28 weeks

It's been a few months since my last post. (16 weeks to be exact)

I haven't touched clay in 7 months and have been getting the itch, but now that the morning sickness is over, my belly gets in the way. Guess i'll have to wait a little longer.

but here are some 28 week pictures of what I have been making.

new sonogram. (turning into a baby blog?)

Had he first trimester check up. The fetus has all of its parts! Legs, arms, spine, beautiful beating heart, nasal bone, bladder, stomach, and so forth. Everything measured well too. What a relief. I've been having dreams that the baby has multiple legs/arms and is actually a squid. When the squid arrives it attacks Jake and kills him. Weird? So it was a relief to see a baby with all the correct parts.

I've still been sick and unable to keep any food/liquid down for long. That should change tomorrow since i'm giving in and getting anti nausea drugs. I'm looking forward to eating a meal and only tasting it once. The heat/humidity in northern florida has been killing me. Note to self: if i'm ever nuts enough to do this again, plan around the summer.

anyway here are some new pictures!

not yay

I'm supposed to be hanging out with other potters at penland, but instead on my my couch with a bowl of ice cream.

Packed my bags/cars up left the house at 7am... by 10:30 I had turned the car around and headed back home. Just couldn't do it. Vomiting and driving not so safe and then i started to feel guilty about dorm mates/workshop mates having to deal with my constant bathroom trips. Just bad timing i suppose and it as a reality check on baby first, everything else second.

new post

Almost time for penland!



I leave on Sunday for 2 weeks and thankfully I'm feeling much better. The fetus is 11 weeks and less susceptible to external toxins since all of it's organs are developed.

I haven't touched clay in 2 months, which feels extremely strange but I'm excited to get out of the humidity and make some work again.

:)

there's the fetus.

We misjudged the dates a little bit, so this is really early still. (7.5 weeks) and I know people don't start blabbing about the baby until 12 weeks, but what can I say we jumped the gun and thought the baby was almost 12 weeks 2 weeks ago. So crossing our fingers that all continues to go well. The doc said everything looked great with a strong heartbeat and all.

my absence

Sorry I haven't been communicating at all since coming home from NCECA. I had grand plans of living in the studio but I haven't been in the studio for more than 10 mins since coming home. Where have I been? I've been huddled over the toilet or sleeping. Swine flu? bird flu? nope, it's baby flu! Turns out that Jake and I are 8.5 weeks pregnant. We were pretty shocked, stoked, and nervous all wrapped into 1. I know I should have waited another 3-4 weeks before talking about it, but I've had a hard time not telling people or thinking about it. First time I have been thankful that I don't have a full time job, since I have been sleeping 15hrs a day. This pregnancy thing is no joke. So anyone reading this, need some good vibes and crossing our fingers that it is a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby by December 6th. Which means I will be in the middle of my 2nd semester at Penland... I'm not sure how that is going to work out :( I may have to miss the Ayumi Horie Workshop, but hopefully I'm more active by then. So that's the big news from north florida and i'll have ultra sound pictures by friday :) The bathroom is calling my name.
mon

new sketches

I've been working through some new ideas. I have rows of cups sitting on the shelves waiting to be carved and bisqued.

I want to play with a line graphic element and text. Thinking about incorporating a new color next to the translucent light green glaze, maybe a soft matte yellow?

my father in law was talking about collecting sentences the other week and i love that sentence. Ever since then i've been writing ones down that catch my fancy in books, everyday conversation bits. So don't be surprised if a bowl comes out with tiny text that says i wish my mustache was bigger.

dishes

I have the best dishes ever.



In the batch are
Emily Reason
Joy Tanner
Landry Deese
Kristen Swanson
Brooke Noble
Matt Kellher
someone named brenda if anyone knows her last name please let me know! got the mug at the NCECA cup sale
Judi Tavill
Ayumi Horie
Diana Fayt
Linda McFarlane
and an assortment of my own that had issues but didn't have the heart to smash.

best.dishwasher. ever.

all you ever wanted to know about me

patty from pixie soap has been doing these fun interviews with the etsy mud team folks

http://handmadesoap.typepad.com/


more NCECA thoughts and pics to come once i decompress from all this crazy.

roberta smith, keynote extraordinaire.

Roberta Smith is , in my opinion, a very good art critic. She recently wrote about the Philadelphia ICA show, dirt on delight.

Huge props to her for approaching ceramics in the "art world" topic to start off the evening. It wasn't well received and 30-40% of the crowd walked out during her talk which made it a little awkward.

where the exodus happened.


I loved every minute of what she had to say because it was the UPenn senior critic jargon and I'm now far enough away from the grad school experience to understand what they/ she was saying.

She started off with something about understanding why the clay community is shunned by fine art. Cue for the masses to leave. It was awkward to say the least and I don't think a lot of people understood where she was coming from.

She didn't touch upon utilitarian work directly which caused more people to leave and approached the entire talk from the NYC perspective. This caused a lot of grumbling and ill feeling, at least to the crowd around me and it was very evident at the end during the Q & A session.

