Abstract Bulbs for Art a Day

bulbs drying

After a lackluster beginning to my summer studio time, I got moving a bit better early this week. Since my brain wasn't fully engaged last week, I decided to just concentrate on making some abstract bulbs this week. My goal was ten finished pieces to make up for the fact that I only made four last week. I finished the eleventh piece today, meaning I now have 15 abstract pieces and am halfway through the making of these pieces for the project if I decide to just do the abstract pieces.

one half of a press mold with slip

The process of making the bulb forms themselves is pretty fast. I have two plaster press molds that I use, one I made in college and one I made later to speed up my process. I press wet clay into each side of the mold, score and slip the edge of the clay, and press the two molds together. The wet clay inside the mold dries a bit as the porous plaster absorbs the moisture, the scored and slipped edges adhere to one another, and after 10-20 minutes, I can pull the completed bulb out of the mold.

my assistant helping press the molds

I have been using different clay bodies for the different types of bulbs. For the political bulbs, which are darker in mood, I use a dark mica clay. For the abstract bulbs, which I intend to finish with bright layered underglazes, I use a mixed up clay body that I recycled last year from whatever clay was around the studio over the past 10 years or so. This clay has some stoneware, some low fire, some sculpture and raku clay, and even some red clay. The clay is a bit of a mystery as far as vitrification temperature and durability, but it works fine for low fire sculpture.

a bulb partially removed from the plaster mold (you can tell this is an old picture from before I started using the red mica clay)

I started on the abstract bulbs last week just using sprigged decoration. I have drawers full of sprigs that I've made over the years, and these are what I think of as the main work I do and most of the abstract bulbs. They use of sprigs and impressed repetitive texture from various tools allows me lots of room for layering various underglazes. I usually cover the sprigs and the background with two different colors, then fire those on. Then I add a wash of two top colors, leaving those second colors visible in the indents or low areas of both textures.

last week's bulbs

Last week I ended up using a couple of sprig molds that were not ones I made myself. One set was a silicon mold of flowers that I bought at Michaels, the other was a plastic hemisphere mold from a set from one of the booths at NCECA. 

adding cornstarch to a plastic sprig mold

The plastic and silicon molds don't come absorb the moisture from the clay like a plaster mold or a ceramic sprig does, so the pieces tend to stick. I ended up getting a small cup of cornstarch and a paintbrush and brushing the cornstarch into the sprig molds before putting in the clay. This approach works really well and I only have to add the cornstarch ever other or every third sprig I mold.

sprigs done with a plastic mold and cornstarch

After making a bunch of pieces with sprigs, I wanted to look for a different texture. I have a few new stamps I made from some silicone mold last fall, so I used one that was fairly shallow to press into a molded bulb. The bulb was too soft and tended to give way, not capturing the middle texture. It would probably work better if I were able to press the clay against the sprig from the inside. I decided to activate the surface in a more interesting way by adding little clay spikes onto the surface. These spikes can later be colored in contrasting underglaze.

impressed and added textures

With the political mugs I have barely started, I've been thinking about having two contrasting sides. This was the original intention with the bulb installations as well. When I first made them, I glazed the two sides with contrasting colors. The idea was that the bulbs could be hung facing either way and the orientation could change the feel of the bulbs. I wanted to get back to this idea a bit with the abstract bulbs, or at least with some, so I applied contrasting sprigged textures on several.

two types of sprigs meant to create two contrasting textures

The tricky part about contrasting textures with sprigs is the shape of both the sprigs and the bulb itself. I tried this on several bulbs, but generally one texture bleeds into the viewable area of the other side because the bottom and sides are visible regardless of orientation.

the front and back of a bike-part sprigged bulb

I also wanted to get back into incorporating other materials into the bulbs directly, since a number of these pieces have sold from my recent installations of this work. I made one bulb with a cut out for a bike chain. Though it looks fairly rough right now, I think it will look better once the chain is obscuring the cut away section.

a groove for a chain

I also looked around the studio for stuff I hadn't considered before and found a bunch of small slip cast hands from a mold I may not even own anymore. I decided to plan to attach this random little hands onto one of the bulbs.

slipcast hands in their future positions

I like to add texture to all my bulbs both because it allows me to layer underglazes to make a more complex color palette, but also because the underglaze is less likely to have trouble adhering or flaking off after firing. Again I was looking around for something I hadn't used before and decided to use a chisel to create a patchwork pattern on the surface of the hand bulb. The pattern works fine across the bulb's front, but get's odd as it moves around curves. The pattern is much less regular on the back.

