week two 9/1 - 9/7
I wasn’t in the studio as much as I wanted to be this week. Monday was Labor day, and my family was here in the morning and then I had work from afternoon to evening
I don’t remember anything about Tuesday except that in class half of us post baccs talked about semester plans. I had my semester plans all ready to go, but we only got through half of us so I didn’t present yet. I was cooking up ideas for using stoneware and mid-fire glazes. Thursday I got out some of the class stoneware to make test tiles and made about 12 or so test tiles and a little trinket dish that says U R Q T (you are cute/cutie).
Halfway-beknownst to me, a crisis was loading…
I didn’t realize how stressed and overwhelmed I was with the idea of having to make a mid-range glaze palette from scratch. I was looking at having to mix a bunch of glazes to test, and then possibly mix different clay bodies to test. It was going to be a big time commitment, and it would mean that a good chunk of my semester is spent testing instead of making. Eventually I may want to devote some time to testing but not at this stage and not in this context.
I decided to continue to use earthenware, a red earthenware like I’ve used before. I’ll continue to use the low fire glazes that I’m familiar with from my undergrad studio. Once I decided to do this, an enormous weight was lifted from me. :)
Friday I had work in the morning and afternoon. That night I finished rewriting my semester plans. I knew I would be using earthenware, but I was still thinking whether I buy a commercial clay from Kentucky Mudworks or if I should find a recipe and mix it myself. At this point I’ve decided to start out the semester buying clay just so I can avoid the pressure to mix and test clay bodies while I’m itching to get started making again. Eventually I want to develop a recipe for an earthenware that I like, but again it’s not the time for that right now.
I started working on my blog on Friday night but then I got distracted and ended up giving my website a facelift, since I hadn’t done anything to it since I first made it and it was horrendously shitty. I got rid of all my paintings on my website and anything that references that I was a painter, because by this point I’m committing this website to be only for my ceramic work. I have left my “Metamorphosis” page up for now because it has my BA senior exhibition work. I need to revisit that page and do some edits, add an explanation and artist statement, gallery photos, etc.
I went to the studio on Sunday (and brought Fred with me! He was a little skeptical). I started working on two small wall-hanging friendship shrines. It was so good to get back into making!
I need to find some wire to use for the loop that the flowers will hang off of, but I won’t need that until i flip these over and start building up the walls. I also want to put my semester plan on this blog, perhaps I’ll include it next week.
