Teaching Studios Online: Design & Clay (and why I blog about teaching)

Faceted Bowls, carved from solid, class example

 

This winter I am teaching my Clay 1: Hand-building class entirely online for the second time. In September, I learned I would be teaching the clay class online about 2 weeks before the quarter started, so I scrambled to get ready and pretty much stayed in scramble mode from September to December. This quarter, and over the break, I've been able to revise the class at a more reasonable pace and build on my experience and student feedback from the fall.

 

Shelf, carved from solid, class example

What I Learned in Fall

I learned a lot during the quarter about how I teach studio classes, mostly I (repeatedly) learned that when students are in the room with me, there is a lot of informal teaching that I don't necessarily think a lot about and which doesn't get written down anywhere. I know what techniques I teach and even which parts of which techniques are taught on which days, but there is a daily repetition of certain terms and concepts, as well as daily interaction with students that are impacted by what they're making, how far along they are, and what complications are impacting their current build. Besides that, many of my daily interactions with students are heard by their classmates and apply to more than one student, so that my recommendation to one student might result in another student making a correction without my direct involvement.

For this quarter, I made bisque texture rollers and stamps to put in the students' studio kits so they'd have a bit more variety in their tools and texture options.

I think the advantages of the modality obscured some of the costs, at least early on in the process of moving the class online. I've had some great success with flipping my classes so that students are preparing at home and working together in the studio. I have a lot of video demos online and students watch these videos online, then come to class ready to work. In fact, I've had students in the past who missed entire weeks of in-class meetings and were still able to catch up. 

This stuffed elephant sculpture by Margarita Cruz (Winter 2018) was built almost entirely in one day. Circumstances beyond her control prevented her from attending class, but she watched all the videos, then came in and just worked really hard for hours one day to get it done.

In an online class, technique demonstrations are about as good as in an in-person class, especially since most of my main demos have been moving online over the past several years anyway. The written assignment directions are probably improved quite a bit from when the class meets in person and students have ready access to rubrics right away (rather than whenever I get around to sharing them). I've actually improved my specificity in communicating to students things like how thick the wall should be, and I've added demonstrations to show them how to do many of the "little" things that sometimes get demonstrated in class, like how to measure wall thickness, flip a wide scupture, and substitute tools.

a video from a playlist on carving solid, this one captures some of the "little" things that might otherwise be demonstrated in class

But I can't peek over the students' shoulders and casually let them know that they have more carving to do. I can give them this feedback when they meet with me or once they have submitted their assignments, but once they've submitted something for grading, this kind of feedback seems like criticism rather than support. Importantly, I can't catch them and stop them in the moment before the piece is going to collapse and help them brace it and understand what happened. This I do on-campus both during and between classes when students are working in the studio. 

Segmented bowls, carved from one solid log (see video above), class example

Also, vitally, they've lost some significant amount of their in-class interactions with classmates. They still can interact with classmates in critiques and other discussions, but there isn't the kind of automatic time spent working together. For several years, as I've been working to flip my classes, I've discovered that the flipped modality, especially in the Hand-building and Intro to Clay classes has allowed students to take on some leadership and peer support roles in the classroom. For the past several years, I've had students work on different proejcts in the same space, meaning that one group of students is working on the 3D printer, while another group is using the extruder. This means that students learn the tools and techniques in different order from their classmates, then are able to support their classmates who are getting to those tools and techniques later.

Notan Cut Paper, Jordy Marquez, 2D Design, Fall 2020

Obviously the working on different tools part doesn't translate well when students don't have access to many of those tools, but I think there's some level of discussion between classmates that happens in a live class but is difficult to replicate online. So in my online studio classes I haven't really figured out how to look over students' shoulders and I haven't figured out how to get students to support their classmates. My classes are asynchronous, and thus don't have a designated meeting or work time where I can see them working. Some online classes meet synchronously, and maybe that's what I should be doing, but that's now how I've set up these classes. 

Line Project, Marvin Mendoza-Rosas, 2D Design, Fall 2020

Design Class Online

Last quarter, my other new online studio class was Two-Dimensional Design. I hadn't taught the Design class in years and never had any elements of it online, so I designed that class from scratch, including projects, check-ins, and timing that were planned for online first, rather than modified from a face-to-face class. In the Design class, I had weekly projects, with 1 or 2 "planning assignments" that directly related to the projec, as well as a set of interactive content lessons and sketchbook assignments designed to help students learn each week's composition or formal element of art terminology. 

