Feel the Summer Energy Rising

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This Summer has started out auspiciously — with a rare “Strawberry Moon.”  A full moon shone on Summer Solstice (June 20) — the longest day of the year.  Hasn’t happened since 1967, and we all know what a great year that was!   Won’t happen again until 2062 — pending intervening unknowns.

So, I’m trying to make Summer plans that are equal to this auspicious start, involving heretofore unknown feats involving ceramics.  I was inspired by attending “Open Studios” last month, in particular one artist who recently switched from 2D (painting) to 3D (ceramics) and was cranking out some amazing work.  Since then, I have begun some cranking out of my own:

Fish Dishes — each one unique . . .

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Shallow Serving Bowls — with enough breadth (11”) to accommodate my propensity to carve carve carve.  The first pic reflects my favorite ceramic subject which is fish.  The second pic reflects another of my favorite things, words. The idea of carving words was inspired by an acquaintance who was spouting off about people really liking things (artwork) with sayings on them.  Plus, I was enamored with Ms. Bockle’s words in a recent MoveGirlGO post which I paraphrased . . .

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I’ve got loads more clay on hand to keep me busy for the rest of the Summer, and hopefully I’ll continue to “feel my energy rising.”

Vases Made with Slabs and Coils

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Making bigger pieces by hand is made easier by the use of slabs (made with the slab roller) or building with coils.

Image 1Vase #1 is made from one large slab wrapped around a cylindrical form.  I plucked some interesting leaves from a tree in the courtyard just outside the Studio, and pressed them into the damp clay, and coated the outside with black slip.  The video clip below was made after bisque firing at Cone 08.

ImageVase #2 is made from fat (3/4″) extruded coils made with an extruder which I flattened slightly with a roller, making “slab coils.” Using slab coils sped up the process of building the sides of the forms, and also resulted in thinner (less clunky) walls of the vase.  I built two 7″ diameter bowl-like shapes and pressed them together to make a round shape, and added a neck and base using more slab coils.  I painted 3 coats of black underglaze around the belly of the vase, and let it dry to leather hard.  Then, I used the sgraffito technique to decorate the vase, scratching off the underglaze with a linoleum cutter, creating a contrasting pattern and texture, revealing the clay underneath.  The video clip below was made at the greenware stage.

 

Review of 2015 Thus Far

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In the 1st part of 2015, while my house was being remodeled, I virtually lived in my ceramics studio. That is, I moved my kitchen table & chairs, refrigerator, microwave, computer, etc. into the Studio, and the Studio is where I did all my cooking, ablutions/make-up, paperwork, etc.  At the end of each day, I went back into my torn-up house to watch TV and sleep. This routine was not very conducive to making ceramics.

However, I did manage to create a Legalize Pottery Shop on Etsy. To visit, please click on the link!
Etsy Shop

I also started a Legalize Pottery Shop page on Facebook. To visit, please click on the link!
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By April, some pieces made it into the kiln and came out fairly decent.

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For a Pop-Up Sale in early June, I got the idea to make a batch of Plant Stakes for Weeds — how appropriate for Legalize Pottery.

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Then, I took a detour into Sculpture — and made a rudimentary human figure.
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Now, it’s back to the classroom — I’m enrolled at Palo Alto Art Center for the rest of the year, with an awesome instructor/ceramicist named Malia Landis.  In the next few months, I’ll be posting the results of that adventure.