I spent my spring break alone this year. Yes it was lonely most of the time and I watched far too many movies (43 in total), but it was nice to have some time to relax. I did get a lot done in the art building (as you can see by my last week of posts) and I hope that getting all that work done will make the rest of the semester a bit easier, but I doubt it. I had hoped to get more writing done, but only accomplished a third of what I had planned on doing. Doing nothing seemed more appealing then reading and writing. However, I did get some done and some is better than none.
The weather here for spring break has not bee altogether springy. It started of with a small dusting of snow on the 20th (funny that the first day of spring is the day we get more winter). But that snow didn't last long and we had a few days of sunshine and comfortable temperatures. I enjoyed the long walk to and from the art building with only a light jacket. I was very disappointed to awake up Thursday morning to snow everywhere. I had snowed all night long and had suck to everything. I was quite beautiful but I want spring already! I looked past my longing for sunshine and decided to enjoy the beautiful snow. I was untouched (except for where the plows had cleared the road) because of the lack of people here at Houghton during break. The fresh snow clung to every available space, making power lines into thick white cables and making the thin trees slump under the weight of the snow.
The snow has stopped falling and the sun has come out again, but the snow doesn't want to melt away and is still everywhere, speckling all the trees with little white clumps cluttering the branches.
My loneliness was also helped on the last day of break by my roommate coming back to school a day early and us with a friend went thrift store shopping, out to lunch, and watched a movie. Having friend time was good and much needed.
Progress has been made but I think it is a little dark. The purple between the butterflies needs to be brightened and some of the butterflies need highlights. Also the yellow butterfly needs something. But the good news is is that it is almost done!
Here are some mugs I made trying out b-mix clay which is a white, soft clay that does not have a lot of grauge (the course particles that gives the clay form). I liked how soft and moldible the clay was but that also made is difficult to keep up. In the end I made one actually good mug (the one on the right). The other was very wobbly some I intensionally squeezed it to conform to my hand so that it is no longer circular but oblong. It will be my personal mug.
This one is the only thing I got from trying to make a saggar on the wheel. A saggar is a large thick walled vessel that I put another pot inside of and fire with different combustible materials inside it to create different effects and colors on the pot, so the saggar is really just to protect the rest of the kiln from the combustible materials. The saggar need to be fairly large but I was unable to throw one large enough. This one I might be able to use for really small testings. When I try to make more saggars I am going to hand build them rather than on the wheel.
This one is a really ugly piece that did not come out the way I had originally envisioned it but instead of destroying it I thought I could test different saggar methods on it.
This one I am really excited about. It is my first teapot. I really like the silhouette and the very old quality it has. It is very squat and awkward which means I love it. This it going to be one of the pieces that I saggar fire, but first it needs to get bisqued.
I am not very happy with this painting. Mainly because it is not coming out the way I had originally seen it. My hope is that the color will work better when I can glaze over the pink with red, and that red will look better after I lighten the dirt, the grass will look better if it actually grow from the dirt rather then off the canvas, and all together it will look much better once I add the ants' legs but I don't want to add those yet because they will be a pain to paint around. I hope I can make it work.
I really enjoyed mixing glazes and finding out how to alter them in different ways. I would like to continue looking at different colors and chemicals and combinations, but unfortunately it takes a lot of time away from making pots and right now that is what I have to focus on. Hopefully in the fall I will be able to start early mixing glazes so that I can find new things.
I started this semester by making 10 glazes from recipes that I found online, then I took those ten and altered them. This was the best part.
I mixed some of the glazes together. First, Mamo (a matte white that broke with rusty spots) with Seacrest Purple (glossy dark purple that broke clear) which make a greyish color that still broke clear but was slightly satiny. Second, Mallard Green (soft, pale green that pooled) with Amber Celdon (highly gloss brown that pooled in a very rich brown) which made a slightly purplely brown that was still glossy. Third, Eustus (a very soft matte white) with Plum (a metallic glossy dark purple) which made a lighter purple that was still metallic but now satin. Fourth, I took the Mallard recipe and added more clay and more opacifier which ended up making the color richer, darker and brighter while keeping its matte finish. Fifth, I took the Jade recipe which was at first a satin minty greenish-blue and I altered the recipe in two different ways: one- added more flux and put in less clay, and two- less flux and more clay. This was fascinating because it was the same colorants but they reacted differently. The one with more flux seemed to have layered colors, minty green underneath dark green drips. The one with more clay became very matte and was mostly all forest green with small busts of light green.
