Teapots

I've been working on these teapots for about a week now. I spray them almost every day and am able to add more clay elements and different slips. I actually added a new spout to teapot #1. I forgot to take pictures though. The new spout is thrown round and fits the whole shape much better now.

Today I put black slip all over teapot #2 and added more clay, in order to make this piece more realistic. I'll apply red slip to the (now grey) clay and will put on tons of iron oxide once it has been bisque fired. I've been thinking about what else I might put on; maybe Obama in slip, if I can figure out how to do that! Maybe something related to him... We'll see!

New Teapots

I have started 2 new teapots and today I have attached a handle and a spout to both of them. Both have the same body, but handles and spouts are different. I took pictures to see if I still like what I did tomorrow morning. I am planning to fire them in the wood firing I'm attending in April. I'll put some slip deco on one and the other one I will leave bare, so I can see what the firing will do with the different surfaces. That will be interesting to see!

#1:

and #2:

Oh, yeah, and more chili bowls - this time with blue slip :) I glazed the insides transparent, so you get the rough slip texture outside and the smooth surface on the inside:

Lights Off, Spot On!

I wanted to glaze 8 of my chili bowls today and drove to the studio around 5PM .I had just waxed the bottoms and was in the process of taking a template off my first bowl after dipping it in the glaze when the lights went off at 6PM sharp! We had to finish and clean up in the dark...

YAY! I'm going!

NCECA 2009, 43rd ANNUAL CONFERENCE

Ceramic Interface: From Dawn to Digital
April 8-11, 2009 • Phoenix, AZ
Phoenix Convention Center • 100 North Third Street • Phoenix, AZ 85004

Just work!

Alright, after a week full of thinking and having silent conversations with myself, I figured that nothing is going to happen until I actually DO something. And just DOING seems to do the trick. I'm not good at planning things out, making drawings, even templates, etc. I rather sit down and do what comes to mind. I am going with the flow and that is how it's supposed to be.

I made 2 bowls and am now seeing what I can do with them. I am playing with the porcelain, different textures, different techniques adding clay, taking clay away , and so on. I am pretty satisfied, so far and am hoping that both will survive the firing - without stuff falling off! I 'm going to leave the pieces covered in plastic and let them dry slowly, simply because I have porcelain at different stages of dryness. So keep your fingers crossed :)

I forgot my camera again and couldn't take pictures, but I'll go in again today and hopefully I will remember to get some images up here.

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I've been thinking of getting a small kiln for low firing. At the College we mostly do high firing, but I would like to apply some low-firing glazes after wards as well to my pieces. Unfortunately I have no clue about firing... If somebody knows a good reference, please let me know. I think I have a book here, but with our house being under construction for the past year, I have no idea where it might be...

Obamaware

In October 2008 I purchased some ceramic pieces from Ayumie Horie's Obama Ware eBay Sale: Diana Fayt, Democratic donkey and Hope bowl and Janice Jakielski, Obama and Donkey cup. I finally took some pictures yesterday; celebrating the inauguration with green tea and crisps :)

Sense of Direction

Slowly but surely I have to make a decision on what I want to be doing. For me it's pretty clear that I want to do modern things, with loads of porcelain, clean lines, and minimal but tasteful decoration. And of course, it will be super chic as well! I can get a lot of inspiration from the blog writing artists to your right and the things they do, but the general American pottery studio makes totally different stuff. I'm getting a kick out of Western European and Japanese artists and am grateful for every American that thinks outside the box. Nevertheless do I also get ideas from the traditional pottery pieces; and I'm not saying this in order to step on nobody's feet, but I believe there is a place for everybody in this! Unfortunately I often feel like my criteria mentioned above does not hold what I want it to be. My work is often heavy and rustic. And when I then glaze it with our studio glazes, it looks way too traditional for my taste.

I really like Peppa Studio and I absolutely LOVE Diana Fayt's pieces. Actually I have one of her bowls (Obamaware) here at home and I use it all the time. It is cute, yet modern and fun and simple. I would love to see how she works! Since I have no talent drawing whatsoever I doubt that I can ever decorate my pieces with birds and flowers and donkeys... oh, and OBAMA! Unless, maybe, I use a stamp or a stencil. Hah! That might be an idea worth trying!

I've been trying to get my better half to take some pictures of some really nice pieces I've done last semester. Two are inspired by Jason Briggs' "ground". A teapot I did was my humble way of immitating Steven Hansen. I'll try to put some pictures up soon!