerkamp (my old professor) is organizing a long with Chris Campbell. It should be fun, and I am hoping to take my finished pieces up to campus to get some pictures of them with their lighting equiptment.

On a less happy note, I was very stupid and forgot to completely cover the little round teapot with the over-the-top handle. It only went one day, but the handle was pretty cracked around the joining. It was still not completely dry, so I jammed some wet clay into the cracks and spritzed down the whole teapot, and I am crossing my fingers. Each time I check on it its had hairline cracks, though not nearly so big as the original ones. I'm continuing to smear the clay together and spritz it, so I have high hopes that it will make it through the bisque when its dry. >_<

And Afshans sister was in town with her adorable little dog, Sammy. Sammy is the fluffiest dog ever, and looks hilarious when he is all wet. We took him down to the greenbelt, and he was afraid of the water at first, but he eventually got in and had a blast fetching tennis balls.

Teapots assembled

2010-10-11T20:47:00.000-05:00

This weekend I finally got all the teapots assembled! I always forget how long it takes me to get everything pulled, thrown, and assembled :P I think this one is my favorite so far; even though they are a royal pain to make, I love the way over-the-top handles look!

This little guy is the one I plan on carving in some manner. I will try not to just make stripes :P

The following two I had to re-do :P I made the spouts, wasnt sure I was happy with them, then looking at the pictures later that night I realized I really hated them. So I went in the next day and fixed them up a bit. The original spouts were just too big for the pots, and made them look really unbalanced. I am much happier with the final result.

This one ended up being so tall it should be interesting to see what it looks like with a wicker handle.

This is a special treat for any readers out there, you get to know a secret no one else does! For a couple years, whenever I make a teapot, I write a little something under the spout, usually 'Bless this Teapot." I am not particularly religious, but I have always associated tea and teapots especially with comfort and saftey, and I just like the idea of putting a blessing on a teapot :) It's my little secret, and no one else will know unless they break their teapot :P

Birthday Kitty loves to sleep in places she probably shouldn't sleep. I broke the mug of Patrick's that I had, and he offered to let me have one of the ones he sent down for Art of the Pot. After I picked one out, Kitty decided the box with the other two cups would make a great bed, and clearly ceramic cups are comfy pillows :P

Teapots!

2010-10-04T09:30:00.000-05:00

I decided to make some more teapots, as I have had a couple people possibly interested in some, and the only two I have right now are really fancy and carved and more expensive. So I threw a few pots the other day, of various sizes and shapes, and I plan maybe leaving one plain, painting two, and carving one fairly simply. I will probably carve the cylindrical one, since it will be the easiest to do. I'm just waiting for these guys to dry a bit, then I will put them all together!

And my adorable kitty sleeping in the sun. I am so jealous of her; how great would it be to sleep all day. The worst thing that ever happens to her is getting fed late, or getting stuck outside for a little longer than she likes.

East Austin Studio Tour

2010-09-28T09:43:00.000-05:00

E.A.S.T. is coming up in November! The East Austin Studio Tour is an awesome event that showcases various studios, visual artists, and performance artists in east Austin. Ryan's studio is going to be hosting about 10 artists this year, including me! Excitement :) It is going to be over two weekends, the 13th & 14th and 20th & 21st. I know this is advance notice, but now you will have no excuse not to come! I will post more updates/reminders as it gets closer.

Project Clayplay at Kealing

2010-09-27T15:07:00.001-05:00

This sat I had a great time helping out with a Project ClayPlay event at Kealing Middle School. ClayPlay is a non-profit started by the owner of Clayways Studio and Gallery on Burnet; they have an old airstream trailer that they have fitted out to be mobile studio, which they take to various locations to allow children who could not afford classes at Clayways to play with clay. In addition to some grants, the non-profit ventures are supported by paid birthday parties, corporate team building events, etc.

We just gave any kid that looked interested a chunk of clay and let them do whatever. I suggested pinch pots or little plaques, but a lot of them made some great little sculptures. This girl made a super cute little dog.

It was pretty hot outside and in, but at least we had a fan running! At one point we had the table outside full, and people standing inside. There were enough kids coming in and out that it was hard to do much in the way of teaching, but they had fun and I had fun watching them make stuff.

I've also managed to get a bit of carving done at home, though I haven't had time to get back to the studio much in the last week. I've been helping Ryan out with his stuff, but I need to get in to throw at some point. The break has been helpful with my back though, I think I'm making progress, and I hope to get rid of the last of this stiffness in the next couple weeks!

I am really excited about these two bowls, I found a new way to use stripes! Stripes are the easiest design, and I love the way they look, and making them slant like this is really not much more difficult, but gives the bowls an interesting 'twist'. Sorry.

Bowls!

2010-09-24T17:32:00.001-05:00

I've been working on my bowls lately! I got a couple of them carved and I'm working on a couple more at home right now, hopefully I will get those pictures up tomorrow or sunday. I did my standard stripes, though I purposely spaced them a bit farther apart for a little bit of a different look, and I tried out a new design with some squares. I think it is an interesting look, though I may have made the big squares a little bit too big. Overall I am pretty happy with the shapes of these bowls; nice and deep for a bowl of cereal, but open enough to let you get down to the bottom!

I also got one of my bisqued bowls painted; I used the same triangle pattern that I used on some of the teabowls and small cups. I am pretty happy with the way this looks, can't wait to see some of these underglazed pieces finished.

The Great Texas Clay Symposium!

2010-09-19T21:41:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I got to go to the Art of the Pot workshop at the Eye of the Dog art center; Ryan took me along as an assistant! It was a ton of fun, and really cool to see all of the AOTP artists working.

Claudia Reese had a lot of really cool techniques, such as some pretty spiffy stencils she makes herself. I've never gotten into handbuilding much, but I love the way she decorates her pieces, so I was really excited to watch her work.

Chris Campbell actually taught one of my classes at Southwestern, but its always cool to see him work. Its good for me to watch him work off the hump; I don't do it much and I should probably work on it more :) I especially had fun watching Keith Kreeger make his teapot, he did some cool stuff with the spout and the handle that I hadn't seen before.

It being the Eye of the Dog studio, it wasn't surprising that there were lots of dogs!

Lunch was some delicious chicken and sausage that Billy Ray made and a bunch of sides that everyone brought. Very tasty, and a little bit difficult to stay awake after...

This little dog spent the entire 6 hr workshop trying to get people to throw her frisbee :P She did get some people to cooperate, but not as much as she would have liked.

It was also fun to see Ryan making the holes in this handle. I've seen the finished product before, but never seen him in process.

Lisa Orr shared with us her special technique for transporting her pots short distance: packing tape.

The party ended with a great jam session!

Recycling clay is super fun!

2010-09-18T18:48:00.001-05:00

This is one of the bowls I threw last week, but it was thick enough to carve unlike the other two which I will paint designs on. I like this pretty well; I don't usually like shallow bowls as much, but I think this would be a nice fruit bowl or something like that.

I finally filled up my big home depot bucket with clay, so it was time for some clay recycling! I used Ryan's plaster molds, but I am going to buy some plaster soon and he's going to help me make more. I've been saving my clay wet, so it was a teensy bit lumpy, but I tried to mix it up a bit with the drill mixer.

I think that I will start saving my scrap dry so I can end up with a smoother, and more liquidy, slurry. That should make getting it into the molds easier; it is super messy to try and spoon sludgy stuff into the molds.

Loraine thinks my clay recycling is super interesting!

More painting

2010-09-14T18:57:00.000-05:00

I threw some bowls a couple days ago; I've never really been terribly happy with my bowls, but I liked how these guys turned out. I am definately influenced by Ryans bowls; his made me realize that I'm not a huge fan of bowls with rims, or with really shallow bowls. I plan on painting on these guys once I get them bisqued.

Also finally got the salt and pepper sets painted. I am fairly happy with these, but I decided to switch around the guys with the stripes, one has the straight stripes painted and the other has the triangular ones painted. I wanted it to be a subtle difference, but I'm afraid its so subtle that people will think I accidentally painted the different ones :P

I need to post more often...

2010-09-13T23:06:00.000-05:00

I did some plates last week! I thought about it and realized I had not thrown any plates since I was working on my senior project last year! I am planning something for a friend that will involve plates, so its a good time to start working on them. I was fairly happy with these, though I messes one up trimming it :/ Then Ryans studio leaked and two plates were damaged, but I still have three. I need to work on some with flat bottoms rather than curved.

Also finally got around to painting these guys! I threw these cups and teabowls quite a while ago with the intention of painting them, if you remember. I am really happy with the way they turned out, and though it still takes me a while to paint, it is much faster than carving. I'm really excited to see how they turn out fired!

