This past weekend was the first annual Yakima Artist's Studio Tour. My house was one of 7 on the tour. I've been advertising it heavily here and on social media for the last few weeks.
sculpture set up above and around the small photo booth in my studio
The event went fairly well, considering the smoke and the covid and this being the first year. I had about 100 people come through over 3 days. That estimate is pretty rough, since we didn't start counting until 1:30 on Saturday. We tried to just reconstruct who had been here during the busy midday.
Dezignosaur display for my daughter and her friends
This was the first year of what we plan to make an annual event. There was some confusion from some visitors about whether this was the same or different from the event Larson Gallery used to do, the Tour of Artist's Homes and Studios, which I participated in way back in 2013, but I think that confusion had little impact on whether folks wanted to attend. It was interesting to listen to people describe the Larson Gallery's Tour. One person was complaining that it was always the same artists; I think they may have been thinking of June Art Fest.
Face bulbs, new work as of May 2021
As I type this, I realize that these three events seems very different in my mind (different times, locations, prices and artists), but they probably seem pretty similar to someone who isn't focused on the differences. Probably a bit like how I view all the wine/beer related events around here that I never attend. I don't spend much time thinking about the difference between Fresh Hop Ale and Spring Barrel events--and couldn't tell you off-hand when or where either event would be.
the Dezignosaur girls finishing their last pieces the night before the show
Besides being the first year of the show, this year's tour was challenged by the spike in COVID cases and the smoky weather from the forest fires. We're hoping at least one of these situations will be changed next year. Though I also realize that exactly one year ago we were talking about how "next year" we'll certainly be through with COVID.
masking and covid, we're all getting tired of it
We had a fairly steady stream of visitors to the studio all day on Saturday. I only knew a few people, but everyone was pleasant and almost everyone knew how to wear a mask.
is this how we wear masks? no?
I posted a sign, but the vast majority of people came wearing masks already or had them ready to put on. I think one person forgot and we gave them a mask.
the sign for masking in my studio
On Sunday people came in bursts. For a long time at the start no one showed up. It was lovely weather outside, so I read my book in the shade in the yard. But then a bunch of people came all at once. Sunday's attendance was like that all day, lulls followed by bursts where there were so many people I could barely talk to them all.
Monday was a short day, just 10-12, but I think it was nice to give people a chance to get to a studio they missed or revisit one to buy something they liked the first day. We didn't have many people on Monday, but those who came mostly bought something, which was nice.
sad, tired face mug
Honestly one of the nice things about this year's inaugural show was that it forced me to thoroughly clean my studio and unpack or uncover some work that had been put away after a show or during our renovations.
face bulbs, new as of May 2021
I had never gotten a chance to display this set of face bulbs, even though I had fired them in early May. I didn't have a wall available for taking photos. For this show I got down my temporary walls from a show at Yakima Maker's Space in 2017. I was able to display wall work without hammering into my new drywall and I was able to cover up my clay storage with the temporary wall.
my portable bulb wall blocks my clay storage (and hangs on my drawers)
The temporary wall in the studio hung over the front edge of the drawers on my main work table. The other hung over the fence. Both of them have cleats in the back that were a very nice fit for this setup and easy to move and hang.
second portable bulb wall on the fence
People generally didn't want to walk all the way across the lawn to see the one hanging on the fence, so next time I might have to set up some sort of path or enticement to walk over there.
signage directing people away from the front door
Since my whole house wasn't open, I had set up signs and a path of lawn sticks and balloons in the side yard to guide people from the sidewalk along the side yard to the studio entrance.
balloon and stick path
I lined the walkway with balloons, which mostly meant that we spent the entire weekend listening to balloons pop in the sun. In person (though not in photographs), the lawn sticks and sculptures made it pretty clear where the pathway was and the balloons were probably unnecessary except for the kids.
sculpture lined path to the studio
It was nice to see my studio totally clean. In fact, one day I was talking to a man for 10 minutes when he asked to see my studio. He was standing next to my wheel. Apparently the studio looked so clean and unused that it wasn't even recognizable as such.
finished work on display on my ware shelves and wheel
I also like how colorful the studio is with all the work on display. Now, the next day, the studio doesn't look so much like a showroom or gallery. I started putting stuff away so that I'll eventually be able to use the space again. I have a list of things I want to work on, once I get time. Classes start in two weeks, and I need to get ready, but cleaning and taking work out and setting up for the show reminded me of a number of projects I want to work on, finish, try out, redo, or explore.
