Making connections
Handbuilt Bowl with text stamped glazed
Is it really Friday already? Time seems to be set on fast forward right now, ‘cuz it’s really flying! This bowl is from the archives [well sort of] - late January, I made some slab built projects inspired by a Bill Van Gilder video I watched. Simple projects that aren’t too difficult to reproduce.
Hand built bowl with text stamp
This bowl was basically constructed using a slab of clay which I draped over a wood block and allowed to set up before removing the block. Any type or shape of support could be used for different types of plates, bowls or platters – more infinite possibilities.
Side view of bowl
I was a little worried about the very wide rim slumping in the glaze fire, but was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t. I did use a ^6 white stoneware that I purchased from Mile Hi Ceramics called “Ash” that I like a lot. I use it for almost all my hand built work now a days. I don’t like to throw with Ash, however because of the extra grog. I suppose I’m spoiled by silky smooth porcelain clays I’ve been using.
Me on left and Deb Babcock in her studio/gallery
While I was in Steamboat Springs, CO last week, I arranged to catch up with Deb Babcock – fellow Etsy Mud Team Member and potter. Last Thursday, after skiing in the am and needing to rest my burning thighs thanks to 17″ of new powder, I took the afternoon off and went into town to meet Deb. She has a great studio space that also serves as gallery/shop space in a strip mall enroute to the ski hill. I was impressed with how bright and spacious her studio is compared to my dingy garagio. She works right in the middle of her shop, but keeps it very tidy due to the retail aspect of her studio. Very cool and creative use of space. It was interesting to learn that 33% of her income comes from Etsy sales and the rest from her shop and local shows. Her busy time is surprisingly Summer/Fall thanks to the enormous snow drifts piled high in front of the shop – but not so surprising since my favorite time to visit the mountains is in the summer!
I really enjoyed meeting a fellow potter and learning how Deb makes it work. And, I am enjoying my new hand built Blue Sky Pottery mug that I purchased from her shop – the photographs in her Etsy shop don’t do her work justice.
Have a great weekend,
~Cynthia
P.S. I’m not sure I like the new WordPress Theme or not – but I was getting bored of the old one. I’m still adding stuff to my side bars, including some music that I’m really groovin’ on right now (that’s coming, I have to reduce the file sizes – so nothing yet). It looks pretty good in Firefox (my browser of choice), but like crap in Internet Explorer. So, if you’re reading this in IE, my apologies – I need to get under the hood and mess with the coding a bit to clean it up. What the hell – why can’t code look the same accross all browsers? That’s hooey.
Collage Inspiration for Clay Surfaces – the Fog Has Lifted
Untitled 2005, collage, rubbed texture, photo copies, vellum, marker
Last week, I was searching through some of my old sketch books for something to use as a screen print experiment and came across some collages that I made for a graphic studio that I took in Landscape Architecture grad school in 2005. I go back to my stint in grad school a lot because I really pushed myself during that time period and made some interesting work. In some ways it was $9,000 well spent even if I didn’t graduate from the program.
Untitled 2005, collage, photo copies, vellum, marker
The three collages I’ve included in this post caught my eye and as I sat there with them for a moment in silence, I realized that they represent how I want to approach surface decoration on my ceramic work. After writing a few posts recently about screen printing and making ceramic decals from scratch here and here, I came to the conclusion that I would like to create a layered effect with imagery, texture, glaze and decals on clay. So when I found these collages, a light went off in my head – just like a cartoon…
Can you see the brain synapses firing away?
Since you can’t really see the layering in the collage on a computer screen as well as you would in person, allow me to explain. In these collages, I used a variety of graphic textures, text and imagery pulled from newspapers, texture rubs, magazines, and my own mark making. In two of these, I colored some vellum with a translucent markers used by architecture professionals (brands like Prismacolor or Letraset) and collaged it on top of the black and white imagery which in my mind represents the glaze layer. What I didn’t add to these collages is a third layer or the ceramic decal – but I could easily simulate this by transferring toner based photo copies with a colorless Chartpak Blender Marker on top of the vellum.
Untitled 2005, collage, photo copies, vellum, conte crayon
The collages are not meant to be great art works – they’re more like quick creative exercises to spark design ideas. It was exciting to me when I rediscovered these, each measuring approximately 7″ x 9″. They’re playful, not overly thought out, spontaneous and will be a good addition to my studio practices to push my work or at least the surface of my work to become more complex and all mine. Since first discovering clay in 2002, I have enjoyed the process of working with wet clay much more than the finishing aspect of ceramics. Glazing has always been a sometimes painful after thought, and I confess a single dip in the glaze bucket was about as creative as I dared in regards to finishing my work – sometimes even going as far as to use a one color for the interior and another for the exterior. Hold the phone, keep your pants on!
Minimal and quiet does have its place in ceramics, but it doesn’t really describe me or my personal preferences. Consequently, it feels sort of hypocritical to cop out and apply a minimalistic look to my ceramic work. If you were to visit my house, you would be greeted by a riot of color, mismatched heirloom/purchased/thrift store furniture, family photographs, art work – other’s, my daughter’s and mine, my grandmother’s glass and tea cup collection, mementos, along with piles of newspapers, magazines, and books covering the entire surface of the coffee table that reflect my family and a well lived in home. And, if you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, you know I’m sometimes scattered, focused, colorful, loud, quiet, opinionated, empathetic, interested in many different ideas and philosophies and I think my work should reflect that as well, much like my home reflects my family.
I wonder if the past few months of mental wrangling, studio avoidance and general gnashing of teeth has been in response to this dialog that’s been going on inside my head. When I think about it, all of this started when I returned home from my teaching stint at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in August. I was so inspired by my stay there, that I made the decision then and there to push myself to make better work – I just didn’t know what the answer or path was when I came home. That dialog has been playing in my head around the clock in the background ever since returning much like a computer security scan works behind the scenes allowing normal use of the computer yet slowing everything down at the same time. Processing…processing…scan complete!
