Bad Throwing Day!

last week, everything's going great

Last week things were going great. I was very happy with two of my sculptures and I finished building on three pieces. I was feeling good about my work. And then I remembered another commitment I had made for the summer. And then another. See, working in my studio at home can mean a few things and I approach them differently. My favorite thing to do is to come up with a new idea for a sculpture, build it from scratch and, eventually, finish it. I also feel pretty good about finishing work that is in pieces in my studio from last summer.

blah cups

For some reason, when I am not in my studio, or when I just get back into it, other projects seem reasonable as well. At the start of this summer, I made a bunch of thrown pieces for Yakima Rotary. It was a nice way to get back into the studio for the summer, it went fairly quickly, and the stuff is done and delivered. But two weeks is about all the functional throwing I can tolerate happily before I want to build up and out and non-functionally.

the look I was going for

So these other commitments: both are more restrictive than building sculpture. One I agreed to in the middle of the academic year; I will be making something to do with metal for the Art on the Wall exhibition at the Fourth Street Theatre. The other is a set of thrown mugs. 

argh!

I thought, for some reason, that I could just quickly throw the mugs in a few days and have them done in a week and a half or so. I threw most of the commission pieces in a few days. But, apparently, after doing the commission and the sculptures, I forgot how to throw. I had a terrible throwing day on Friday. I had trouble centering. I had trouble with air bubbles, I had trouble with just about every step of the process. It was incredibly frustrating.

grr!

I tell my students that some days you just have a bad throwing day. It's true, some days are just like that. But it is a whole lot easier to tell someone else that bad days happen than it is to accept that I am having a bad day.

harumph.

It is possible that a couple of things impacted my throwing. My throwing stool randomly broke last week while I was sitting on it. On Friday I used the stool for throwing, but with the casters taken off and that meant I was seated lower than usual. Sometimes sitting at a different height, or in a different position can contribute to a bad throwing day.

handles I tried to pull, that wiggled and cracked and bent and annoyed me

I also made some adjustments to my clay while I was preparing the clay. Because I cut apart the clay and put it back together, I may have introduced air pockets in the clay that turned into annoying air bubbles in the walls of my pieces.

too-dry handle and sloppy attachment

There are any number of things that might have contributed to me being stressed, tense, distracted or otherwise "off."  Sometimes the best response is to take a break. I scrapped several pieces from this project, but I did manage to throw about twelve cylinders. 

the sound of this handle is "thunk" (as it hits the bat)

Much later that day I pulled handles, badly. I took a break for a couple hours and came back to clean off my wheel and get the handles ready. I had left throwing water in the splash pan and the clay had settled at the edges, forming a strangely stiff, crumbly silt ring around the splash pan. It got me wondering if the clay was a little weird, too. But, I don't usually throw with porcelain and I don't usually leave a dirty wheel for a couple hours.

the little handle is ok

I managed to pull more handles than I needed and not all of them were awful. I left them covered until Saturday afternoon when I attached them. Of course they were drier than I intended. I had originally planned to throw in the morning, pull handles and trim after lunch, then attach the handles in the afternoon. Waiting a day stiffened up the handles more than the mugs. I was able to attach them all, but I'm not excited about any of the handles I made. 

meh

And, sadly, some days are like that (even in Australia).

First Summer 2016 Sculpture(s) in Progress (3 of 3)

top of this third sculpture (a similar form to those on the most recent large piece)

I was working on three sculptures for the last week and a half. I wrote about the others last week. The third "first" piece is smaller and simpler in form now, though I plan to attach some more non-ceramic elements once it is colored, glazed, and fired.

working on texture and sprigs

I didn't alter the form much from how it was thrown, though I added sprigs and texture. The piece consists of two ceramic forms now, though there will be some ceramic pieces added later that haven't been built yet.

bike part additions temporarily in place (and lighting fail)

To be honest, this piece got less of my attention last week. I got a little distracted when I was reminded that I agreed to make a piece for a show at the Fourth Street Theatre at the Capitol Theatre. I have spent this week under-glazing for the metal themed piece that I plan to make for the Art on the Wall exhibition.

my barely-started "metal" piece for Art on the Wall

I will get back to the small sculpture after this other piece is farther along or while parts are in the kiln this week. 

first small sculpture of the summer--incomplete

First Summer 2016 Sculpture(s) in Progress (2 of 3)

the top of this sculpture, in progress

Earlier this week, I posted images of my first sculpture of the the summer, but this week and last, I worked on three sculptures concurrently. This post shows my progress on another first sculpture of the summer.

