Just over a week ago, I attended a workshop with Meredith Brickell. She showed us many of the techniques that she uses in working with wet clay, talked about her thoughts toward working in clay, some of her surface decoration, glazing, and firing methods, and shared some recipes. The pace of the workshop was pleasantly fast.

I learned some really neat little tricks and a bunch of bigger techniques. I’m looking forward to making myself some bowl molds - my very own.

Meredith introduced the (to me) radical notion that wet clay could be used as a mold. We used pieces of old sheets and pillowcases like slings to move slabs of clay around, and to keep the wet mold and wet slab from sticking together. After making and draping this hump mold, I learned that she’s always done slump (concave) molds. Over the next few days, I added coils and used pinching and my serrated rib to create this:

I must say, I’ve never made anything like it, but I like where it’s going.

I posted a photo at the bottom of this post showing a few houses stacked up. At the time, I idly wondered how it would be to fire them in a stack like that. After seeing a photo in a ceramics book, where a wall was created out of extruded (teacup) forms, I’m definitely ready to give the house-stack a shot. It also reminds me of Tejo Remy’s use of drawers.

I began making houses on the first day of a new job, my first in residential architecture. The home is more than shelter; it’s a safe haven. With this in mind, I made a few, marking various personal events.

This house is stamped with the words, “I hope everything is okay”, and appears to be on the verge of collapse. I built it around that phrase, out of too-thin clay; the edge ripped, the walls tried to collapse so I braced them with wet clay; one brace fell out and the other two stayed. Cobalt seemed the obvious choice for something so dramatic. Great results.

[I’ll add a photo of my mockups here.]
Within a couple of months I’d realized the limits of a typical 25′x125′ Chicago lot; in plan, every house begins to look the same.

The Future
After making a few groups with that in mind, I started wanting a horde of houses, enough to cover my living room floor, or more. I don’t know whether I’ll ever do a living room installation, but I would like to do one, someplace. The architect in me wants to see a room where they’re on the floor, where people walk on a raised path, where the field of houses is raised, to experiment with different viewing perspectives. Contact me if you’re interested in hosting such an installation!

The napkin holder house (first photo this post) made me a minor (very minor) celebrity at NSUC Art 2007, as it was featured on the show’s postcard. The groups were a hit, something I hadn’t anticipated. It’s nice that they’re so dear to others, even as sending houses to new homes moves me farther from realizing my installation. I enjoy making them, enjoy the attentiveness to an object so seemingly simple.

I’ve kept a few for myself; the two at work tend to house business cards, one at home is a napkin holder, others are purely decorative. Despite the sculptural intention, I can’t seem to stop stashing important little bits and pieces in them: the defining difference between condo/apartment and house seems to be the capacity for storage.

I call them rock blocks, for lack of a better name. Got a better idea? Let me know; if I like it, I’ll give you a set. Photo credit: Guy Nicol.

I’ve been somewhat obsessing over the river-rock form for a few years now. It began with the softly amorphous outline of my hedgehog curled in a ball, sketched in pencil. That evolved into pools of watercolor, two, three, four, all the way through seven to a page, finding balance in the forms and colors. Then I picked up a few rocks, real ones, bluish gray, cool to the touch. After that my river-rock work began in clay, too. From a visual standpoint, the dark-roundness appears frequently in my work; it began intentionally, but carries on with some intention as a theme.

About these pieces and this series: they are all easily held in the hand, beg to be played with, arranged and re-arranged. But I imagine them at larger scales, to be sat upon, played in, as an installation in a park. The form would transfer but the material would probably change, and so would the construction method. If you know some way or have a contact that might help my installation dream become a reality, please let me know.

These are the images that I used when applying for my first shows earlier this spring. I’d intended to sell these pieces, but in the end will probably keep them. However, I have other pieces in the same vein. It’s just these particular ones that I’ll keep.

Nesting bowls. First warped bowls I ever did.

I selected geodes from my collection based upon which ones looked good together. I tried lots of ways of arranging various numbers, trying to find a view that described them. In the end, the four-square was really strong from a graphic standpoint; this was the pair that photographed well together.

The most time consuming tumblers of all time. It takes about two hours to carve away all that surface. Per piece. A good friend has one of them, I’m keeping these, and have a couple more (I think) packed away and for sale.

This happens to be the first house that I made. I was going to sell it, but realized that I really like it for a napkin holder. If you would like a napkin holder shaped like a house, let me know.

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.

A few photos from last night at the studio.

Both fireclay iron stoneware with tile 6 slip. Top piece carved while wet. Bottom painted with RIO. Both to be soda fired. At left, a few blocks awaiting interior glaze and soda firing.

FC stoneware w/iron, trailed with RIO slip, probably will use a shino glaze to bring out the iron, may soda fire.

Four bisqued whiskey cups (FCSI w/tile 6 slip) waiting to be glazed and soda fired.

A few tumble-stacked houses waiting to be washed with oxides and soda fired.