October 24, 2012

Chinese Landscape Paintings

I have always admired Chinese landscape paintings.  It is incredible how much depth and detail they show with simple mark making.  Several lines, dots, and shading come together to coney a beautiful depiction of a Chinese landscape.

Martha Grover

I am drawn to Martha Grover's porcelain for it's movement and color.  It is elegant yet simplistic in a way.  These dinner sets flow very nicely together in the stacked position.  Martha's pots are invitiing to the user and she a great sense of color with her glaze application.  

Chris Staley

Chris Staley's pots are about "fragility and strength."  He primarily makes vessels, some have tight forms but loose textures that are applied.  Some of his other pieces are more loose in form but have smooth surfaces.  I really admire his work for its craftsmanship and explorations in form.  

Arthur Gould

This slip cast tea-pot was really well done.  It has a lot of freedom and movement to it.  The artist made a wise choice by just glazing it in a black satin glaze so it does not take away from the form.  

Nathan Brunson

Although this large chalice looks relatively simple in form, the glaze is what stood out to be.  The amber celadon turned out really nice with the white drips over top of it.  There is an awesome red underglaze at the bottom of the piece too.  

Curtis Stewardson

I really adore ceramic baskets.  I have never seen one shaped like this before, with a very wide base and super thick handle this piece is quite different.  The interior blue glaze is really gorgeous as well as the glazes on top of the handle over the satin black.  

October 3, 2012

Michael Connelly

Earlier this year I had Michael as a teacher.  I really enjoy his work because of his tight forms with relatively loose glaze application.  

Tom Coleman

Tom Colemans work has always been an inspiration to me.  All of the lines and mark making he puts on his pots lead your eye all around the piece.   He then goes in and highlights his mark making with very bright vibrant colors.  

Glacier National Park

This picture of Glacier National Park is absolutely beautiful.  I love the landscape with the river flowing down the rocks, leading your eye up through the trees, to the mountain top that is still blanketed with a bit of snow and the sun setting in the background.  

September 26, 2012

Shoji Hamada

I love this Shoji Hamada pot for it's elegance, beauty, and form.  This piece can be broken up into three defined sections.  The rim has a nice defined edge.  The body of the pot leads your eye around the piece with his slip decoration.  Finally the tall trimmed foot to lift the tea bowl off the surface.  

Steven Hill

This Steven Hill pitcher really stands out to me for it's form and surface.  Steven has achieved a way to have atmospheric like surfaces firing in cone 6 oxidation electric kiln.  He develops a wide variety of colors by applying a primer glaze and overlaying other glazes in sections through spraying.  

Dusk Sky in Madrid, Spain 

Roberto Zenfoid

I have always admired and enjoyed the sky and the clouds my whole life.  My absolute favorite is dusk skies over water.  I hope to get these effects on a body of my work some day.  

September 19, 2012

Emily Murphy place setting

I really adore this place setting by Emily Murphy.  It is beautifully crafted, the forms all go well with each other, and the variation of wax resist lines blend together quite nice.

Ancient Greek Pottery

While working on my service bowls, I added handles or "notches" to the sides of some of them.  I have been playing with adding thin lines to the surface of my bowls to help give the viewer another focal point to look at.  The lines and patterns on this ancient Greek pot really help draw your attention away from the handle and more to the details and form of the pot.  

Judy Chicago The Dinner Party

When I think of famous place settings only one comes to mind.  The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago has over 39 place settings.  All with distinct styles and forms that coincide with each other.  

September 12, 2012

This past week I have been investigating surface techniques by the use of sprigging and stamping.  One artist I have been observing is Ron Meyers.  Ron uses a very loose technique of sprigging on his pots.  It is not until after gestural marks, carving, and manipulating the surface that you see his animals popping out at you.  Another artist I have been observing is Kristen Kieffer.  Kristen uses stamping to completely manipulate her functional forms at the “suede” stage of the clay.  The last resource I used were multiple books to study pictures of animals.  From studying the pictures I made drawings on slabs of clay, then cut it out and applied them to the surface of my pots. 