thrown forms for this sculpture

I work on several pieces at the same time because it is more efficient. I like to throw pieces in one day and then clean up my wheel, so I throw about 25 lbs of parts, and then build with those parts for the next week or two. After I build on it for a while, a piece usually needs to stiffen up a little before I can continue building on it. Having a second or third form to work on allows the first piece to set up while I work on the next.

the simple base of this sculpture with bike parts

I've had an idea for the top of this piece since May. On a walk to school, I saw a plant that had closed buds on one side and open flowers on the other;  it got me thinking about a similar contrast of forms on a ceramic sculpture.

inspiration flowers

I made the closed and open forms, first. I didn't take many pictures because I was generally using both hands for these forms. I threw closed bulb shapes for all ten of the forms, then sliced half of them open and incised lines in the other half.

an open bulb in progress

Then I built up the split base using coils added to a simple thrown form, I split the form and coiled the two knobby parts closed at the top. After these knobby parts and the base set up for a few days, I added the closed and open forms on top.

 
the base and top sections with and without bulbous additions

The closed forms were attached on one side first, which made the whole piece a little tippy on the banding wheel. I attached the open forms on the next day and the whole form is most stable, though naturally the sculpture is a little top heavy now.

bulbous additions (open and closed) in progress

Each side of the top has five bulbous forms altered to represent closed and open buds. There is a space in the inside of each set of bulbous forms that is open and was smooth and plain after I added the bulbs. 

closed bulbous forms

Later, I decided to add some texture inside both interior spaces. It was fairly easy to add small sprigs in between the closed forms, but adding them in between the open forms was tricky because my fingers couldn't reach. I ended up dropping the sprigs inside and then attaching them with a rubber tip tool. 

sprigs inside the closed form

The base of the sculpture is fairly simple in form. the focal point is naturally the large top section, but I seem to be incapable of not decorating a surface.  I ended up using three types of decoration: gear sprigs, impressed stamps with a swirl pattern, and round plain sections meant to hold on some bicycle parts.

 
base and base detail

The addition of bicycle parts will naturally complicate the base section. I haven't entirely planned how this will look on the bottom yet.

crack repair and support with fabric

Just as I was finishing the texture inside the bulbs, the sculpture developed a small crack at the split between the two top bulb sections. I should have known this would happen, look at all that weight on either side of the base. I should have made the transition more gradual, reinforced it better, or used some external support armatures. Since I didn't do those things, I decided to tied a strip of cloth around the heavy sections, reinforce the seam from the top, and hope for the best.

sculpture selfie (the lighting is better facing into the studio, but taking pictures that way is tough)

The end result may be that the piece redevelops the crack during drying or firing. I'm keeping in mind the conversation I had with Beth Cavener last summer in Montana. She was working on a sculpture that she had made in pieces because she wanted to attach the front paw after firing so that she could control the position. Previously I have heard her explain that she attaches the fired pieces together, but I challenge anyone to find her seams. I've also used epoxy quite a bit with my bike part pieces. I can use it on a seam too. (In fact, maybe next time I should build these two parts separately and attach them once they are fired. They'd fit in the kiln more easily.)

First Summer 2016 Sculpture(s) in Progress (1 of 3)

finished wiggly rim selfie

Last week I was finally able to begin my first serious sculpture of 2016, after completing commission work and glazing through most of June.

one not-very-exciting thrown piece of the eventual sculpture

I threw some pieces on Tuesday and started putting them together over the next couple days. I had a fairly good idea of the basic structure of the one piece and the top of another, but the form of the pieces developed further while the thrown parts were pieced together. 

the basic form in progress

I wanted to build a piece that had a large bulb-like shape on the bottom rather than a simple round base. I was thinking of the form of the piece I did for the SRAM Bike Project, way back in 2012. However, now that I look back at that piece, the forms are less directly similar than they were in my head. Regardless, I wanted to explore this bulbous base for a bike-part form again.

texture, sprigs, and chain track in progress

I wanted to incorporate bike parts into this piece as well, but I didn't want the bottom part to be plain or all bike-part-y, so I incorporated some sprigs from a mold I've had for quite a while. The mold is off a bell pepper. It's one of the biggest sprig molds I have and it allowed me to make sprigs of different sizes for this piece.

part of the chain in its track

One issue that came up in building this form is that the chain doesn't really want to bend the way I'd like to use it. I decided to put the chain "track" where I want the chain to go and manually adjust the chain later, after firing. I want the chain to curve in both dimensions. I haven't altered the chain much previously, aside from length, so this will be a new challenge...to deal with later.

texture, sprigs, and chain track

As often happens, while I am building, I got so carried away with the surface texture on this piece (and two others I was working on concurrently), that the project surface took up the bulk of my time compared to the relatively fast building of the form.

the base, formed and mostly textured

I didn't work on the projects over the long weekend, though I was a little worried about them drying too much in that time. When I came back to them today, some parts for a different piece were a little dry, but this form was fine to build on.

