Trying to catch up with my posts before another yer goes by.  2016 was a busy year for me with the highlight being accepted for the December show at the Art Gallery at the Old Bakery and Emporium.  I shared the gallery with two very talented 2D artists.  Two of my pieces sold, which always adds to the thrill of being in a show.
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I have always wanted to make a ceramic work of Greenman, but it was Treebeard, the Ent from Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings, that was my real inspiration.  However, it was the more human-like ceramic faces made by two friends, Brittany Stracke and Randy Simpson that were my motivation to finally begin this series was set.

​So far I have created three, but there are more in my mind to make.

​After Treebeard, I saw a bit of a tree in my friend Randy.  I don’t think he will be offended being a model for a tree.

​Not yet named or glazed, my third face takes on a younger appearance.

​Once I have a few more faces and if we can find a gallery we are planning a three-artist show titled “FACES”

​As 2015 comes to a close, I think of all the progress I have made this past year working with ceramics.  

Between throwing pots and bowls on my wheel to making slabbed containers and bottles, I have been pretty busy.  So busy, I do not have an accurate inventory or even a basic count on all the pieces I've made this year.  With ceramics everywhere around the house my first task for 2016 is to get organized and title, label, and inventory every single piece.

I also have several pieces in the works and lists of ideas for what I want to make.

Starting the year with a healthy inventory I will see what people like and just keep on making more.

​Happy New Year!

I'm now sure where in my mind this one came from, but it was a bit challenging and required me to develop some different skills.

The horns needed to be identical, but not completely solid as that would add too much weight to the piece.  The solution was to make one solid horn from which I made a plaster mold.  Using the mold I was able to slip-cast my two horns.

From there it was a matter of working the clay into a three-dimensional form without it collapsing on itself.

In keeping with my "pre-digital" design, vacuum tubes have been inserted into the goggle-like eye sockets. 

​I still have the vertical nasal cavity to deal with; I'm thinking of a metal grid similar to what I used with the Plague Doctor's mask. Then the question; to frame or not to frame?

Look for it (framed or not) at the Art Gallery at the Old Bakery & Emporium next year!

#steampunk #ceramics #pottery #art

Most my artist friends know the feeling.  You respond to a call-for art.  Then some time later, after the entries have been juried, you receive an email.  How long do you wait before opening it?  Is it good news or yet another "thank you, but...." letter. Will the longer you look at it make it better? Click.... 

That is just what I went through with an my 2016 entry for the Art Gallery at the Old Bakery & Emporium.  I received the email....and I actually did look at it for a while before I opened it. Click...

Good news!  My ceramic works have been excepted at the OBE for 2016!  My steampunk style ceramics will be showing in their gallery December 2016.  I'm happy the works resulting from my foray into this media has been recognized by a prestigious gallery in Austin Texas.  It's a long time off, but more info will follow. 

Not that I haven't been working, I just haven't been writing!  Facing a call-for-art deadline I've been building and glazing every spare moment.  This is one of the pieces I submitted.

A good friend gave me an industrial light bulb which lit some ideas in my head, but building it turned out to be more difficult than thinking it.  The base was easy enough but the cage housing the light bulb was a bit of a challenge.   Knowing the bulb has to be removal-able the top had to be made in two pieces.  Considering clay can shrink as much as 15% from wet to final work, keeping the moisture content the same in the two pieces was necessary to ensure equal shrinkage and a good fit.  Of course that didn't happen,  so the fit had to be finagled and filed and sanded and finagled some more.

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Currently working on something not completely different, just a little different.  Sheets of clay appearing to be held together with straps and screws. 

I have created several pieces; tall ,short, round, all with the same straps and Philips head screws.  Off to the kiln in the morning and we will see if they hold together.

Namaste

Most of weekend was spent glazing work I had been working on for several weeks.  I was trying to have enough work ready to fill the kiln to make the firing cost effective and to meet my self-imposed firing deadline of yesterday; it was full.  One thing, among many others, when firing pottery is it takes patience.  Even after the firing is complete and the kiln has shut off...you have to wait until it cools down, which typically is overnight.  I'm not good at waiting, but the consequences of not waiting and opening the kiln too soon is pottery shattering from the rapid change in temperature.  So this morning was like Christmas, opening the kiln revealing all my treasures.   You will see some on the Gallery page and in the Shop soon.  

Namaste