Colorado Art Studio

Today’s post is down and dirty - lots of pictures, little text.  Why?  I’m working away in the studio and my in-laws are visiting which makes finding time for online activity a difficult.  I’m still hand building work and thought I’d show you  my set up.  I tend to work on 4-6 mugs at a time now because it’s more efficient and it allows the clay to rest a bit while I go through the assembly line.

My tools are pretty basic.  I use a drywall board, banding wheel, X-acto knife, sponge, water, paper clay slip, scoring tool, wooden kitchen spoons (both ends), mini Kemper extruder for coils that I force into the joints, along with beverage at the ready and music or favorite podcasts.  What you don’t see is my wheel that is acting as the base of my work table.  That’s going to change today though since I feel like throwing a bit.

A prerequisite for any mug that I buy nowadays is that it has to have at least a 10 oz.+ capacity and a very stable wide bottom, capable of sitting on the arm rest of my sofa without spilling because this is my favorite place to drink the first cup of coffee of the morning while I wake up.  Most likely, you’ll find me answering emails, blogging and otherwise engaging in online activities in this very same spot.  Sometimes I even read the newspaper, but I’m currently taking a news sabbatical for a bit for my mental sanity.

I’ve also been playing around with making the bottom of my work as interesting as the visible portion of a piece.

I really love teaching kids - they’re a lot of fun and very high energy.  We recently made “soup can” mugs for a project.  They’re a way for the kids to make something functional just for themselves, though, some of the kids were also making presents for their parents.

Here’s a recent project - everyone went with a Halloween theme.  They will be glaze fired tomorrow or Sunday and I can’t wait to see how they turn out.

Gotta run, have a great weekend!

~Cynthia

Golden linoleum, metal ruler, exacto knife and cutting mat
In my last post, I wrote about a book, Image Transfer on Clay, by Paul Wandless and some of the techniques that I wanted to try out. I’ve got my eye on a Print Gocco, but first I’m going to try some of the image transfer techniques with the materials that I have readily available in my studio. I have my mind set on making some ceramic tumblers and impressing my lino-cut onto them for decoration. I was at a friend’s house last week, and I drank wine from a handmade ceramic cup and I can’t tell you how much that added to the experience of drinking the wine and spending time with my friend. Suffice it to say, it left me feeling very full and contented.

Wood-working tools with various shaped gauges to carve the linoleum
I need new wine glasses myself and have been searching for just the right ones for the last 6 months or so. I was looking for glass ones, but ceramic ones will be oh, so much better! These will not have the typical stem, but rather will be modeled after some my friends have recently purchased at Divino, that look like small juice glasses.

Requisite glass of red wine - though I don’t recommend cutting and drinking
My clip art image which I’ve resized in Photoshop
I chose an image of a dragonfly from some Dover Clip Art as the basis of my design. I was looking for something simple and small that I could use as my stamp. If you sign up for Dover’s email list, they send free clip art samples to you once a week. I have a folder on my computer just for the clip art in the event I need a little help with the shape or details of something I’m making. Once I cut the linoleum down to size I drew the dragonfly directly onto the linoleum.

Cutting the linoleum down to size - in this case about 1.75″ x 2.5″
I’ve drawn a likeness of the dragonfly directly onto the linoleum with a pencil
Beginning to carve
I haven’t made a relief print block in quite some time and I had to reacquaint myself with the process. Safety precautions: cut away from yourself, don’t have your hands in front of the direction of your carving tool - better yet, use a bench hook to use as a stop.

Dragon fly image and finished linocut
I decided to try out my linocut and made a card. This helps me to decide where I might need to clean up the edges of the linocut.
I used Lyra watercolor crayons to test out my linocut. It works pretty good. Next up today, I’m going to throw some small porcelain tumblers and print my dragonfly onto the clay to see how well this is going to work. So, stay tuned for part 2 coming up the day after next. Here’s an article by Paul Wandless from Pottery Making Illustrated on how to use a lino-cut to impress clay.

Closeup of linocut

Enjoy your Sunday, and Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads out there,