3800 mussels, 940 blades of grass, and 500 brown dots on my hands

My teacher, Dawn Holder, is having a show in Tampa, FL for this year's NCECA (National Council for the Education of Ceramic Arts), which is next weekend.  I have been one of her busy little helpers getting everything made for this show and I have to say...NO MORE MUSSELS! 

Theme provided by NCECA for about ten of these installation shows is migration.  Dawn's project is about these invasive mussels from China that are not inhabiting the waters near Tampa.  There will also be clusters of sea grass that are native to Tampa but are now invading Chinese waters.  These will be displayed in a ten by twenty foot gallery space.  She is also bringing with her giant logs that she will cover with clay and then place the mussels into the clay just as they could come out of mud in the water.    The picture on top shows these mussels with a coat of pearlescent glaze on them before firing and the picture on the bottom is after they have been fired.  To make these mussels, Dawn and I made press molds from actual mussels in plaster.  Then small bits of clay could be pressed into each mold and after the clay stiffens up a bit, the two halves can be attached.  Before being bisque fired, they are given three layers of color sliped, turquoise, brown, and black to imitate the natural colors of mussels.  Then after the bisque firing, they are dunked into glaze and given a final firing.  The same process was used for the blades of grass.  The small patches you see on the glazed mussels are where we had to wipe away some glaze on the bottom before putting them into the kiln because otherwise they would glue themselves to the kiln shelf.  That can latter be patched up with clear nail polish.  

I also noticed this the same day I was unloading the mussels.  I currently have many many brown dots the size of the head of a needle clustered on the tips of my thumb, index, and middle of my right hand with scattering every where else on my hand and palm with a small cluster also on my left hand in the pouch between my thumb and index finger.  These spots do not itch or wash off.  They seem to be embedded into my skin.  I was beginning to freak out a lot last night and wasted a couple hours researching online about what it could possibly be but I could not find an answer.  There are plenty of people online who have posted on forums that described exactly what you see in this photo but no one had a clear answer.  I showed this to my professors today and we have found the culprit: silver nitrate.  I was making a cone 10 in-glaze luster recipe with a couple other students for my surfaces class and I was handling toxic materials.  I'll pause for a moment and just say that I work with around materials that could harm my health and I especially have to be careful with the air that I breath and wear a respirator when I am adding particles to the air around me that could get in my lungs.  This glaze called for 50 grams of silver nitrate, which costs about $100 and comes in small 25 gram pill-like bottles.  I was wearing a respirator and goggles but for some reason I didn't wear gloves while opening these bottles and emptying them into the glaze buckets.  For the rest of the glaze making process where I was in direct contact with materials, I did wear gloves.  I guess since I thought that I wasn't actually touching the material inside that I wouldn't get any on me but there must have been traces of the material on the small jars.  Silver nitrate has real silver in it and it is toxic and corrosive (which I later found out by experience).  The metal can leave stains on skin and can even leave burn marks if really grabbed by the horns.  The little amount that I came into contact with will not do any harm to me but I will have to suffer with "dirty" fingers for few days to a few weeks.  My teacher, Matt Towers, has experienced this before himself and assured me that I will be fine but this must be a lesson to me to always wear gloves!  It looks like someone dipped a toothbrush in brown paint and then ran their finger over the bristles so the paint flicked off onto my hand in the tiniest of flecks.  These spots also accompany a slowly fading rash on my wrist that I got from mixing glaze the other day...I promise to take better care of myself!

Some days are not good days

Not feeling it...

  There are days where I can't throw.  Throwing is like playing a sport or instrument; the longer I go without practicing, the more I need to catch up to get good again.  Well it's been a while since I've just sat down and thrown a few vessels and well, it didn't turn out so great as you can see!  My problem is that I like to throw thin and I don't think I was taking enough time to center my clay perfectly before making my cups and they were off center.  Even if you are just the tiniest bit off center while throwing thin, your cup will begin to wobble and it can quickly become a disaster.  However, these were good warm ups for me as I was really intending to throw a new body for my urn that was previously destroyed (note a previous blog where I showed a failed urn that I had made for those who don't remember).  The picture on the bottom shows part of my urn that I had thrown (the large one closest to the camera on the left).  This is one of two damp boxes that I made earlier this week which took 2 hours to make!  It will make my life so much easier since I won't have to run the risk of potentially ruining a pot by covering it with plastic and these pieces will stay wet longer in the damp box then covered by plastic.  A longer drying period is essential for more difficult pieces where I attach clay, such as handles, and need more time for the clay to dry evenly so nothing cracks.  You can see from this picture that this is the stage of clay before I trim the bottoms.  Trimming will take away much of the excess clay and I can really define edges and clean up the surface when the clay is leather hard. 

