100 Spring and Summer bulbs ready for Labor Day open house

bulbs in progress (before glazing)

Join me at my home studio this coming Labor Day weekend for a free open house featuring my work and that of my friends and art colleagues at Yakima Valley College, Kayo Nakamura (drawing, prints, mixed media), Monika Lemmon (drawing) and Chris Otten (photography). Oops! in my last post, I forgot to mention that my daughter will also be there with her handmade jewelry.

Now that she's nearly and adult and working independently, she decided to rebrand her jewelry with her name (before she and her friends were "Dezignosaur")

Stop by my studio, 203 S. 8th Ave, just south of Walnut Saturday and Sunday, August 30 and 31 from 10-4 and/or Monday, September 1 from 10-12. Admission is free. Kids welcome, as long as they can be gentle around art. (Adults welcome under the same expectations ;-)

bulb in progress, partway through its first coat of underglaze

In the Spring and early summer, I made a bunch of bulbs, to replace the 100 bulbs that I installed at YVC. I had a blast making the bulbs, but now I've spent what feels like the whole summer glazing them. 

finished bulb, this one was fun to underglaze

Last week, I unloaded maybe the third load of glazed bulbs (and a few other odds and ends). 

bulb from my sketches, made to look drippy

Somehow I still keep making them, so I'm not exactly caught up, but I did get all the ones made in spring done. It's funny how small pieces like this can feel both like nothing (I didn't make any new large or even medium sized sculpture this year), but also like a lot (I made and finished 100 pieces in about half a year).

some of the 100 bulbs made earlier this year

The irony, of course, is that I don't have space to show 100 bulbs during the Labor Day open house. Maybe I'll just put out a bunch in some bowls for folks to play with. 

the original idea for the bulbs installation was that the audience could rearrange their order and orientation

For the show, I bring in a partial wall with hooks. While I'm using the studio for making, this wall is in storage, but during the show, it gives me space to install 27 bulbs while hiding the clay storage area under my worktable.

the partial wall during a previous year's studio tour

The other thing I'm not sure how to think about is all the bulbs that require more work because the plan is to include mixed media. I've got maybe half a dozen bulbs that I planned to add stuff too, and adding that stuff takes extra time. 

These perforated pieces are a bulb I intend to sew together. So far I'm on attempt 3 to get the sewing to look right

I'm not exactly behind my timing plan, so they might still get finished, though I have a lot of things I plan to do if I have time. I already started cleaning my studio, and I've fired what I hope is the last firing (I got an error code, but the top layer looks ok, so far). 

a new bulb with glaze on only the sprigs

Most of the mixed media stuff can be done in the house which may work out well, since this week is supposed to be very hot and my clay studio does not have air conditioning. The weekend of the open house is supposed to be cooler, and my studio feels great when the fan is on and the windows are open, as along as it isn't 101 degrees outside.

a bulb after underglaze, but before glaze

The bulbs that I've been working on have been a blast. I got really excited about making them earlier this year and still have lots more I want to make (and finish). I've been trying to balance my glazing (and painting) time with my making time, because, apparently I could just make bulbs basically forever and not do anything else.

a chain bulb--the chain moves

Earlier in the year, I thought I'd spend this summer focused on more political pieces and/or screaming faces, but I just didn't find the energy. The politics pieces and the faces tend to take more of my mental and emotional labor, while the abstract pieces are fairly relaxing and calming to create.

the only screaming bulb from this batch

Even applying the underglaze layers to these pieces can be fairly relaxing, at least when compared to painting and using glazes themselves. For those of you not familiar with my process, underglazes are the colors I use for the bulbs and most sculpture. These colors look similar before and after firing, while glazes are the ones that can melt and get shiny. They usually look very different before and after firing.

bulbs with the second coat of underglaze applied, ready to be wiped

For most of my bulbs and sculpture, I bisque fire the dry work, then I apply the first layer or layers of underglaze and fire again. After that I add a second layer of underglazes, wipe that away with a wet sponge, so that it highlights the textures of my forms. Then I add a layer of clear glaze to some or all of the sculpture. That clear glaze will be glossy, and may also darken or deepen the appearance of the underglaze.

bulb before the third firing, with pink underglaze

The glaze I usually use over the underglazes appears pink before firing and clear after firing. I use different glazes, which fire to a hotter temperature, for my functional work. Most of the glazes we use at YVC are still different glazes that fire to a yet hotter temperature.

the same bulb after firing, the pink turned clear (over green)

Yakima Art Festival this weekend, and what I've been working on

This weekend I am participating in the Larson Gallery's Yakima Art Festival downtown at the Farmer Market space (Rotary Marketplace) on Yakima Ave.  The festival runs 11-4 on Saturday, June 28 and there's a long list of artists, including myself, John Barany, Cydney Bacon, Denny Driver, Susan Harris, and more. I count 24 participating artists listed on the Larson Gallery website. 

bowls, like those I'll have at the Art Festival

There will also be art activities for kids and food trucks. I've done this show before, but it's been several years. I am hopeful that the new location will make the event more popular and cooler (it was really hot last time I participated). I am also pleased that Larson Gallery has made an effort this year to increase the quality of the artists exhibiting.

I'll bring some sculpture, too

When I agreed to participate, I told myself I would not overdo it on set up and what I would bring. I also told myself I would not try to make a bunch of new work specifically for this show. I have a tendency to forget or write off all the work I have stored in boxes (out of sight; out of mind) and try to make entirely new work. Earlier this spring, I boxed up a lot of my functional pieces to make space for works in progress, which was helpful, but I can feel myself starting to worry that I don't have enough pieces for this show (even though I have so much stuff stored!).

And a few vases and mugs

Since the quarter ended June 13, I have spent most of that time making new work in my home studio. Since I have a show coming up, I have told myself that I should get at least one kiln load finished before then. Why? I don't need to do this, but it just feels like I should need to. I spend something like 12 hours yesterday applying underglazed to new bulbs I've made in 2025 (before the quarter ended). My husband drove my daughter and some classmates to a band leadership camp in Oregon, so I was home alone for most of that time.

experiemental bulbs and bulb parts from spring

I got really excited about making bulbs this year. In March, I installed a group of 100 bulbs in the faculty office hallway in my building, Palmer Martin, at Yakima Valley College. I had already gotten excited about making new bulbs before then, in large part, I think, because our union contract bargaining was finally over. 

my installation at YVC

The installation required 100 bulbs, which I collected from three different "bodies of work" (abstract bulbs, chemo bulbs, and protest bulbs. I also had one single bulb from way back in college or grad school when I was still raku firing the bulbs. (I wanted a raku piece so that I could grab it off the wall and show students, which I already did for the spring class).

my home installation with place-holders non-bulbs and a gap

Collecting 100 bulbs for the Palmer Martin install left me with some gaps in my home installation, so I figured I'd made some more. All spring I felt like I had tons of ideas I wanted to try. I had more ideas than time, which is a nice way to be out of balance. I finished making 100 new bulbs (starting in February, I think) earlier this month

the first layer of underglaze and some newly fired bulbs

In May, I attended an AFT convention in Tacoma. The convention was good, but there were parts of the process that were boring. They weren't pointlessly boring, which was an interesting distinction I hadn't particularly thought of before. Instead, the process requried by Robert's Rules of Order meant that there was repetition that was required. I found that the absolute best way for me to focus was to get out my sketchbook and start sketching bulbs. I was able to pay attention to what was being said, but my mind didn't wander and I wasn't tempted to play on my phone.

my sketch of bulb ideas

The convention was at the Murano Hotel in Tacoma, where glass artists are featured on each floor, meaning that in between convention events, there was lots of art to look at. I came away from the convention with just a ton of pieces I wanted to make. 

I started coloring in the bulb ideas I had started making

As I reached the end of the academic year, I was thinking about what I wanted to do over the summer. We've got a few school visits planned for my daughter, so there's some heavy duty traveling scheduled, but I also wanted to spend time in my studio on things I wanted to make.  The irony is that what I thought, in May, that I'd want to make in summer has turned out to not be quite accurate.

underglazed bulbs waiting for their second layer of underglaze (and glaze)

As usual, my plans for what I want to make in summer include about 3x as much stuff as I can actually find the time to make. Over the summer, before our the open studio at my house on Labor Day weekend, I want/wanted to:

• finish (glaze and underglaze) the 100 bulbs I made during spring
• make face mugs
• make protest and/or face bulbs
• test 3 new (to me) clay bodies on large sculpture to see if they are less likely to crack
• create new pieces for a different wall installation at YVC
• install said wall installation at YVC
• make some mid-size sculptures from my sketchbook
• finish painting the large sculptures from last year

this chain was trick to underglaze without it getting on the bulb

This is obviously way too much. The face bulbs take a lot longer than the abstract bulbs, mugs take longer than bulbs, large scupture takes longer than small or medium sculpture, and my approach to glazing is so stupidly time consuming that it took me 12 hours yesterday to finish the first (of 2 + a glaze layer) layers of underglaze on about 25 bulbs. In the past week, I probably spent ~40 hours on just the first layer of underglaze for 100 bulbs.

tiny vases and bowls for necklaces

Then, once I started thinking about the show coming up this weekend, I decided it would be good to make some cute little critters for kids to see at the show. I also decided I had plenty of time to make and glaze a bunch of tiny vases to turn into necklaces for this weekend.

bulbs waiting on their second layer

And while I've been perfectly happy to do the underglazing on these pieces, I've got two face mugs that have been in progress for most of that week (that I can't seem to get myself to finish). I also bought all this new clay at the end of May so I could use it for the face/politics bulbs and the large sculpture tests, but I haven't gotten to those yet either.

Cali after investigating my new clays

I know that part of the problem is that things just take time. There's literally just two weeks between the end of the quarter and the Art Fest this weekend. And its not even reasonable to spend all day every day in the studio. One day I had to go in to YVC to finish ordering for fall classes, another day Alison and I had our motorcycle endorsement test, and we have had other things like laundry and groceries, and all that non-studio stuff.

a new texture I just tried

So, in large part, I'm writing this post, which is ostensibly just a post to invite y'all to come to the Art Fest this weekend, to calm myself down. I get like this and I need to write it out to calm myself down. But the other thing that's been bugging me is that when I listen to my brain or heart or whatever part of me decides, I really just want to make more abstract bulbs right now, forget the faces and the mugs and the things I think I "should" be making or that folks will buy. I just wanna keep experimenting with textures and ideas from my sketches. I don't wanna do the heavy/thoughtful stuff right now.

these bulbs are ready for cone 6 glazing (which I usually don't do for my bulbs)

New Bulbs Spring 2025

 

newly bisque fired bulbs awaiting glaze

I unloaded my bisque kiln load last week and finally counted how many pieces were in it. I had installed 100 pieces in the faculty office area and my wall installation at home is short 12 bulbs, so my goal is to replace the home bulbs and have 30 ready for the Labor Day Open Studio event at my studio.

newly bisqued bulbs with spikes, sprigs, and some awaiting mixed media additions

I had forgotten that I had a bunch of bowls in the kiln, but besides those, I had 49 entirely new bulbs, plus nine that already had one layer of underglaze on them. As of today, I also have 11 greenware bulbs drying, and a few in progress. As long as I get them glazed this summer, I should be easily able to replace the bulbs I need and have options for the studio tour. 

some bulbs with the first layer of underglaze

The bulbs are a good fit for me for the academic year because they are small and I can finish them in shorter bursts of work time. I've not felt any pressure to come up with new ideas. My issue this summer has been more the opposite: I have trouble finding the time to try all the things I want to try.

chains and chain pieces to be added to bulbs

I would really like to spend some time making some more "politics" or "resist" type bulbs and screaming faces, but those tend to take more uninterrupted concentration for me to create. After work, when I'm squeezing in an hour or so to create these pieces, I don't always have the thinking energy to engage with the more thoughtful or challenging work.

new bulbs with spots for attachments, drips, sprigs, and piercings

Blogging hiatus and what I've been doing instead

Whew, what a year it's been. The last time I posted was just after the Labor Day Artists' Studio Tour in Yakima. After that tour, the academic year at YVC started up, but more importantly from my perspective, bargaining for AFT-Yakima kicked into high gear.

against advise from Monika who has done it before, I started experimenting with ceramic chains

I'm the president of the faculty union and lead negotiator for our contract, though I don't write about it on here much. Our CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) expired at the end of June 2023 after a one-year roll-over of the 2020-22 CBA and we'd been bargaining pretty much non-stop since then. 

I wanted to give the chains a protected space in the bulb, though this may be too much space

Bargaining had kind of stalled out sometime in the spring/summer (and I was getting pretty down about it), but then the long-time president of the college retired and the VP resigned, there were some significant changes in administration and the bargaining team, and we had a couple of good conversations and bargaining got going again.

I think I should have waited until most of it was bisqued to put the chain in, so that I could have colored the whole thing, but I was impatient

Around about the start of the fall quarter, we started meeting weekly. In fall, I was teaching 6 classes, meeting for bargaining each week, doing bargaining prep each week, and attempting to maintain clear communication with our members, as well as my other job duties (for both jobs).

because the chain is flexible, it looks funny laying down, but I'm hoping it will look better hung. I didn't want to mess with it too much before it was fired

Six classes is not as bad as it sounds, since three of them were stacked; I was teaching three intermediate and advanced classes at the same time and during the same classes as two beginning classes. But, it was still 21 class contact hours a week, plus office hours, class prep, grading, kilns, etc. Simply put, it was a tough quarter.   

making the chain wet, then letting it sit for a while seemed fairly safe

But, we got the contract done. We finished bargaining before Thanksgiving, faculty were able to ratify the contract in December, and once the Board of Trustees voted for it in January, we were able to sign it. The contract goes through 2027, so we're all pretty happy to have a break from bargaining for a while.

 I started with much smaller links, but these are probably too fragile

Winter quarter was much better. We weren't barganing, for one. But the new CBA also includes release time for the union president. That means, instead of teaching (more or less) three classes, I only had two (three with stacks), plus one class worth of release time for union duties (of which there remain quite a few, despite not being in active bargaining for the CBA). 

I made a random assortment of bulbs and small pieces during winter break

It happens to be the legislative session for Washington state, so I've been to Olympia twice this winter to talk to legislators about our concerns. I've also attended a town hall, and yesterday I gave remote testimony before the Ways and Means committee on a bill related to faculty CoLAs. I'm planning to give testimony today on the budget. So I've managed to keep pretty busy.

this is also a terrible, idea, as all of these bits are too fragile

I also, managed to get into my home studio a bit towards the end of this quarter, and over Christmas break. I haven't quite had the capacity for big work, so I've been playing around with some ideas in smaller form, especially bulbs.  I mostly threw functional work over Christmas break, because I agreed to make a mug for a friend. 

I was interested in pushing elements out from inside, but again, thse are too fragile

I also spent more time than usual in the YVC studio this quarter. I haven't been able to spend as much time throwing in recent years because of the union and the design (or art history before that) classes I've been teaching.  In the fall, especially, I leaned on my studio assistant and work studies (once we had them) to take on a lot of the burden of loading and firing kilns. I also shifted a bit more of the loading/unloading of kilns to class time because that was the only time I had.

I was playing around with the extra chain links pressed into the mold

This winter, I was able to throw more example pieces, finish more pieces I threw as examples, and also catch up on a bunch of studio tasks I'd been putting off.  I've had a long list of demos, examples, videos, and signs I wanted to make for the studio, and a list of edits needed in the online portions of my classes. Finally in winter I was able to start working through some of these.

I also need to solve a problem related to these big guys from last summer

We are on spring break now, and I am not spending the whole week prepping classes or bargaining, for a change. I'm only teaching two classees, and those are stacked (because of the longer class meeting periods for studio classes, the balance of my teaching load is asymmetrical, even before adding the union release time I am getting in Winter and Spring, but didn't get in Fall before the CBA was ratified.

the big ones mostly cracked in firing, probably because of the size--possibly different clay would prevent this

I am trying to spend the break in the studio, though there's a long list of other tasks I've been putting off, too. I also plan to spend a day installing some work at YVC. Over winter quarter, the art faculty in Yakima got permission to install some of our work in the shared office areas, so I'm both looking forward to the work being up and not exactly looking forward to the install (because I don't like being on a ladder and the install is just a bit tedious).

so I can't really subject them to multiple additional firings for color, so I plan to paint them

Mostly, I'm feeling pretty good. It felt great to make progress in bargaining and even greater to get the whole CBA done. Fall was exhausting, so it felt good to catch my breath in winter. Now I'm looking forward to continuing to catch up on class stuff (the boring stuff, like improving organization for my many class video demos, and the important stuff like redoing or adding to those video demos).

but layering paint colors is different from layering underglaze colors, so I need to experiment

I'm also looking forward to doing some larger work in the studio. Larson Gallery has a new director and we discussed having a faculty show every 3 years. That's just about perfect, because it gives me some time to make new work (and experiment), with a spacious and flexible exhibition opportunity coming up eventually (but not too soon).

I bought some alternative materials so may I will eventually actually try them and maybe even write about my results