the 2 larger white ones are going in the kiln this week
they are hoping for a safe firing
and look a little nervous about it.
I got in.
This is a poster of an old call for entries poster
and when I saw it, I knew I'd found the right place for me
quirky, odd, funny, a little bit cheeky
and undoubtedly leaving you with a smile on your face.
(click on the picture it will expand
and its tots worth the read)
Looks like I'll claim my desk and start my mess in July
I cant begin to tell you how blessed & grateful I feel
and how excited I am to join Wally Bivins in the studio.
Let alone having two years of clay ahead of me.
Thank you all for your support, and thank you world
for deeming it my time with clay again. Yippee!
]
out of the fire, & onto the for sale table
These guys will be on sale at the Seaward Park Spring sale
June 7th 8th and 9th
at the Seward Park Clay Studio.
Opening Friday, 7th 6:30-9:30pm
(suggested donation $5 for beverages)
or come browsing / shopping on Saturday, & Sunday -
there will be some really great pieces there too
(its not just a yeti show)
there will be one of a kind cups, plates, bowls
but also great sculture...
from politically driven sculpture stuff to quirky mushrooms,
and heads that just make you laugh.
shape shifting...
I love the development process with these guys...
above on the left is so full of promise
there's a shape taking form
but it is still very much just a chunk of clay.
I sometimes think of stopping here.
What would you think of a half a body if you encountered it fired & finished?
The possibilities of what's next
and also, that terracotta looks very much like chocolate
at this plastic clay stage.
So then he became the yeti in the middle above.
But he wasn't doing it for me.
I thought about him a lot (and we had dinner together)
& I realized he was the wrong size.
He's bigger than the brown yeti's -
but as, was too small to be one of the white ones
so I heard his plea "I wish I was a little bit taller"
(I might even make him a baller)...
and tonight he had kitchen table surgery for leg extensions
he's seems to have taken well & is recovering under pastic wrap. Photo on the right, immediately after surgery.
(apologies for the lighting) its not ideal.
and now to add his fur...
this guy, is mr belly
Mr Belly is hard to photograph
he's had a stomach reduction since you first met him
and as you can see he's turned white.
& grown an outie bellybutton too.
He's unfired as yet, drying slowly
(thank you Seattle rain)
with a thick textured layer of white art slip for fur.
I'm wondering if there's shouldn't be a section here on
the life, aging and reproductive process of yetis
there's been lots of discussion around the studio.
glaze test results
My test 'tiles' came out the kiln.
and we have 2 winners:
the mahogany underglaze, on a wet piece
(top right) is warm and soft to touch
and has lovely texture and depth.
and the white casting slip on a wet piece
(bottom right) has nice texture and warmth too.
This needs more careful application...
as you can see red smears in this test
as the brush picked up the terracotta after a while
(the reddish hue towards the middle seam).
There was also a little cracking in the casting slip
(hard to see here) which I think would be due to being fired
when the clay was still wet.
Anyway, so the little fellas are going to be mahogany.
(Summer Yetis? or just young ones?)
and the 2 big ones (yes, there's another one you've not seen yet)
are going to be white slip.
I'm really enjoying working the texture with the slip
its very satisfying how its building up.
photos by the end of the week, before I set them aside to dry for final fire.
art habit
I love my time creating.
Nothing else really matters when I'm in the studio with clay,
and when I'm not there,
really whatever else I'm doing,
what I'm thinking about is clay.
...what would that look like in clay? how many parts would it take to mould that? I'm gonna reshape that other piece, try that glaze, make one taller, smaller, thicker, sitting, longer...
and these words from transporting come to mind a lot
People think it's all about misery and desperation and death and all that shite, which is not to be ignored. But what they forget is the pleasure of it. Otherwise we wouldn't do it. After all, we're not fucking stupid. At least, we're not that fucking stupid. Take the best orgasm you ever had, multiply it by a thousand and you're still nowhere near it. When you're on junk you have only one worry: scoring. When you're off it you are suddenly obliged to worry about all sorts of other shite. Got no money: can't get pissed. Got money: drinking too much. Can't get a bird: no chance of a ride. Got a bird: too much hassle. You have to worry about bills, about food, about some football team that never fucking wins, about human relationships and all the things that really don't matter when you've got a sincere and truthful junk habit.
replace junk with art, or clay.
and I'm in...