And kitty! This is one of my house kitties who loves to rest her head when she sleeps on the couch.

Last months firing!

2010-08-24T20:24:00.003-05:00

Additionally, I did get some stuff out of the last firing I posted about, and I listed most of it on Etsy! So feel free to take a look :D

New designs

2010-08-24T19:45:00.000-05:00

I've finally thrown enough stuff that I am getting back to carving, and I've decided to try and stay away from vertical stripes for at least a little while. I did this step design, which is somewhat simplified from the original design (if you go find where I posted the sketches I did I'll give you a prize). I am pretty happy with the way this guy turned out. The lid could have been a little bit more curved, but I still like it. I'm still experimenting with the little lug handles; I'm not sure if I like this design or the one on the previous post better.

Then there is this design! (below) I really like it, and I think I will experiement with it on a few more forms. It takes a bit longer to get the design sketched on , but it's a pretty quick carve since there is not that much surface to carve out. Pretty much the opposite of the jar above.

This one I'm not so happy with... I decided to try out some horizontal stripes to get away from the vertical ones. However, A) its much much harder to carve a horizontal line straight, especially when it goes all the way around the pot, and B) I just don't really like the way it looks. Not the worst thing ever, but I think it's kind of ugly. I tried making different sized lines to make it more ... engaging or something... but if I do this again it will just be regular stripes. But I probably won't, becasue it's a huge pain.

Annnd a random update on my poor little doggy. He has had a lump in his side for about a month, and my mom (also his veternarian) figured it was an infection, and gave him some antibiotics. The lump went away, but the second she took him off the meds it came back, so she finally decided to cut him open and see whats up. It turns out he had some speargrass inside of him! I had read that this could happen; something about the way the grass is shaped allows it to work its way inside of a dogs body! In really bad cases they can get all the way into the lungs or heart! Ki didn't have it nearly that bad, and now he just has to have a big bandage to keep him from licking at the incision constantly.

I'm still here!

2010-08-14T08:55:00.000-05:00

Yes, I am still alive, and I have actually been back in the studio for about two weeks, I just keep forgetting to post anything on the blog! I've had the cast off for not quite a month, but right after I got it off I was out of town for a week driving Ethan up to college in Maryland (so we won't be seeing him around for a little while)

My first project after getting back was some salt and pepper shaker sets. No particular reason, I just saw some I loved on Etsy and decided to try some of my own. It's been a while since I threw anything this small, and I had definately forgotten how much of a pain it is to center little lups of clay :P The first shaker turned out a little twisted... so I made a second one to match! Let's just say it was supposed to be that way...

I was originally intending to cut a slit out of the middle of the plates to make them more oval shaped, but I *cough*accidentallyletthemgettoodry*cough* decided to take a different direction with the design! I ended up just cutting off the sides of the plate to make a little tray, but I am still pretty happy with them. I trimmed out little circles on the trays for the shakers to fit down into to make it a little less likely to slide off. I plan on painting some designs on these guys, except for the curvy ones which I will probably leave plain and just glaze.

My next project was a jar! I don't know if you remember this post, but I've been planning on doing some jars, maybe even sets of jars, for a while. I really like the shape and the idea of having little handles on the sides. They make me think of little stout men.

I like the way this one turned out carved, and yes I know, clearly vertical stripes are my favorite, but they look good, and they are much simpler to do than triangles or round objects (the very worst). I also threw a couple of smaller ones, but I don't have pictures of them yet.

In awesome news, I decided to go ahead and buy a featured spot on Etsy for one day, Aug 4th, and my unique pageviews on that day went from the average 3-4 views/day to 143! I haven't gotten any sales from it yet, but getting people to look at my shop is the first step!

Aaaaaannnd of course, studio kitty! I guess it is too hot outside for her, because every time I go in she is needy as hell and she doesn't want outside, she just wants me to pet her constantly. She was sleeping on her back for about 20 minutes, and looked quite rediculous. I tried to get a better picture, but when I got to close, she got up so I could pet her.

another firing!

2010-07-01T12:25:00.003-05:00

Last week I did some work getting ready for the firing Ryan is doing today, mostly cleaning the dust off the pieces (they've been sitting on the shelf for a while), putting underglaze in my signatures, and waxing them. I also painted the little test cup you can see at the bottom, to see how the black underglaze looks under a couple of Ryans glazes.

