Labor Day Weekend Open House & Tall Work in Progress

Coming up this Labor Day weekend, I will be hosting an open house at my home studio. My art colleagues at Yakima Valley College, Kayo Nakamura, Monika Lemmon, and Chris Otten will also have their work on display at my studio. 

This year's postcard, featuring work by me, Monika, Kayo, and Chris

Like last year, the show will run Saturday and Sunday 10-4 and Monday 10-12 at my house, 203 S. 8th Ave in Yakima, near Davis High School. Unlike last year, admission is free! The studio is on the ground level, but in back of the house, and visitors will have to walk across some grass and there is a small step into the studio itself. We'll also have work displayed in the yard.

me, Chris, Monika, and Kayo

My studio has been a part of the Yakima Artists' Studio Tour for the past 4 years, but this year we decided to separate ourselves from the tour for several reasons, including that we don't really want to charge folks to visit the studio. We are holding the open house on the same weekend and have offered to tell our visitors about the Tour, though we are taking care of our own advertising, such as it is, for this event.

finishing three parts of this large sculpture from last year (the cat thinks the paint water is her dish)

My goal with this event is to show off my studio and my work, as well as the work of my colleauges, and to chat with folks, socialize, and hang out with friends. I signed on to the tour back in 2021 for the same reasons, and because I like the idea of a weekend set aside for folks to visit different art studios in the area. I would like the tour to be free for visitors.

Dates and times are the same as last year, but we're no longer an official part of the tour 

Months or a year ahead of time, I always think that inviting people to come to my studio sounds easier than taking my work someplace else, but when it comes down to it, I'm not sure that's actually true. There's a lot of cleaning involved in opening my home studio to the public, and I need to stop making new work (or finishing old work) at least several days or a week ahead of time in order to clean and arrange the space to show work rather than make it.

clean windows, floor, and wheel, this only happens once a year!

On the other hand, it's not a bad idea to sometimes clean my studio. This is the only way the windows are going to get washed.

my large (complicated) sculpture started last year

I've spent most of my studio time this summer trying to finish work I made last year or in the spring. Honestly, I kind of hate finishing work. I like making things out of clay, but I don't like glazing nearly so much and this summer I learned that I pretty much hate painting--at least the way I was doing it.

ooh, that crack!

Last year I completed several tall multi-part sculptures, but the bottom parts cracked in the kiln. I suspect that they cracked because the clay body couldn't handle the size and weight of the clay. In May, I bought several different sculpture clay bodies to test my theory that the clay is at fault, but I haven't found the time to do make anything out of those clays (because I've been glazing and painting instead).

I usually fire the first layers of underglaze, then add a second layer and wipe it away from the raised textures

Because the bottoms cracked in the bisque or first underglazing firing, I didn't want to fire them again. My usual approach to sculptural surfaces is to layer underglazes, which, for me, means 3 firings. The cracks  were likely to get worse in subsequent firings, so I had determined to patch the cracks and use a cold finish (meaning an unfired finish, in this case paint and paper).

the repaired base with acrylic paint

Last summer I asked my painting colleagues for recommendations and during the year I purchased some acrylic and gouache paints and practiced using layering gouache over acrylic paint. This summer I finally got around to using the gouache on the most complicated of the large sculptures. It worked great for what I wanted, but it took forever and was somehow more tedious than my already far too tedious underglazing layering techniques.

the first layers of gouache on the sprigged surface

The tedium had a lot to do with my approach. Instead of using one or two colors of gouache over the blue acrylic, I decided to use eleventy-seven colors, which took eleventy-seven hours to apply, and then an additional infinity to wipe away.

the gouache partially wiped away from the sprigs

I finally finished the paint layers on all 3 of the parts of this textured stacking form, but I still haven't finished the piece, because the plan is to add paper layers over the blue sections. Honestly, by the time I finally finished the paint, I didn't want to look at this sculpture anymore.

the gouache nearly completed

Also, before the Labor Day open house, I really wanted to finish glazing the 100 bulbs I had made in the Spring. I've got the last batch in the kiln today, so my plan is to clear some space and get the paper done on this sculpture before the show. Which is why I've decided to take time out of my day to write a blog post...and mop the floor...and clean my email...and maybe I'll paint the kitchen today, too.

painting all done, pieces stacked (somehow it feels like it should be taller than this)

If you'd like to see this piece finished, stop by my studio on Labor Day weekend, there's, like, a really good chance it will be done by then.