Notan Project, Kyle Win, 2D Design, Fall 2020

In the clay class, on the other hand, I kept the project timing basically the same, with 2-3 week projects, demonstrations and interactive lessons. My changes were mostly to do with techniques and with creating new demos and information about projects to put online. Since students didn't have access to the same equipment as they do on campus, I couldn't reuse the projects, and since we couldn't learn basic technniques, clay processes, recycling, and kiln loading in the studio, I had to move all that online as well. I reduced the size of projects a bit, to try to account for traveling with clay for firings, and added to the section on taking quality photographs because photos (and video) are the only ways students can show me their work.

Notan Cut Paper, anonymous student example, 2D Design, Fall 2020

In both fall classes, I required students to check in with me roughly every other week. This was a quick ~10 minute check-in via Zoom (or phone or email if their schedules and/or internet connections couldn't accomodate Zoom) for me to check that students have started working, answer questions, and help make sure they were moving in the right direction. I knew I wanted to make up for the lack of face-to-face interactions, but a 10-15 minute check-in each week with each student would be ~9 hours of my week spent doing check ins. As I write this, it occurs to me that some sort of group check-in might work (and I could maybe give the students a chance to check in with their classmates, too).  

Color Collage by Jordy Marquez, 2D Design, Fall 2020

I've been particularly concerned with scheduling in flexibility, not just because the class is asynchronous, but because so many students seem to have such complicated schedules. From what I've seen, during the pandemic it appears more of my students are working full- or part-time and taking at least a full load, while also helping the family or raising kids. It's really alarming, actually, and I both see where it comes from (they've got bills and responsibilities, and they think they can make it work), but know it is unsustainable. I worry that students are going to burn out, but I'm really saddened that students are not getting as much out of their college education and experience because they are exhausted from trying to do it all at once.

Color Collage by Kyle win, 2D Design, Fall 2020

This quarter, several students have informed me that they are taking 4 classes (a normal full time load is 3), while also working. And, of course, we know they are also dealing with the additional stress and uncertainty of living and working during a pandemic. I suspect that the thinking goes something like this: "since my classes are online and don't have a meeting time, I can add them in anytime."  But the thing with a college level class is that you can move the work around, but you still need the time! Students who have taken on too much come to their classes exhausted and unable to function. They can't understand as well when they are tired, and I assume the same thing happens in their job and their families, too.

  

Color Collage, anonymous student example, 2D Design, Fall 2020

In the fall, I noticed that the Design students were more consistent in turning work in on time. I realized that their class had more built-in check-ins than the clay class. Besides the biweekly check-ins with me, they had a number of other opportunities to get feedback and show me that they were working. Their interactive lessons and sketchbook assignments functioned as both an early deadline to get started on the week's work and a check to show us both if they understood the content. My feedback via Zoom and email answered the questions they asked, and the submission feedback answered those they didn't. The Design students also had what amounted to a kind of weekly progress check via their planning assignments. They didn't just submit the project, they did the planning work beforehand and got feedback on that planning work before moving onto the project itself. Not all of the students made the connection that the planning assignments were planning for the project, but the vast majority did and I believe that helped them space their work over the course of a week.

Segmented triangular vessel, carved from solid, class example

I imagined that the clay students would follow along with the building demonstrations early in the week and get started on the project early enough that they could spend time on it every day or every other day for a couple of weeks. In reality, I think this often didn't happen. 

Notan Project, Israel McDonald, 2D Design, Fall 2020

This quarter, in the clay class, I decided to build-in more of the required checks. Students still have two-week building projects, but I have added a mini-building project each week.  Some of these preparation assignments, like the interactive pinch-building demo on day one, would have been done in class normally,  but others were added as a way for me to check that they can do the technique and check that they've started the project. I'm not sure I've hit upon the most elegant solution, but it's an improvement over last quarter.