Whew.
I’m not ruling out a touch of ADD, left brain deficiency or general off kilterness either. 
Meanwhile, that’s me in the photo above holding a tiny porcelain faceted bottle I made for a miniature swap as part of the Etsy Mud Team this month and was taken by my daughter. I haven’t been a very active participant in Etsy since early July because I haven’t made any new work in awhile – it’s a wonder I haven’t been kicked out. If any fellow Etsy Mud Team members are reading this – I’m getting back into the swing of things, pinky promise.
Paul McCartney and Wings are currently serenading me as I write this and the upbeat music blast from the past sounds so apropos for this picture perfect movie moment in my life – cue zoom in for close up. Smile of contentment on my face. Fade to future – End on positive note.
C’est tout,
~Cynthia
Widespread Panic and EMT Sale
(click on image to enlarge)
It’s been busy since my in-laws came into town last Wednesday and I haven’t done too much in the studio. I’m starting to get that nagging feeling like I have to go into the studio to make art NOW. I am enjoying visiting with them and we’ve been doing some much needed projects around the house, such as fixing the leaky spot in the basement, pouring concrete for a new walk, making a new flower bed, installing an arbor…you know little things. My father in law has never been one to sit around the house, and consequently, he really puts the fire under our behinds.
Having my in-laws in town has also enabled me to do a few things that I might not normally get to do. On Saturday evening, my husband and I went to the Widespread Panic concert at Red Rocks. I should probably preface this discussion by saying that I normally avoid all large concerts because I get so very miserable with the throngs of people. I pay gobs of money to see a band, that I can’t hear, can’t see and literally claustrophobia sets in and I want to curl up into the fetal position. The last concert I went to was Dave Matthews Band at the Pepsi Center and I left early even though I LOVE DMB. I much prefer going to City Park Jazz Concerts. However, I make a few exceptions for small venues and out door type venues such as Red Rocks in Morrison, CO. So, a few months ago, my husband who is a huge Panic fan, asked if he should buy a ticket for me. I said yes, and as fate would have it, my inlaws are in town and could babysit for us.
I have to admit, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I have been feeling a little discouraged after the Summer Art Market, and even applied for a job the other day. Though I remember having this feeling after last year’s SAM as well. It’s exhausting and just the thought of having a 401k, profit sharing, a steady paycheck, health insurance sounded mighty tempting. Flash back to Saturday evening, and I had an outerbody creative inspirational experience. It was like having an artist’s date without trying. The music was excellent, the crowd amiable and there was so much eye candy and people watching, that what can I say? I was thinking about my art and am motivated to give my art career a concerted effort.
It requires some short term goals on my part. What are they?
- Write Artist Statement
- Organize and cull photos from recent work – edit as needed
- Research galleries that I want to contact
- Write letter of intent for gallery contacts
- Make packet/book to send out to galleries in the US
- Continue to make work
- Wait for responses to come back
I know that nothing is going to happen unless I make it happen and I need to be proactive – period- end of story! I hope to have my artist’s statment written in rough draft by tomorrow evening.
Meanwhile, as a member of the Etsy Mud Team, we’re having a sale today through Friday, the 29th. 10% off everything in my store and other EMT members. My Etsy Shop.
Have a good week everyone,
Manhole Cover Art and Bee Lino-cut
A few nights ago, I was walking my dog around my neighborhood in Denver, when I happened upon this manhold cover. While I had passed by on this street many a time, I never noticed it. Maybe, I noticed this time because the sun was setting and the last rays of the day highlighted the fishes’ silhouette. I’m not sure, but I did a double take and knew I had to come back with my camera in tow.
I’ve been wondering what a fish is doing on a manhole cover in the city of Denver. When I saw it today, I realized it reads “Drains to Rivers”. I googled images of manhole covers and there’s quite an assortment of eye candy if only we look down.
Drawing of Bee on linoleum
I have decided to add to my lino-cuts. My lone dragonfly needed another insect companion – the bee.
Bee relief print on clay
I have found that the relief prints on clay work better on flat pieces than ones in the round, so I’m playing around with some different clay shapes to print on. I like the idea of a house and once it’s fired I’ll add a wood block to the reverse side so that this will be able to hang on the wall as a small art piece. I think these might look great in small groupings. Mile Hi Ceramics does carry “ceramic ink pads” that I think I’m going to try out. I imagine these would work like regular stamps and ink pads on paper, only the ceramic ink will be fired onto the piece. What I’m curious to find out is whether the ceramic ink is to be applied on top of other glaze like china paint, or if it’s an underglaze.
Ginkgo Cup – need to work on my technique
Printing the relief prints in the round isn’t working out too great. I suppose I could use commercial rubber stamps, but I like the fact that I’m using my own stamps. It might be better to use the ceramic ink pads to apply my images.
Top view, ginkgo cup
For this cup, I tried to make it square after I had thrown it on the wheel, but, I don’t have the right size paddle. Consequently, the cup has all kinds of dings on it. I’ll most likely recycle this cup.
In other news, I joined another Etsy Street Team called Etsy Mud Team or EMT a group that works exclusively with clay. While it might seem counter productive for a ceramic artist do join other ceramic artists in marketing promotion. I actually think it will be beneficial. We all have different styles and use different materials and firing methods. When I did the Summer Art Market, I noticed that when people came into our booth, they either gravitated to my work, Kathleen’s or Mary Cay’s. There didn’t seem to be any cross-over. So I think this is going to be good!
That’s it for today,