Small Sculpture and Cracking Glaze

this sculpture with two others in 2015

I've been working on a couple pieces of sculpture since 2015. I built them in 2015, applied underglaze in 2016, but couldn't finish them until this year, maybe, because their surfaces are causing me an unusual amount of trouble.

the first layer of underglaze in 2016

The one that has caused me the most trouble is a simple vertical sculpture with three bulb shaped attachments. There's no problem with the structure itself, but I could not get underglaze to stay put. When I first applied underglaze, it seemed fine. I fired it in place, but when I went to apply a second coat of a contrasting color, the first coat started to crack off.

two layers of slip cracking off

I can't remember fired underglaze cracking off any other work I've done besides this sculpture and another made at the same time. Generally, if glaze or underglaze won't stick to a surface it is because there is wax, grease, or dust on the surface, but none of those substances should survive firing and scrubbing. I picked off the underglaze that was cracking and scrubbed the whole pot before reapplying another layer of underglaze, but after a second firing, that too cracked off in multiple places. 

slip cracking off

At some point in 2016, I got mad and just covered the whole thing with throwing slip. I didn't expect this to solve the problem, but I was annoyed and didn't want to look at the piece anymore. The throwing slip cracked too, of course.

 
wet slip (you can see the circles of underglaze through the slip) and dry, cracking slip from 2016

This year, I decided to wash off the slip and see if there was anything to be done for the piece. Bits of hard, fired underglaze were still cracking off and where they cracked, they left a sharp edge and change in thickness that would show up through a new coat of underglaze. 

grinding off the underglaze

I decided to use a wire wheel to grind off as much underglaze as I could. Grinding off the underglaze was satisfying but messy. Mostly the underglaze cracked off, sometimes it required grinding, and in one section, the red underglaze was adhered so well that grinding didn't budge it--at least the amount of grinding time I was willing to commit didn't budge it.

the red that wouldn't grind off

At the tight corners, the wire brush was too thick to reach the underglaze. As it wasn't cracking, I decided to leave it alone. The transition between the raised level of the underglaze and the raw ceramic was more gentle than where the underglaze cracked off, so I guessed the depth change wouldn't show through the next layer of underglaze.

the wire brushed sculpture

I kind of like the ground texture of the raw ceramic. The sand and grog has become visible as the smooth ceramics surface was ground away. The rougher texture makes the surface look like cement, but the overall result doesn't feel like something I had much control over. The hard-to-reach crevices show up purple and blue and the hard, irregular red section looks out of place.

the wire brushed surface

I decided to reapply a red underglaze over the body and purple over the already purple bulb/leaf shapes and just fire it with a gloss over the top of everything. The piece is now "finished." It doesnt' appear to be cracking, but neither is it all that exciting to look at. Though a lot simpler than many of my other pieces, its surface required much more effort than what shows up in the piece now.

the "finished" piece from 2015

As I was getting pictures ready for this post, I pulled the masking tape off of the other vertical sculpture from 2015 (seen in back right of the first picture in this post). I had masking tape in place to hold on a bike part I had epoxied in place to complete the piece. When I pulled off the masking tape, it pulled a cracked section of glaze and underglaze off the surface of the sculpture. Sigh.

glaze cracks show up (today!) in the other sculpture from 2015

Finishing Sculpture from Last Summer

Building

Last summer, I started building two large sculptures but ran out of summer work time before I could finish them. I was able to build the sculptures last summer and bisque them, once I got a new kiln. They waited patiently in my studio until June of this year when I was able to begin applying color.

the sculpture in progress in 2016

Planning Attachments

Last summer, while I was building, I planned to attach bike parts to both sculptures. I had been thinking about moving parts for some time and I knew I wanted to try incorporating small scale moving parts positioned like leaves on the stem of the taller plant form.

placing bike parts in their planned location

The bike parts themselves incorporate bearings and have a nice smooth spinning motion. Last year, I had thrown some round shapes on the wheel with the intention of using them on top of bike pieces roughly this size. I epoxied these round forms onto bike parts. Inside these forms I attached found objects and fired ceramic pieces to add visual interest and to hold up the "stamen" of the "flower."

