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.

just moving along

here are some new greenware pieces, they will be bisqued by saturday and hopefully glaze fired by tuesdayish.

I started drawing animals with pieces of human paraphernalia, like glasses, hats, party hats, coats, shoes, etc. I was rereading " The man who mistook his wife for a hat" by Oliver Sacks. Great book. He writes about 24 case studies with patients with various brain function "mishaps" This is probably where/why i started drawing this old man (see 2 or 3 posts ago) The new cups and book have a strong connection for me about altered perceptions and animal symbolism.

Rhino with Hat


deer eating hat


moose with bird, glasses and scarf


Hopefully everything comes out fine because this "series" is the most meaningful I have gotten with my functional work. (and i dig the drawing style)

latex resist

oh how i love you so.



I'll have to post some photos of the process as a part 2 of what i started a few weeks ago.

i love this statement

This century will bring an even more digitized life to the developed world; the information river will be up and out of its banks and the pressure to eat it in the car will seem normal.

Many of the functions we make pots for will merge, transform and disappear. Making pots will be an act of civil disobedience. Time has become money. Our pots will be needed more than ever before.

A bowl of tea between silent lovers, the salad bowl at the table of noisy friends and family, the coffee mug just before the kids rise---all quietly keep our souls alive. They make love stay.

When the moon is right, we make pots that recognize and define sacred spaces, mystery and tenderness.

At this brittle and exciting edge of the 21st century, we will make pots within a renewed awareness of how essential our work is --- that what we do matters.

We make a quiet difference and sometimes ----that’s all it takes.

Kevin Crowe


Somedays I wish I were a writer, and if i was, I would write what Kevin Crowe said.

new cups and photographing issues

I'm kinda excited, again.

I tried a different technique and really like it. Makes the cups look like they have a pencil drawing on them.





I made 8ish tumblers but had a heck of a time trying to get a good picture. I consulted Joy Tanners post on photographing... but i'm still getting clear glaze looking tumblers (and glare... lots of glare) when they are a celedonish color. Going to buy a top light tomorrow and figure out where i put the tripod.

I also joined twitter today. Why? I have no idea. Seemed like a good thing to do.