Video tour of the studio tour this past weekend (no audio)
This weekend, September 4, 5 and 6 is the Yakima Artist's Studio Tour featuring my studio and 6 more artist's studios in Yakima. I've been cleaning my studio and firing my last few kiln loads in anticipation of this event.
The seven studios on the tour feature work by 20 artists, including ceramic artists like myself, painters, sculptors, woodworders, jewelry makers, and more. I will have my remodeled studio open for folks to see and I will have sculpture and functional pottery for sale. I also have some newly fired face mugs (which people requested at the last event I did this summer).
new face mug: are noses part of the respiratory system?
I plan to keep my studio door and windows open and leave the fan on to encourage air circulation. I will be wearing a mask (either for COVID or for smoke, or both, though I'm hoping it won't be smoky this weekend) and I ask others to also wear their masks inside. I will also have work displayed outside in my yard.
new sculpture: Chartreucat, 2021
I recommend you start the tour at my studio, 203 S. 8th Ave. Mine is the most eastern of the studios, located near Davis High school and Astria/Regional Hospital and seems like a good place to start. Of course I have ulterior motives for having you start with me.
Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for kids and seniors and your ticket gets you into all seven studio for any and all of the three days of the tour. You are welcome to visit studios on more than one day if you like. My hope is that folks check out the tour on Saturday, then bring all their friends on Sunday ;-)
new work, just after unloading this weekend
You can purchase tickets from me on the day of the tour or beforehand. Since this is our first year, its hard to guess how busy the tour will be. I'm hoping to spend more time talking with visitors about my work than selling tickets, so buying ahead of time is encouraged. Additionally, if you buy from me, half the ticket price goes to me (to offset the costs of being part of the show). If you'd rather support other artists, half the ticket price goes to them if you buy from them.
new scream mug: jade
The Tour is sponsored by Artebella Gallery and Pamela Searcy has been doing and amazing job and the bulk of the work around advertising and coordination of the event. You can access tour info, ticket sales locations, and a map at the Artebella Gallery's Tour page and all the artists have trifold brochures, personalized postcards and booklets with maps and info about each artist. I also have plenty of paper maps of the tour locations at my studio.
new scream mug: sky
If you would like to buy tickets ahead of time, you are welcome to give me a call (509) 654 6487 or email me at rdorn@me.com. Or you can stop by sometime this week. I am doing some new student advising and some studio cleaning this week, but I should be at home most of the day each day.
new scream mug: jade and red
For me, it's getting to be that time of the year when I slow down in the studio as I get ready for the academic year. I just unloaded a kiln load of mostly screaming face mugs, as well as some bowls and a batch of small vases.
new bowls
Earlier in the summer I finished some sculpture and I am still hoping to finish a few more items before Saturday if I can fit in time for cleaning, advertising, advising, glazing, and firing.
I'm planning to clean out most of the works in progress and storage from my studio so that the studio can feature all finished work. I'm also hoping to have a discount table for work that's been hanging around a little to long. I'd rather it go to a good home than sit in storage boxes here.
new stuff: tiny vases and bowls
My daughter and her friends will also be selling jewelry they've made as Dezignosaur. Since sometime in spring, they've been having lots of fun making jewelry from oven bake clay, beach glass, rocks, and felting. For my birthday I got 9 pairs of earrings and they've made a lot more since then. They showed their work at the Fresh Air Art Festival this summer and even have some pieces on display at Oak Hollow Gallery right now.
my felted mask earrings (and a radish earring and part of a fruit earring) by my daughter
I hope you do come see me and my fellow artists this weekend at the Yakima Artist's Studio Tour. The event runs Saturday and Sunday 10-4 and Monday, Labor Day, 10-12. More information here or here.
new mug: scream in jade/red
This is a great opportunity to buy gifts for the coming holiday season. It's a great way to support local makers in your community and also not have to worry about shipping delays. All of our work is one of a kind, so no one else will have gotten the same thing.
new mugs with sprigged textures
Please do contact me if you have questions about the event or want to buy tickets. I look forward to seeing you all this weekend!
Clay Sale: Thursday, May 9, 11-7, Palmer Martin Hall (YVC Campus)
The clay sale features functional pottery and sculpture made by current and former YVC clay students and faculty for sale at low, low prices! The sale runs Thursday from 11am-7pm in Palmer Martin Building (building 20) on the south side of the Yakima Valley College campus. We take cash, checks, and credit cards. Many pieces are priced below $10 and even $5 dollars. YVC clay T-shirts, as well as prints from the Winter 2019 printmaking class (not clay) will also be on sale.
Standing spoon rest with underglaze decoration, by Amber Ryan
This quarter, my students (and even employees, when they have time) have been working hard to throw, trim, glaze and fire new work for the sale. In fact, though it is only week 5, we've already fired one load of glazed work and are getting ready to fire another kiln full on Tuesday so that the work can be ready for Thursday's sale.
Oxidation copper vase by Amber Ryan
We usually fire our first reduction glaze firing around week 5 or so. This load usually consists mainly of beginning student work. I required beginning students to glaze some of their early work around mid-quarter so they can see what the glazes look like. This quarter we ended up firing an even earlier oxidation firing that consisted mostly of intermediate and community student work. This quarter I have an unusually large group of 6 intermediate students, as well as some prolific community worker/students who have been making mostly clay sale work for the past few weeks.
Reduction copper vase by Amber Ryan
Firing Atmospheres
Both reduction and oxidation firings in our studio reach the same temperature (cone 10 or roughly 2300 degrees Fahrenheit) and can be fired in the same kiln. We used the same glazes for both firings, but we adjust the gas and air in the kiln to create different atmospheres. An oxidizing atmosphere is one in which there is plenty of oxygen for the fire. For a reduction atmosphere, we reduce the amount of oxygen available in the kiln so that the fire must pull oxygen out of the glaze chemicals or the clay itself. This process turns the Iron Oxide in the clay body into metallic specs of iron when the oxygen is used to react in the firing process.
oxidation copper bowl with glaze drip by Austin Peart
Similarly, the oxygen in copper carbonate (CuCO3) reacts with the fire and changes the look of the copper in the glaze. In an oxidation atmosphere (seen above in Amber and Austin's greenish pieces) there is plenty of oxygen inside the kiln, so the copper remains this greenish color. My comparison for students is the statue of liberty. The copper on this statue is out in open with plenty of air and thus as a greenish appearance.
Reduction vase with bent rim by Austin Peart
In a reduction atmosphere, on the other hand, the copper reacts to the removal of oxygen by turning red. My comparison for students is a copper penny kept in a pocket and not exposed to the air. The result in our firing is that copper in a reduction atmosphere turns red. The red copper glaze in Amber and Austin's pieces above and Leticia and Beau's pieces below has turned a vivid red and has become fairly opaque in the glaze.
reduction copper glaze with incised decoration by Leticia Ortiz
The firings can also be loaded a bit differently. We have found that if we load the bottom of the kiln tight, with pieces close together, and run out of work (or have irregularly shaped work) at the top for the kiln, so that the pieces have lots of space around them, the kiln will not be able to maintain a reduction atmosphere. The extra space around work tends to cause those loosely loaded areas of the kiln to have more oxidized look, especially with copper glazes.
bowl with glaze drips (upside down) by Beau Filbert
In the red and green examples above, Amber, Austin, Leticia, and Beau have used the copper glaze in combination with other glazes. Beau used some Ninja Junior crawl on his rim, Leticia and Austin have layered a different white glaze over or under their red copper glaze near the top. I believe Amber's copper glaze is over the same white in both instances and I believe Leticia's white is over the copper, but I'm not 100% sure anymore.
bowls with glaze drips by Beau Filbert
Austin also has a drip of some other glaze running down the oxidized copper into the middle of his bowl. Our copper glaze has a lot of "flow" meaning it melts relatively early and keeps melting and moving during the firing. This movement can lead to the drips we see on Austin's piece (his are intentional, but sometimes students underestimate the movement and end up with their glaze stuck to the shelf). This movement can also cause other glazes on top of the copper glaze to move a lot too. This is what is happening with Austin's bowl and probably what is happening with the white glaze in Leticia's vase.
