Back Home On The Range

Tonight I was out wandering around the ole farm, and I was pleasantly surprised to find my camera in my pocket; thus, I took some pictures and of course made them all HIGH CONTRAST!
Enjoy!

Wheat

Sweet Feed

Alfalfa

Wheat

Night Horse

Horse Head

High Contrast: Dusty

The Two-Part Mold

One of the assignments in my Problems in Ceramics class was to create a two-part mold and use it to make a project. I chose to do a body casting.

To do this, vaseline is applied to the body and then 3 layers of medical-grade plaster strips are applied to the front, then the back of the person.

After they have set up, ceramic plaster is mixed and applied (about 1" thick) to the outside of both the front and back molds.

Ceramic Plaster takes about an hour to fully set, but I let mine set for a day or two in the dry booth.

To create the clay impressions, I rolled two flat slabs of clay out (so that they was large enough to cover the entire insides of the molds), and draped them over the insides of the molds. I then compressed them with metal and rubber ribs.  I placed both molds in the dry booth for a bit, took them out and covered them with plastic for about a week.

After they had been in the plastic tent, I took the clay molds out and scraped off all the plaster pieces to prevent plaster pop-offs. It was then that I realized the back mold had some problems--the medical-grade plaster had not set up correctly, thus the mold was very weak and unable to hold the weight of both the ceramic plaster and clay. I decided to throw it away and just use the front mold. Thus, I put the front mold in a paper tent for further drying.

Once it was thoroughly dried out, I engraved a body-image saying on the left chest with my metal tool. (Now that I look at the body, I wish I had not done this, as I don't really lke the way the writing looks....)

The body was then high fired.

After the high firing, I used underglazes to create a stain-like effect on the surface. It was then fired to Cone 04.

Here is the result:

Majolica

Majolica is something I wasn't particularly familiar with prior to this project and I wasn't interested in applying the majolica to any of my pieces simply because once this particular glaze-style is applied, the vessel is no longer functional; however, after this project was completed, I realized it's quite attractive if done right.

Now, the Maiolica piece is one of my favorites as I glance back at my corner full of pots. The bright green is an eye catcher. My Maiolica piece started out as a very basic plate. Once I did some research, I found an artist that I really enjoyed: Matthias Ostermann. His use of bright colors on a black Maiolica surface is really intense and appealing. Since I did not have a black Maiolica base at my disposal, I had to create the illusion of black Maiolica. I started by glazing the entire plate with the white Maiolica base. I then painted on the flower and leaf design. Once I had painted it all, I went in and filled all the white space in with black Maiolica paint. I then used a sgraffito method over the top of the flower and carved back through the glaze to reveal some of the white base glaze. I think the piece was really successful, and reflects my personality very accurately: loud, bright and a little bit different.

The "Woo Blue" Experience

Last semester, when I was first becoming really interested in ceramics, I would go into the glaze room and randomly choose a glaze, dip my pot in and fire it. I came across one glaze that made my pots look great--it hid imprefections and created this awesome variation of blues, browns and sometimes even purples. This semester, I have devoted about 90% of my glazing time to working with this magical glaze--Woo Blue Brown. I've been experimenting with how the colors change depending on how thick it is, where the pot is placed in the kiln during the firing and I also did some work with layering additional glazes both under and over the Woo Blue.

The following pictures are some of the most successful results I've had this semester:

This is a large soup bowl. To create the awesome variation in color, I added a Cone 10 Clear Liner glaze to the inside of the pot and swirling some additional Woo Blue Brown glaze on the inside to create more of the blue color--the thicker the glaze, the more variation in color.

This is a set of small soup bowls with Woo Blue Brown on them.

This is another soup set--the largest bowl does not have the Clear Liner, but I still achieved a great variation in color.

This is a soup bowl and plate on which I acheived the best overall blue color of the entire semester. There's very little brown on the two pieces except for the rims.

This is the brightest blue I achieved all semester--it's on the outside of a large serving platter.

This is the interior of a bowl. To create this color combination, I layered Clear Liner, Woo Blue and more Clear Liner.

The exterior of the same bowl as above. I layered Clear Liner with Woo Blue.

One of Life's Major Mysteries

This is a close-up of a quote I carved on the ceramic torso I made. I thought this was a pretty neat picture.