spinning bike parts with ceramic toppers

Underglazing and Glazing

The underglazing process for this sculpture, like all my underglazing processes, took a ridiculously long time because I layer at least two colors on each part of the sculpture.

first layer of underglaze in the kiln

For this sculpture, I first applied green underglaze to the "stem" or "trunk" of the plant, yellow to the gear sprigs, and purple to the closed and open forms on top of the sculpture. I bisque fired these first underglaze colors in place, then applied off-white into the texture of the stem and red on the gear sprigs, interiors, and indents of the top forms. There are a few more colors applied and layered on the sprigs that are almost hidden inside the circle formed by the top forms.

 
first and second layers of underglaze in progress

Applying the red on the top forms was most difficult where the forms butted up against one another. It took me several days and I had to wipe off glaze and reapply several times. Finally, once everything was fired to my satisfaction, I applied gloss glaze on the top forms and the sprigs.

underglaze and glaze finished

Repairs

Last summer, during the drying process, a small but noticeable crack developed between the two top sections. The crack was probably due to the heavy weight of the two top sections pulling down on either branch of the stem. I noticed it before the form was completely dry and tried to save it by adding clay and using fabric to put the two sides in traction. 

bracing the sculpture to try to prevent cracking

The repair didn't wholly fix the problem and I was left with a small crack between the two branches. After the last glaze firing, I mixed up some epoxy paste and pressed it into the crack. Once the epoxy set, I mixed some acrylic paint and painted the epoxy to match the underglaze.

epoxy on the crack 

The seam isn't noticeable at first glance, but I plan to further hide the repair by painting a matching off-white paint into the impressed texture to match the design elsewhere on the sculpture.

painted crack

Attachments

After all the glazing and repair was complete, I finished attaching the blue flower shapes (a.k.a. "end caps") to their non-ceramic elements and then attached those to the sculpture itself. 

toppers (a.k.a. end caps) before being attached

I had built round shapes sticking out of the sculpture to which these bike pieces would be attached.

the round part onto which the bike part attaches

One major challenge was applying the epoxy so that it stuck to the interior of the bike part but did not stick to the outside that was supposed to move.

epoxy applied

While the epoxy set, the attachments had to be held in place with masking tape. Only three of the six attachments are set as of this writing, but all three of those spin freely. The others are setting with tape in place.

toppers being held in place while epoxy sets

My goal for September is to take some quality images of this finished sculpture and possibly finish the other large piece as well.

a funny angle on the almost-finished work

Student Sculpture from Winter 2017

This reclining lady, whose body and face are covered with leaves, is actually incomplete, according to the student, and may have more color when next seen at the DoVA Student Exhibition in May.

Last week was finals for winter quarter at Yakima Valley College. I had four clay classes, two of which were hand-building classes, the others were wheel classes. We had glaze critiques for both groups and I remembered to take pictures of some of the work that was finished. 

 

These two portrait heads were some of the last pieces finished building, but both survived with minimals cracking during the firing.

The end of a hand-building class is fun because we get to see such a wide range of work. This quarter I began the class with a portrait project. It was fun to start this way, but the project was more challenging than my usual beginning project using coils. The class, overall, did fairly well building the portraits, but we encountered more trouble* with thickness, air pockets, and cracks or blow-ups during firing than usual.

  

These three heads show the range of damage: the grey lady's chin and mouth hid an air pocket which exploded during the firing, taking of her chin, but also cracking her head from her shoulders, Dwight from The Office had less extensive damage, most of which was repair before critique, Kanye was well crafted and very thin so that he survived the firing with not even a superficial crack in his head or body.

The higher than usual breakage may have been because we started with such a challenging project and the students didn't fully understand why the pieces had to be as thin and I told them or it may have been because they had trouble making the pieces as thin as I instructed. Many, though not all, of the sculptures had to have some sort of repair done after firing to deal with cracks, exploded parts, or parts that broke off before or during firing.

 

These two very different approaches to dog portraits were also finished very differently; the one sitting up was painted with underglaze and some low fire glaze and fired, the one on the left was painted with acrylics.

