Week 5 - Testing and Resting

This week, I got over my sickness, made some small progress on my massive sculpture, and made some test sculptures with various different additives.

Last night as I was trying to fall asleep this unpleasant thought dawned on me - what the hell am I going to do with this massive sculpture once it’s fired and I have to move? It’s so heavy and big. Thinking about moving all my sculptures with me to wherever I go next is so stressful. I don’t have any answers now. The base of this monument will definitely be the heaviest, biggest part of the three, though.

I’ve also been thinking about what I’ll do if this piece doesn’t make it through the bisque. It seems to be supporting itself well and drying evenly, so far. I’ll have to move it into Big Bailey soon. It’s going to be a tight squeeze and definitely a fiasco. This thing is HEAAAAVVVYYY.

Brian gave me some of his very old stoneware with perlite and vermiculite added in it, and I made these little tests. I’m super eager to see how they fire. I’ve finally gotten around to testing out my own clay with different additives, starting with sawdust, course grog, perlite, straw bits, and crushed granite. I also plan to test bronze dust and vermiculite and continue thinking of other materials that might produce cool results. I wedged in about 1:3 additive to clay.

In addition to those test sculptures, I made a simple solid form that I intend to let dry completely and to experiment with “eroding” with water. This is another thing I’ve been meaning to test out and am finally getting around to. It’s nice to have some low stakes experiments going on alongside a project that feels very high stakes, because of the amount of time that’s gone into it. I’m thinking of these sculptures as sketches. I think I’ll return to functional work for a bit after I get my inclusion tests in the kiln.