Tuesday, June 24, 2008

I usually get inspiration for pieces looking through books from the library, and digging through my sketch books,but every now and then I go through dept. stores and kitchen stores for inspiration for functional pieces.During the summer most of my inspiration comes from looking through kid's books because of my summer camps. Last year I got a lot of ideas from South American folk art books and tribal art.I saw a dish similar to this in TJ Maxx and thought I would try a bunch of them with different stamped words: salsa, dip, hummus,etc. I found some great letter stamps at Michaels craft store that are used for stamping in stepping stones(say that ten times). So, here is my bisque from last week's work. I tried a few different bowl shapes in my never ending search for one I really really like. I am very happy with them, especially my pasta dishes and now have to not screw them up glazing and firing them! The kiln at Claymakers sometimes gets too much reduction, sometimes not enough. Ana Howard fires the kiln there, and does a great job, but sometimes the kiln wants to do it's own thing and doesn't pay any attention to her. There are also some fussy glazes that have to be persuaded to work just right. Anyway, I have to get to this sometime this week. I still want my own gas kiln, when are they going to announce the Orange County grant recipients?! Most important, when will they send me a letter saying that I got the grant!

I have to glaze at Claymakers for my cone 9 pieces, put them on this shelf, wait until it is full and then it gets fired. Very slow process. I am thinking that I may just save up a bunch of stuff and rent the thing, might be quicker. I still have to bring everything from home though.
This is our beloved kiln.When it behaves, it fires beautifully.

2 comments:

brandon phillips said...

when i still lived in minnesota and potted out of my garage i would save up enough pots and just pay to bisque and redux fire them at the art center there. it was nice because i got to be in control of where the pots went in the kiln(every kiln has sweet spots!) and could have it fired just the way i wanted. once you're past the beginner/experimentation stage i think its better than just getting a few pots here and there.

jbf said...

I like your bowl shapes and I agree with Brandon --I have found the sweet spots in the Clayworks kiln on a few occasions.