using a chisel to add a patchwork texture

I was trying to do something different and decided I wanted to incorporate a thrown flower form that I used some last summer onto one of the bulbs. Because I didn't want to sit down to throw this clay and make just one tiny piece, I made several closed forms for the flower. I used one as intended, by cutting the top and curving back the "petals." This bulb is really large on the front, and is more similar to some of the political bulbs that have entire sculpted parts coming out the front.

a "flower" added to a bulb

The extra thrown parts I ended up using to further altar the shape of another bulb. I tried to roll texture onto this bulb, but it was a bit dry when I began the process. I'm not sure how I am going to glaze this piece, but I know both of these bulbs with thrown additions will only be able to hang on the wall in one direction.

thrown pieces to altar the bulb shape

After a slow start last week, I am feeling much better about the pieces. I've still got quite a ways to go on them in just about a month. I need to make as many again as I made so far, and I need to get started on the under-glazing process fairly soon.

white clay abstract bulbs with a few red clay politics bulbs in back

Summer Week 1: Bulbs and Lethargy

abstract bulbs in progress

Last week was the first week of the summer break and my home studio work time. I found it really really difficult to get started. The week in the studio felt lethargic and I felt apathetic. I am hopeful that the malaise of this first week and my difficulty getting excited about working is a combination of our odd schedule the first week off and the change in momentum after finals week. My spring was extra busy at work and mentally exhausting to boot. Maybe when I've regained some motivation and energy I'll write about it.

my studio helper doesn't know that this bag is not a toy  

Realistically, at least a part of my lethargy is probably due to my mind going in several different directions about how I should be spending my summer work time. My goals for this summer are a bit different than usual. In a typical summer, I try to focus on work in my home studio in preparation for shows during the year. This summer I do have one show coming up, for which I need to make work and fairly quickly, but I also intend to spend some of my summer making some fairly significant changes to my YVC classes.

one of the politics bulbs in progress

The upcoming show is at the Columbia Center for the Arts in Hood River, Oregon, where I have been showing a lot in the last couple of years. The show, which opens in August, is called Art a Day and the idea is that the exhibiting artists making one piece each day for a month. My initial plan was to make 30 abstract bulbs. I got excited, in about March, about doing 30 political bulbs, like the work I had installed most recently at the Columbia Center for the Arts and Boxx Gallery in Tieton.

one of the abstract bulbs in progress

And then I got thinking about making 30 political mugs that would hang on the wall and have contrasting political views decorating the opposing sides, so that the piece could be installed with one perspective, flipped to announce the opposing view, or intermixed to show some of each. Needless to say, I've overcomplicated my plans for the show and given myself an exhausting project (3 projects) to try to complete in the allotted time.

a politics bulb piece in progress

The abstract bulbs are pretty fast and easy to make compared to the political bulbs and the mugs, and the abstract forms take a lot less mental energy to make, but the political pieces are more exciting and more meaningful and the mugs are intriguing because they are a new idea.

a politics bulb piece in progress

This week's work time was, actually, fairly productive even though it didn't feel that way. I threw, trimmed, and attached handles on maybe 8-10 mugs (I'm too lazy today to go check) and molded about 13 bulbs, 8 of which I finished building. The reason I'm reluctantly calling this productive is that my work time was very interrupted during the week. My daughter attended two different camps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon and I needed to drop her off at 9, pick her up at 12, drop her off at 1 and pick her up at 4, which meant driving across town three times every day and taking a lunch break that was a bit longer than an hour. Granted, driving across town in Yakima doesn't take that long, but still. Lunch with her every day was actually nice, but didn't contribute to my studio motivation.

a politics bulb piece in progress

I also had an all morning meeting on Monday, she had an appointment Wednesday morning, and the first camp had an hour and a half long event Friday morning, all of which cut into my work time. Tuesday I did an all day project outside of the studio. Coming back to the studio after each of these breaks took just a little bit of energy to get back in the swing of the work.

a politics bulb piece in progress

I started the week with the mugs and press molding the bulbs for the political pieces. I finished the mugs on Wednesday, then focused on the political bulbs. By Thursday I was feeling uninspired (and just exhausted) on the political front, so I started on the abstract bulbs. As I said, the abstract bulbs require much less mental energy and proceed a lot faster.

my studio helper, she really enjoyed sticking her head in the slip, throwing water, and clay recycling buckets

Next week I have only one appointment and no meetings and my daughter will be at camp from 9am-3pm including lunch. My daily work time technically won't be longer, but it will be much less interrupted. Hopefully I will be able to sustain my inspiration through a week's work of work (or three week's, based on what I actually want to do.