Ron Meyers

Kristen Kieffer

Cheetah photo by Chris Johns (National Geographic)

Work in Progress

For anyone that saw my last blog post, I figured I would show you some of the bowls I made for the assignment.  These bowls have not been fired and I am going to end up throwing out a lot of them.  Most of these bowls are rough drafts or sketches for me.  I ended up making a little over 50 bowls for the assignment.  It was not until the last couple that I found a form that I really liked.  In my next assignment I will make a set of 6 matching bowls, a larger serving bowl, and I will be experimenting with stamping/sprigging on some new forms.  Stay tuned for pictures and updates. 

The first 24...

 The next 24...

The final bowl that I will make a set of 6 of...

Wednesday September 5th, 2012

Our first assignment was to make 24 different finished bowls.  Within this assignment I researched a variety of different forms and styles.  For some of my tighter forms I observed Ryan J. Greenheck’s work.  After making those I started throwing some looser forms with no bottoms so I could then go in later and rework the clay by pushing, pulling, and indenting the surface.  For these bowls I was looking at Chris Gustin’s vessels and some architectural structures such as The Bird’s Nest National Stadium in Bejing, China.  

Ryan J. Greenheck Bowl

                                                           Chris Gustin Tea-bowls

The Birds Nest National Stadium

Kansas City!

I have arrived in Kansas City, MO and finished my first week of classes.  It was a very long and exhausting 20 hour drive out here, but I am so excited to finally be here.  I am looking forward to making a lot of work and really improving my skills as a ceramic artist.  I will be posting weekly on my blog about what I am focusing on in school, so stay tuned for updates and pictures.  

Moving soon

Ok so I had my last house sale that was apart of the www.chestercountystudiotour.com and it was a huge success!  Also I had another pottery sale at Hopewell Church that benefited their Beyond the Walls campaign, which also went very well.  In a little over a month I will be loading up my 89’ celica GT to travel half away across the country.  I really hope my car makes it because it is an antique but awesome nonetheless!  All I can say is I am going to miss my family, friends, and good old Chester County Pennsylvania a lot.  My huge basement apartment in my parents house has been great and it is probably the nicest set up I will have for a long time.  I have a ton of room down here and I wake up in the morning, walk to the other side of the basement, (where I have my full studio) and get to work.  It does not get any better then that at 22 years old.  I am really looking forward to Kansas City and attending the Art Institute there.  Should be interesting what kind of work I start making and how I cope with working in a much smaller space with 20-30 young talented ceramic students!  Stay tuned for what happens out in Kansas City.

First kiln load of 2012

Today I am throwing a couple of small plates and I also loaded up my first bisque kiln of the new year.  This kiln contains some small stoneware bowls, porcelain mugs, yarn bowls, and stacked vessels.  I am looking forward to trying some different glazing techniques on these pieces.  Hopefully they all make it through the firing!

A day of handles

Today I cleaned up the bottom of my mugs that I made yesterday.  I pulled some handles then attached them to the mugs and finished pulling them off each piece.  I believe that handles pulled directly off of the mug are much better looking then handles pulled before.  After attaching the bottom part of the handle, I added coils around the attachment for security and presentation.  Overall it was a good day.

First batch of mugs for 2012

   

Today I focused on throwing mugs.  I got a late start because I met up with a friend of mine Jeremy.  After hearing some very valuable life lessons, I decided to take a different approach mentally to throwing each pot.  I slowed down my pace and found better rhythm within each piece.  I ended up making 14 cups.  Tomorrow I will wipe the bottoms and attach handles to them.  I pulled one handle today off of the piece and emphasized the attachment to the bottom by adding an additional coil to help for presentation as well.  Above and below are pictures of the mugs I threw today and an example of the type of handle I will be using tomorrow.    

First Post of the New Year

My plans for 2012 are to give week to week updates on what I am doing and what I am planning for the future.  This will not only challenge myself to providing constant new information but keeping it interesting as well.  Look for up to date photos, videos, and blog posts, inviting you into my studio and essentially my world as a maker.  I am very excited to advertise and get my work into more stores and resturants around the area and the web.  Check back for updates and have a great day!