Friday, June 18, 2010

"Ceramics is like a mean boyfriend" - Xanthe

Hey blog friends! Sorry it's been a little while! The past week has been beyond hectic - we wrapped up ceramics this week and I got a new job! The combination of two jobs and crits in ceramics held me back from my regular blogging routine but I wound up taking a lot of photos this week so I'll use those to recap - Xanthe is also taking proper photos of all our ceramic work so I'll be sure to post those as soon as I get them next week!


This is the new studio! It's pretty empty here but we're slowly moving stuff in - I'm sad to be done ceramics but happy to be able to devote more time to making art with friends in the new studio - early next week will call for some beers and paint :)



And this was our first assignment - all glazed and fired - it's my nipple/egg flower pot...


Opening the kilns for all our high fire work was definitely the most exciting part of the class - people were describing it as being like opening christmas presents - either sheer joy or sheer disappointment. Xanthe also mentioned that she likes to compare ceramics to a mean boyfriend - I took this as you love it but it often doesn't treat you well. Clay is definitely not an easy medium - it is NOT forgiving. In painting, if you paint something 'wrong' you can just cover it up - whereas in ceramics, every step of the process is a crapshoot - if everything is looking perfect there's always a chance it can be ruined in the kiln - either by the glaze screwing up, the piece exploding or another person's exploding onto yours... But it's worth it - these are my functional pieces - the mugs are my favourite - I did a lot of dipping into glazes with my fingers on the mugs so you can see the abstract-y finger prints. The cup of the far left is my favourite and Darrin has claimed the dark one beside it.


Here are the insides of my mugs, vases, and bowls - Chloe told me that the Shino mixed with any other colour has a beautiful effect so I stuck to that and I'm glad I did - I love the bubbly/brain-like glazes and thats what I got :)


And here are my little bird creatures glazed and about to be fired - I find it really weird how in ceramics you put on these glazes that look nothing like the colour they say they are and once they come out of the kiln it's as if they went through some sort of rainbow jeopardy... I've since seen the finished bird creatures - I'll be sure to have photos asap


These are some commercial glazes I picked up from the Sounding Stone for my 'birds' - I'm really glad I took the time choosing these - they were worth it.


Everyday occurnaces by the sculpture building


Our potluck on the last day of class - we all made our own place settings and ate off of them at the potluck. Note Robin about to stab something with her chopsticks in the background... I've always thought she'd make a great comic book character. Also in the foreground is my final eggs and legs piece - I know I sound like a broken record but again - more photos to come.


Lisa and Amber chowing down


Maria and I realized our hair matched the cakes we made so a photo- op was needed. I made my mom's famous red velvet cake with butter cream icing and red food colouring (yes the carcinogenic stuff - it's necessary to use it - it's that good) and Maria made her billion layer creamy almond cake. We always make fun of Maria because she is a perfectionist - her cake was a perfect example of this. I came in with my lop-sided funny looking red velvet cake with separating icing and she waltzed in with her perfect six layer champion cake that looked like it belonged in a cake shop window! It was hilarious :)


And back at home... Darrin and I made Jiffy Pop for the first time



and Frankie and Toulouse were getting into the cherries...


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