Sassy orange

Today I brought home mugs to paint with borrowed paint from Ms. Lutter. I spread out paper towels all over the kitchen table and began making a huge mess. The blue mug will be cumulus clouds on the top and sassy orange on the bottom, I can't wait to see it! It'll be a surprise to me because I'm not positive about the color outcomes. The other will be gold mine...and once again we'll just have to see.

Improvising

The other day in class while trying to trim my final project which was two bowls, I cut into the bottom too far and started to panic because there was no fixing it. Then I figured I'd make it look like it was on purpose by doing the same the around the entire bottom. The same thing happened with one of my mugs because it'd been drier than I should have been trimming with and my hand slipped, so I improvised and also made it look purposeful. I don't love the way the cup looks but hey, it's better than throwing the mug away! Here are the two.

Sketches

I went in yesterday and my two mugs I made before dried out a little faster than I had thought they would, oh well. I also ended up throwing another mug that looks like the one below. It's large and very circular. I plan on making a design on it with wax and then dipping it into a high fire glaze.

I also began painting another mug I made today. The parts that are seen as carved in are painted "nutmeg" which will be a orange/black shiny color while the rest of the mug will contrast it greatly and be black.

I have many mugs to still paint before my presentation but I'm not too worried because I have time and painting isn't the most time consuming part of the mug process. I've made so many more mugs than I originally said I would in my proposal, it's crazy. Granted, I don't love them all but a great majority of them are great mugs and I can see myself using them daily.

Mug/pitcher

I'm really happy with this little mug/pitcher! It's very light, has a wonderful handle, and hopefully will look nice when glazed. I'm glazing it with moss creek which should turn out matte green.

The last picture of a bowl is a random bowl someone else made just to demonstrate the way it should come out.

Where I've come

I went to the studio yesterday and had such a successful time!! I'm seeing my improvement with centers the clay because I'm getting it done so much faster and more comfortably. I've also been pulling walls easier and with more control!

I had also gone to the studio a few days ago (yeah, didn't blog about that right away now did I....) but anyway I had made one pretty tall mug but it was still too wet to trim so I kept it covered. I guess I didn't feel the need to blog immediately about it (yes, I know, I should've) because I didn't have a ground breaking moment and it just seemed like any other time I've gone. I will post immediately. Now that my projects wrapping up, you're going to hear a bunch of rushed work in my postings to get everything perfect and done.

Debriefing on sample presentation

What would you like to borrow from the sample?
I'd like to borrow the power point idea to help guide me in what I want to say. I'd also like to borrow the confidence Luke had and speak with volume and complete comfort in front of no matter the number of people.

Strength of the sample? Luke's biggest strength to his project was playing us some music on the harmonica and also the confidence that led his presentation.

What will I do differently?
I was actually planning on having some sort of power point and also demonstrating how wheel throwing works. I'm not quite sure what exactly ill do differently besides having the presentation in a smaller location.

I'm being student evaluator to two classmates on June 14th! I'm really excited to see how others will go about presenting.

Listening to the coach

In the beginning of our project semester we were told that this is OUR project and if we don't want to take people's advice on how to go about doing it, that we didn't have to. In class yesterday we read an article about Olympic athletes and how they listen to their coaches, even with their years and years of training, they still take tips. The article asked, what about you? I guess personally I can say that I don't shoot down very many ideas before considering how they may help me. It is important to listen to people trying to help you because they can give you advice for something that you were never creative enough to come up with yourself. I agree with the article and think you should never be so set on your own goals that you can't steer away from them when given helpful advice by the "coach".

Home stretch

I've actually been working a lot the last week, but I have yet to post about it. These last few weeks are where people start to see themselves fall apart and I'm doing just that. Not to say that I'm any less motivated with my hands on work, but I've been having less strive to post about it. So here's a catch up.

Within the last week I've thrown two successful mugs, trimmed them, and added handles. One of them is small and pretty simply, and I'm very happy with the handle because it's one of my first successful pulled handles. What I mean by pulled is that I wedged out a piece of clay and literally pulled the clay down with my fingers with some water until it was lengthened out and skinny enough for use. The bottom for the mug was going perfectly and I was getting really excited but then, just like with many previous mugs, I wanted to get BETTER, trim just a little MORE, and messed it up. I did manage to fix it but it doesn't look like I had imagined it in my head.