All my stuff glazed, and a couple of ethans pieces in the back. All I'm using this time is a blue glaze and Ryan's green/orange/black. All of these pieces are wadded and ready to salt-fire!

Ethan spent around three hours painting his little pot with underglazes :P He is as anal as me sometimes...

Lastly, a dog of course. My family went fishing on the bay in MA, and there was a boat dog! Half wolf and half german shepard, 'pal' was a super sweet and beautiful dog.

fun times!

2010-06-03T12:31:00.002-05:00

Well, there are probably not going to be too many updates areound here for a while, or at least pottery updates. I, being my talented self, somehow managed to break my hand! Very exciting. So though I will continue to post dog pictures, I will not be doing much throwing until I get this sucker off. Maybe not much typing either, its a pain with my cast :P

However, as I mentioned, there are always cute dogs. This is my precious puppy Ki, failing to sit still in Justin's lap. He loves being in laps, but it seems that he gets so excited he can't stop moving around. I dont let him in my lap very much.

Lots of cups!

2010-05-25T18:51:00.001-05:00

The tumblers and teabowls are trimmed! I loaded a big bisque today, so these will be ready to paint/wax resist soon! I am excited to see how the turn out; hopefully I will be happy with them so I have something pretty that doesn't take an hour to decorate.

One of my Aunts requested that I make some wine glasses/goblets for her, which I have never tried before! The tops were fairly easy, I just did simple shallow bowls rather than a taller cup, but the bases were a pain! I havn't really ever tried to make something really skinny AND have a wide top! The clay doesn't really like it. I threw all of these off the hump, which is always fun.

More dogs! The brown/golden one has been in before, but I don't remember his name :P He is sweet and very hyper.

Today I went in and got the goblets all put together. Not the prettiest ever, but they should look better once they are glazed. Havn't decided if I'm going to carve on these yet.

Teabowls and tumblers

2010-05-19T21:51:00.001-05:00

I've gotten a few pots done this week! I'm throwing some stuff to try out my underglaze/wax resist designs, hopefully this will result in stuff I can make faster and sell cheaper :) Today I threw some little teabowls, I promise they will look better once I get the bases trimmed. I may do some stripes on these, or more complicated designs. Ryan has some cups with stripes, so I kind of want to try to not get too close to his designs.

Monday I made some short tumblers. I am hoping for some great results from the tumblers since they are so darn easy to throw, and require practically no trimming.

And because this obviously is 1/2 a dog blog, my friend just adopted an dog!! Her name is Aida and she is adorable!

2010-05-16T09:35:00.001-05:00

I just finished getting all the stuff from the last firing up on Etsy! Very exciting to finally have recent work up for sale. Now I am super excited to get the B-mix work fired so I can put that up too! Now that my store actually has stuff in it, I am also putting together a facebook Page that I plan on inviting everyone I know to become a fan of :P

More tumblers and some fired pots

2010-05-13T19:21:00.000-05:00

I like making tumblers, they are quick! ...Relatively so. Its only been taking me 45 min or so to carve the stripe ones. I have been thinking about other designs, but they would all take longer to carve, so I am trying to think up other ideas. I'm thinking about just altering the pots rather than carving, or keeping the designs, but painting them on or something like that. Something so that I can produce them faster, and then charge less for them!

I got the last of the tumblers carved this afternoon. There weer originally going to be 8, but I never got around to throwing the last two, so 6 it is.

Also, a few more things I got out of the kiln: these cups got quite a bit more salt than the other one I took a picture of. I don't really like how much orange peel these got (the bumpy look the glaze gets); and the carvings don't stand out quite as much. But it's not terrible.

Another bottle, this one had a flashing slip on it. Again, I'm not a huge fan of the parts that got a lot of salt, it makes it so much lighter. But again, its alright.

Tumblers! also my dog

2010-05-12T20:53:00.001-05:00

I finally got some carving done this afternoon! It's been 2 weeks or so since I made these cups, but I had them wrapped up tightly enough that they are actually just the right wetness for carving. I got 4 done today, and I will probably carve the other two tomorrow; excitement!

Ki has been feeling sick for the last few days (he's had a fever, it turns out he had a cracked tooth that was infected, but mom pulled it out yesterday :P), and hasn't been in the mood to play. Today he was feeling a little better, but mom wouldn't let him play outside, so he sat under the table and rested his head on my feet for most of the afternoon.