She spoke in great depth about the heavy hitters in the art world using clay as a medium, Julian schnabel, Koons, Pollock etc. Called Ken Price the pollock of the ceramic world. (oooh not so tactful roberta)

and then did an in depth review of the artists and art represented at the ICA dirt on delight show. She mentioned Jane Irish and my heart fluttered. Jane is the UPenn grad program coordinator and the only faculty member who was a fan of my work.


Roberta also spoke about object relationships to pedestals which is a topic near and dear to my very own breakdown of sanity and for the love of all things, I still cannot wrap my head around why this is so fucking important. I get the history of it but critics you need to drop it and move on. (sorry rant)

In regards to the ICA show she spoke about objects being poorly made and the use of clay by non ceramic artists as being unskilled approach and that skill is tied into craft. (whew that ruffled some audience feathers, cue stampede to get to the doors) She referenced the work that was non functioning, weird proportions, heavy, over glazed that is rampant. ie: sterling ruby


Roberta said a few "nice" things about ceramics like it's the only medium whee you are really touching the artists marks. She also understood and talked about misrepresentation of ceramics in fine art and how the ICA show was skewed, but that she loved it because it's a start and you gotta start somewhere. She drew parallels to the conceptual art movement that broke apart modernism and said she thought clay was entering the break through stage since todays artists are post material and that material does not dictate, pigeonhole anymore.

She ended the talk with the idea that we live in a visually illiterate nation and what the job of the critic is, also touched upon learning to listen to yourself, honing in on your gut reaction.

let's just say the Q & A was brutal.

my favorite quote of the night.

"If you make something and I can tell you what it is about, one of us is stupid."


here are some pictures!! way better than words :)









for ron




I would go back and title these pictures but i'm a little exhausted, maybe i'll fix it tomorrow.

people look like their pots

no seriously, i think it's like the dog/owner phenomena.

I was walking around downtown phoenix last night and whoah the town has been invaded. I'm loving all of the beards! I recognize many many people that I don't actually know so that's a bit weird, but when I try to put a name to a face it's so much easier to put a pot to it. Maybe i'll post examples of my discovery later.

nceca nceca nceca wooooo!

I get on the fancy plane for phoenix tomorrow morning. It will be my first time at a ceramic convention and i'm stoked!!! The main factor in deciding to go was that one of my best friends from undergrad lives in phoenix and i haven't seen him in 5 years. Not sure what i'm more excited about being in the same place as ceramic greats, listening to lectures, and seeing beautiful ceramic things or seeing matt. Both are pretty exciting and right now i'm one happy person.

so YYYYAAAY!

oh and i'm also getting a new kiln next week. goodbye low medium high dial.

I want to participate in the Nceca cup donation but not sure which one to donate.



I like the dunce and donkey chasing tail. But the dunce has some small pinholing issues.


the donkey will get a few pics because it goes all the way round the cup




regular rainy day mug

rainy day pinholes and good news

I have some slight pinholing. argh. I was late in getting the firing started and tried to rush through it so I could go to bed.
here are some pics anyway.











in other news, I need to get on the boat with the white balance feature on my camera.

and... I'm going to penland again this summer!!! thanks to some grant money and getting into the ayumi horie workshop. I'm feeling like a stalker since i look at her stuff pretty much everyday. I'm such a fan and so excited to be in the same room as her. Penland is such a great experience and the people in and around the community are simply amazing. So i'm thrilled to be going back and saying hi to John Britt and checking out Joy Tanner and Michael Kline's studios.

etsy shenanigans

hilarious, okay well funny to me since i'm delirious and waiting for my kiln to get to temp.

for april fools the etsy mud team all decided to put a roll of toilet paper in their listings. Obviously I joined the fun because really.. i can't resist toilet paper and potty humor. Because of this I got my butt in gear and listed 16 new items which double my etsy total. Yay! check out the wares.

bunny i made for the etsy mud team bunny challenge


party penguin bowl


heads i made at Penland over the summer. (there are 200 of them and poor jessica orlowski had to salt fire all of them, sorry jess)


the dunce cup pilsners come out of the kiln in the morning. another yay.

Happy April fools.

also if you didn't know it is save water drink a beer day sponsored by 1thingforgreen

I'm a blogging maniac... maaaaniac

no really, I spend way too much time reading blogs and on the computer. It's gotta be some sort of addiction.

anyway, i started another blog to keep track of fantastic ceramic sculptures. Before my functional ware obsession i used to make installation sculptures. hoooray sculpture!

http://ceramicsculptures.blogspot.com/

thursday, cloudy thursday

I have some new pilsner mugs with more intricate drawings on them. I really enjoy taking my time and adding detail to the drawings.



dunce cap




stork- i've been drawing them quite a bit out of the blue. Jake was making funny of me because he says my biological clock is showing. oh.




The other 2 have a fancy pig on one, which i love, and a parade of animals led by a little boy with a flag.

