Posts Tagged “hand building”

Chicken

I’m almost finished adding the final touches to the 20 porcelain hand-built boxes that I’m making for the Summer Art Market which takes place next week. Only five more to paint - and then I plan on bisque firing on Tuesday and Glaze firing on Thursday. That will leave me Friday to inventory and price my work and otherwise get organized. The art market is open at 10:00 am on Saturday - with a preview sale for Art Student League VIPs at 9:00 am.

The crow might be my favorite right now

I’ve finished listening to Eckhart Tolle and Oprah discussing The New Earth. It was a so relaxing and thought provoking for me. I have the book - now I just have to find the time to read it. I love being read to though because I always seem to be short of time and when I do have the time at the end of the day, I can barely keep my eyes open long enough to get past 3 pages.

Frog - from tadpole to full grown

Each side of this one has the basic evolution of a frog’s life from tadpole to grown frog. I was just too lazy to photograph the other side for you. I’m going to enjoy getting feedback from people in person next weekend.

Goldfish

Meanwhile, I decided to treat myself to a one day workshop. I’m going to be visiting the studio of local Denver artist, Annie Chrietzberg, otherwise known as “Earth to Annie” the weekend of June 21 for a hand-building workshop. I’m looking forward to meeting her and learning some new techniques.

It’s a gorgeous day in Denver, so with nothing further, I bid you adieu!

~Cynthia

Trimming Faux Pas

While I was getting ready for the Potter’s Guild show in April, I made a grave mistake. It’s one that many novice clay people make and apparently one that I make too occasionally when I’m in a hurry. If there’s anything I’ve learned about myself it’s that I can’t rush because it results in mistakes! When I was cleaning the other day, I happened upon this non-functional porcelain bowl that was previously destined for the gas kiln before I trimmed right through the bottom! Doh!

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve been making little porcelain boxes which start out as slabs of clay. I don’t normally wedge this clay up unless I’m throwing, so imagine my surprise when I saw brown clay swirled into the creamy white porcelain clay. I complained to Mile Hi - it’s apparently from the first batch when they’re making it and are switching clay bodies. You might remember that I don’t use brown clay at home since I don’t want to contaminate the white clay I use. It’s easy to do. I decided to take a deep breath and left the swirls intact.  It’s okay that it’s not what I expected - oh, what’s that Japanese term I’m looking for… maybe, “wabi-sabi“?

Work in Progress

These 6 boxes above are still in progress. The lids have been cut off and I’ve added knobs, feet and also an embellishment to the front of the boxes to hide the little notched section. My goal for the Summer Art Market is to have 20 of these boxes of varying sizes. I sat down with my sketchbook and decided to make a list of themes that I’d like to explore. I divided it into botanical and animal/insect/bird sections and each box has a theme that I’ve dictated based on the knob. Most of these will get additional painted details in the next week or so.

My favorites are the ones with intricate knobs such as a crow…

The chicken…

And the monkey (though he is a little scary)…

Meanwhile, I finished constructing 8 more boxes in various sizes and will cut off the lids and begin adding the knobs & feet today. I have 6 more boxes to construct to make my goal of having 20 in time for the Summer Art Market June 14th and 15th. I’m not going to have much else this year, however. Early next week, I might throw a bunch of mugs and bowls - but that will be about it.

It’s Memorial weekend here in the states - we’re going to host a BBQ and basically take it easy. Well, I’ll be working just a bit on these boxes - but at my leisure. I only have one thing I HAVE to do. The show in Evergreen closes tonight and I’m going to make a drive up to the mountains and pick up my work tomorrow. I wonder how much sold???

Have a great weekend,

~Cynthia

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

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