Seems so long ago...

Almost two weeks ago now was a mid-term critique for my malleable object class.  Finally, after many weeks of work this project is now complete and this is what it looks like displayed on a wall.  It was so relieving to have it completed.  I wish the wall was in better shape but it will have to do until I get a better picture of it.  I was one of only a handful of people who had both of their projects completed in time for the critique.  My teacher, Dawn, was not too happy about the lack of effort and work put in by most students so hopefully our next and final critique will be much better.

To me, this piece is an inspiration for future pieces to come.  I really enjoyed using the majolica technique to paint on the surface of these tiles and the concept is really cool for me.  The center figure/creature is how I would picture myself if I were to be a combo-animal figure.  I could definitely see myself creating many more of these "plates" and displaying them together in a gallery.  The idea behind this is almost purely decorative.  I am attracted to patterns and bold colors and I am also a perfectionist.  This project allowed me to use all of that and I am a very process driven person with regards to my work.  I dedicate a lot of time to each of my pieces and I want to make it as clean and perfect as I possibly can.

My other project was casually placed in the studio on one of the tables that I would normally eat at on any given day.  This is just porcelain fired to temperature without any surface treatment added to it.  I didn't want to trick the viewer into thinking that it might have actually been real food by painting realistically because that isn't the point of this piece.  I wanted to call attention to the physicality of the clay and how even though it may look like something you would eat, you could not have it.  Also, being drained of all color is a metaphor for the lack of nutritional value that this meal contains.  I tried to make this project as detailed as possible.  I feel like I can almost smell the french fries!

The pieces are finally coming together!

My projects are slowly being completed since this is mid-way through the spring semester.  It's been a busy first half but I enjoy what I am creating.

So colorful!

These are just a few pieces of my 61 tiles that will be mounted to a wall to resemble an Italian majolica plate.  I attached velcro to the bottom of each tile so it is ready to be mounted.  The image to the left shows a progression of how I made these tiles.  I first made the design on paper, transferred it to thicker acrylic paper so it wouldn't get ruined by wet clay, traced and cut the image out of a slab of clay, cleaned up the edges, bisque fired (first tile on top left), painted with Linda Arbuckle's majolica base glaze (top right), applied colorants mixed with gerstley borate (bottom left), and then finally fired (bottom right).

So shiny!

Detail

This is a collage relief of images I remember from Italy.  There are decals and lusters on top of the glaze.  Please click on the pictures to see a full size image so you can see the detail!  That's real gold!  I didn't like this at first but after the decals and lusters, it started to appeal to me.

Such a beautiful glaze, no?!

 This is my favorite casserole dish that came out of the kiln today.  The kiln over-fired by one cone but this glaze came out beautifully!  I've never tested it before but the name "Val Cushing's Satin Mat Black" sounded appealing so I made it and sprayed it onto the piece for an even finish inside and out.  Everything was thrown on the wheel, even the handles, which were simply cut from a thin, bottomless cylinder that I threw and then altered.  It still has a little shine to it but it's soft and velvety.  I will absolutely be using this glaze the next time I do a cone ten firing.

Sharpie for size comparison

VOMIT

This casserole dish did not turn out so good.  The image on the left shows a seemingly harmless large vessel but the inside...barf!  Literally, I think it looks like puke.  On my beautiful white porcelain this color is a delicious jolly-rancher bright apple green but on this darker stoneware, and even with white slip on the inside, it turned into vomit.  This glaze is very runny and pooled to the bottom and gave it a swampy, thick feeling that I do not like, and neither did anyone else who saw it when I opened it.  This is Martin's Moveable Feast, Chartruse cone 10 both inside and out if anyone is interested.  Nice on the bare clay but just awful over the white slip.  Maybe if I had applied a thicker layer of white slip on the inside I could have blocked out the color of the dark clay completely.