I have a few honey pots and mortar/pestle guys to draw on and then throw a whole range of things. Maybe i'll tackle plates after this post and tax fun.

new animals

trying some designs on the bowl interior, but maybe i'll have to make some sort of small animal/house/ person. The lines just seem a bit distracting.



Here is a bud vase and ewer. Unfortunately the glaze on the ewer ran. Note to self thin out glaze.



That's it for now. I'm just throwing at the moment and looking forward to NCECA and seeing some old friends.

not mud, but good stuff

reminds me of a dove bradshaw piece where she claimed a fire hose box at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Here is the story, and it's a pretty good one.

Dove Bradshaw is the reason I decided to go to grad school in the first place, her work is simply amazing. I was lucky enough to get a one on one crit with her my last year and I was even more smitten. Her life partner William Anastasi was/ is one of the main forces behind the conceptual art movement.

wacom tablets

are the cooolest thing ever.

my first wacom tablet drawing.



(it's a pig)



(sometimes i just don't know)

I'm stoaked. I've watched jake use this thing hundreds of times and have been slightly jealous. I tried it once before just making lines but didn't feel right.

I'm feeling a new website redo with animal drawings and animations. It's probably time to brush my installation/ grad school work into the corner since I'm nowhere near there anymore.

sunday morning

We woke up around 6am ready to party. Jake and I are pretty awesome at falling asleep at 8pm on a saturday night. Both of us sunburnt and exhausted from the seafood and music fest in jacksonville beach. It was lots of fun and the music was great. Sooo many babies everywhere. Not sure if I just have baby goggles on or if everyone is reproducing.

anyway, on to muddy goodness. I won't lie I did the happy dance when I realized that Ron Philbeck has been reading my blog and even linked it to his blog this morning. (how's that link for some circular linking) I feel like i've been pseudo blog stalking these ceramicists for a while.

This morning I trimmed some bowls and sketched out forms for honeypots, teapots, and loaded a bisque. Not a full load cause I needed to push through my bunny for the bunny challenge.

we were watching the seagulls pick apart fried alligator tail at the fest.


please don't mind the laundry detergent and greenware on the washer.


bunny update, i'm regretting the polka dots.

random thoughts

Last night was my first art walk and it was a lot of fun. It being less than a mile from my house was a huge bonus too. A handful of sales and a lot of "oh that is gorgeous!" which was very nice to hear. I was honored that people excitedly picked up pieces and wanted to talk.


I spent some part of the time sketching and thinking through ideas. By the time I got home I was really excited about expanding the items I have been making to plates, lamps, mixing bowls, soap dishes and so forth. I just need a bigger kiln. I know i've posted about charlie the amazing 1.2 cu ft kiln before, i love him and all.. but i can't make dinner plates in him and it's very tough for me to justify only firing 2 bowls at a time.

The feedback I heard from people is just what i needed to get a fire underneath my butt and stop sulking about not having a "real" job yet.





oh and here is a bunny i'm making for the etsy mud team bunny challenge. It's my first handbuilt thing.

atlantic beach art walk

Anyone in the Jacksonville area come visit me at the Atlantic Beach art walk this Thursday evening. I'll be hanging out in front of sticky fingers. stiky sticky. I may even buy you a beer.

Q & A

Q. From Amanda

adore the mugs! what glaze are you using? I'm trying to find a translucent celadonish blue for cone 6-7 and am having no luck!
also- those drawings are all done with the wax resist method? how do you get the shading and the lines?

sorry for all the pestering!


A.

Hi amanda, no pestering at all.

The glaze I use is one that I learned of/ tested during my workshop with John Britt.

The base is Chun clear

F4- 38
Whiting-14
Silica-30
Ball Clay- 6
Zinx Ox- 12
2% avacado mason stain

sometimes i'll do 2% bermuda instead of avacado for a bluer green.

I use highwaters helios and the glaze is a great fit for the body. I've only used it at ^7 ox.


A few posts ago i wrote about the wax resist technique. This yielded results like this


I wanted something with a little more depth so I busted out the latex wax resist. I carve into the cups in the leather hard stage, after the bisque take a brush and latex resist around the carving. Wipe/ wipe off underglaze on the drawing and then remove the latex buffer. Dunk in glaze and go.

hope that answered all your questions. Anyone is more than welcome to purchase an awesomly made cup at etsy and drink out of one to support my quest for making happy objects!

finally in the kiln

Glazed this morning and I'm feeling good. Now not to mess this ^7 up and I'll be a happy camper. I feel like I've come a long way with the drawing / glaze technique.

these are pictures before getting dunked in my translucent blue green glaze.





a chair and stack of books for my friend mike. the side reads "eat sleep read"


partygoat!


rubber duckie you're the one!


anyway, i'm looking forward to the morning and then glazing more. I have 30 or so cups and 10 ish bowls that are bisqued, but only have room for 10 cups and 1 bowl in my ittty bitty work horse of a kiln. So i'll be glaze firing all week. Someday I'll get something bigger.