 

the opening with gear stack (left) and the neck more completely textured (right)

Today I spent my time working mostly on the neck and the top opening of this form, but I am not finished. I want the gear cassette to be prominent in the opening at the top of the form, so I plan to cut the rim a little shorter than it is in these pictures and wave the edges.

the form and texture nearly complete for the day

When I finished working on this piece today, the rim was a little too dry to move how I wanted it too, so I wet it, compressed it, and wrapped it up in plastic. Then I started on the other larger sculpture I was working on and never got back to the first one. If all goes well, I should finish building this form tomorrow. Edit: I finished building this form Wednesday.

finished wiggly rim

New Glazed Work

I spent the bulk of the first two weeks of summer working on a commission for Rotary. While I was waiting on kilns, or filling in bits of unused time during this commission, I finished some functional work, mostly left over from last summer's workshop at Archie Bray.

slip trailed celadon mug thrown last summer, glazed last week

Last summer I threw work before the workshop, and glazed it in Montana. Then I threw work at the workshop and brought it home but mostly didn't get around to glazing it. I tried to spend my remaining bits of summer making sculpture, but mostly spent that time moving into the new building 

slip trailing bowls

Glazing is not my favorite fun-time activity. In fact I usually dread it. But, it is an activity that can be done in fairly small snatches of time when one doesn't have time to wedge, thrown and clean up before summer camp ends (and mom-time begins and one needs to pick up the kid).

slip trailing and underglaze

My major psychological advantage getting work glazed this summer versus last, is that this time around I had a stock of glazes that I actually kind of like. An added bonus is that I had a limited stock of glazes, so I wouldn't need to glaze more than four bottles worth.

slip trailing and celadon dots

I was fairly methodical in my glazing and stuck to the same palette and a similar plan as the work I did for the Rotary commission. The major adjustment is that instead of highlighting slashed marks with underglaze, I decorated some part of these pieces with slip trailed "hanging balloons." (I'm thinking of them as hanging balloons, from another perspective they're lollipops or circles at the end of lines.)

bowls and commission work after firing

I have fired about half of the glazed pieces, in the kilns with the Rotary commission work. Some of the stuff in the last firing didn't get quite hot enough, so I will need to re-fire it. Most of the work fired hot enough for the clear to flux (melt), but some of the colors look matte. Another 50-100 degrees or hour of firing should have fluxed all the glazes, but since they're cool now, I'll have to re-fire them completely.

under-fired pink celadon

I also have some pieces that haven't gotten to the kiln yet at all. Still, I have enough work done and fired correctly that I feel a sense of accomplishment and not the usual grumbly dread that accompanies glazing time for me.

un-fired glaze (on a form and glaze pattern started last year)

The glazes I used for these pieces are cone 6 celadons from Amaco. I've been pretty happy with them so far. I had started quite a few of the Archie Bray pieces with underglazes last summer, so the colors in this batch are more varied than they would otherwise be, but this time around, I only added black underglaze in a slip trailer and the four celadon glazes. 

two slip trailed pieces, possibly under-fired

On the new work, I have been trying to shape a thick rim into the pieces for a logical end for the colored glaze and a start for the hanging balloon decorations, but last summer I wasn't thinking this far ahead. The result is that some of the pieces I threw last year have a less logical starting point for glaze decoration. 

newly glazed bowls started last year

One really happy accidental result of this lack of planning when throwing is the bowl that has an irregular blue rim. The rim was meant to be round, but I slip trailed around the rim and ended up higher than intended. I decided to just treat the hanging string of one balloon as the edge for the rim color. I was annoyed when I glazed it, but coming out of the kiln it is one of my favorites.

my new favorite blue shell bowl

Last week, besides glazing old work, I threw some lidded pieces, in part because of a tentative commission through Oak Hollow Gallery. These pieces have slip trailing, but I haven't completed the glaze application yet. Actually, I ran out of glaze and only got the replacement order this week. 

slip trailed pieces awaiting new glaze