The second mug is much larger than any I've made, but also extremely heavy. Well, "extremely" relative to other ones. I trimmed a lot of excess off the bottom and carved in some patterns to try and get rid of the weight and I'd say I did a pretty good job but it's still not exactly light. I then added another pulled handle (this one not as nice- but still pretty good) and attached it to that one as well.

Today I came back to the studio for a quick drop by to put the mugs out onto the shelf because I had to let the handles dry on the mugs a bit under a bag or else they could have dried too quickly and cracked and then, WHOOPS no more handle.

I'm excited to see how my project is going to end up as the clock ticks down. It's becoming a lot more stressful with all my end of the years tests and projects but I know this isn't the time to start giving up. I do plan on blogging more, with more pictures, and research, and planning. All that has yet to come!

Colors!

A mug of mine came out and the colors are so vibrant and random! I used a chunky glaze called Snow Fire. The crystals inside the glaze exploded and created this color splash.

The mug itself isn't my favorite mug because it doesn't have a handle and the shape is a bit odd so I'm thinking I might paint another mug the same or a similar color.

High fire vs. low fire?

Low fire:
This is the most commonly used firing. The way you paint the low fire glazes, they will always come out the same color with no to very little variation.  This is glaze that can become unstable at higher temperatures. Some problems that occur with low fire are:

• the clay body may remain overly porous
• low-fire glaze colors can appear raw-looking
• many of the traditional glaze materials used in this range are quite toxic in their raw state.
• Low fire glazes mostly need a top clear coat in order for them to be food safe. 

 http://www.sheffield-pottery.com/v/vspfiles/assets/images/spectrum-700_2.jpg

High fire:
A lot of high fires are porcelains and stonewares. Because of the varying effects of oxidation and reduction on glaze colorants, there are very limited glazes and effects that high fires can produce and you never know exactly how the product will turn out.

http://www.livinggallery.cc/SMITH-Flowingexample.jpg

Failed attempts

Some days go well, others on the other hand do not. Today was one of them, I made nothing. Nothing worked, absolutely nothing.

I tried throwing some mugs, in fact I tried throwing three. The first one was going well but towards the end I nicked the clay the wrong way and it was down as a droopy mug. Then the second and third simply didn't work at all. For one, I thought I centered the clay and when I tried pulling the walls, it went insanely off center. For the third I pulled the wall too thin in one spot and the clay couldn't hold itself up anymore so it fell apart. Great.

Cones?

Since I'm making pieces both at school and in the studio, I asked my teacher if it was possible to bring in some finished pieces from the studio into school and glaze them and fire in her kiln. She said it could happen if both Julia's clay was fired in the same cone as her clay. Cone? No idea what that means. So it was time to get to business and learn what that meant.

The full term used for the cones is pyrometric cone. A pyrometer is what's used to measure things at temperatures too high for regular thermometers. What a cone is, is a type of pyrometer.

And? These cones are made of silica and melting agents with triangular bottoms. Since they reach such high temperatures, they're designed to soften and bend at their bases. What these cones are used for are to test the temperature of kilns. Really, they don't "measure" the amount of heat in the kiln, but rather how much heat-energy the pieces inside have absorbed. Cones numbers go from 022 to 14, having the numbers with zeros be a lower temperature.

How do you know what your "desired" temperature is?
The hotter it gets, the more bend the cone begins to have. Once the cone being fired has reached a 90 degree angle, that's your desired temperature. If it's at less of an angle, the glazes are under-fired, and vice versa with over bending, they were over-fired.

In sum, cones refer to the temperature at which clay is properly cooked and properly glazed. Lucky for me, both Julia's clay and Ms. Lutter's clay fire to cone 6 (2232 degrees Fahrenheit) and I can use glazes at either studio.
 _____________________________________________________________________

On another note! I've made two new mugs! I'm unsure of the color for both of them and am debating whether to add a handle to the other or not (it also depends how dried out it'll be next time I go). But, here are the two sketches (not criticize too much, I'm no artist) of them.