“You have to worry about bills, about food, about some football team that never fucking wins, about human relationships and all the things that really don’t matter when you’ve got a sincere and truthful art habit.”
identitiy crisis
Yeti? Big Foot? Wookie? Summer Yetti? Sasquatch?
Yetis are white, they are cold weather creatures
that are able to hide in the snow & stay warm in the cold
with thick heavy white (or grey) fur.
These fella's are made in terracotta a deep red clay
so I'd have to cover that up to make them white
and I'm a believer in material integrity
so unless its an interesting effect,
adding a depth to the white with hints of terracotta showing through
I think I'll need to accept they aren't yetis after all
and go dark with their fur: leveraging the depth of the red
not hiding it.
lets see how the test tiles turn out
& we'll go from there.
test tiles
One of the things you do working in clay, is test tiles
to see how your surface, and clay body will react to decoration...
(glaze, underglaze, and coloured slip)
before you glaze the pieces you've been working hard on.
Below are today's test tiles - to see how I'll glaze my yeti's.
they are numbered on the back,
but here are my notes & unfired matching visual.
# 1 (botton right)
leather hard terracotta with white & black slip applied by paintbrush on top of 'fur' scratches
# 2 (bottom left)
wet terracotta black and white underglaze by brush, 'fur' marks on top of underglaze.
3 (top left)
leather hard terracotta with 'fur' scratches underglaze white and underglaze black applied by brush in top.
4 (top right)
Wet clay. Bump away from me: left side scratched then underglaze. Right side underglaze then scratched. Mahogany brown underglaze.
Yeteroo or Kangerti?
two more yetis
tying it togther
This class, I decided to tie it all together
& I started making a larger yeti,
using the pinch pot technique
and I'm going to make a rose for him to hold too.
I'm now at 4 mini yetis...
but think eventually there needs to be an odd number.
my roses came out the kiln too.
i not dead
I was so happy about my yeti I went back this week
on Thursday, and worked on him some more
& made him some friends too.
One of my new friends in the studio
told me about
the bigfoot series by Graham Roumieu
they look hilarious. (my copy is on order from Amazon)
Anyway, when I visited the studio next,
this note was waiting for me.
I'm not sure if I'm more excited to have evoked a reaction,
or to have made a friend.
urika!
I really had no love for my two vessels...
and created a third to take another crack at.
I felt my 'stripes' were a way of avoiding the surface issue
and really, if I'm here to do what I'm not used to
I should embrace the challenge.
I took a 3 leafed shamrock I'd found outside the studio
and used it as a random and repeating pattern
I let my carving marks show, and I went for it.
and wow, #3 - is awful!
When the instructor left for the day,
I started my own project... I made a yeti.
I have a thing for yeti's -
anyway, i like him so much, when it was time to go
I brought him home with to finish.
oh dear, what am I doing...
Today we started carving our forms.
& I'm not much in love with the surface design I went with.
I probably should have come to class more prepared...
I just couldn't bring myself to do anything more organic than free form stripes.
I think I should have made less marks on the vertical form
and I dont know, just not done the horizontal stripes.
The funny thing is everyone in the class really likes the horizontal bands.
I was still working on my forms when some students from another class showed up
and started working on their stuff.
I was actually embarrassed with my work in front of me
though no one here seems to be judging or have an ego about their work
which is lovely.
One woman had this phenomenal camel just come out of the kiln
and it got me thinking about what i could make that would inspire me more.
(the only vases I have came with flowers other people sent me
apart from a set of 3 I made years ago
with left over clay from something or other).
I think its time to play more...
class number two
We are working today on creating vessels that will perhaps hold our clay flowers.
The vessels are intended to be carved,
they are about 3/4" thick, pinch pots.
Formed in 2 halves and put together.
You can take the girl away from slipcasting
but I like multiples. So I've made a pair.
one short and stout & one long(er) and lean.
These puppies weight a ton btw... carving them should be a mini arm workout.
I also bought a cookie cutter set that will help with my flowers
(I always did like my tools)
and made a few more of those.
well here goes nuthin'
Its been over 10 years since I've had my hands in clay
and first day of class, I'm excited & a little nervous.
I've purposely take a class that is the antithesis of my training...
a low fire, hand-building class with a focus on surface & decoration.
(I'm a slipcasting, porcelain & stoneware, high fire girl).
My idea of surface design was to use matt white glaze,
or perhaps - cobalt blue.
We started making flowers out of clay...
gulp, sooo not my thing.
but actually kind of a fun technique to play with.
here's day one's work:
