A Studio To Call My Own

Beautiful, shining, blinding fluorescent lights... ahhhh. This is the current state of my cavern studio, I mean ceramics studio. It looks like there would be more to the left, but nope, just a wall. The throwing wheel was a lucky find and was actually free, but needs a seat. Straight ahead is my wedging table (with a sink directly ahead of it), and to the right is a table for hand building, storing clay and tools and displaying my most motivational work (only old, old, old crap up there right now).

Because I am in a basement and have minimal lighting, I will be backing the whole "L" shaped work space with white, gloss finished board which should reflect some of the light back and make it brighter, but also provide a huge surface to design pots on with dry-erase markers.

A kick wheel would not have been my first choice... but it gets me working again at no expense, and soon enough I will have a electric wheel to add to the space. The last couple of things to do are make a plaster drying table and set up a permanent photo booth, both of which should be done by the end of the week. I am excited to get working again and will post pictures of the finished space.

New Porcelain Bowl Design

This is a new bowl design that came out of my last cone 10 reduction firing. The outside is a shino which I wax resisted over the markings.

Successful Firing...Relief

This is a picture of the successful firing of the pieces shown in the previous post. As there are so many pieces, I have posted a group photo and two of my favorite pieces. The intention was to keep the pieces more orange than not, to really contrast against the running ash glaze, but despite my efforts, I still had one piece that carbon trapped considerably (as posted in first individual picture). Surprisingly, I really liked it and now wish that I had a bit more carbon trapping on each piece... the second individual picture is a good example of what I will attempt to get in following firings.

The pieces are all thrown and altered porcelain, fired to cone 10 in reduction. They have been glazed with a carbon trap shino, and then the top portion coated heavily with an ash glaze. 

Commissioned Porcelain Vessels, and Extras

The ten bellied, porcelain vessels on the left are pieces commissioned for a banquet that have yet to be fired. Unlike previous, similar, pieces these were created from a single thrown cylinder. Previously my ceramic vessels with elongated necks were done in two parts. The body of the form being done separately from the neck. I have finally refined the process such that smaller forms (between 12-16" tall) can be done from a single piece, making the whole process more successful and enjoyable. 

The three pieces to the right are a continued exploration of forms. The smallest bottle will be added to my epoxied body of work.

BFA Exhibition at the Third Street Gallery!!

This is the postcard for my B.F.A. exhibition. The exhibition will be at the Third Street Gallery in Grand Forks, North Dakota, March 25th - April 16th. The opening is March 25th at 7pm-9pm. As in the photo, the show will present my epoxied work.

Oops...Another wood-fired work from the last firing

Woodfired pottery and sculptural vessels

These are some of the pots that came out of the latest wood firing in the Manabigama at the University of North Dakota. I was excited to see the results as we chose to do a few things differently this firing, single firing most of the work but also changing how tightly the kiln was packed.

Previously we had used shelves from through the whole kiln, squeezing larger pieces into the front or between the stacks of shelves. This time we left the whole front half of the kiln free to fill with larger pieces, with the obvious result of better ash distribution.

For those that don't know anything about the Manabigama, designed and built by John Theis and Bill Van Guilder, it has an incredible amount of draw and can hit cone 13 really fast (in as few as eight hours). Having fired it a number of times with a hard cone 13 in front and as low as a cone 8 in the back, we started looking at ways to keep an even temperature throughout the firing but also slow the firing down to develop more ash.

To achieve this, we put four bricks into the exit flues and opened only four to eight of the primary air holes throughout the various stages of firing... relatively few considering the twenty that are able to be opened up. The firing ended up being sixteen hours (with a four hour preheat) and fired up to temperature nearly evenly the whole time, reaching between a cone 10 to cone 11. We are finally starting to utilize all the variables of the kiln and it is a real pleasure to fire as a student, especially as I see these kilns popping up all over the country.

Unfired Porcelain, Oiled and Lacquered... That's Right

There is so much to say about these ceramic pieces... for now I will just say explain what I have done. The pottery is made with with Continental Clay's Grolleg Porcelain. My choice of porcelain allows me to refine the surfaces but also suits my throwing style.

After the pieces are bone dry, I soak them for a number of days in motor oil. After this stage, I allow the surface to dry for a number of days before applying the lacquer.

I am currently using a spray lacquer for the outside and pouring lacquer on the inside, but will be going to a two part epoxy once I have nailed the process as it is a bit more complicated but allows me a thicker and more durable finish.

More Ceramic Vases... Also Unfinished

The first form in these images is one of the forms that I referenced in my last posting as being a more simple and flowing direction of the folded vases. This particular one is Continental Clay's Grolleg Porcelain while the other was Continental Clay's B-Mix and so they will be fired accordingly. The bellied form being wood-fired with only the inside glazed and this one will be fired to gas to cone 10 if I can figure out how to salt glaze the piece without contaminating the kiln... three foot sagger perhaps?

While making it I payed very close attention to the shadows. I realize that the lighting will change depending on the pieces location but have done my best to take different lighting angles into consideration and keep it visually interesting from every angle. I have also payed close attention to creating a interesting silhouette from every angle (or so I hope).

The second vase is obviously much smaller with the intention of pursuing subtle strength. It is slightly  influenced by my knuckled work from two years ago but to a much smaller extent. Whereas those pieces had contorted necks with many folds which created the imagery of intestines (I like the sound of knuckles better...), this has incorporated just one knuckle so as to not overburden the piece visually.

Progress... Current Ceramic Bottles and Vase

These are examples of my current ceramic pottery and sculptural vessels, though none of them are finished. The very top picture is the result of pushing what I have called my, for lack of a better name,  "folded and bellied" vases. This particular vase is approximately 2 1/2 ft and is both the largest and most emphasized of these works. I consider this still early in the forms development and have many ideas on where to go with it next.

Pushing these forms so far has, interestingly, directed my attention towards working simultaneously on very simple, but still bellied and flowing, forms that are reminiscent of this forms early stages but with much more maturity. I don't currently have any of these vases displayed on my blog but should soon.

The ceramic bottles are also early in their development though are obviously the product of my time in the ceramic's studio. I can't say that the pictures indicate the time or energy I have spent of them, but once they are finished they should come across quite differently. Once I have finished some of these completely I will make note of the process.

And no... I had no intention of advertising for Target.