& Kid’s Ceramic Masks">New Gallery & Kid’s Ceramic Masks
Arthaus66 Gallery
6320 Linn Avenue NE #C
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108
I have some really exciting news! I was contacted by a gallery in Abuquerque, NM about 5-6 weeks ago about placing some of my ceramic jewelry in their newly relocated gallery space with the potential to add some of my other ceramic work in the near future. After emailing back and forth and a phone call, I agreed to send a few pieces of jewelry to Arthaus66 last week for their grand opening reception on Friday, November 23rd from 4:30 – 6:30pm. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it for the opening, but my work will. I sent some of my more experimental pieces and hope it will be the beginning of a nice relationship.
One of my newer porcelain pendants
Celadon glazed porcelain earrings with sterling silver ear wires
It’s a terrific way to head into the holidays and sets the tone for 2008. I am going to be targeting galleries to represent me locally and in a few select areas of the US in the new year. Selling one’s own work is incredibly labor intensive and I’d rather concentrate on making new work and having quality studio time than marketing. In that regard, a gallery is worth every penny in earned commissions. Unfortunately, this will mean a price increase for my work in my Etsy shop where I will keep a presence so that I keep my prices in line with the gallery’s retail price. I’ve been meaning to raise my prices for some time as they are currently set closer to my wholesale set point.
I’m going to get a head start on my New Year’s goal of contacting some galleries in December. We’re taking a long weekend trip to Crested Butte, CO and I’m going to see if any galleries in the ski resort town would be interested in carrying some of my ceramic jewelry.
Clay + Imagination = Art Tueday’s Class Masks, grades 2-5
Meanwhile, my Tuesday clay class finished their ceramic masks and they’re terrific. There were several that I would liked to have kept!
Have a good week everyone and a great Thanksgiving if I don’t catch you before then,
~Cynthia
Slab bowls with imprinted texture
The other day, I was cruising through the blogs that I’ve linked to on my right hand side bar –> and came across a really helpful article on Emily Murphy’s Pottery Blog on how to make a textured rolling pin using a sharpie, a hot glue gun and a rolling pin. It clicked with me and I knew I had to give it a try – since I have been meaning to make some larger plaster texture plates. This is so much easier and less labor intensive. Check out her blog if you want to see the step by step instructions on how to make one yourself.
Just the day before, I had pulled out an older lino-cut relief plate to use to imprint texture on a slab that I really liked. Unfortunately, I don’t currently have a photograph of that bowl. This is a technique that hearkens back to some of my experiments of printing on clay after reading Paul Wandless’ book, Image transfer on Clay. I’ll have to share the results of my relief printed bowl with you at a later date.
In the new issue of Pottery Making Illustrated, local artist Annie Chrieztberg has a feature article on slab construction using texture plates that’s right up my alley too. She’s offering a workshop early next year that I just might have to sign up for.
It just seems like the possibilities are endless when working with clay if you ask me! Meanwhile, I’ve switched clay bodies. I purchased 300 lbs of Laguna’s B-mix ^5 from a potter who is moving – let’s just say the price was right and I wanted to try a new white stoneware. It seems like every time I go into Mile Hi Ceramics they’re out of stock of one of my favorite clays. I really like it. I’ve thrown with it, and now have done some handbuilding and it’s really a nice clay. The truth will be told when I fire and glaze my pieces.
Voilà ! My slab texture imprinted bowl! Fini – c’est tout for aujourd’hui.
I’m subbing for 1/2 day kindergarten today, so I’m off.
Be well everyone,
~Cynthia
Bored Gargoyle? Is there such a creature?
Among the many things I found after my studio remodel was a tile mold of a bored gargoyle sitting below a rose window in a cathedral. I made this in 1997 in a 3-D design class when we were making cast paper reliefs. Why I chose a gargoyle, is beyond me. It’s not a subject I normally gravitate towards. At any rate, I decided to try casting a clay tile from my paper mold to see how it turns out. It was bisque fired yesterday, so I should be able to take a peek later today.
After doing a wee bit of research – and I mean wee – Wikipedia was my source- I found out that the word gargoyle comes from the French word gargouille, which translates to throat or gullet. Delve a little further into Latin and it refers to gurgling water. Gargoyles were often placed on Churches to redirect water away from the building. Decorative or non-functioning gargoyles are really grotesques, or strange, fantastical creatures that are pure adornment on buildings.
If you want to see some really awesome images of gargolyes, visit Jafabrit’s blog!
That’s it for today, off to substitute teach followed by my kid’s clay class. Have a great day everyone,
~Cynthia
Mask Maker, Mask Maker, Make Me a Mask…
Okay, so maybe my riff on Fiddler on The Roof is a little cheesy, but it’s the first thing that pops into my head when I see all these fabu masks made in my kid’s clay class drying in my studio. I’ll share a couple of my favorites later on after they’re painted. In the interest of time, we’re going to paint our masks with acrylic paints rather, than using glazes or under-glazes.
After moving into my studio a few weeks ago, I have found several things that I had previously stashed away for future use. You know those things that you’re saving for when you need them, only you can never find them again. Well, among the items that are newly found, were these bisqued porcelain test tiles. I decided to go ahead and paint one with each of my Duncan Cover Coat Underglazes – and then add a clear glaze to half of each tile to see what the difference would be. Makes sense, right? I will have a library of test tiles to help me decide how to finish work in the future.
All of the test tiles had been bisqued to cone 04 – and the test tiles are a cone 6 clay. Based on a previous successful experiment with my colorful hand-painted buttons, I used a cone 06 clear glaze and glazed my cone 6 porcelain test tiles. Now for you non ceramic people – this can be a problem because the glaze and the clay body aren’t a good firing fit. But, since this was for my own knowledge, and I didn’t have any low fire earthenware test tiles available, I went ahead and used the porcelain ones.
Thank goodness I did, because I made a fatal mistake during my firing yesterday. The kiln over fired, the 06 cone in the kiln setter melted down, and I have no idea how hot my kiln actually fired to. It’s rated to cone 10, so I would assume that it didn’t get hotter than that. Why is this a good thing that I used the wrong temperature clay? If I had used a low fire earthenware clay body like I should have, an over-firing would have melted all of the clay to the kiln shelves and would have been one big mess. Instead, most of my color test tiles are merely washed out and I’ll need to do the test tiles again.
The other interesting thing is that some of the cone 06 glazes had an interesting outcome in the higher temperature firing, including the buttons below which should be a bright plum/purple color. They’re now a gorgeous periwinkle blue color.
It would be great if I could always have a perfect outcome every time I go to my studio with ne’er an error. But, alas, I learn more every single time I do make a mistake. It’s a good, but frustrating event. What else did I find out? That my cone 6 porcelain clay body can be fired higher than cone 6, that I need to pay more attention when I’m loading the kiln, and that cool things sometimes happen when you push the material’s limits. After doing some research online (Thank God for the Internet), I most likely had a kiln shelf touching the kiln sitter which prevented the rod that the cone sits on from automatically turning off the kiln. My little test kiln is a tight fit and I was trying to cram as much as I could in there. It also reinforced that I should always be present around the time when my kiln should automatically shut off to prevent further disasters.
I can’t think of another medium that requires so much trial-error and technical gymnastics – okay – maybe printing, glass, jewelry….
Meanwhile, I had breakfast at a fabulous breakfast joint called Lucile’s here in Denver this am with 2 of my running buddies from Denver Fit. Wow – delicious, I had the Eggs Benedict something which I never make at home. I’d rather eat there every Saturday, than lace up my running shoes and do 10 miles!
Have a good weekend,
~Cynthia
