Saturday, December 26, 2009

Rusted Root

Yes, I will be attending the Rusted Root show at the House of Blues in Cleveland on the 30th. Bought my tickets already! Soooo excited!!!!

This is a video from Rusted Root at the Kent Stage last spring... Bad video quality but decent sound quality. They played Send Me on My Way as the first encore, and everyone went completely apeshit. (Who wouldn't?) Enjoy. =)



Love, from Lititz, PA

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Little Cuppy

This cup was broken because of a crack on the rim caused by squeezing the cup during decoration. (or so Kirk says) When I threw it into the dumpster, it broke in half... revealing some decent craftsmanship. And of course I can't keep this kind of thing to myself. The trimming is decent (for probably being done blindly... as in I didn't check the thickness before I flipped the cup and started trimming), but the interior shows some small humps that are throwing errors. I love breaking things in half to see what kind of throwing I'm doing. Such good experience. Anyway, thought this was pretty sweet.


The little humps that distort the interior curve. A serious issue for me this semester. Outside curve is better, but can always use work.

Same picture, sans arrows.

Love, from Lititz, PA

PS. Rusted Root show at House of Blues Cleveland Dec. 30th!!!!!

Sunday, December 13, 2009

The Handle

The most miserably frustrating things about making mugs - the handle. I've had numerous fights with my clay this semester in regards to handles. The clay doesn't want to pull without ripping or rippling. It doesn't want to stay connected to the pot despite scoring and slipping, and it certainly doesn't want to stay in the shape that I want it in. This post outlines some of my troubles with handles on glazed and finished pots.

The most basic of problems with handles:


The "easy" fixes... handle too small and thin for the mug on the left, and too big and bulky for the mug on the right.


A constant problem for anyone making mugs... the crooked handle.


This is a serious debacle for me right now. How do I want to connect the handle to the mug? Messy and different on each mug.

Some other issues in Handles:


This particular shape with the double hump proves to be the most troubling as far as handle shape goes. They are plagued by awkward shape. I think that both spring from the pot at weird angles. They look lifeless and hanging. Another issue: The fact that they seem to need more to hang on to at the bottom, as in a fatter connection. I think that a small coil could resolve this.


Some Good Stuff:



Two different shapes of pots, but I'm pleased with the handle on each. I think that top connection is solid and cleanly done on each. The shape of the handle works well with each pot, however the bottom connection seems weak and needs the interior coil.


I particularly think that the mug on the left has a very nice interior shape, and works very well with the shape of the pot. The left mug is also one of the better handles from the semester.


This mug was darted to make more room for the handle. It has a small spout on the opposite side. Always an issue with pitchers is positioning the handle directly across from the spout, if that's what you desire. I'm a fan of this middle-curve handle. I like the sleekness, that the top of the handle immediately drops downward. I think this sort of handle is hit-or-miss though, as evident in some of my not-so-good handles.

The best of the best and the future...


My 2 favorites from the semester. The left handle was beautifully connected with a nice interior curve, but the same downward drop (with an upward curve) that I desired in the darted mini pitcher. And the right mug has an exaggerated handle that I tried to reproduce many times this semester, but failed to do. (The clay kept ripping.) I feel that the exaggerated mug shape works well with the exaggerated handle. It's just one big exaggeration if I didn't already say exaggeration enough times for you to understand that it's an exaggeration. =) The shape on this mug continues to intrigue me. If done right, it's phenomenal. If done wrong, it's hideous. Now there's an aspiration.


Handles will always be a work in progress for me. I feel like I'm not as detailed oriented as I need to be to make immediate progress with them. I think I get about 1 good one out of 5 made. Hopefully I will force myself to make more mugs next semester in order to get the practice.

Love, from the Ceramics Lab.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

3rd Semester at Kent

I loaded an entire electric kiln with work from the entire semester, and hoped for the best...

Loaded and ready to go...

Ready to unload!!! (Yes, I pulled some pieces out when they were about 300 degrees... naughty)

Highlights from the fall semester:

Baby Jars

Mugs... new shape & working on my handles

Big Jar and Baby Jar

Pretty cup!

Another one.


And a cake stand too.


EDIT: The red glaze is not a reduction glaze. You would laugh if you knew what it was. Reduction reds are typically copper reds, which are blueish colored in oxidation. (And since this load was oxidation fired...) Our particular studio red is called Oxblood, and it is a temperamental young child. It doesn't play well with others, half the time it doesn't even turn red in reduction, and it runs like crazy. Not my cup of tea. The only time I will use it is all alone in oxidation because I like the light translucent blue that it is. But anyway, the red is a tin/green chrome mixture which is common for burgundy and such color reds. It plays well with others, wouldn't you say. =) And check facebook for more images!!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

PostSecret auf Deutsch


If you were clever you would figure it out.............. =)

Friday, October 30, 2009

20 Hour Review Show

At Kent, a grad student must pass a preliminary thesis review, called a 20 Hour Thesis Review. Passing gives the grad permission to work on their true thesis work and show. All grads and graduating BFA students are assigned boards of three faculty members, one being Kirk, within the School of Art that review their work for graduation. Recently two of the three 2nd year grads had a combined 20 Hour Review Show. The 1st is Derek Hambly. His work is based on the tools used in antiquity and prior to work with clay. Essentially clay tools to work on clay pieces... though I'm sure I'm not explaining it properly. He made pedastools and display pieces to showcase the actual tools he used to make the piece it's displayed on. The 2nd grad is Jon Stumpf. Stumpf went very folky for this show, using a classic amber glaze made with wild clay. He's a more traditional potter, but makes a really kick ass beer stein.

