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.