Line Project, anonymous student example, 2D Design, Fall 2020

Why I Blog

Writing about my classes, like writing about my work often helps me think through the various elements of an issue. When I started writing this morning, I thought I was writing a blog post about the carving project I added this quarter. I've never had students carve from a solid block of clay before. They've hollowed out solid sculpture using carving methods, and I've had at least one student try Ayumi Horie's dry throwing technique, but this quarter's was an entirely new technique designed specfically for students working at home. 

one of a series of demonstrations (new this quarter) I made showing this solid carving technique

Maybe I'll talk about this technique in future, but as I wrote I realized that the bigger issue on my mind was (and is) what is missing from the current online studio that I think is important to capture. I'm not sure if you caught it, while reading, but my "aha" moment (or at least a glimpse at what could be an "aha") came around the 10th paragraph (right above Jordy Marquez's orange and blue collage), when I connected three separate bits that have been floating around in my head: 1) Important stuff happens in casual conversations in groups in the studio 2) I don't have time to meet each student individually each week and 3) I'd like to have a more casual way of peeking over students' shoulders to make sure they are on track.

Line Project, Kyle Win, 2D Design, Fall, 2020

I'll have to think a bit more about how this will work, but right now I'm thinking that instead of just checking in with me, students could have a required check-in with classmates in which they share pictures of their work space, what they're working on, and talk about what's going well or not. It could bring in the quality conversation of a critique, without the tension and expectations of a graded project. It could also help take the sole burden of feedback off of me, while helping empower the students to support each other. Stay tuned, I guess.

Artwork Note: All student examples are used with student permission, anonymous examples are from students who asked to remain anonymous but gave permission for their artwork to be shared here. Clay class examples are my work (since their project is due tomorow).

New Year's Covid Balls

this COVID ball is not an ornament

In December I made a bunch of these COVID balls as gifts. Though they look like ornaments, that's not exactly what they are. They aren't meant to be decorative, or at least not primarily decorative.

COVID Balls with directions attached

Each COVID ball comes with instructions: 

Directions: If your 2020 has sucked, use this COVID Ball to capture and expel all the suck at the end of this year. 

1. Find the hole in the COVID Ball. Whisper all the awful things from this year into this hole. Don’t worry, whispers are small, so the ball can hold a lot. If you need to scream, the COVID ball has an automatic scream-compressor installed to be sure you can fit all your rage at 2020 inside. 

2. Once you have filled up the COVID Ball with all the yuck of 2020, find a safe space (maybe a cardboard box outside--if you are under 13, please discuss with your parents).

3. Throw the ball as hard as you can at the ground (or the interior of the cardboard box). You may choose to smash it with a hammer or other implement if you prefer. The force of the COVID ball breaking will create an interdimensional wormhole into which all the range and yuck of 2020 will be sucked, leaving only good feelings for the year 2021.

The hole

One of my friends, when she received the COVID ball, said her first reaction was to smash it, so the idea is sound. I came up with the idea this summer, in part because of the frustration that everyone feels with the pandemic and the stay at home order, and in part because I observed (and remembered) the fun of the violence and physical release that comes with smashing ceramics.

smashed ceramics this summer

In college, the clay studio had a protected kiln yard that was outside but fenced in. Next to the raku firing area was a huge pile of shards against the building wall. I can't remember if there was a literal target painted on the wall, but I do remember that the reason for the shard pile against the wall was clear: If your pot or sculpture didn't work, you threw it against the wall. And it helped.

we used a box so that we weren't cleaning up bits of sharp ceramics from the sidewalk for days

This summer, when I was clearing out stuff from my new studio, I had some work that was broken or jsut not great. I was going to throw it away, but my daughter was playing outside (with masks) with the neighbor girls, so I decided to let them have some fun. I put the pieces in a box and gave the girls a hammer and let them go to town.

bisque fired COVID balls awaiting glaze

I hadn't exactly forgotten about making these during the summer and fall, but something happened to a friend in December that reinforced my motivation as I pictured her pouring her frustrations into the ball and then smashing.

Glaze fired COVID balls awaiting directions

I really enjoyed making the COVID balls, even though I didn't start until the second week of the quarter (when I got my pug mill and my reclaim clay was super soft and nice). The forms are pretty familiar to me, as I made many similar forms in graduate school and for my MFA show. I suppose I haven't made exactly this in quite a while, but making them felt like home.

