The Right Tools Make a Difference

Published
by
Cynthia
on May 17, 2008
in Handbuilding
. 0 Comments

Cutting porcelain slabs to make boxes

Leather hard ^6 porcelain being cut into my desired shapes

Since I’m sharing a booth at the Art Student’s League Summer Art Market this June with 3 other people, I cut myself some slack in the making department. From the get go, I decided that I don’t need to have a lot of inventory since the cash outlay to split the booth fee 4 ways isn’t terribly high. Now that the sale is 4 weeks away, I need to kick it into high gear AGAIN. When will I learn? I’ve set a goal of having 20 porcelain hand painted boxes for the show, some low fire slip transfer wall tiles and maybe some wheel thrown functional work. My space is limited after all. I’ve only made 6 boxes, so this weekend and early next week, I need to get the other 14 boxes made. Painting can happen at a more leisurely piece, but the boxes need to be made so they dry slowly.

6 boxes ready to assemble

Each one of these piles = 1 porcelain box. they range in size from 4″ x 3″ to 2″ x 3″. I will be making a variety of other sizes as well. There are 6 sides to a box and each side needs to be beveled at a 45 degree angle for a nice clean fit.

Beveling the sides with new tool

Nice clean 45 degree angled side

I was so excited to test out my new bevel tool, courtesy of my father in law who was visiting from San Antonio a couple of weeks ago. He is so crafty - I’m pretty sure he could make anything if I told him my idea. Talk about a time saver. I was able to bevel all the sides for all 6 boxes in less than 30 minutes. I experimented with either pulling the tool and pushing the clay through the wire. Both worked equally well.

Scoring tool

New clay scoring tool

I stopped into Mile Hi Ceramics yesterday to pick up a couple of things and ended up spying this scoring tool. OMG - why didn’t I see this earlier? I think it’s a Kemper tool. Another time saver. Can you believe how the price of oil is affecting the cost of everything?? I paid $36.00 for 50 lbs of Aspen ^6 porcelain. I swear last summer it was $22.00 for 50 lbs. I need to go ahead and do a bulk order to get a lower price - because that’s just crazy talk! It didn’t help that I filled up my Pathfinder right after that and it was $60.00 to fill up my not completely empty tank.

assembly line

Assembly line

I’m not really a production artist - but I do set up a little production line when I’m making these little boxes. It saves time and while one section is setting up, I’m scoring another. It still took about 2.5 hours to assemble all 6 boxes, even though all the pieces were already cut and beveled.

assembled boxes aren\'t pretty

Once I’ve assembled the boxes, they’re not very pretty. I move slowly to ensure that the sides stay “glued” together.

boxes ready for decorating

6 freshly assembled porcelain boxes - cleaned up and ready for the fun to begin!

I still need to cut the lids off, add feet & knobs and them finally paint. The knobs and feet are largely dictated by the design I choose for each. I make those decisions as I begin painting. Meanwhile, I’ll leave these tightly covered and wrapped in plastic.

Spring, or maybe summer is finally going to make its appearance in Colorado. Today we’re going to hit 78, tomorrow 84 degrees F! Finally. I’m going to do a little gardening this weekend.

What about you - any plans for the weekend?

XO,

~Cynthia

Finger Cots & Studio Safety

Published
by
Cynthia
on May 15, 2008
in studio safety
. 8 Comments

I’m trying to keep a safe studio for my own health and wellbeing since working with certain ceramic materials can be toxic. Every so often I get a little paper cut or other small wound that doesn’t look terrible, but hurts like the dickens - especially with constant use when working with clay. When this happens, I can’t exactly wear a bandaid since it would come off due to the wet nature of working with clay. My hands are constantly in water or clay or both. My most recent wound happened 2 days ago. I was removing a stilt from the bottom of a ceramic piece and it slipped and cut my thumb. Not fun.

Finger cots to the rescue. Though I don’t like wearing them, they do the job. And yes, they look a little bit like a condom. Oh gee, I hope I don’t get a ton of spam from this post! They’re not terribly comfortable, much like I imagine the real thing would feel…. But, the cots do serve as a barrier between potential chemicals and what not finding free entry into my body via the cut.

Et Voila! What other safety precautions do I take? I use a respirator when mixing glazes, gloves when glazing, glasses and a mask when sanding greenware & bisque, and goggles when checking cones in the kiln. As an independent artist, I rely on my health to have a long career. It’s really important to take care of my body, especially if I were to find myself without health insurance some day. My husband currently has me covered, but he dreams of being self employed some day and our health coverage could change at anytime.

Meanwhile, I attended my monthly garden club meeting last night and visited 3 amazingly beautiful gardens. I’m getting the bug to really dig in the soil and plant. Sunday, I’m going to play in a different kind of mud and plant a small vegetable garden near the back door of our house. I’ll need to fence it off to keep the dogs out of it but the rewards of fresh salsa and herbs will be wonderful come July and August!

Till later,

~Cynthia

Kid’s Clay Class Work

Published
by
Cynthia
on May 13, 2008
in Kid's Clay Projects
. 15 Comments

Crazy Clay Head

Crazy clay head  - my mother’s day present from my daughter

Side View

Side View

It’s hard to believe, there are only 2.5 weeks left for my for daughter until school’s out for the summer!  That means that I only have one more week of teaching my after school clay class - which is both good but also sad.  Good because teaching takes time away from my own work and I’ll have more time in the studio.  Sad, because I really enjoy watching the kids create and I’m going to miss them.

