Colorado Art Studio

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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