Work from my MFA show in 2006

I honestly made these with the idea that folks would smash them. As I made them, I had several people in mind, including my nieces and nephew who've experienced this pandemic from a different perspective than have adults and might be more willing to smash things. But I also knew that people might really want to smash these with a hammer (even if it might feel good), so I added alternate directions that might make people feel ok with their urge to keep the COVID ball.

Alternate Directions: If your 2020 has been excellent, I suppose you can hang this up as a memento of the year. If you choose to combine the alternate directions with step 1 of the regular directions, the scream-compressor also works as a rage and yuck magnet to hold the negativity inside, preventing it from escaping into next year.

The balls on the bottom have some chunky old bits of underglaze on them

It's interesting, though, to make something with the intention that it be destroyed. I chose my colors to be loud and garish, and maybe a bit gross, too. I used some chartreuse underglaze, but mixed in some other scrap greens. In fact, on a few of the pieces the underglaze was chunky and instead of fixing it, I painted on the chunks. After I took the pieces out of the kiln, I realized that those chunks of underglaze made a gross kind of rough surface that really seemed appropriate for the diseased forms themselves.

COVID Balls with directions awaiting packing

I also thought seriously about trying to make a batch of these to sell for Christmas/New Year's gifts. As it was, I made about 26 of these as gifts for close friends and family and that was plenty. However, I enjoyed making them, so maybe I'll take orders or plan to make some for later in the year or next winter. I'd love to think that by December of next year we'll all be past the pandemic and not in need of cathardic destruction, but as far as I can understand, we'll only be getting to an end-point in late fall if all goes well. And as much as we'd like to feel otherwise at the start of the year, 2021 is going to feel a lot like 2020 for some time.

Pugmill: Labor Saving Equipment for my Labor labor

 

My family's first order of business: put googly eyes on the pug mill

This week I added a piece of equipment to my studio that I never thought I'd own. I bought a pugmill! A pugmill is basically a tool for mixing, reclaiming, recyling, and preparing clay. In my first clay job, teaching clay and other art classes for the city of Cedar Rapids, we used a pugmill for recycling all waste clay. We'd lay out the slurry into indentations in plaster slabs, mix in some dry powder, let it dry for a while, then put it all in the pugmill to mixing. I remember really loathing that beast, maybe just because the process was physical and slow. We also have a pug mill in the Yakima Valley College clay studio. In the old building, when we didn't have a mixer, it was the only way to recycle clay, but I rarely did the work because my work studies were in charge of it. Maybe my lingering dislike of the Cedar Rapids pugmill explains why I was surprised to find myself interested in buying a pugmill for my home studio.

The pug mill before its first use.

The way it works, from the users perspective, is pretty simple: You put some clay in the hopper, close the lid, push the mix button, and the auger mixes the clay up better and much faster than if a person were recyling and mixing clay by hand (or foot). You can then set the mixer to pug and it will push the clay out the front. This particular model, a VMP9 "power wedger" by Peter Pugger, can mix wet and dry clay, and they say, even bone dry clay, though I haven't tried it yet. This machine is also a de-airing pugmill, meaning it has a vacuum that can pull the air out of the mixing clay. This is like what happens when hand-wedging before throwing.

my pugmill in action

In the old building at YVC we used our larger PeterPugger for all of our clay recycling, which meant that my work study students were using it daily. In the new building we have a mixer and a pug mill, which enables us to use regularly recycle two types of clay (without cleaning out the pugmill and without mixing up the clay bodies).  The mixer also allows us to make bigger batches at a time and we can more easily get beginning students involved in the process.

Some of the worst of the poorly recycled clay from this summer--pretty, maybe, but not nice to work with.

