Friday, February 13, 2009

Hand Building

Wesley got a lino cut tool set for Christmas and she is making some really cool tiles. I used the skeleton for a clay stamp and put slip on it. She never makes anything in clay but she is a great artist.
I've been in the studio for the past few days working on some demo samples for my hand building class at the ArtsCenter. I have a great class, I love seeing what they create and how they interpret the basic techniques I show them. We are going to talk about pieces we like and use them for inspiration to make our own piece. My very, very favorite plate is below. I could never throw one like Michael Kline and certainly can't recreate his brush work, but I used this plate for an example of how to find inspiration from something that you really like. This one was a slab that I put on a hump mold and then added slip with a little scraffito. I'll keep this one for myself so it's not out there in the world as a blatant rip off of MK!

This was a slab and coil construction bowl. I like coil bowls, they have a really unique feel to them. I also like leaving some of the marks from my construction like below around the coiled foot.

As you can see, it is getting late and I have been working all day, so the bottle will be finished up tomorrow. This is a coil bottle and I have a mold of an old ladies head to attach. It's about 16 inches right now. This is going to be one of the first pieces for my Raku kiln. I haven't done any hand building in a while and when I do I get obsessed with it. I get so focused and nearly in a trance building up coils. I find hand building much less stressful than throwing. When I throw, I forget to breath and find myself in contorted positions and frustrated a good bit of the time. I think I may do more hand building and just use my wheel as a means to an end. Oh well, I 'm tired and I'm dirty, so it's off for a glass of wine, some dinner, bath and bed. Buenas Noches!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with you about coils - sometimes I can forget to stop and look at what I've have done -just keep going up. I really like the detail around the foot.

Judy Shreve said...

Your handbuilding is wonderful. My husband convinced me to take Debra Fritts class with him next session. It's an all levels handbuilding class. I'm definitely a wheel person - do my thinking & creating on the wheel.
Wish you were closer & could take it with us.

Tracey Broome said...

Judy: all I can say is LUCKY LUCKY LUCKY!!!! Debra's workshop was one of the most inspirational classes I have ever had. Even if you aren't a big hand builder you will get something out of it. Maybe one day I'll get to take another. Wish I were closer too. I would love to work at that studio.