Glaze testing

This is the materials area of the glaze room.   I didn't take a photo of the application area.   Today I made some tests, Ill put up pictures of the tiles once they are fired.  

Tiny army

I am making some casseroles, they are almost finished.  Next up, plates.  And lots of glaze testing.  I have either forgotten to take my camera in or forgotten to actually use it.  So Im posting these pictures from this spring.  This was part of an installation, lots of little bugs.  Before and after pictures are always interesting. Notice how much more room there is between the pieces once they have been fired.  

Beach Art!

Its the best 

Inspiration

    Now thats a big pot.  This is in Jingdezhen, China. 

Trip to the Belger

On Friday the seniors went to the Belger art center, this was the current show. 

                                                                                                                        

Mo tells us about the Mohammad Ali quilt.                                           

A close up of some, uh, non traditional quilting?                                  

Priscilla, queen of the desert.                                                                                 

Angel wings for Tupac.                                                                                

Finished!

Here is the jar, it just needs a lid and carvings.

Like this!     The sun comes in the studio in the afternoon, it gets hot sometimes!

                                                                                                                                   

Carvings

   Trimmings, aren't they beautiful?                                                         

Im trying to figure out some new toppers/ knobs/ finials/ what ever you want to call them, for jars.   I made them all separately, so now I have to see what they look like on top of a jar. 

Big Jars

Im making two big jars.  Here is how I do it:

First I make a base.

Then I throw a bottomless wall.

Then I put the base back on the wheel and flip the wall on top of it.

Next I throw the wall section out. 

And throw another wall section, and turn it upside down on top 

of the last wall section ( the bat is still on in this pic, I always do it this way, I just forgot to take a pic before I cut the

 bat 

off in pic #3)

Cut the bat off,

 and throw it out. 

And so on.

It has gotten bigger, but I didnt take my camera so I have no pics. Ill post one of it all finished.

Cups and bisque

These are some of the tumblers I have been working on. 

They all have different carvings on them.

This is the jar I posted a picture of before, plus all the stuff I bisqued last week.

   Mugs, some of the first things I made here.            

Home sweet home

This blog is about ceramics, so this post is a little off topic.  Im in Kansas City now, but I come from the lovely blue ridge mountains.  How different these two places are.  Im still not sure if I like this city, or cities in general, but I know I like home. The blue ridge is beautiful; old, old mountains, worn down into soft rolling hills. I think this landscape is imprinted on my mind.  

Response to “The Genre”

Before reading this article I looked at the vase on the cover page, (by Michael Casson, seen at right) automatically noting its apparent visual references to medieval Europe and German salt glazing.   Then I read Greenhalgh’s description of the pitcher, in which he mentions a myriad of historical sources that the piece draws from.  Sometimes I think that people read too much into a piece, however after reading Greenhalgh’s description of the lines on this vase, I can see the connection with each of the sources mentioned. The depth of Greenhalgh’s knowledge and his ability to express his ideas and thoughts is impressive.

It is interesting to hear how Greenhalgh categorizes the arts and artists as either positivist or ironic. I had never thought about it in this way, but after reading this it makes a lot of sense.  Most well know artists, as well as classmates of mine, fall into either the positivist or ironic mold.  While all of this makes sense, I’m a little skeptical to buy into it, just because it is too easy to categorize things in such a manner.  Anything that puts people into one of only two categories has to be oversimplified, and thus also somewhat incorrect.   It is an interesting exorcise to categorize everyone this way though.

  

Podcast pots

My shelf with most of the pots Ive made so far.

This weekend I remembered that I can put podcasts on my ipod, (for free!)  So I have been listening to "the news from lake wobegon" and "this American life" all weekend.

This is good, because I was starting to get tired of listing to the same music all the time. 

This is one of the jars I have been working on.

First post

Hi!

This just a test post to see how everything works.  Im taking my camera to the studio tomorrow, so look for more pictures soon!