I've always simply hand mixed (or foot mixed) my clay reclaim in my home studio using stack wedging or turning it into a whole event involving kids' feet in the back yard, but lately I've noticed that the recycled clay just didnt' feel great. Also, and partly contributing to the poor quality of the clay, it feels like I have so little time in the studio that I resent the recyling process and end up screwing it up. I don't time the recyling process particularly well, leaving clay out to dry longer than I should or rushing the process. The result is clay that is too dry, or wet and dry clay mixed together. 

hand-recycled clay on the left, pugged clay on the right

The first batch of clay I recycled in the new pugmill was a batch I had recycled and stack wedged this summer. As you can see, the clay had striations of different clays within it. The different clays also had different consistencies, with some harder and some softer. After just minutes in the pugmill, the clay was soft, smooth, and even in both color and consistency. 

reycling bone dry clay from this summer

Since then I've slaked some dry clay leftover from the summer and put it in the pugmill with similarly fast and good results. The pugmill has a 25lb capacity, which I've filled and emptied about three times this week and the results are all consistent. Since I'm not throwing with this clay, the de-airing feature isn't really important, but I tried it anyway.

The view inside the hopper partway through loading

The pugmill is so easy and fast, its almost hard to believe I waited this long to buy one. On the other hand, I believe the pugmill is the single most expensive object I've ever purchased that goes inside a house (assuming a college education doesn't fit inside a single building). My husband says the pugmill is worth more than my car. It wasn't a Christmas gift, I very specifically bought it with some of the money that I'll be making from my union leadership position. Since I don't get time off, I'm doing the union job on top of my full time teaching, so I wanted to buy something that I could see for that work. As it turned out, I bought a labor saving piece of equipment in exhange for my Labor union labor. It feels right.

The pugmill after my husband brought it home

I ordered it in early December figuring that it would take a long time to arrive during the pandemic. It was going to take 6-8 weeks to arrive, but Clay Art Center in Tacoma had a slightly larger model than I intended to buy, in stock. My husband drove over on Monday to pick it up, and as an extra bonus, it was already assembled so we skipped a little bit of that work. At it turns out the larger version fits perfectly in the space reserved for it (when my husband remodeled the studio last year) and mixes a nice sized batch of clay--about double what the smaller version would have. Double bonus, Clay Art Center's service is always excellent, and the pugmills are made in the USA.

The pugmill in situ next to the wedging table and potters wheel

Classes ended last Friday, finals were over this week, and grades submitted Thursday. I'm not quite done with my union committments, but already this past week, I've been able to spend time in the studio on three separate days this week! I'm looking foward to more this weekend and next week. With COVID eliminating the posssibilty of holiday travel, I'm hoping to trade some of my usual airport layover time for quality studio time. 

What I started with the newly mixed clay

Mugs and Plates at Oak Hollow Gallery

some of these mugs are at the gallery, some have already been claimed

If you live in the Yakima area and are interested in having your 2020 mood mug, I now have some scream mugs at Oak Hollow Gallery. This past weekend I brought some mugs and plates to the gallery. There aren't a lot, but I'm hoping to make more. Oak Hollow is in the Chalet Place Shopping Center breezeway (between Wray's and Inklings) at 5631 Summitview Avenue. 

most of these plates are at the gallery

I believe there are about 6 or 7 mugs left (as of this writing) and a 8-10 plates. The plates are salad or desert sized and in fairly bright colors, though a few were done with a darker clay, so the colors are more muted. I took photos kind of at random, so I don't have pictures of everything and a few of these have sold, but I think the photos communicate the general style and size of the plates.

twelve inch ruler for scale

Next week is finals week, so I am hoping to get some wheel time after that so I can make more pieces (though I sometimes devote this time of the year to holiday gifts). I am planning to make some more sceam mugs and maybe some COVID mugs. If I have time, I might also make some of the smooth patterened mugs, too, though the glazing process is fairly time consuming. 

I've got only two of these, but I may make more

Though things have been quite busy over the past month, I wanted to get my pieces to the gallery before the holiday. A small part of me "worries" that the world might settle down in late January (after the inauguration and once the vaccines become available), in which case the scream mugs might be out-dated. 

Trump

But then the rest of me laughs at the idea; it seems pretty unlikely that anything could make the world settle down and people become calm and peaceful. With any luck the Trump and COVID mugs will eventually be out-dated and maybe the whole mood of 2021 won't be quite so dire and depressing, but people are probably going to continue to want to scream at one another, politics, work or life in general.

First COVID mug not for sale, but maybe the next ones will be

Scream and Covid-19 Mugs

Scream mugs with layered cone 6 red. The orange was on for the first firing on the left; the red was on for the first firing on the right.