I initally thought the quote was about the desire to be with your perfect match--the person that makes you happy; but I think it's actually about how people are always striving to create a body that mimics that one look America seems to find "beautiful."  No one really knows what it is, but we're all wishing our bodies looked more like it.

A Christmas Delight

I decorated my Significant Other & I's Christmas tree this past weekend. I used some pheasant feathers and gold, pewter and green ornaments. It's very glimmery, and I can't take my eyes off it when its lights are on! So beautiful!


Tip: If you're going to use wild feathers in any craft, make sure you dip the ends in salt and spray them with hairspray first!

A Personal Series in Mixed-Media

In my Problems in Ceramics class, we are asked to create a "Personal Series." I have created several this semester. My fourth and final personal series is my favorite, and something I have been constantly thinking about and sketching since the middle of about October. I used Domestic Porcelain to create forms on the wheel, which I then altered the bowls and carved some small holes along the edges. Once they were bisque-fired, I glazed them with Cone 10 clear glaze. After some experimenting with clear glazes I found the perfect glase to let the Domestic Porcelain’s pure white come through. After the glazing, wire and beads are added along with ribbon. These are some of my favorite pieces simply because they add unexpected details to something that can still be somewhat functional (i.e. candy dish). I ended up making six of these bowls.

Life in HIGH CONTRAST.

I've recently become really interested in high contrast photography and incredibly close-up images that make the mind ask, "What IS that, really?!"

This is some of my work from the past 6 months:

The Essay

Heartland

Shine

A closeup of a well-groomed person's eye.

High Contrast Colour Effects

A Silver Show

Drake's Snow Adventure

The Retrieve

Summer Gerbera

Close-Up of Pink

Pink Flower

The Lone Orange Stem

Simon's Perch

Bottle Tops

Quench

Bookmaking

So since I mentioned something yesterday about my new obsession with bookmaking, I thought I'd share this site:
http://www.hollanders.com/

They have a GREAT selection of papers and other bookmaking supplies.  I've checked out quite a few bookmaking suppliers and this site seems to have the most reasonably-priced products. Definitely worth taking a look at!

Seasonal Crafts--A GREAT thing!

I love random seasonal decorations around my house--they're fun. If you make them, however, they're even MORE enjoyable. This is a great idea from Martha Stewart's website. (They'd be SO cute as a place setting for a festive Thanksgiving dinner!) Part of the reason I find these little decorations so appealing is thanks in large part to having a big can of metallic silver spray paint sitting on my table right now for a ceramics project I'm working on. :o) Enjoy!

The Crafts Dept.

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The Most Creative Experience Thus Far...

This past Saturday (November 7th), my mom and I attended the Kansas Artist Craftsman Association Conference on the Fort Hays State University Campus. Usually the conference is more of a lecture-type event; however, this year Linda Ganstrom, the ceramics instructor for Fort Hays State put together a hands-on workshop. It was FABULOUS.
Early on in October, I signed my mother and I up for two of the classes--a lampwork beading class in the morning and a book making class in the afternoon. I was more excited for the beadmaking class than I was the book making class, but I was sure that they'd both be fun.
But I digress.... Jennifer Nolan from Dodge City Community College was the instructor for the beadmaking class. In the class we learned some different techniques for making beads, and I actually managed to make four beads. The final two were by far better than the first two. It was incredibly fun. If you think you might be interested in learning about making lampwork beads, you should persue it--you will not regret it.
The afternoon class--in which were taught how to make a Japanese Stab Bound book by Karrie Simpson-Voth of Fort Hays state--was a big surprise. It was inarguably the most enjoyable three hours of my life thus far! I was actually so consumed by it that on Sunday I ordered a book making book from Amazon (Bookcraft: Techniques for Binding, Folding, and Decorating to Create Books and More by Heather Weston--GREAT BUY!), and went to Hobby Lobby on Wednesday to buy more supplies for these fabulous books. Book making: another thing I encourage you to try if you have not.

I have every intention of making more of the books and selling them on my Etsy site. I also hope to create many many beads and use them with my latest creation in the ceramics lab--mixed media bowls and wall hangings! Once a few of them are done, I'll make sure to post pictures.