Friday, July 22, 2011

Move forward


"Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough."

Well, obviously I'm not going to make the July 25th deadline, which is next week, because it would require, bisque firing the kiln, one day of cool down, clear coat glazing kiln firing, another day of cool down, and then photographs, editing photographs, setting up paypal and an Etsy account, which can be quite time consuming in itself. Not to mention with the huge loss from my meltdown catastrophe a few months back, I've lost a lot of inventory that needs to be made up.

Now, there is a big gathering down in Cincinnati for the holiday season, which I will be striving for, and juried entries will be accepted until September 5th. I will most definitely be giving this show a shot, so I don't have to label the year a complete loss.

To my sadness around a gallon of my porcelain slip was mostly dried out, so there's more money at a loss. My stoneware clay had small remnants in it, which I'm either guessing is rust, mold, or dead bugs, but it still molded perfectly when I used it.

Here is a Catrina piece I am working on. I had a picture of the back of her hat, but the resolution is too small to notice the details, so here are two pictures until I can get back to get some more pictures. It's hard to see the details since she is so dark from the clay still being wet.
A front view of my Dia de los Muertos Catrina bust

A back view of my Catrina bust. Calla lilys adorn her back almost like small wings. Her wide brim hat has two sparrows carrying heart string in their mouth from a small heart, which sets in between them.




Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Some dishes for your food for thought

Upon recent searching and browsing I came across Chris Campbell and one of her collections of dinnerware.
Rainbows in my opinion aren't very easy to make look cool. Seriously, you could easily end up on the two year old hearts, ponies, and princesses spectrum if you go too rainbow crazy, but Chris Campbell has developed a way in using colored slips, porcelain and inlays to create such beautiful and unique pieces.

I've linked her dinner ware set, to show the balance, and how all of her piece work together from the chargers, to the tiny drinking vessels. It all clicks, and promotes a playfulness, and vivacious liveliness to often cold, and chilling features that possess porcelain.

A lot of Chris' other pieces, and exhibits again display color for dull objects. She had one set that looks almost like a crustacean fossil, but with her play for color it brings a vividness, and interesting perspective to the main piece.



It's a lot more than just dumping some one color glaze on a piece, and calling it finished. Besides being able to see some inlay and color blocking in her pieces, there are some in which I am completely dumbfounded on, which in my opinion is what makes advanced potters so wonderful. Technique, technique, and a little bit of creativity.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Sky city

Only in the Southerwestern parts of the United States will you find some of the most boring and drab colors in the scenery, the suddenly you're hit with small wave of color that surprises most. That's how I can conclude my trip out west: Full of Surprise.

We took my husband (who had never been west of the Mississippi river) to the Acoma Pue
blo nicknamed "Sky City" which is located on an off the road about fifteen minutes from Grants, NM; a small town which is near the New Mexico and Arizona border. The Acoma Pueblo sits on top of a mesa which overlooks stunning sceneries and distances between neighboring mesas, and desert lands.

The Acoma are thought to have branched off from descendants northern from the Chaco Canyon, and Mesa Verde regions. The stories the Acoma people tell are inspiring, and were provoking to my own creativity.

The pieces above are from an artist by the name of Carolyn Conchos, a native and resident of the Acoma Pueblo. I was fortunate to grab a shard necklace off of her before I boarded the bus off the mesa, and I definately don't regret my decision, because Carolyn's work is wonderf
ul, and hosts its own difference from the other artists on the Pueblo.

In her work you often see butterflies, which mean beauty, lizards, lady bugs, and humming birds. Carolyn learned from veteran potters on the Pueblo, and her sisters are from the Lewis family, which is one of the highly coveted potter families from the Pueblo. Carolyn's pieces can be seen in the Smithsonian collection, which celebrate Native American arts.

What caught me off guard was how the Acoma made their pottery. At first I thought it was a paddle technique used with a pinch pot method, but I was wrong, and after reading up on it, the Acoma use a coil pot technique, and they cover with white slip for a few layers before using a Yucca brush to paint on the final designs, which the slip, as well as scooping with a specia
lly grown gourd, gives them the nice smooth, and white finish that many of the neighboring Pueblos seem to lack.

I noticed during another trip up at the Taos pueblo that their clay is very dense, and often contains small shards of mica and other raw materials which show up in their finish pots, and quite often their pots look lumpy, and show some human handleage from the working process. ( A picture to the right is of a common pot found at Taos)

I learned a lot about the Acoma way, and I gathered a new appreciation for their techniques and designs on their pots. I was quite fond of some painted quails some of the natives had for sale, but couldn't budge to dish out the money.

I'm probably going to regret it.