The first one is much larger than any ones I've made previously in terms of how much liquid it can hold, which is exciting because I personally love big mugs. The only downside to it is though is that it's considerably heavier than others and I don't know what adding a handle would do to it. This is the mug that I trimmed a handful of clay off of to make smaller/lighter.

I also picked up three mugs from the studio that I glazed. I'm learning to love the imperfections of pieces but am still upset about some of them.

The first (my absolute favorite) has nothing wrong with it except I decided not to paint the bottom hoping it would drip a little, and it didn't.
The second one was suppose to be one solid color of forest green but instead looks like it was tye-dyed with green which my mom actually really likes.
And the third, well it was an experimental mug so I used it with a glaze that I didn't want to risk on another mug first called "Ketchup". I'm not the biggest fan of it but it was a great experiment and I'm definitely keeping that mug for my presentation anyway.


That's all for now! 

Except workcited:
Jones, Bill. "Ten Basics of Firing Electric Kilns." Ceramic Arts Daily RSS. Ceramic Arts Daily, 17 Apr. 2009. Web. 06 May 2013.
 Peterson, Beth. "Pyrometric Cones." About.com Pottery. About, n.d. Web. 06 May 2013
 Reinbold, Joan. "Definition of Cones in Ceramics." EHow. Demand Media, 13 Nov. 2009. Web. 06 May 2013.
http://www.ceramicstoday.com/cones.htm

Sacrifice of learning

In class last Monday we were asked to write a journal entry discussing where in our project we cradle comfort at the sacrifice of learning. For me, my comfort zone is in the studio either by myself or in class with my peers and teacher. Holding on to this comfort, I'm stopping myself from going out into the public more and potentially shadowing/sitting in on a professional throwing some art pieces.

Happiness Revisited

1. When do you feel most happy?
Like mentioned in the article and what many would agree with, I feel most happy when the things that I CAN, I control and they go the I want them to, leaving me with a sense of power over the events that take over my life.
2. Respond/react to the article.
I agree with this article that happiness is really what you make of an experience. It's the things in like we can't change like your height that don't weigh in on our overall happiness level and the things we can that do.
3. Where am I on the flow chart?
With a high challenge level and medium skill, I fall into the anxiety area on the flow chart.
4. How has this changed/remained the same throughout the project?
It's changed because my skills have developed and I am getting closer to achieving flow but I have remained in the anxiety stage throughout.
5. How can I achieve flow?
With improving my skills even further where I can get more comfortable in my work pattern and process but still challenge myself, I will be able to achieve flow.

"Need Motivation? Declare a Deadline"

An article written my Phyllis Korkki. This article discusses ways around deadlines as well as different kinds of deadlines: ones with no clear deadline, large projects, and ones nobody cares about but yourself. Korkki talks about how to meet a big self-imposed deadline and states that you must divide your work into small tasks and have a deadline for each one of those. This sounds like the first journal entry we had, where we broke up our first two weeks into small deadlines for ourselves to get started. It's hard for me to follow these little benchmarks but with the semester coming to a close, I'm going to need to set some more for myself.

Unsuccessfully successful

Today was a love-hate day at the studio for me. I came in with the hopes of throwing a new mug but my time was consumed with a previous project I hadn't finished yet. I have this mug that I was planning on just trimming and waiting for the handle to dry out a bit before I could add it. Instead, when I picked up the mug, I realized how heavy it was because I made the bottom really thick. So, I instead spent my entire hour there carefully trimming and re-trimming the mug to make it lighter as well as appear a bit cleaner.

Then, as I was cleaning up and ready to put on my handle I thought "Wow! What a great idea it would be to press on a wood-like stamp onto my handle for pattern!" Well, I did exactly that and my stupid self didn't realize it would stick to the table I had laid it out to dry on. Needless to say, the handle stuck to the table. I plan on going back tomorrow and trying that again! Let's hope it works out.