a piece for one of the politics bulbs in progress

I am supposed to be making one piece a week, this week I made four of each type of bulb in 5 days and took the weekend off entirely (except for some clay recycling that was time sensitive). Theoretically I will have had almost a month and a half to get the work done, but the work also needs to be glazed and fired before the drop off day in late July.

pieces for the politics bulbs in progress

I think the best advice for making studio work is to just work, even if one isn't feeling inspired. So I applied that suggestion as best I could last week and I am applying the same idea here with the blog. I don't feel like talking about the work, but I can talk about not wanting to talk about the work. Hopefully next post I'll want to talk about it.

The Beauty of Clay at Columbia Center for the Arts in Oregon

This weekend I drove a car full of sculpture to Hood River, Oregon for a show that opens next week. The Beauty of Clay opens Friday, March 3 from 6-8pm at Columbia Center for the Arts and runs through April 2, 2017. This timing coincides with the NCECA clay conference in Portland. The internet tells me that Portland is just over an hour from Hood River, but its possible some people might stop on the way to or from the conference. I plan to.

The Columbia was beautiful, but the rest stops don't get you near the prettiest sights, so I snapped a few pictures without looking from the moving car.

The drive down to Hood River from Yakima is just over 2 hours and, though the road and weather were uneventful, my car chose to enliven the drive by falling out of fifth gear four or five times on the way down. For the last hour or so, I drove with my arm locked on the gearshift to keep it in gear. Fun times. Strangely, on the way back it didn't fall out of gear once. 

The one picture I remembered to take, just after parking in Hood River, note the beautiful beach towel ceramic packing equipment.

I meant to take pictures of the car fully loaded or the work being packed or unpacked, but I guess I got distracted by the process of packing, and then by trying to diagnose the gearshift problem. I thought pictures of the loaded car might be interesting, because I drove down alone with six sculptures occupying three seats and the back cargo hold. My friend offered to accompany me, but I traded her seat for a sculpture.

  

If anybody in Hood River wants to buy these guys, I do not mind not bringing them home

I loaded the two tallest pieces in the back seat, after removing the car seats and detritus from my kid. (The problem with only kids occupying the back seat is that no one remembers to pick up wrappers and toys and kleenex in that space.) These two tall pieces are also the reason I wasn't able to take the juror, Yvonne Pepin-Wakefield, up on her offer to drive the work down (she has a studio in Tieton and a place in Hood River). I could have boxed up the other pieces for shipping, but these two pieces are tall, heavy and have lots of pointy bits at the top that are likely to break if not packed carefully. I'm sure, given enough time, money, and motivation, I could develop a safe box system for the tail ones, but it probably was cheaper in both time and money, and certainly in energy, to drive them down, loose packed, in my car.

This little guy just stacks on top, no trouble at all to pack

Packing the tall sculptures in the car allows me to stand them up on the seat. I support the sculpture with foam between the metal frame and the car seat, and cushion every other area with foam, towels, or leave open space. Their weight and the seat belts keep them from moving around very much, but I certainly breathed easier going over potholes on the drive home. 

The Columbia was amazingly still, the land and sky reflected looked just the same as the real world above (I'd show that reflection, but by the power of cropping, this picture looks almost like I didn't take it over my shoulder out the car window)

The three smaller, less awkward sculptures were paced in the back cargo area in a large plastic bin with foam and beach towels. My main packing material for larger pieces that I hand-deliver is usually beach towels. They are extra large and thick, don't get used very often as towels, and we otherwise store them rolled up next to the clay studio, so they're ready to use for support or padding when I start to load the car (usually half an hour before I plan to leave).

the bike wheel sculpture (come home, little sculpture, and I promise to get a good photo of you this summer)

The front seat was reserved for the bike wheel sculpture. This one doesn't need much support but it does need some space. It fits just about perfectly on the front seat with the hub of the wheel touching the seat back and almost touching the car door and dash, but not getting in the way of my shifting arm (or, in this case, my holding-the-shifter-in-fifth arm).

  

the two easiest sculptures to load

I could probably adjust things to make the wheel sculpture fit in the back of the car, but this sculpture rattles a bit as I drive. I find I am less stressed while driving if all rattling sounds are close enough that I can account for them. I drove with this sculpture or something similar in the cargo area a while back and spent the entire 20 minute drive asking my daughter what was breaking. In fact, perhaps the gearshift problem was a good thing because it distracted me from worries about ceramics in the car.