Week 4 - Chugging Along
Alternative title: Breakup Hurties and Studio Sillies.
This week has been equally difficult and exciting; my new friendships are blossoming, and the most memorable parts of my studio time have all had to do with connecting and laughing with those around me. I kicked off the week by firing off the soda kiln with GH, with a few grips of mine and some unglazed/pre-fired work of his thrown in. Monday morning, when it reached temperature (>2300 degrees farenheit, so the bricks were nice and soft), Brian and GH used car jacks to push the back wall that was bulging out. To everyone’s surprise, it did not combust! And thus, GH will be firing a soda off with a cart full of his work next Tuesday, in which I will squeeze some tests of my own.
grip glaze tests
I mixed up five different glazes — two soda greens (Patsy’s Green, Some Bright Green) and three shinos (Dolly’s Russian, Salt Shino, Penn State Shino) — in 200g and 1000g batches, which I’m first testing out dipped on my stoneware grips, along with the studio Malcom’s Shinos (there are two) and Liz Krautz’s Shino. I’d love to develop a glaze palette of ~three shinos and a nice green to spray on my bigger sculptures. I have images in my brain of moss or algae-splotched rocks. I like the unpredictability of shino, and its tendency to break rich orange, develop speckles and iron specks, and moments of matte/gloss depending on application and clay/flux ratio. I’ll be interested to see how these tests come out! I also glazed a handful of my goblets and mugs (not pictured) with studio glazes and hope to get some of them in GH’s soda as well.
Earlier in the week, I carved three thick-bottomed mugs I’d thrown, playing around with incorporating my intuitive sculpting into my functional work. I’m pretty happy with the results — I think I could go even farther with the carving, though, and also refine the top parts of them and their weight a bit more.
Lastly, I flipped over that big wheelthrown base that I built an upside-down base off of last week and am nearly done sculpting it. It surprisingly balances on its precarious tripod base, and Brian helped me figure out a strategy of firing it (sideways on a waster slab) and a safer way for it to rest as I sculpt (bricks supporting its sides beneath thick foam, so its legs are suspended). I’ve really enjoyed the intuitive discoveries I’ve made while making this big one. Even if it doesn’t survive the bisque, I feel like I’m getting better at playing and taking risks and finding new paths as I sculpt.
thinking about:
Life keeps chugging along, time keeps passing, everything works itself out as things unravel.
Also, processing a lot of anger surrounding my recent relationship/breakup… Wondering how to convey it through clay, if I even can, or want to. Either way, it hurts a lot and this week has been especially hard. Breakups suck. At least clay will never break my heart! (ok let’s be real, clay will definitely break my heart)
fixing the kiln
paper porcelain
I also tested out my paper porcelain this week and made a little sculpture. It’s a pain to coil build with, but once it’s bonded, it’s extremely strong and can be stretched to near paper thin (who woulda thought). I don’t think it’s a sustainable clay for handbuilding just because of how fussy and tedious it is to build with and to get totally flat and smooth, but I’m excited to see how the transparency is, and it was a fun little experiment.
Wired that lamp I made the first week! Going to have to raku fire it though, because this thing was a big b*tch to thread and can’t shrink any more. Maybe I should consider: planning things out before I make them. What an idea!
weekly gratitudes
~ being silly with studio mates
~ Oakley and his new donut cone (my roommate’s dog, he has allergies)
~ cooking a healthy meal for the week.. & aperol spritzes :)
artists on my mind:
Ara Koh, Persis Wade, Nat Nicholson, Kurokawa Toru
GH birthing his fuzed cup set through the soda kiln peep. lol