Here's the amount I trimmed off (which might not look like much but it's an entire handful of clay off a mug). I hadn't realized previously how thick I made the bottom.

From left to right, just to give you an idea of the types of tools I use when trimming; large carving tool, pin tool, smaller more detailed carving tool.

The two carving tools give away their purpose in the name but the pin tool not so much. Basically what it's used for is a number of things in the process of making pieces. You can use it to trace a line across the mug while spinning to see if it's centered, you can cut off unwanted/uneven tops, and is also used for drawing in designs onto your mug.

Weekend

I went in last thursday and threw two new mugs! I went in on Sunday in hopes of adding handles to both but only one of them was dry enough to add one to, so I did. Then today I went back in and the other mug had dried up more so I added a handle to that one too.

Next, I started painting some of my older mugs. One of my smaller ones that has a a handle was dipped into a light blue colored glaze. The next didn't have a handle and I chose to dip it into a glaze called "forest green". And the last one I glazed was used with my absolute favorite glaze available at the studio called "floating blue". This one is a wonderful mix of blue and green when it comes out of the kiln.

I plan on doing more research this coming weekend. I might take some of the mugs that I make down at the studio and take them to the classroom at school for glazing because of the much wider variety to choose from. Otherwise, it's been a pretty successful week and I spent around 5 hours working just on my hands on work.

Also, just a little sneak peak but look how nice this mug looks from the top (don't wanna show the actual thing).

Friday/Saturday

I wasn't able to do/post anything these past two days because I went on a field trip to the Baltimore Aquarium. I did make stuff on Thursday but was too distracted by my trip to make a post. Unfortunately, I'm also sleep deprived now (only got 2 hours of sleep) and need to go to sleep. Ill post all about it tomorrow as well as my plans for the next month, and pictures .

Exploding casserole

I made this casserole dish that had a beautiful lid for my ceramics class and as you see, it didn't make it. The bottom blew off for what could be a number of reasons but I have no way of knowing what specifically it was. Sure it's not to do exactly with my WISE project but it was the first thing of mine to explode and I was so greatly disappointed because I really loved the way it looked.

Making and remaking and remaking

So yesterday I went to the studio and make out with very little (no) success. Today, I was motivated to go again despite the terrible cloudy weather and had a completely different outcome! I made 3 mugs! One of them I didn't like enough to keep so I tossed it out but I kept the other two. I plan on going back tomorrow after school and trimming the bottoms along with adding some handles. I'm going to need to sketch out ideas tonight and tomorrow during school to get some ideas of what handles will look good but I'm really excited and happy that today worked out.

In class journal entry

The item that my partner brought in is quite scary. The article he brought it discusses all the different poisons that are found in clays and glazes, GREAT! Thanks Kam! No but it's a very useful article that I want to look more into and see what the least dangerous glaze is.

If you're not living, you're dying.

Last week in class we listened to an audio recording of a man who liked the take risks, or rather, push outside of his comfort zone. I think this is exactly what WISE is about, pushing your comfort zone. For some, they chose to do exactly what they're good at, but for me I know I was pushing myself. I don't on the other hand think it's good to always push yourself out of your comfort zone because that can just lead you to losing your "ground" and hurting/losing yourself. Anyway, I thought it was a great thing to remind myself of why I chose wheel throwing and what it's done for me.

With that aside, it's time to get down to business. All Many of my classmates (including myself) have been struggling and lacking in one major category of our projects. The all so dreaded RESEARCH. Granted, my teacher always tells us that research is what you're doing when you're not doing homework, but this is a little different. Nevertheless, it must be done. So I decided it'd be a great idea to look more into the details of it and explain to you guys what exactly HAPPENS to clay apart from having a finished mug which I paint and presto- it's complete. There's more behind the scenes that you guys don't know about which I figure I should explain.

So part 1- Preparing the clay.
If you buy clay, it comes in bags and is already prepared and ready to be thrown.

 In most cases, this doesn't happen (for my purposes) so I used recycled clay. Here's how recycled clay works. When you're done throwing, you toss all your extra unwanted clay into a slop bucket.

