update with glaze work

First revision on the comparative analysis is done!  I would love to send it in tomorrow.  We'll see.  Meanwhile all of the work from the first 2 1/2 months were unloaded on Saturday in time to meet with Robert Ortbal, my mentor.  His comments and criticisms are really helping me to think more about other possibilities.  It feels like I need to scrape away sediment that has settled in my brain.  We will be meeting again in just a few weeks so I will work like a fiend until then (after the paper is done).

The large cup is cooling after being fired to cone 010 for decals.  Next will come a silver luster.  Then a mirror will be cut to sit inside.  I still have to glue the large swan together and figure out how to crochet that large doily... The title may be "Narcissus."

 Here are the glaze results.  The first two "squiggles" are wall mounted.

 "Narcissus."  The cardboard is a placeholder for the mirror. Large doily still to come.

 Decals before firing.  I intend for them to melt into the surface and alter in color as per my test.

I still can't articulate why I feel compelled to make the inflatables out of clay rather than use the plastic form in my work.  It comes from my desire to do trompe l'oeil work.  Robert put them together like this. I do like them that way: one would sink and one would swim, but I can't see the substitution...

Summer is a going out...

What a relief that my last summer ceramics class at the Davis Art Center was Monday.  After teaching at least 5 classes/week, my teaching obligations will be much lighter from here on in.  I've got over a week break before the fall session starts up.  One daughter left to start graduate work in Toronto and I'm catching up with my second daughter who only just returned from Germany last week.  She hadn't been back home since January and returns to UPenn on the 4th of September.  All three of us will be graduating in the spring of '13! 

The kiln is on it's way up for the second glaze firing on my MFA work.  I see now that the last post didn't include the giant teacup (see below).  Everything needed more glaze work from the first go round.  The "squiggles" are more like flames (think Inferno) than water although the forms are derived from the stuff that flows from the "cups runneth over." Photos will follow after the kiln cools.  I had done lots of small tests before settling on the glaze for the cup but with three coats over the large cup surface, the glaze looked too splotchy.  Hopefully an extra coat will even things out although it is supposed to be runny.  I'll be trying a new technique with decals melted in rather than on the surface of the glaze.  Still lots to do: there may be a luster firing for a silver rim, a mirror to be cut, and doily to crochet (which I'm still practicing!) before this swan piece is finished.

It was great to be able to see Dali's watercolors of Dante's Devine Comedy at the Haggin Museum last week.  Rauchenberg also did an interpretation in print of the Inferno which I just learned is in the collection of the MIT List Visual Arts Center.

Meanwhile I've written half of the comparative analysis paper due Sept. 1.  I'm really enjoying the exploration of the two works I've chosen: Oppenheim's Object and Samaras' Book #4, both of which relate to my current work. 

I currently have ceramic work on view in two exhibitions – "Shattered," the 6th Annual National Multimedia show at MarinMOCA, Juror: Kenneth Baker, SF Chronicle Art Critic www.marinmoca.org, and "Visions in Clay 2011" at LH Horton Jr Gallery, Stockton, Juror: Judith Schwartz, Director of Sculpture and Craft Media at NYU www.deltacollege.edu/div/finearts/dept/dca/gallery/exhibit1/index.html  I'll also be participating in the Ceramics Annual of America at Fort Mason, SF in October ceramicsannual.org.

studio update

More glaze tests will be unloaded today to help determine direction for the large tea cup.  The swans have been under glazed and are drying.  I've enlarged my "squiggle" forms and could see them even larger still but need to consider how large they can ultimately get since their shapes are determined by my hand which obviously can't grow.  I'm working solid and then hollowing the forms which is a very different way of making shapes for me.  After these are glazed, I'll take stock in how to move them further.  Meanwhile I will continue to explore new territory.