Constant Struggle

Goal:
Create three slab constructed narrative pieces that are different sizes out of stoneware that are high fired. Each piece will be unique, using drawing skills to portray the concept.
Words:
Unique, passionate, strong
Concept:
The three pieces will show one image on one side of each. The images will be narrative, which will get the concept across. Each day I never know if I’m ever doing anything right, life itself can be hard and stressful; basically life pulling at you or showing that you’re torn will be the concept. I will carve hands reaching out and grabbing on one piece, in the middle the second piece will have an image of a girl running a way looking back, little does she know she will be running into the next piece which will be hands reaching out towards her.
Craftsmanship Form:
The three pieces will be strong structures standing upright, showing strength to go along with the images; you have to stay strong in this life because it will knock you down. The two pieces with the hands on them will be horizontal and will be the same shape, the piece with the girl on it will be vertical and placed in the middle of the two horizontal pieces.
Craftsmanship Surface:
I think that the pieces should be relatively smooth in some areas, but it should be texturized and carved into also getting the concept across. Not all things will go smoothly in life, you will run into bumps in the road.
Presentation:
The three pieces will glazed with high fire glazes in order to get a darker, earthy look. To present the pieces and get the concept across they must be laid out specifically. The horizontal piece with the hands reaching toward the girl will be on one side, the vertical piece in the middle showing the girl running into the hands on the other horizontal piece.

Series of Vases Inspired by a Master Artist

Name: Serenity, Passion & Strength
Size: Under a Foot Tall
Material: Stoneware with Grog

The goal of the project was to Use stoneware to create a series of high fired vases, under a foot tall, that are influenced by an artist. The influence of these pieces was Jackson Pollock and his use of texture. This series was created using slab construction and were then high fired to get the earthy toned colors. Each vase is strong and stable. The added texture was made with clay added to the slabs, influenced by Jackson Pollock’s paintings. With high fire glazes it was hard to do drip painting on, so this is where the personal touch came in. Each piece was thought out and hand crafted very carefully.

Sculpture Project

Name: Female Fertility
Size: 14’H 8’W 9’L
Material: Stoneware with Grog

This was one of the most challenging projects done by far. To start you must make a small maquette and use a grid system in order to blow the image up to be at least a foot tall. The human figure is challenging, especially when you must make it sculptural. You must have patients and an idea of what the human figure looks like. This figure is called female fertility due to her large breasts, like in Ancient sculpture, along with the dark low fire stain used. No fertility no human beings, draws attention of the human eye. This idea of the pose eyes are closed, looking down. I wanted people to have a sense of wonder…is she sad? What is she feeling? Her posture is good and shows strength but once you look at her face you see sadness or weakness, like she’s broken down. The Design and style of the piece you clearly see that the eye is drawn to the chest and then to the face, body is soft and smooth and the hair adds texture. Eye movement of the sculpture is immediately drawn to the body, but once you see the face that’s where the emotions come out of the sculpture. Bold and emotional are words that describe this piece.

Body Cast Mold, Project 2

Name: Fist Dish
Material: Stoneware with Grog

The dish was also made out of the mold, the fist is used as the main portion of the dish holding whatever you may want to put into it, specifically handfuls of something like candy. The piece was dipped into a high fire glaze getting the glassy effect.

Body Cast Mold

Name: Body Cast Molding
Material: Stoneware with Grog

laster was used to make the mold of this fist. Once the plaster mold was dry, clay was put inside of the mold with a layer of plastic in between to get the texture. I chose to do a fist to show strength and stability, the cracks and texture show the wear and tear some encounter with everyday life. Once the clay was taken out of the mold and fired, a series of wash glazes went onto the piece in order to get the color of flesh. One color would be added and wiped away, leaving a light color behind.

Vessel Inspired by Historical Form

Name: Traditional Pot
Material: Stoneware with Grog
Process: Pit Firing

This traditional pot was made using a pookie and coils to build it up. It took a lot of time in order to get the shape and smoothness perfect. Once the form and shaping of the pot was done, the clay was left to dry out a bit in order to apply the terra sigillata. Once the terra sig was applied, it was wiped down with plastic until the pot shined and was smooth. It was fired in the kiln and was then put into a pit fire, where the smoke is what creates the design. It is all a guessing game to what you will get when you remove it from the pit, but using materials such as salt and carbonate will allow the pot to turn pink in some areas.

Traditional Pinching

Name: Spirit Ball
Process: Raku Firing
Material: Stoneware with Grog

To make a spirit ball you must start with the traditional way of pinching the clay to make 2 halves of a sphere and molding them together to make it whole. Before you form the two pinched clay pieces together you may add small balls of clay separated by paper towel to make it a rattling spirit ball. Once you form them together you must form the ball by patting it easily and smoothing it softly, this takes some patients. You have you learn how to work with the clay and not over work it. Once the ball was decently dry, the design was made my simply taking little pieces of clay away, in which you had to be careful areas weren’t too thin. The spirit ball was fired in the kiln, added a special glaze, and raku fired. Raku firing is a technique that created the cracks within the glaze, you basically set your piece on fire which is very interesting! The design of the object is interesting in that it is not completely smooth.

Experimental Pinching

Name: Experimental Pinch
Material: Stoneware with Grog
Process: Bisk Fired, low fire glaze

The experimental pinch pots were easier to work with in that it didn’t require as much thinking; you can just work with the clay. However, you have to be careful that you don’t get the project too thick otherwise the piece will blow up, it must be 1/.2 to ¼ inches thick. These pieces were fired and glazed with three different colors of glass glaze. The thicker you put on the glaze, the darker it would be. A brush was used for this, but you could use a spray gun.

“So Which Came First”

48 Hours

What to log for hours was the question… How much do I drink in 48hours? I realized I didn’t drink as much as I thought, and I learned that buying in bulk really does save you money. Each item was broken down and priced separately, making this installation more of a science project, which will be expanded for the final project.