The kids always amaze me with what they come up with.  Even when I give them the same assignment they all look different; it just goes to show we bring our own stuff to our art work.  One of their favorite things to do is “free clay” - which is basically my way of keeping them busy until the end of class once they’ve finished the project.  Some kids finish the project right away and others need the whole 2 hours to complete the assignment.  It really depends on their attention to detail or fear of messing up.  I always tell them, it’s hard to mess up when you make the rules.

The head above is the result of “free clay” made by my daughter.  When I first saw it freshly made, I was in love with her creation.  She didn’t want to fire it, and I pretty much insisted.  Since then, there have been a rash of crazy clay heads in the making by the rest of the class.  Fun, fun fun.

Clay Rattles

Ceramic rattles

Two weeks ago, we made clay rattles and they are so cool!  I’m thinking of making some myself.  It’s hard to resist the temptation to pick one up and shake it up.  They all sound differently too, depending on how thick the walls or how many and large the clay balls inside the rattle are.

Meanwhile, I finally upgraded my Word Press blog to version 2.5 - and it seems to be running a little slower.  It has a really cool administrative interface, but I wonder if it’s causing the slow down.  And, wouldn’t you know it, I upgrade and there’s already another upgrade available to 2.5.1.  I’m staying put for a little while.

Cheers from snowy Colorado (yes, despite 75 degree weather yesterday, we woke up to snow!)

~Cynthia

New Clay Bevel Tool & Happy Mother’s Day!

Published
by
Cynthia
on May 11, 2008
in Tools
. 11 Comments

Several weeks ago, I visited the Clay Stamps website and tried to purchase a bevel-o-matic clay tool via their Paypal Buy Now Link. I didn’t receive a confirmation or shipping info after committing to purchase. A week later, an email appeared in my inbox from Paypal informing me that Clay Stamps has not claimed my payment and that I should contact them or cancel my purchase. After emailing and receiving no response, I reluctantly canceled my order. I always like to give someone the benefit of the doubt - they could have been on vacation or something. I was going to follow up with a phone call to the number listed on the website, but after telling my Father in Law the story and showing him a photo of a handmade bevel tool in a recent article in Pottery Making Illustated (go to the link on bottom right, titled “Beyond the Square”), he responded, “I can make you one!”

may-10-012.jpg

He made me 2! What a great Mother’s Day present and perfect timing. The Summer Art Market is looming in about 5 weeks, and I want to do some more hand-building since my little porcelain boxes sold out at the Guild Show last weekend.

Meanwhile, I’ve been shopping! I need to stop, but I keep finding great independent artists whose work I adore. Friday, I visited the Castle Clay artist’s show and purchased an Asian inspired salt fired mug by Don Cox. Yesterday, I went to a mead & sushi tasting event that featured work by local artists and purchased some steam-punk pins by “The Pork Shop Show” and a reproduction print mounted on a 1″ gallery wood support by Two Little Fruits.

Both the mead and the sushi were delicious! The mead was home brew - and I’ve decided I need to make some for us after I research recipes - finally I’d be able to use the Grolsch bottles with the little ceramic swing top stoppers that my husband has been collecting over the years and won’t let go of. The lemon variety tasted a bit like Limoncello, and I love lemons. The sushi chef likes to do home parties, and I asked him if he would be adverse to doing a kid’s party. I don’t know if you remember, but, my 10 year old daughter loves herself some sushi. She always wants to go out to the most expensive sushi restaurant in town for her birthday every year. It would be cool to learn how to make it ourselves!

Have a great weekend and Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!

~Cynthia

 

Photo Set Up

Published
by
Cynthia
on May 7, 2008
in Photographing Work and glaze testing
. 12 Comments

potters-guild-show-and-sale-spring-2008-015.jpg

Last Thursday, I spent most of the day at the church where the guild holds its sales photographing work to use in future show advertisements and on their website. Our sale runs Thursday - Saturday for obvious reasons and the church apparently gives the guild favorable rental terms. It doesn’t hurt that it’s huge and that there are numerous rooms at our disposal. Some might consider it sacrilege, but we did our photographing in a small intimate annex chapel with the set up above - notice the cross behind the photo tent. It worked so well, I think I’m going to abandon photographing outside with my ghetto setup. The room was completely dark except for the lighting on the tent. We were able to get some great shots this way.

potters-guild-show-and-sale-spring-2008-020.jpg

Platter by guild member, Kathleen Laurie, photographed in our set up

Meanwhile, during the marathon photo session, a few swear words escaped our lips - and we all laughed nervously while asking for forgiveness.

I’m feeling the urge to do a little glaze testing. Last night, I dusted off my copies of Mastering Cone 6 Glazes by Hesselberth & Roy as well as my copy of The Ceramic Spectrum by Robin Hopper. I’m feeling pretty relaxed now that the sale is over and I really do need to expand my glaze palette.

My in-laws are flying up today for a few days. They didn’t want to miss my daughter’s performance at the Shakespeare Festival on Friday and then we’ll spend Mother’s day together as a family.

Tonight, my husband and I are going on a rare date. We”re going to see Justin Currie, former lead singer of Del Amitri at the Toad Tavern. I’m not normally a live music fan, but this will be in an intimite venue - so I won’t feel so claustrophobic since there shouldn’t be any large crowds to speak of.

Happy Wednesday,

~Cynthia