More pictures to come in the next couple days!

Irresponsible Lowlife

I did not receive a phone call or text from that kid last night saying that he had made it to the ceramics studio to watch the kiln, Satan, by one o'clock in the morning.  I had slept for an hour when my alarm at one went off and after repeatedly calling him and sending texts with no reply, I had to drive back to campus at 1:30 am.  I was NOT happy but I had to go back to watch the kiln.  When I got there, the kiln only had a dull orange glow on the inside which meant that it probably wouldn't reach temperature until 4 or 5 in the morning.  I was NOT about to stay awake for another four hours watching a kiln with work that wasn't even mine.  This was this kids responsibility to take care of this kiln, and what was he doing?  Sleeping.  I was able to get my ass out of bed after an hour of sleep and drive all the way back to campus.  This kid should have finished making his pieces over a week ago, NOT the night before causing ten hours of candling!  I was so furious when I was at the ceramics studio that I vented everything to two younger students who were there working and wrote a nasty note for the kid to see in case he ever ventured back to the studio.  I made the executive decision to pull the kill switch in the middle of firing and stop it all together.  Now his work, a classmate of mine, and a younger student's work were behind schedule.   I also left a note for my teacher saying I was going to be late to class in the morning and walked out.  I re-fired the kiln today with no problems, but still, it was mostly me firing again. 

In the morning, everyone in the studio knew I was pissed.  All of my students saw the note that I left behind and they said they could feel the hatred oozing out of the paper.  The kid got reprimanded by two teachers and myself but I don't think he even was aware of what was going on or how inconvenient it is to even have him in the studio.  Description of Jacob: he shuffles his feet, wears sweatpants to jeans at a ratio of 6:1, long floppy hair that covers most of his eyes, mumbles, leaves large messes, and reeks of pot.  I will never fire with him again and I don't think that he should be allowed to be a ceramics major.  He doesn't deserve the title.

No rest in my sleep

Tonight should be interesting.  I loaded a bisque kiln with another student who is a hopeful sophomore ceramics major.  He never fired his own kiln before and had signed out our largest top loading kiln, "Satan", who can only be shut off manually (mind you this is the only electric kiln out of our nine that doesn't have a trip to stop it).  I woke up at 5 this morning to finish a paper due today and was at the studio at 8 to load this kiln.  I wasn't aware of how very last minute his projects were that he wanted to bisque and I was expecting to candle the kiln for four of five hours (which means holding the kiln's temperature at around 200°F to get rid of all moisture.  If there is water in pieces after it passes 212°F...BOOM!).  However, the student, Jacob, didn't finish his pieces until the PREVIOUS NIGHT!  His excuse was that he kept it in the hot box overnight but they are large pieces and it takes usually a good week and a half to two weeks to fully dry out work.  So instead of candling for four hours, it turned into ten hours, which means that the kiln didn't actually start to get going until 6 o'clock TONIGHT.  Satan doesn't turn off on his own; someone needs to watch the kiln through the peep holes to check the cones that tell you if the kiln is reaching temperature.  ("Cones" are ceramic material literally shaped into cones that have a specific firing temperature.  They range from cone 020 to cone 12.  When you fire something in a kiln, you make a "cone pack" consisting of usually three cones: the actual cone you wish to get to and one above and below to help judge temperature.)  What I'm trying to get to that you cannot go to sleep when you are firing a kiln like Satan.  Jacob said that he would watch for the night shift since he had some work but I was just at the studio an hour ago and he wasn't there.  I texted, called, and left instructions in my studio about finishing the firing process but I haven't heard a word.  I NEED to sleep.  I told him to call or text me when he gets to the studio but I have alarm set for 1 o'clock this morning and if I don't hear from him until then, that means that I have to go to the studio...there's no way around it.  Someone has to shut it off otherwise we risk pieces melting.  NOT excited but there is nothing I can do.  I just hope he's taking a nap and waking up to get back to the studio.

