Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Green Coil Project

This was the shape that I began with, don't really know what inspired it
I have that song "Apologize"  by One Republic going through my head right now. I feel real crappy about the delay on the Coil Project, I have only myself to blame. I don't know what I was thinking giving myself a deadline right at the beginning of school. I have the piece done and at the studio to be fired I just have not gotten over there to glaze it yet. TO DO list for this week! Promise! So, just to whet your appetite...here is a picture of the creation of my monster....
Adding Coils
Finished! It has another neck growing out of the other side, just did these pics with my phone. I wanted to smooth out the whole thing so bad, but my instincts kept telling me to calm down and keep the coil texture. You can see where I did have to end up smoothing some though.

My process started with the funky shape, building up the coils and letting them slowly start to sink back on themselves. This is tricky because if you add to many to fast it will collapse, so you have to do some, let it get a little leathery and then add more. The "necks" I had to add a day later after more drying by using slip and mucho patience.

Don't really know what kind of glaze I am going to go for yet, just going to let the choices inspire me. I really do want something very organic and natural though, because I see this piece going in the garden and letting some vines start to grow in and out of it.

 Whatcha think?

*on a side note, just read back over the post and realized there is a heart shape that was unmentioned. This is my daughter's take on the project. She made a cute heart shaped bowl, will post her finished project as well.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Inspiration and Explanation: Josef Albers

I never much cared for Albers' work, but after a little explanation I'm more open minded. Take a peek at this clip from Dwell about his work and motivation called The Full Spectrum: Josef Albers

Coil project post coming soon...

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Re-Coil: Do-Over

I did start this project whenever I made my last post. I sat in the yard, soaking up the sun and coiling away. I covered the off-kilter, lumpy pieces of clay in plastic, believing I'd come back to them soon and complete the project. Really, I just left them for dead in the garage. After a week they were too dry to continue building upon.

This last Monday, I forced myself to go to LoneSomeVille and start over. Having my tools and an environment devoted to clay really helped. I simplified my design. The clay still took me down an unexpected path, but this time I embraced it. I've blocked out time Saturday morning to go back and finish the last bit of it. Hopefully it will dry quickly with the pending heat wave and be fired this week. I could very possibly make the deadline!

In other news, I've been thinking about art a ton lately. Making it. Marketing it. Selling it. The current obsession: turning my spare bedroom into a painting studio and just going for it. I'll be broke, but I'm thinking it will be worth it. Another post with details coming soon. Stay tuned for photos of the coil project in progress...

Monday, August 9, 2010

Pot Update + Recent Paintings

I thought that while we are waiting on the Coil-Project due date I would update you on my recent paintings as well as a fun photo of me "pottting".  Photo by Lily (age 8) I dropped it off to be fired and will hopefully glaze it at some point this week. Since I do all of my work at home, I have to fire elsewhere which leaves it to the fates on how fast it will be. So, fingers crossed it will be ready by deadline!!!!!!

For my Pregnant friends I have been doing a number of baby room oriented paintings
This has been a very productive couple of months for me, and I have finally started to really love making art just for the journey instead of the destination. Once I started doing this, I noticed my attention to detail becoming more pronounced (up from none at all) and that I actually crave time alone uninterupted to create. Which, drumroll please.....Will be next Tuesday when I take BOTH kids to school for the first time!!!!!!! Next up on the agenda is starting the Sketchbook project...Must start soon! My theme: In Flight!

Monday, August 2, 2010

Re-Coil

Confession time: I do not like this project! I haven't really allocated much time to making it happen either, so that could also be part of the problem. I started strong last weekend, with every intention of building this thing in a day. I cut out a squiggly shape with many arms and legs, something similar to a jack from that long lost game of my childhood. I got set up in the back yard, rolled out several coils and started building.

At the end of my first attempt I had two stubby, lumpy pieces of clay and a mountain of frustration. The clay was not doing what I wanted it to. All of my tools are at the studio, so I opted for a fork to handle scoring the coils together. While that works, it's far from delicate- or effective. Time to go back to the drawing board. Perhaps I was a little over ambitious with my re-introduction to coil? I need to create an easier shape and just do it. Working smaller will probably help too. Truth be told meeting the deadline will be tough, but I'm committed to making it happen.

Mandy- are you faring any better?