Once he notices me paying attention to him he has to get up and get in my face; it makes it hard to get a good picture of him because he's always moving! Hopefully he will feel better tomorrow and maybe I can fetch him and raise his spirits.

Art of the Pot!

2010-05-11T19:09:00.003-05:00

What a fun day! I helped out at Ryan's studio on sat morning, mostly taking payements and wrapping up pots that people had bought. The studio looked great will all the pots set up!

Ryan has the coolest shelves... I want some. They are made out of a wood back that just leans against the wall, and these super heavy metal shelves that stick into slits in the wood. Super simple, but they look great! The shelves are rediculously heavy though...

I also got some pots sat!! Two of the potters at Ryans studio actually gave me cups for free (I did try to buy them first...) which was super nice. This one was from Ted Adler, and I love it! It was slip cast and salt-fired. I like the pink inside, it makes me think of seashells (Dad says it looks like an intestine :P ).

This was another free one, by Brenda Lichman. Very nice little teabowl, we actually got my mom a mug version for m-day. I love the flashing and the glaze interaction.

This is a bad picture, but I love this little tiny mug! Not very useful in terms of drinking, but I'm sure I could find stuff to put in it. It was made by Amy Halko. I like the minimalist design, and the textures (the white stripes are actually bare porcelain.

This last teabowl I got from Mark Shapiro, and I think it is probably my favorite. I think thanks to Veerkamp, I have a fondness of traditional style teabowls. I love its shape and the textures on the outside.

Mark said he has to throw these very wet to get the heavy throw lines on the inside, and I love the effect! Texture is one of my big things and I love it on this piece.

Kiln opening!

2010-05-07T19:05:00.002-05:00

Ryan opened the kiln today! In his opinion, "you gotz sum NIZZ3 pot_z over here" :P I am pretty happy with the results. I still don't like the carved cat pieces very well, but I do like them better than before now that they are glazed. I think Ryan's Blue Black Orange glaze is my favorite on the stoneware.

I am really pretty happy with most of the stuff, the G/B/O glaze looks great on the carved pieces. They ended up a little darker than I imagined, but I think it looks pretty good.

The bowls and the carved cups turned out really nicely.

This little jug had a dark blue glaze on it, but the glaze was super duper thick when I put it on, and I ended up wiping and shaking some of it off... so it may turn out a little odd once I have it out of the kiln :P

And some of the glazes on b-mix cups, the dark blue on the left and the g/b/o on the right. I still really like Ryan's glaze, the difference in color between the carved and flat surfaces is wonderful!

One of these is plain clay, one of them has a flashing slip on it, and I can't even tell the difference! The porcelain and b-mix pieces I salt-fired at school generally had a lot more flashing on them. I dont really like them plain in this firing.

Studio= (mostly) clean!

2010-05-05T18:37:00.001-05:00

We have been working hard to get all the clutter and stuff out of the studio, and we are almost done! Tomorrow Ryan will be firing the salt kiln, and I will probably be doing the last of the clean up, maybe starting to set up tables etc. I am excited about this weekend :)

Just for giggles.... heres the before picture

People and Dogs

2010-05-04T19:51:00.003-05:00

Dogs dogs dogs! We had a new one today that I had never met, Leila. She was a sweety, and had the softest fur! It never fails to surprise me how skinny greyhounds are.

I also got to meet little miss Morgan today, she was a darling also :) She had fun being chased by Mischa and riding her tricycle around.

Lorraine was hanging out with Mike in the shade :P

Art of the Pot!!

2010-05-03T19:08:00.001-05:00

This week is going to be crazy!! I've thrown 6 tumblers, and I havn't gotten a chance to trim any of them, and I really want to throw 2 more, but I don't think I'm going to get a chance until next week. I hope they stay wet enough to trim and carve until I get a chance :P We are cleaning cleaning cleaning at the studio! I ran by today to finish glazing my stuff for the firing this week (so excited to see how it turns out!), and moved some clay and stuff around for Ryan. Madaline and his sister also got some of the grunge off the walls :P Tomorrow will be a day of cleaning!

Ethan pots, etc

2010-05-01T19:41:00.000-05:00

The dogs loooove playing in the water (I think Ryan taught them). Whenever you try to wash anything they start biting at the water; it's fun to toss water and watch them chase it :)

I spent most of my time today cutting tons of paper, which is super fun :P We get the ends of the newspaper rolls for free, and Ryan had me cut down the middle of the rolls with an exacto to make nice little sheets we can use to wrap pots. Its fun at first, and then its just tiring...