Tuesday was advising day at YVC, as well as being Election Day. Like election day, advising "day" this quarter lasted a week. Back when I started at YVC, and for a number of years thereafter, advising day was viewed by most students as a day off, and students seeking advice about classes visited their advisor before or after that day--at least that's what my advisees usually did. This meant that faculty were required to be on campus, in their offices that day, but, in reality, spent most of the day grading or prepping (or bored).

The Covid-19 mug is ridiculous to use or wash, but I love it!

Back then, our advising loads were assigned by declared major or by last name. As the junior member of the art program, I was not assigned art majors, instead I was assigned all students who hadn't clearly identified a major and who had a last name starting with G. So, y'know, Garcia, Garza, George, Granger, Green, Grey, Gonzalez, etc (there are lots of G names). What that meant for me is that for a full week or two, I would constantly have student coming in to ask what classes to take for Nursing, Education, English, IT, or whatever other major I might or might not be able to tell them about. And then I would also spend advising day alone in my office.

My favorite face mugs from both firings.

Being the innovative teaching institution were are, YVC faculty and administration joined forces a number of years ago to get rid of this silly system and replace it with a much better advising system that integrates mandatory advising and college and career pathways with a one-day group advising process. When this change happened, I traded my ~75 G-advisees for a small group of about 10-12 art advisees (my art colleague had retired). As suggested by the "mandatory" label, we also started requiring student to attend advising day, which made that day a lot more interesting for faculty and removed much of the advising load from the teaching/grading/prep days. We also put everyone in a pathway into the same room, at the same time, so that advisors could help each other and help new advisors learn how to best advise in a particular area. Also, it's nice to be with colleagues during a lull in advisees.

My favorite face mug from the first firing

That approach was going great until the pandemic (as we so often say these days). In spring, the mandatory element of advising was temporarily suspended as we rushed to figure out how to operate entirely online, but this quarter we returned to mandatory advising. We couldn't require students to come to campus or be in the same room, of course. Instead, this year advisors were asked to contact students from October 28-Nov 3 and then also spend several hours in a Zoom meeting waiting to advise drop-ins on Nov 3. This approach gives students flexibility, which is great news, but also gives faculty both the responsibility for contacting all advisees during the week (while also teaching classes) and the requirement to be available for drop-in advising for a several hours. 

Less scream, more grump. I'm happy with the face, but less happy with the handle.

The COVID-modified Zoom /online mandatory pathway advising model (what a mouthful) is still better than the pre-mandatory, pre-pathway 75 students for some, 3 students for others pathway model, so I'm only slightly complaining. And instead of spending the whole day in a room, we each had to spend a few hours in a Zoom room. I didn't get to hang out with my colleagues, but I was able to grade when no-one was in. And seeing students we don't always get to see in person is a pretty great pay-off. Doing drop-in mandatory advising on Election Day evening also allowed me to ignore the news for a few hours that night. 

The Covid-19 mug was a beast to glaze, since I wanted even coverage, but was using only brushes.

In between morning advising, and drop-in Zoom hours for my students, and evening Zoom advising, I unloaded a kiln I had fired earlier. This kiln load included a few glaze tests for class (we have new glazes because students in online clay can't come in to use our class glazes, so each student was provided with commercial cone 6 glazes) but also some functional glaze of my own, including mugs and plates. These were mostly the screaming mugs, but also one Covid-19 Mug. I am absolutely delighted with the Covid-19 mug, though my friend said she thought it was disgusting when I showed her during our Zoom meeting.

Covid-19 mug in progress. The design isn't great for function, but it gives me the weight and size I was looking for.

I was hoping that drinking out of it during a Zoom meeting would surprise and entertain the other people in the meeting, but my experiment during a meeting this weekend didn't get such a reaction. I might have to switch to one of the screaming mugs to get the mug noticed.

The mug is totally functional, and I've been using it for days, but I've also kept it on my desk so no one in the family will try to wash it.