Derek's Work

Detail of the top piece.


Stumpf's Work

Eva checking out (aka critiquing) the casseroles.

Some pieces were fired once, twice, or three times, which explains the variation in color.

The beer stein

Monday, October 5, 2009

Fall Semester so far

Because I haven't updated since Blossom...

Visiting Artist Kurt Anderson's work. He's currently an artist in residence at THE Ohio State University, and came to visit us for a quick 2 days. I missed the 2nd day due to hockey travel, but saw him throw everything the first day. He's a quick worker, and does this quirky thing to make the rims of his pots ungulate. It was cool. And he's a cool guy too.

A big platter. An idea that's been with me for a while.... still working it out. Hopefully my clay body holds up through the firing.

Cups... more cups... some teacups.... some tumbler cups... yay for antique drawer pulls that make lovely stamps!

Cups with inlaid design and mugs. Still trying to work out handles... though i'm actually quite happy with the handles that are on these mugs.

The quote written on the throwing room wall. Love.



Love, from Kent, Ohio.

EDIT:
I'm not really sure how to comment so my response is...

We mix our own clay from dry. (or you can mix from slop if you want a mish mosh of everything and then some.) I use smooth white stoneware. EPK, Neph Sye, OM4 Ball, Gold Art (an Ohio white stoneware), and occasionally some free silica. It's simple enough. Although I have some issues with the plasticity of it, being raised in super forgiving boxed clays and all.

And Ethan...

I'm thinking of something translucent because of the underglaze decoration. Also, I may play around with underglaze colors. I really have no clue. I haven't thought about it a whole lot because I've been focusing on form and quality. I also haven't done any glaze testing this semester either. I want glazes that run just enough to mix with eachother, but not run off the pot and fuse to the kiln shelf. (causing much grief over grinding) Over the summer I tested a few things, including some of our class glazes from high school. Either something is off with the kilns here or I mixed them poorly because none of the class glazes came out of the kiln as they should, which was disappointing. I got good results out of a lavender glaze, a light mustard-colored matte yellow (nice glaze, but a color i would never use), a dark green with metallic spots (Val Cushing Starshine), and a few others that are not so notable. Lavender is the only one that I'm that excited about. So who knows how my cups will turn out in the long-run...

Friday, July 24, 2009

Lititz Springs Art Show

Come visit Nick and I at the art show on Saturday July 25th 9am - 5pm (aka tomorrow). Pots for sale include work from high school, alfred summer '08, and kent blossom summer '09 (very recent!).

Examples...







Love from Lititz, PA.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

The Official Summer Photos

Blossom work... I had 8 days to do wet work, and these are some of the best pieces (or selected favorites) of the 2 weeks; fired, finished, and even sanded on the bottoms. PS. I got a Dremel tool, and it is the best thing that ever happened to ceramics since the Lockerbie Kickwheel.


Of all of my salt fired pieces, this came out of the kiln absolutely flawless. It was on a shelf near the bottom of the kiln which tends to get a lighter salting than the top half. Unlike most of my other bowls and flower thingys, the celadon on this didn't run for it's life down to the base. (or like one other bowl, to the kiln shelf and of course completely fused) The celadon responded beautifully with a tonal variation, and there was little bare clay exposed due to decent glazing on my part. (though i really like the grayish bare porcelain in the salt kiln)


Pitcher with cups and tray. Oxblood in oxidation to cone 6. Trays are a new thing, as is the darting. The darting idea came from a demo by Josh Deweese. I can't shake the thought of Nick Joerling's work when I look at them though, so we'll see where that goes.

Cups with tray. I am intrigued with this idea of cups being held inside a tray, which is why I will definitely be playing around with this in some way in the future.

Another pitcher with cups and tray. A glaze I got from one of the guys in the studio fired in reduction to cone 6. The pitcher is darted a different way than the last one I posted, and not molded any other way besides the darting. I'm also playing with the little lip or extension on the bottom of the pots. I'm having issues with chipping them from knocking them together since they're bare clay and therefore a bit more fragile than the glazed areas. Obvious simple solution: avoid knocking them together.

Flower thingy. This idea is an extension of ewers I made last summer. The spodumene glaze looks gorgeous, as half of it melted completely to translucency and the other half is still quite opaque. This was salt fired to cone 6 and reduced lightly. The way the very bright white glaze is in direct contact with the natural, darker surface of the bare stoneware with salt heightens the beauty of the spod, I think. Plus, this flower thingy only warped a tiny, tiny bit compared to other flower thingys that came out of the salt kiln.

Any questions, comments, suggestions, hate mail... give me some feedback!!!!!!
please and thank you!



Love, from the Ceramics Lab on the campus of Kent State University.