I would have otherwise posted a very nice blog about what I'm doing but I was so swamped yesterday working on my paper until midnight and then waking up at five to finish that I'm too exhausted to stay awake any longer to upload some photos!  Tomorrow is another day and I finish classes at noon.  I foresee a nap, reading, and hanging out with some friends before spring break gets here.  I'll let you know if I have to be at school at 1 o'clock in the morning.  If I do, I'll have time to post a new blog while checking the kiln!  Silver lining... 

Accepting the consequences

It's come down to the point that I just cannot finish some things in time for class.  My surfaces projects are due tomorrow and I have not yet completed half of what I would have like to accomplish.  Instead of worrying about it and pulling yet another all night tonight, I am going to get some good sleep, work a little in the morning, and deal with the consequences face to face with my teacher.  I will eventually complete the projects, probably by next week before spring break but I cannot put in more work into ceramics then what I already do.  I do not want to kill myself, and where would my art go if I was dead?  For the sake of art, I'm getting some sleep tonight.  But here is what I was doing today:

Left:  This is my wall piece that will look like a majolica plate when displayed.  This is about 1/5 of the total pieces.  These are unfired so until Friday, I will not know what the colors will look like exactly.  It's going to be fun!

Right:  This is my urn that collapsed in the kiln the other day.  You can see that the supports are now fused to the bottom and it's hard to see but the it has sunk into them as well, causing the lid to also warp and lock into place.  However, the wings look really nice, don't they?  I'll be making a new and better one in a couple weeks.  Hopefully I will have learned my lesson from last time.

This is part of my surfaces project I mentioned before.  I have only a small Tupperware container filled with slip casted bullets.  I'll have more pictures coming as this project develops later.

That's all for today folks!

Utter Exhaustion

This is how I felt all day.  Yesterday I woke up at 7:30 a.m. and didn't get any sleep until 5:30 a.m. this morning.  And even then, I only slept for three hours to go to work study at 9.  I was working on one of my Malleable Object projects in which I am creating tiles that will be arranged on a wall to resemble an Italian majolica plate that I saw.  I have a kiln signed out for Thursday and I need to finish glazing all 61 pieces.  I glazed about 40% last night.

Some people seem to be able to hold it together when they have little sleep.  I know some students here who love pulling all-nighters to get work done.  I, however, am not like these people.  Maybe I was able to stay up later the first two years of college but now I go to sleep at 11 and wake up 7:30 almost everyday.  I'm on a sleep schedule.  Staying awake for 22 hours, then sleeping for three, and working for another 9 or 10 hours destroys me.  I barely have my eyes open now as I type these words. 

I get really emotional when I'm exhausted like this.  I made an urn for myself for one of my classes.  It's made out of beautiful white glassy porcelain with inlaid turquoise slip patterns around the surface.  I also made delicate wings as the handle to the lid.  The urn is very smooth oval with no foot on the bottom so I am making a base of realistic intertwined clay branches that will support the weight of the urn.  I fired the urn last night on three stilts to keep it off of the bottom of the kiln since I had not made the base yet but we were going to apply decals during class today so it had to be glazed.  I opened the kiln this morning and I was devastated.  The urn was too thin at the bottom and at such a high temperature, the porcelain warped and melded into the stilts I made and completely bound itself to them.  The urn warped so much that it even trapped and welded the lid in place which was really startling since it was too small of a lid before I even fired it.  Well I just stood there, urn in my hands and cried.  I'm already so stressed out as it is to get all of my work finished in time and this was just the icing on the cake.  I hesitantly showed my teacher Matt Towers and I did my best to hold back my tears as he looked at my piece.  He was wonderful.  He said that he would rather see me take big risks like this and fail then to play it safe.  He has had many many failures but he learned something from each one, and I have learn a lot from this collapse.  Still, it broke my heart.  After spring break I'll be making a larger, better, and more awesome urn then my other one ever dreamed of. 

P.S.  I was so tired today that I took at ten minute cat nap on the toilet...I swear it wasn't intentional.