My pots all waxed and ready for glazing!

Some stuff Ethan was working on, he made a cute little lidded pot that we still need to trim a bit for a good fit.

He also put a handle on one of his little cylinders :)

2010-04-28T21:37:00.001-05:00

Well, this week has not been very productive in the studio, but it has been at home! Today I finished going through all my boxes of pots from school, and actually sorted them into boxes for etsy, for keeps, and ones I'm going to take to church (stuff I dont wan't, but that isn't nice enough to sell :P). I also took pictures of all the esty pots, and labeled the boxes, so I can tell what pots are in each box by looking at the top, and I can look up which box pots are in from a little notebook I recorded it in! Huzzah, now I actually know I still have all the pots I want to put on etsy. Like the above cups from my senior show (all images of etsy pots are actually linked to their etsy page, if you hadn't noticed :P). So it is nice to have that all done, and over the next couple of days, I will finish posting my old stuff on etsy! Quite exciting :)

Tumblers

2010-04-27T18:39:00.002-05:00

I have not posted in forever!! (A week really is a long time...) All I've got so far are some tumblers, I made four last week, and then two more today, but I was feeling TERRIBLE from allergies so I didn't make the last two (it's really no fun trying to throw when your nose is literally dripping on your pot...). I think I will make these a matching set, just carved lines straight down, to make them a little simpler. Maybe smaller carved lines, larger spaces? I've got to figure out how to make my pots in a more sensible amount of time :P

Ethan came in again today to trim some of his stuff. He actually made a pretty nice little lidded jar, here he is trimming the lid. I am so proud! He has caught on to clay amazingly fast; maybe he will be one of those cool sciency people who actually can do artistic things too :P As long as he keeps it as a hobby... I will post a picture of his finished stuff whenever I remember to... He also put a handle on a little cylinder he made earlier.

Gearing up for AOTP! I got all my bottles and small cups bisqued, hope to get most of them into Ryans firing next week so I can see some finished work!! I've been putting a lot of my old stuff on Etsy (like the above bowls), but I can't wait to put up brand new work! Once I get a bunch of stuff up, I will start my advertising campain (ie emailing my friends/family like crazy, and maybe buying a spotlight on etsy?)

Teapot 2

2010-04-20T19:58:00.002-05:00

I don't seem to be capable of doing things simply... I am fairly happy with the way this turned out, but it is really busy looking with all the carved space. We will see what it looks like once it's fired. I still need to poke a hole in the lid.. hopefully I remember before it drys :P

Just another view. You can see the triangle pattern that my prof taught me and I have used ever since :)

I know I promised to make this a photo blog, but I am super excited about this coming summer! It's looking to be a busy one; I'm going to be acting as Ryans sub at the Dougherty arts center, so for a couple months I will probably be firing the kiln there, and possibly teaching a bit; plus I will probably be teaching/assisting with summer classes at Clayways too. It's good to be making connections and doing work related to clay! I really could not have thought of a better situation to end up in after I graduated :)

Peanut Butter!

2010-04-19T12:13:00.009-05:00

I'm about halfway through with this teapot; every time I try to work on it I only get a few triangles done before I'm interrupted. It should be interesting when I finish it; I'm wondering if I should have carved out the lines, rather than the triangles. Its sort of overkill with all the carving... who knows. I think it will end up with sort of a zig-zag look, even though I was actually thinking about the triangles when I drew the shapes on.

Just because she is adorable, this is my hedgehog, Peanut Butter. I've had her since October of last year, and she is a sweetie! She's not a huge fan of strangers, but she likes to sit on my lap (preferably under a towel) while I read .

She is also not very coordinated. She was sitting on my lap and started very slowly tilting backwards. She eventually rolled off and poofed into a spike ball. I guess it startled her even though she didn't do anything to stop rolling...

Casserole

2010-04-15T17:28:00.015-05:00

Casserole with stripes!! It's hard to tell, but I also carved out part of the lid around the knob. As always, I love how the stripes look :P I decided to not have them go all the way to the top (like I did with one of the small test cups), and I think it looks nice. The lid is still a little bigger than the casserole, so once it's dry and fitted it will sit a little bit lower down. Now I just have to figure out what I would want to cook in such a deep casserole :P

More with teapots

2010-04-14T18:45:00.027-05:00

Here is teapot #2, which I decided to be lazy for and not pull a handle :P So it has some little lugs, and will be getting a bamboo handle once it's done. I just need to get this and the casserole carved, then I can throw some more things before maybe having to return the wheel at the end of the month. I am going to try really hard to do something other than stripes on this one.. maybe the triangles?

