Scuptural vase

Here are 2 views of a thrown and altered stoneware vase form.

Creative coil vase

I had a little playful fun stacking and interlocking coils on this vase. The form suggests a human torso and the glazes are layered with some areas sponged to highlight crevasses.

Christmas Kiln opening

Of the half dozen pieces in this wabi-sabi series I like this one the best. After its 3rd firing this bud vase is complete:)

Watercolor into the mache

For this winter reveler slippping on the ice I am using watercolors to add color.

Paper Mache

This is a paper mache Jesus on the cross. It's at the moment when he cries out to his father "why have you forsaken me?".

Time to get back at it!!

Well....it's been a summer and fall since my last post. I have made many pieces since, have boxes and boxes of bisqueware. I also have been working on pitfired pots with watercolors to incorporate imagery into the smoke marked surface. I am liking the results. Since I'm am teaching basic 3-D art classes, I have been working in other materials to make examples. Cardboard relief, paper sculpture, paper mache, firebrick-apple-and soap carving!!!!

I have found my lost love of mache again and am finding that it is lending itself to the characters in my drawings. I might continue to spend more time with this media to see where it takes me.

However, with the change of semester coming up I will be teaching more clay classes again and be able to streamline my clay focus. It's time for perfecting glazes to put on the small army of bisqueware that awaits.

Raku

Ah, spring brings the smell of pots smoking in the reduction cans.

I love raku, spring and raku firings go hand in hand. I don't know what I like more, spring or fall raku. Here is my favorite piece from today afterschool. It is now in a special spot in the family room.

Cryolite chattered bowls

Bowls bisque fired to cone 05. Now it's time to cover with a transparent glaze and fired to cone 5 to see some magic.

Lady

I like to go back into previous watercolor sketches and refine them with pen and ink. In doing this today, I thumbed through sketches and found profiles of women rare in the body of work I've created. So, I chose this one to refine and now will try to purposefully create more feminine profiles in my future drawings. Doing this will balance out gender in larger works with multiple people.

Chattered with Cryolite

These bowls are the latest experiment with cryolite on forms. I sprinkled dry cryolite onto the initial thrown form then chattered back in to create interesting patterns.

The second wave

More smiles happened today as we delivered the second waves of flowers and hand-thrown vases.

Brightening their day

wow....this picture says it all!

Flowers for the Elderly

Here are simple cone 5 vases colored with Dekalb slip and clear glaze. The are fresh out of the kiln and ready to have roses arranged and placed in the them.

Students are going with me today to deliver the first round of these to the elderly diagnosed with Alzheimer's in care at Brighton Gardens.

Cryolite

After doing some preliminary tests back in January with cryolite I was excited about the possibilities of using it on the surface of pots.

This is raw cryolite sprinkled on a textured slab.

Now it's time to try some out on thrown pots.

Stay tuned.....

Afterschool

Maquettes

A variety of bisque-fired porcelain mini sculptures. Time to carefully look at them alone and in combination to see if something sings to me:) I like the form within a form that is starting to happen. Perhaps arranging them all together in various ways can begin to create dreamscapes which is where some of my imagery comes from to begin with, my dreams.

Flower Vases

Here are some of the flower vase series that I am currently making for the elderly at Brighton Gardens. These vases were covered with a stained porcelain slip then worked back through with a roulette tool. The goal is to have 120 plus of these for delivery complete with roses by the end of april. I hope that we can bring a smile to their faces:)

Norris Cultural Arts Center

I was selected for the 3-D element to the Norris Cultural Art Centers' Spring watercolor show. This fits right in to some of my current work.

I pit fire my creations then go back into them with watercolored imagery.

The show will be up until April 15th.

Series

All but one of these pieces were thrown at the same sitting. Doing several pieces in a sitting allows for a similarity to the works. I also try to glaze the pieces together in one sitting to create the same type of connection between the works. Can you guess the one thrown at another time?

Mottled Turquoise

Motivational Monday always includes a kiln opening. This opening included some of my latest chattered forms with Great Lakes Clays' Mottled Turquoise glaze fired to cone 5. I really like the way the grooves of the chattered clay surface allows for the glaze to settle, pool, and flow.

Burnished

Here are some other forms that are bisque-fired at cone 010 to harden them but still keep the burnished surface. The smooth exterior gives the fired clay an eggshell quality. Once the fire and smoke are done marking the pots I'll go back into the forms with watercolor to add imagery that I have delevoped over the years.

Porcelain

My current ceramics instructor encouraged me to work with porcelain so I stocked up on some for the home studio. I have been working to perfect a surface chatter on clay. This chatter is left from vibrations created by a throwing rib on the spinning form. The porcelain seems to pick up these vibrations well when I throw with very little water to create friction. In fact, care needs to be taken not to tear the form apart from the chattering vibrations because of the delicacy of the clay body.

In contrast to the chattered forms, I also threw some smoother forms in preparation for spring pit fires. In addition to squeegeeing the surfaces with a metal rib as I threw them, I later burnished their surfaces with a smooth river stone. I plan on working back into the fire-charred surfaces with watercolors to bring in imagery from my drawings. I like to use the pot like a canvas.

Glazing

For this batch of pots I went with NIU cone 6 celadon. I choose this glaze so that it would add some color but still allow for the colored slip to show though.

Derick

While working in the studio at NIU I got the opportunity to watch Derick Scarbrough get work ready for his upcoming show. I love the way he experiments with texture on his forms and continually works to find a look that is pleasing to him.

March25

Spring break is so nice! It allows time for me to focus more intensely on my work. So after driving to NIU I got some me time for art. While there I was able to knock out many pieces and get some energy from the artists working there.

My main focus was to create bud vases then I branched off from that to make other objects.

I used a 50 percent slip 50 percent underglaze to give the final color decoration on these pieces.

People

swimming with monsters

Monsters in my dreams

I swim with these in my dream scapes.
Creatures like these keep me in a state of awe and remind me of my place in the seas' food chain, even if I'm only in the sea in my dreams.

Carving Maquettes

When the porcelain is leather hard like cheese it is perfect for carving in the detail that I enjoy putting in my work.

Margaret's Urn

Margaret, thank you for your life! You were an inspiration to myself and others. Your potter's mind and hands made greenhouse studio an exciting place to be. In your own words "OH MY!!!" Those words sum up your perspective on life and joy of living. God bless you in your eternal rest in THE potters house.