From here, you process it into finer clay by putting it into shallower buckets or put it through a machine called the pug mill. You put the slop clay through the hopper and it comes out the exit chute.

After you pull out the processed clay, it's really wet and needs to be laid out on a plaster bat to soak up some of the water and let it dry up a bit.

Once it's dry enough (not too dry of course), you bag it up and its ready for use. Yay!

Part 2- Wedging
Unless you're using brand new clay, you're going to need to wedge the clay. What this means is you take a ball of clay about the size of a baseball and working at it (folding it over on itself like a burrito) many times to homogenize and get rid of any air bubbles that are in it. If you have any air bubbles, it makes it harder to work with and could also have the risk of exploding in the kiln; no bueno.

Once you have it all wedged out, you can form a perfect little ball and are ready to throw.

Part 3- Throwing your form
In this step you need to throw your ball onto the bat (or just the wheel)-

Then you get your hands wet and spin the wheel as fast as it can go and center the clay (which sounds exactly like what it says- you get your clay into the center).

Once it's perfectly in the center you can make your piece.

Stages of clay after making your form:

Leather hard- this is when a lot of water has evaporated from the clay so it's hard enough to work with but not too dry. This is the stage where you add handles, designs, carvings, and trimming. (trimming below)

Greenware- The stage at which your clay has lost all moisture and you can't add anything else to it. It's completely dried out and is at it's most fragile point where it's very easy to break.

Bisque firing- The first stage of firing the clay goes through so cook the clay so that it can be glazed. (more on the finer details at a later date)

Second firing- Once the piece has been glazed it's again fired (a different temperature for regular glazes and high fire glazes)

And there you have it, all the behind the scenes (or, most of it).

Sorry for the incredibly long and boring post, it had to be done.

Also in case you were wondering, I won my game yesterday :) yay. 


Sources:
-http://ceramicartsdaily.org/ceramic-supplies/pottery-clay/recycling-clay-tips-for-collecting-storing-reclaiming-and-reprocessing-your-clay-scraps/
-http://www.virginia.edu/art/studio/safety/sculpture/clayplastertools/pugmill.jpg
-http://seco.glendale.edu/ceramics/ceramicprocess.html
-All but the pug mill picture were mine

District Championships!

So unfortunately I can't go to the studio today because I'm going to Binghamton for District Championships in tennis! I'm so excited and nervous because I'm gonna be videotaped and be playing really strong players.

Wish me luck!

Changing things around.

What I forgot to mention in my previous post, and need to talk to my mentor about during my next meeting as well as my teacher, is changing around my initial project proposal in two ways.

1. At the beginning I stated that I wanted to take specific artists art works, and make my own rendition of it. To me now, that feels a bit boring and wrong. Instead, what I've really been doing is simply getting inspiration from anything and anyone. I've found random items lying around that would make nice stamps, seen online a picture of a mug (without an "owner" attached to it) and been inspired, or simply, I'll sit down and see what my hands will make and see it I like it. So to change up my project, I will still look up artists for inspiration and motivation, but I do not want to follow what they do and compare mine to theirs.

2. Define "mug". Some say it needs to have a handle to be considered a mug otherwise its a "cup" and others say it doesn't matter whether it has one or not. Well, for the sake of my project and myself, I want to change it to "mugs & cups". This is because I've made a few cups which I've loved how they've turned out (like the "Egg") but due to a series of unfortunate events, I'm unable to add a handle to them. I don't want to have to throw those out of the pile of pieces I've made for my final presentation simply because some won't consider them a mug.

I'll update on what the decision is from my mentor and teacher. *crosses fingers that it works out*.

Been a while.

I've been falling back with making posts. This isn't to say that I haven't been working, because I have, I've just been hit with senioritis and have been procrastinating with my blog. But I'm back!

I've been drafting my ideas in my sketch book with the colors I want, handles I want, and designs I would add.

  

 Above is a mug that I've already made. This one was successful is handle attachment at which I tried to draw below the mug. In the picture, I show that I want to dip the top half in paint (probably twice) so that the paint will drip down the other half and have a nice drip effect once fired. Color wise, I'm thinking about using a light blue but have yet to decide on the huge variety of blues that are available to me. 