During the last weeks of the quarter, I gave several epoxy demonstrations to show students how to repair cracks or breakage, smooth seams, and fill gaps left by the explosions. I demonstrated three types of two part epoxies: some simply two-ton epoxy gel, some PC-11 epoxy paste, and some epoxy putty for filling gaps. I also demonstrated and discussed how to hide or fill cracks, make the epoxy less visible, and match the glaze color and texture with paint and gloss medium.

This cat is hard to photograph because of its shiny black glaze, but the form is interesting in person.

Despite several demonstrations and explanations, a significant portion of the class had trouble understanding that epoxy and acrylic paint cannot be fired with glaze in the kiln. I eventually started keeping count of how many times I had to repeat the explanation or reminder that epoxy will burn off in the kiln (I repeated it 9 times, though, to be fair, the last several reminders were to individuals).

This small portrait suffered from an unexpected underglaze reaction that turned the face bubbly and rough and perhaps darkens the character, but the expression is still effective.

I am actually a bit concerned that so many of the students seemed not to grasp the basic physics of firing and the processes that impact shrinkage, glaze melting, and the process of turning clay into ceramic, not to mention the difference between clay and epoxy, paint and glaze. I feel that I spend a significant amount of time talking about not just what students need to do to keep their sculpture intact, but why. I'm considering, next time I teach this class, firing a sacrificial piece in the kiln to show them what happens with epoxy. I may also switch the assignment order back to what it had been--easier project first.

This peacock meant to hang on the wall survived building, firing, and glazing, only to suffer damage from rough handling on the day of the critique. The break is minimal, however, and the peacock should show up in the Spring DoVA show.

Because of the structure of the 10-week class, much of the work is not completely finished until the last week. The first three projects in the class are building projects which we critique when the work is wet, dry, or bisque fired. The final critique is a glazing and finishing critique, in which we see the first three projects again, this time with glazed and/or painted surfaces.

 

One challenge of photographing in the classroom without a photo setup is that some of the angles don't show the full sculpture. This carefully repaired and painted elephant has an interesting pose from multiple perspectives.

The good thing about this setup is that the students get lots of time to start glazing their first and second pieces. The bad thing about this setup is that students sometimes run out of energy and enthusiasm at the end of the quarter, meaning that sometimes glazing on well-built projects is poorly executed. 

This elephant, too, suffers from the poor quality photo, but his extensive repair was particularly well done.

This quarter I had one student, in particular, who had two well-built projects with poorly executed glaze. The glaze on one was so thick it ran extensively, permanently attaching her sculpture to a biscuit of clay placed underneath to prevent damage to my kiln shelf. Another of this student's pieces had very thin glaze that ended up obscuring the texture of her sculpture rather than highlighting it. 

These two sculptures are actually pieces of three separate works that were damaged during firing. The end-result combines  raku and cone 10 reduction firings, as well as epoxy.

However, I also had one student who managed to resurrect some sculpture that had been almost a total loss because of an explosion during firing. This student's work had lots of damage during firings, but he spent time carefully applying epoxy and paint to repair one piece in such a way that the damage was hard to see at the critique. He also brought several broken parts of other works together with various glaze applications to create a new sculpture. 

This mermaid platter was painted with underglaze but not glaze for critique. The photo angle doesn't really show the depth of the piece.

It's lots of fun to see the stuff students finish, especially when they take the time to make the repairs, but it's disappointing when students don't finish their work. Similarly, it is disappointing to grade that last test and realize that they never did understand a fundamental concept from the class. Last week I had a few of these disappointments, but I also had a few of the best grading experiences: when the last test was better than all the previous tests, or when the discussion at the class critique revealed that the student knew their glazes and could explain exactly what they did to achieve a certain visual effect.

A tree with blue snake and a totem pole with a blue snake.

* The basic rules for a safe bisque firing are to make sure that the work is dry, make sure it isn't too thick (I usually tell students to aim for a quarter to a half inch or no thicker than their thumb), make sure there are no contained air pockets (because hot air is bigger than cool air), and make sure to fire the kiln slowly (with a preheat or candle). Most, if not all, of the cracking this quarter was due to thick walls and/or contained air pockets that exploded.

This poor turtle suffered from air pockets and thick walls.