raku and bowl exchange!

               Last week in the studio was spent raku firing and doing a pot luck and bowl exchange with my pottery class. The raku firing went great. The luster glazes turned out incredible. I helped Terry pull the pieces from the kiln. It was only my second time pulling hot work from the raku kiln, but I am getting better at it each time.

               Everyone in my class made some scrumptious meals. We had homemade soup, fruit salad, bread, dessert, and many other delicious treats. The bowls all turned out beautiful. We drew names out of a hat and I got a gorgeous friendship bowl from a very talented artist, Peg Oswald. I also worked on glazing some of my work. I glazed a few mugs and my wolf piece that I carved.

               My goals for next class session are lidded casseroles and jars. I have been looking at magazines and some clay books and I would like to work on technique and style with my lids and handles. I'll post some progress pictures as I experiment with them.

Sculpting the clay and spraying the pot

               This week in the studio was spent spraying glaze on two of my pieces. I glazed my Alice in Wonderland teapot with clear. The Alice in Wonderland teapot has many colored stains and slips under the clear glaze as well. The other piece I sprayed was my first stacked piece. I sprayed it with oribe (green) as the base, buttermilk rutile (tan), and purple plum. I am excited to see the pieces fired and finished. Here are some pictures of me spraying the Alice in Wonderland teapot.

 

               I also spent my time carving a few pieces. I carved a medium sized vase with a wolf scene and a small vase with a tiger and tribal designs. I started carving around three years ago after I took a workshop from Tom and Elaine Coleman. The Coleman's carving technique is incredible. I love their work. Taking their workshop was an unbelievable opportunity and I learned numerous carving techniques. Seeing the Coleman's work inspired me to try carving my own pieces. I started off doing some simple leaf and flower designs. Lately I have been inspired to do tribal designs, henna tattoo designs, and animal designs. I also have done some funky carved pieces like my Alice in Wonderland teapot where I carved all of the main characters from the Alice in Wonderland movie. I enjoy carving my pottery and I love drawing and discovering new designs I can try. Here are some pictures of some of my latest carved pieces.

A tour of our studio

This week in the studio was spent making pieces for a raku firing my class at the Western Colorado Center for the Arts will be doing. I made seven pieces for it. We have three raku glazes at the Art Center, a copper luster glaze, a clear crackle glaze, and a dolphin luster glaze. Here are pictures of all of them. I thought in this blog I should describe what I do in a class at the Art Center. First of all, my teacher is Terry Shepherd. I have been taking from him for four years. Each session is 8 weeks long and there can be a maximum of nine people. At the studio we have 9 electric Pacifica wheels and several assorted kick wheels. Every class we do a raku firing on the last class at the end of the session. We also normally have a class project and exchange. This time we are all making 3lb. serving dishes. On the last day of class we will have a pot luck and serve food in the piece we made, exchanging them with our classmates. It's fun and we all end up with a new and exciting piece from a fellow potter. This session we are also doing a project where we find an ancient piece of pottery and try to copy the shape to the best of our abilities. I'll be sure to share with  you and post pictures when my project is done. Every day in my class Terry demonstrates a project for the first hour and then we all do our own projects, orders, and experiment with new and creative ideas. Here are some pictures of the Art Center pottery studio.

Mugs and Boulder

               This week in the studio was spent working on personalized mugs and tumblers. I received an order to make Christmas presents. Here are some pictures of them.

               Last week in the studio wasn't spent in my studio, but touring the studios at University of Colorado in Boulder. I got to see where all the classes are held and even the private studios for the ceramics graduate program. They have a fabulous set up. I also walked down Pearl Street and saw many of the Boulder art galleries. My favorite was the working artists gallery, Boulder Arts and Crafts Cooperative. I loved the variety of pieces form hats, pottery, paintings, to beautiful metal signs. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all of it. One of the highlights of my trip was drinking a nice cup of chai at the Dushanbe Teahouse which was given to Boulder by Tajikistan. It had ornately carved pillars in traditional Persian designs. I am inspired to research more Persian patterns that I would like to carve on pottery pieces. Here is a picture of the interior of the teahouse.

Glazes

This picture has cobalt blue on the rim and Temoku on the bottom

               This week in the studio I spent my time glazing. At the Art Center we fire to cone 10, which is about 2500 degrees. We have a gas kiln that is in the kiln yard right outside the pottery room. Here are some pictures of me glazing.  This one is a picture of the cobalt blue.

Pieces glazed waiting to be fired!

      We also do raku firings, salt firings, and horse hair firings. Here are some pictures of me and the other ladies in my pottery class doing the various firings. A Raku firing is a low fire. We fire Raku to 1800 degrees. We do a Raku fire at the end of every class. With a raku firing we glaze the pieces with one of the three glazes offered at the Art Center, which are copper luster, dolphin, and clear crackle. After that they go in to the pre-heat chamber to make sure there is no moisture, then into the kiln to start the firing. The pots are taken out at 1800 degrees when they are red hot and put into firing chambers with combustibles, like newspaper, leaves, wood chips, etc. Then they are taken out in about 15 to 20 minutes. Raku firings can produce some gorgeous pieces and incredible effects. Horse hair firings are low fire too. When firing for horse hair we fire to around 1700 degrees then when the pots are still red hot we take them out and put them on a kiln brick and apply horse hair, feathers, and also sugar for different effects.The last picture is of a raku firing!

October First Friday

Latte Mug

My Signature Mug

               This week in the studio was mug making week. I've been working on my inventory and I also have a few orders for mugs for Christmas presents. I made latte mugs and my signature mug shape. Time to glaze bowls for the Empty Bowls fundraiser for the Catholic Outreach Soup Kitchen! I am donating twenty-three bowls this year. I am so thankful I have found pottery, so I can do something I love and help people in my community as well.

A Piece form the show "What? What?" Artist: Jake Allee

Form the Collage show Artist: John Anglim

               I also went to the First Friday at the Art Center. They are exhibiting beautiful paintings from the members of the Brush & Palette Club. The "What? What?" show was my favorite. I loved that some of the work was interactive and Jake Allee had some amazing pottery pieces. The collage show was also very enjoyable. Its interesting to see the many random items collage artists put in their work. I enjoy going to art openings so much. I love meeting all the artists and discussing their work with them. The Bonsai exhibit was gorgeous to see in the Japanese garden. Well, that sums up my week. I'll keep playing in mud until I talk to you again!