The "Egg" as I call it because of it's shape was a fairly successful mug. The squares are carved into the clay and I'm painting them very bright colors to contrast the black background I plan to have. Unfortunately, by the time I got back to the mug the day after I made it, it was too dry to add a handle and I had to cancel that idea. 

Here are the colors I'm planning to paint with: 

 

It's really great to see my own progress from mug to mug. Today, I lined up all my mugs from the very first one to my most recent and it's incredible to see how far I've come. The first few were very short and sloppy and now I'm able to make tall mugs that hold a lot and can add handles! I also managed to center my clay faster and with more ease than I've been able to, ever.

Week back

My week back has been very successful! I painted my mug from ceramics the color on the bowl below and am excited to see it come out!

I also now have 3 mugs with successful handles, one of which I added today.

Hopefully I'll go down to the studio tomorrow and throw.

Ending break

I found this new contraption that aids in my handle making! I made two beautiful mugs this week and I can't wait to paint them.

Also, my dad drew in my WISE sketch book ..

That kind of day

Since the weather was so nice today I had extra motivation to get off my couch and go out and about. So I went to the studio, was successful with making one mug. Here's an artsy picture I took.

Also, yesterday I tried attaching a rolled out handle and it quickly went to disaster...

3/31/13

Nothing well happened today with my mugs :( disappointing. I can't go tomorrow but I'm going to go back on Tuesday.

3/30/13

I went to the studio and it seemingly just wasn't my day. I made a mug but I'm not in love with it so I'm going to go back tomorrow and try again.

Buzzing bees

So I recently made the bowl below for ceramics class and thought that I'd make a matching mug! So here is the inspiration.

First handle

Well, they say practice makes perfect right? I added my first handle to the mug I made earlier in the week today and lets just say I hope it holds? No, it's not THAT bad. But it's not THAT good either. Ill keep trying over break and see how that gets me.

Out of the Rut: quick lists

7 things I want or need to know more about:
1. Types of glazes
2. Techniques on making handles
3. Different styles of handles
4. Design ideas
5. Evening out/smoothing out the rim of mugs
6. Other materials that can be used to design
7. Mixing glazes? High fire with low fire etc.?

Class

My plan for today worked out so well!! I'm so happy with my throwing today. Ill post a picture of my sketch later but I threw a big, tall mug and I'm going to add a handle tomorrow.

Planning

Weekly plan:
Monday: throw during class (?)
Tuesday: stay after school and throw
Wednesday: Julia's studio
Thursday: research after school, find books
Friday: possibly Julia's studio

I'm just trying to be a bit more organized because I wasn't able to throw this weekend.

Being sick turns your brain to mush

I've been sick since Thursday and I'm only now starting to really recover, right? Today I was walking in the hallway completely spaced out when I saw my mentor! I WAS SUPPOSE TO COME IN FOR MY MENTOR MEETING TODAY! And I completely forgot. I'm still shocked as to how I could've forgotten. Anyway, I apologized and asked to come in tomorrow instead.

My brain is mush, no bueno.

Revised blogging methods

I recently got a new journal in which I plan to keep all my sketches for mugs and designs and handles etc.. So at which point I decided that I won't be posting pictures of the finished products or even beginning processes so I have something to present. I want to show you the sketches in high details but leave the finished products to be a surprise at the end of my semester to show my panel of judges the comparison with my sketches, yeah? I have yet to really plan it all out but this is what I have been thinking so far.


Like so...

!!!!

It came out!

In class entry

2-3 REAL GEMS OF THE PROJECT:
- the stamp Avalon created for the bottom of all her pieces
-the concept of making her own pit
-donating profit to Japanese disaster relief

2-3 OOPS, COULD'VE BEEN BETTER:
- improved mentor meetings
- why she made "eggs"- inspirations

2-3 THINGS I WANT TO BORROW;
-definitely the idea for a stamp! (So neat)
-burnishing my pieces

Far fetched ideas

Since I'm sick, I spent some of my lazy day looking up mug inspirations. (C'mon Maria, calm down)