And finished teapot 1!! I love it :D Stripes are my favorite... I think the casserole will end up with them. The best part was carving around the handle and spout :P It was a pain, but worth it! I really can't wait to get some of this stuff fired! Hopefully I will bisque this week and then get most of it in the soda fires in the next few weeks. I am very excited to see how the carved stuff turns out.

Another angle so you can see how neatly I carved around the handle :P Its hard to tell in the pictures, but I also shaved a bit off the lid's knob to add a bit of continuity between the pot and the lid. I think it looks nice; hopefully it will still be noticible after being fired. Luckily, what you can't tell is that I dropped the lid on the ground today! It was the very first thing that happened when I got in the studio; I was so mad. I managed to smooth it back pretty well, however, so it is not very noticable even when you are looking right at it.

A productive day :)

2010-04-13T17:32:00.052-05:00

I finished up the last of the tiny cups today, hopefully I will get them bisqued right away so I can get them in a soda-fire and see how Ryans glazes work with my carvings. I should be able to get some finished stuff out pretty soon; lots of firings are happening getting ready for Art of the Pot April 8th and 9th (speaking of which, check out their spiffy new website).

Also got my little planter carved today, which I am excited about. I think I will be keeping this one; some of my succulents need nice pots :D I will probably be making more, though I'm not sure if I will keep on squaring them off.

I poked 5 holes in the bottom since I was making this with my succulents in mind, and they need lots of drainage!

I also got the lidded jar put together, though now it really looks like more of a casserole. A really deep casserole. But that could still be useful :) I put a ridge on the handles when I threw them, but now they just look kind of lumpy.. I may wipe it smoother later on. I think this one will probably have stripes on it too!

I got started carving my first teapot today, but I only had time to do a few stripes. You can kind of see how it will look though, I think I'm going to leave the lid, spout, and handle uncarved, though I may carve the knob a little. I just can't get away from the stripes, I like this design more than any of the other ones!!

Kitty

2010-04-11T21:37:00.020-05:00

Carved a few more tiny cups last night :) I still have two more to do, then I will work on the teapots. Can't wait to see how those turn out!

Kitty was just adorable, she's always sleeping in various boxes.

Logo!

2010-04-08T22:34:00.003-05:00

I started carving the little test cups late last night. I will probably stick to the simple designs for these little guys. I like the way they are looking :)

Completely aside from my work... I bought this awesome teapot at Ross the other day! It is made of cast iron and comes with a little strainer and I love it :) It is great for 1 1/2 cups of loose leaf tea :D There is something very satisfying about the weight of the thing.

Lastly, I am starting to work on a logo type thing for my blog/shop etc. This is my starting sketch, I will be working with it on my computer.

Teapots!

2010-04-07T17:41:00.041-05:00

Today I was just working on the teapots. I threw several spouts; generally I use a different shape, more like a rounded funnel, but I like the idea of the straight cone on these sort of half elipse pots. You can see one of the teapots that I cut the lid on. I actually threw the knob first then used an exacto knive to slowly cut the lid while it was spinning on the wheel (very slowly!). This actually worked remarkably well, though the clay was a tad bit too wet and sticky.

I decided to do a pulled handle for at least one of these guys. I really kind of hate pulling handles, its just takes a while and its messy and I used to mess them up a lot. I think in the last year I have actually figured out how to do it well, but its still messy. My secret for the nice shape: while I'm drying it out I have it draped over a shape similar to what I want it to end up as. In this case, a cd holder turned sideways :P I am pretty durn happy with the way this turned out, and I can't wait to see it carved!

I didnt actually do anything to the lidded jar yet, but it was dry enough to put the lid on, so you can use your imagination :P I will probably trim the edge a bit so it does not stick out so much, I think the pots too short to have such a large overhang.

This is actually an old picture, but I thought it was cute. Kitty was napping in a box of newspapers, and apparently she did not approve of me petting her. She proceded to attack my hand through the box.