oxidation mug with mountain design by Leticia Ortiz
The copper glaze I've been discussing isn't our only glaze with copper. We have another glaze, seen in Leticia's mug above and Austin, Kim, and Ruby's pieces below, that contains both copper carbonate and cobalt oxide. The cobalt itself doesn't change much based on the firing, but the copper does. The combination of the blue cobalt and the transparent greenish of the copper in oxidation results in a blue glaze like we see in Leticia's mug.
reduction mug by Austin Peart
The same glaze in reduction looks purple because of the combination of red copper and blue cobalt. This glaze tends to vary more than others due to variations in thickness or atmosphere, so we get a range of different red/purple/blue colors in the one application of glaze. In Austin's mug above, the thinner layer at the bottom looks different from the thicker area at the top/middle. The interior of this mug has a different cobalt blue glaze.
shaped vase by Kim Hansen
Students can create further color variations by layering glazes over one another. The order in which two glazes are applied can result in different colors and textures as the glazes react and combine. A high-flow glaze underneath will pull the top glaze with it, while a high flow glaze over a fairly stable glaze won't cause the first layer to move as much. In Kim's vase above she has layered three glazes together, making it difficult to distinguish the transition between the copper/cobalt glaze and the dark glaze at the bottom.
glazed mug set by advanced student Ruby Mayo
Copper and iron aren't the only materials that react differently in one firing compared to another, but their effects are the most dramatically different (of our studio glazes) and I have the best examples of these color changes today. In Ruby's mugs above, we see the copper/cobalt glaze reduction purple over a different lavender glaze (the front most mug). In the taller mugs in the back, we see an iron based red glaze, probably fired in oxidation. The iron red and the Shino underneath it (on the left) both react to atmosphere changes as well.
glaze vase by advanced student Lauren Coffey
Writing as Discovery
One of the fun things about writing a blog is that I don't always know where I'm going when I start. I began this post about a month ago (or more) when I simply wanted to show the great stuff my Winter 2019 throwing class had made. At that point I had just added the images. When I sat down to write today, I thought I might write about the upcoming clay sale (this coming Thursday, 11-7 in Palmer Martin's lobby), then as I started to write the post turned into a discussion of chemical reactions in firing oxidation and reduction. Surprise!
graphic mug with underglaze decoration by Autumn Wilson
Though these last few pieces by Lauren and Autumn don't exhibit the dramatic changes in glaze color that we see in the copper glazes, I can still fairly confidently recognize the firing. I can guess, based on subtle variations, that Lauren and Autumn fired the vase and the red mug in oxidation (the red is an underglaze, not a copper based glaze). The middle of Lauren's vase has a subtle tinge of green that makes me thing she layered the copper glaze over the white. Underglaze colors tend to become more dull in reduction firings so I would have advised her to fire oxidation (plus, I think she and Lauren were finishing these after we loaded the last reduction kiln).
blue and white mugs by Autumn Wilson
The blue and white mugs, however, were probably fired in two different kilns. The two on the right exhibit little specks of iron in the white glaze. These specks are the iron oxide from the clay body reacting to the lack of oxygen in a reduction firing. The iron loses its oxide and turns into metallic iron bits that we can see through the glaze. The mug on the left does not have these specks, which means either it was fired in an oxidizing atmosphere, or the student used a porcelain clay for this piece (and stoneware for the others). Porcelain clay does not contain iron oxide, and thus stays (or turns into) a pure white color in a reduction atmosphere.
Bowl with gold luster decoration by advanced student Ruby Mayo
All the artworks in this post were created by Winter 2019 Functional Pottery students (except for the advanced work, marked as such in the caption). All photos were taken by the artists who made the work (using the YVC clay photo setup).
DoVA Exhibition
You can see some of their work now at the DoVA Student Exhibit at Larson Gallery through May 25. Location: Larson Gallery on the YVC campus (corner of 16th Ave & Nob Hill Blvd, across from Taco Time).
Hours: Tuesday-Friday 10-5, Saturday 1-5 (admission is always free, open to the public)
Dates: April 30-May 25, 2019
YVC Clay Sale
You can also purchase some work (though probably not what is posted here) at the YVC Clay Sale this coming Thursday.