But before I mixed the glazes I took some goblets I had made with casting molds and I layered the glazes. Each one had a matte glaze as the base (one Mallard, one Eustus, one Mamo) and then I dipped the rims in the Amber Celdon. The pooling and break and dripping is quite beautiful.
fun stuff
I started this semester by making 10 glazes from recipes that I found online, then I took those ten and altered them. This was the best part.
I mixed some of the glazes together. First, Mamo (a matte white that broke with rusty spots) with Seacrest Purple (glossy dark purple that broke clear) which make a greyish color that still broke clear but was slightly satiny. Second, Mallard Green (soft, pale green that pooled) with Amber Celdon (highly gloss brown that pooled in a very rich brown) which made a slightly purplely brown that was still glossy. Third, Eustus (a very soft matte white) with Plum (a metallic glossy dark purple) which made a lighter purple that was still metallic but now satin. Fourth, I took the Mallard recipe and added more clay and more opacifier which ended up making the color richer, darker and brighter while keeping its matte finish. Fifth, I took the Jade recipe which was at first a satin minty greenish-blue and I altered the recipe in two different ways: one- added more flux and put in less clay, and two- less flux and more clay. This was fascinating because it was the same colorants but they reacted differently. The one with more flux seemed to have layered colors, minty green underneath dark green drips. The one with more clay became very matte and was mostly all forest green with small busts of light green.
But before I mixed the glazes I took some goblets I had made with casting molds and I layered the glazes. Each one had a matte glaze as the base (one Mallard, one Eustus, one Mamo) and then I dipped the rims in the Amber Celdon. The pooling and break and dripping is quite beautiful.
fun stuff
I have decided to sell most of the ceramic pieces that I made last year. So I am inviting all my friends up to my painting loft to buy stuff for cheap. Claim it now, if you want it, before the sale starts next week!
I started putting the second layer on this piece. My original thought was that it was going to be red, but all reds are very transparent colors which don't work when I need to cover up pencil lines. To make colors opaque rather than transparent I have to add white, but adding white to red makes pink which is sadly unavoidable. So I made this pink. I am not a fan of pink. After I painted the background pink I realized that the pink will be unavoidable and that it must leave. So my new plan is to paint this one in different shades of grey. It will be a challenge, but I think it will be quite nice.
I painted the background of this one but now I am not quite sure where I want to go from there. I could keep it all in the green family, but I don't think I like that idea. Another option is to stay in the neutral tones, but that doesn't thrill be either. The third option is to go crazy and either do the compliment (red) or do a triadic color scheme (green, purple, orange). Oh, and the last option would be to start all over (not a fan of this since I already took two hours to put on this color).
For the third layer of this piece I changed all the colors. Instead of black and white, I made it brown and off white, it's less harsh that way. I also added the shadows where the knot passes over itself. I also realized that the cross in the center was totally not necessary. I did hope that might help get rid of the swastika-ish look, but unfortunately I don't know if that will ever happen. Just know that it was never my intent for it to look like a swastika.
These two go together and that it is why I decided to make them both different complementary color schemes. I am excited to make these turn into what I see in my head. I can't express it yet, but hopefully you'll see soon. Now I can start adding oil paint layers which will be so much nicer to work with.
I painted the background of this one but now I am not quite sure where I want to go from there. I could keep it all in the green family, but I don't think I like that idea. Another option is to stay in the neutral tones, but that doesn't thrill be either. The third option is to go crazy and either do the compliment (red) or do a triadic color scheme (green, purple, orange). Oh, and the last option would be to start all over (not a fan of this since I already took two hours to put on this color).
These two go together and that it is why I decided to make them both different complementary color schemes. I am excited to make these turn into what I see in my head. I can't express it yet, but hopefully you'll see soon. Now I can start adding oil paint layers which will be so much nicer to work with.
This is one of my favorite sketches from my sketch from India. It was also one of the ones that my professor's like the best, too. I tried to put it into the student show but unfortunately the jury didn't think it should go in. I wasn't too upset because about half of the 2D pieces that were submitted to the show were not chosen to go in; there was just a lot of stuff submitted. So, even though it didn't make it into the show, I still thought you'd like to see it.
This painting needed an even, opaque layer before I could start adding the proper colors and textures. So now that is on I can start making this into a pretty painting.
While everyone is away for Spring break I have taken on the responsibility of taking care of my friends' fishies. Eugene is usually alone here but he has made new friends with the boys' goldfish. But Eugene is jealous of the goldfish because they have each other, but he doesn't realize that the goldfish are jealous of his because he has a big decorated jar all to himself. It is fun to make up stories about the fishies but it does make me feel a bit crazy. They're my only companions during this break.