Pots and dogs

2010-04-05T17:17:00.024-05:00

plWent in to work for a little on sat. I was actually intending to try another teapot, but it didn't work out quite as I imagined :P The walls got a little uneven, and try as I might I could not collar the darn thing in at the top! So I decided it would be a lidded jar instead :D Clever me...

I also tried my hand at an altered form... I cut the bottom out of this planter and when it had set for 20 min or so I squared it off and put it on a flat sheet for the base. It looks nice in the picture, but it is actually pretty messy. Not sure I will be doing this regularly.

And dogs! All three of the girls were there, which is always fun. they ran around outside most of the time, but then they came in to hang out with me. Addie is at the top, Lorraine is on the left and Mischa on the right. All sweeties!

Next projects...

2010-03-29T17:25:00.091-05:00

It's neat to see all the carved pieces I've been working on all out on the table together. I am definately most happy with the designs based on straight lines. Ryan took a look at them and said he liked them :D

So now I am going to start working on the next projects, which will be teapots, maybe some planters, and probably some sets of jars. I saw this set at a friends house and loved them!

So I have been thinking about shapes of teapots (not so much the jars since I loved the shapes of the ones above so much), and also brainstorming new pattern ideas. Sticking with the rectalinear designs, I've ended up with some very Native-American looking designs, but I like them so far.

I started out with teapots (because I owe one to Hollen), and I started out with the simple curved shape. These kinds of teapots make me think of the kettles you use to boil water :) I was super happy with the way they turned out, the last time I tried a closed form (long time ago), it didnt work out so well, but these turned out great! The cups are just going to be for some glaze tests in Ryans kiln.

Lots of stuff

2010-03-29T17:25:00.090-05:00

Worked on the last bottle today! I have to admit, I sort of cheated; it's only half done :P I didn't have time to finish before work, but I wanted to post it. A new rectalinear design! (I think that would be the word). I was thinking about carving the top a bit too, but I like the way it looks now. I will finish it up asap, because the clay is almost too hard to carve by now.

Sat I brought my 'little' brother to the studio to give him his first ever throwing lesson! He is taking an art class and wanted to try it out as an out-of-class project. I think my wheel is a teensy bit too small for him!

He actually did remarkably well! His first one was going great until it completely died; something I remember all too well.. (haha, like it never happens now...). But the second one was impressive! He managed a nice little straight-sided cylinder with a pretty even wall thickness. The top was only a little lopsided from a thin spot he got at the bottom of the walls.

I'd say its a passing grade for his 2nd pot ever :) Hopefully he won't get too good... I can't have him be good at science AND art.

Lastly, a good random picture. Today I came home and found Fidget, our old ferret (the sweetist, most awesome ferret we have ever had) laying on the couch like this. I almost thought she was dead (and I have to admit I took a picture before I poked her...how morbid would it have been if she really was?) she was laying so weird. But I poked her and she was still alive :P I swear, ferrets sleep deeper than any other creature.

Milk 3

2010-03-26T17:27:00.003-05:00

Another! I like this one better than the last. So far I really prefer the ones with straight lines, I'm still not a huge fan of the eliptical wedge things. It just looks too blank I suppose.

Milk bottle 2

2010-03-25T18:17:00.003-05:00

Milk bottle 2 today! I still need to clean it up, but I finished the carving about 2 minutes before I needed to run off to work, so that will happen later (I hope). I put two pictures up so you can tell that the slits are two different lenths, rather than me just carving them super uneven.

Hopefully I will get the other two done tomorrow, or at least by Sat, then I can get some throwing done before April starts! Its going to be a little crazy since we will be getting ready for Art of the Pot, which will involve a lot of cleaning, organizing, and probably helping Ryan make some of the stuff for the show.

It will probably be busy and crazy and tiring, but I am really excited to see how putting together something like this works. Maybe someday I will get to be a part of it :P

Milk can #1

2010-03-24T17:23:00.002-05:00

Started carving the milk cans/bottles today! I brought all 4 home from the studio today; only carved one so far because I got distracted shopping at Target :P Maybe I will be industrious and get 2 done tomorrow. I should get back to throwing soon, but Ethan ('little' brother) wants me to give him a lesson on Sat, so that will put it off till Sun or Mon. I have the feeling that I will probably keep working in a cycle like this, 1 week throwing, 1-2 weeks carving, so I don't get overwhelmed by stuff I need to finish. I suppose I could just leave some pots blank, but I like carving! We will see.