Started the house last week; figured out the roof and put it on tonight. Carved the big vessel this evening after letting it dry slowly under plastic. Tentative title is “[I want] the sun, the moon, and the stars.”
Finished the vase I started last night! Porcelain tends to be a finicky clay; this piece was pleasantly easy.
Also cooking is another larger vessel; we’ll see where the design goes on that one.
Porcelain vase made over a few days (it’s been humid). Rolled slab and made body, added bottom. Since this is a larger piece than the tumblers, I used a different tool for carving, and the proportion of figure and ground is different. As I was carving the vase yesterday, I was thinking about a drawing assignment I once had - to fill some number of pages with beautiful marks.
More whiskey cups. The rocket ships have made a comeback (they’ve appeared on bigger cups) as have the dancing people. Also added the slash indentation; even on the small guys, it catches the thumb nicely. The gloss is a little bit of wax on the rim (it burns off) to help the clay dry evenly. I like how these are going.
Have a few pieces in the soda kiln right now; they’ll be unloaded Friday afternoon.
More bowls! I’ve made some of thse before - all BB SFAO on stoneware, soda fired to c.10. Looked nice piled together in the late afternoon sunlight.
It happens, once an artist is around, that people will ask him to make something specific. This entry is meant to be a reference document, to describe what one should expect when requesting work. Everyone has a process: this is a bit about mine.
Obviously, requests are welcome. I enjoy solving design problems. First, please check out Philosophy, Part One to see some thoughts on where I’m coming from as an artist, as well as the about me and about work pages.
There is a limitation to my willingness to take requests - I only make the kinds of things that I make, in the way that I make them. (Since you like my work anyhow, this shouldn’t be an insurmountable hurdle.)
The timeframe in going from a suggestion to an object could range from a couple of months to several years. Usually at the shorter end, but one never knows.
Clay is not my primary profession - that’s architecture. Ceramics is a purer form of design and architecture - instead of writing a manual for someone else to build from, I do the design and the construction. I’m the client, and only have to answer to myself if I have some idea that takes forever to bring to life.
I approach clay as an architect. We’re responsible for concieving designs while considering construction methods: likewise, I think of appearance, function, and the ceramic process when designing a piece. Every piece draws from past work, making for an organic process; one could diagram my work over the last few years (inclusive of academic architectural projects, photography, drawing, painting, &c.), web the interrelationships, and show the lineage of outside influences, individual ideas.
Lots of things I’ve been thinking about doing but haven’t tried:
Scented oil holder. Place for a tealight in the bottom, airflow to the top, and a dish to hold oil. Conceptual sketches.Edit3Jan08: Abandoned this idea for now
Trays, I’ve still held off in size on trying anything big enough for dinner or serving.Edit3Jan08: Getting them through the soda kiln is tricky, since they’re flat and all, but I’ve got a good number of completed ones now.
Cups with the little sketches. Do in pairs?Edit3Jan08:I don’t know what I was thinking of here.
Little sauce dishes, big enough to be useful. Try some in porcelain with the leafy design?Edit3Jan08: And quite useful as test tiles too!
Chopstick holders.Edit3Jan08: Still do be done.
Tiles; leafy patterned and sketched upon.Edit3Jan08: Abandoned this idea for now
Mosaic with small T6s tiles.Edit3Jan08: Abandoned this idea for now
While I’m trying the different forms, I’ll probably stick to my favorite combinations for materials and surfaces - the four glazes with BB’s SFAO or porcelain, and FCSI with Tile 6 slip, line drawings or carving, and the Woo Blu glaze that I make for myself.Edit3Jan08: I will probably abandon the SFAO in favor of T6’s softer surfaces, and work with temoku and woo blu, leaving the flashier copper glazes behind.
Back from bisque, I call them pita plates. These are slab plates with upturned edges, in the same shape as the Meditteranean flatbread. Tile 6 slip on FCSI, about 12″ long. Might pre-spray with soda to make sure they don’t come out dry.
Two tall vessels or vases. Made the bodies (FCSI) Saturday from thin thrown slabs, attached the bottoms today and did a first coat of slip. They were ridiculously big slabs, as large as one leaf of the Trib, and it would have made more sense to use the slab roller. But the clay was in good shape, and I wanted to see how far I could push it. One vessel stands at about 24″ and has the slashes that are typical of my tumblers, the other is a more modest 18″. Have to take the slip application slowly so the clay doesn’t get oversaturated and collapse. After several more coats of Tile 6, they’ll be ready for carving and bisque.
More of these fun guys are back. The small ones will be shooters, or sake; larger for whiskey (or whatever, but I have to call them something). Tile 6 on FCSI again - a favorite combination. I get a kick out of making these little drawings. Bisque gets pretty unexciting to look at; there’s nothing good for a backdrop and the lighting is fluorescent. I’ll get a few shots of the finished ones soon.