Obviously the whole world has been on the emotional roller coaster of the election. Teachers are also on the regular mid-end of the quarter roller coaster + pandemic teaching online roller coaster. I got to add one more bit of fun to that in getting my new computer. I thought that realizing the old one wasn't working right, ordering a new one, and waiting for it would be the extent of my worry, then I could just use the speedy new machine. I guessed that I'd just migrate over my info from the old machine and everything would be peachy.

probably one of my favorite scream mugs. The red contrast nicely with just about everything

I was super duper wrong about that. I spent time with Apple Support on Wednesday afternoon when I got the machine and wasn't able to migrate the old info, then I had two chats and two or three calls with them on Thursday afternoon when the subsequent OS update (why doesn't the computer come with the most up to date OS?) and 14 hour migration resulted in the same problems I was having with the old machine. Thursday and Friday I got to talk to 4 or 5 Apple Support people, and got to delete everything, repair the hard drive, and reinstall the OS. Then I took Saturday off (from Apple Support--I attended a 3 hour meeting and graded instead). Today my phone call with Apple Support lasted 2 hours and 23 minutes and I was able to talk to three different levels of support technicians (the politeness level of the support technician decreases as their expertise level increases).

This one was from the earlier batch. The glaze application is uneven and theres not much contrast between the ochre that was meant to highlight the features and the grey for the rest 

The bad news is that I can't migrate all my stuff over from the old machine--I have to manually move everything over bit by bit. The good news is that, as of today, I have a speedy machine (fingers crossed) and also access to both my photos AND my photo albums. As of this afternoon, the metadata on my photos isn't scrambled so that 2020 photos include ones form 2007 and 2009, and I might even know how to find my videos. I can't, however, back-up my computer at this point, something I just discovered in the past hour. But maybe all that time with Apple Support is paying off, because I think I have an idea how I can fix it. If not, I look forward to my 7th call to Apple Support next week.

I believe I was getting tired of eyes (and the mouths were ended up too small) so I did some mouths only for a few. I think the one on the left looks like Slimer.

I was feeling in such good shape photo/computer-wise, that I took pictures this morning and upload them into my new computer (twice!) where I am now able to use them. Last time I wrote a blog post, I had to upload the photos directly from my phone, which was...different. Of course the pandemic, and work from home is teaching us all to be adaptable, patient and creative with tech solutions. We're all gaining computer skills and flexibility at an accelerated rate. And patience, too. I'm still working on my work-from-home/school-from-home ability to block out the incessant questions from the kid who can't go to school.

These two had decent color coverage, but not enough contrast. I believe both were fired only once.

I'm pretty happy with the results of the firing I unloaded last week. Near the end of the summer I fired some of the earlier iteration of these screaming mugs, but wasn't happy with my colors. I'm using cone 6 electric kiln glazes, mostly Amaco Celadons and I somehow thought I'd like the subtle colors of the first batch. For this batch, I ordered some brighter Celadons (I was running out of the bright colors I used on some of the lemon squeezers) and layered them like I do with my sculpture. It shouldn't have been a surprise that I liked the brighter colors and the layers of contrasting colors.

These were from the earlier firing, but the color combos are closer to what I did this time.

It helps that the faces themselves have also improved since the earliest versions. I'm much happier with these results, especially for the ones where the layered color is a contrast to the main color. In fact, as I review them here, I realize that I'm happy with any that had red in the face and reasonably happy with the purple/blues that aren't screaming. 

The orange was on for the first firing and I left the mouth dry. I wiped away more red than I intended inside the mouth, but I kind of like it anyway.

I tried layering the colors two ways, both with two firings (again, like my sculpture). I feel pretty silly that it took me this long to get to the double firing method with these glazes, since that would be the most obvious approach if I was thinking of these mugs as sculpture. Not only is this the method I use with underglazes, but I did something similar with underglazes and cone 6 glazes in 2019. 

I was sad because my handle is so tall...

I'm feeling reenergized about both the faces and the colors and I'd like to get some studio time in which to work on some more. Moving two studio classes online this quarter continues to be a lot of work, but I might be able to squeeze in some throwing/building time over winter break. My daughter believes I will spend the entire break making cookies with her, but maybe I can throw before she wakes up ;-) 

...now I am sad because my glaze crawled.

In this firing, I only had one disappointment. Fittingly, it was the mug with a tear in its eye. I'm happy with the tear and fairly happy with the color, but the glaze peeled in the back. I guess now the mug is crying because of the glaze fault.