Finished Modules

Here are a few of my wood fire pieces. We unloaded the train kiln of tuesday and everything looked great. The top photo is my finished modules project. As for the next project I am throwing like a mad man to get a lot of work done before the wet ware cut off date. As of right now I plan to have the class use some of my pieces in some way. Maybe using some of my mugs and bowls.

wood fire

This weekend we fired the train kiln. Saturday morning we had some rain so Brian and I had to make a shelter. I'm excited to see the results of the firing.As for the next project I have a lot of work to do for wet work cut off, but I'm convident I can have he work finished.

project 3

This is project 3. I like how everything came out and I enjoyed the process of making it. The lid was a bit of a challenge, but I think it came out ok. I'm still unsure of what I am going to do for project 4, but I'm sure I'll come up with something. We started the prep for the wood kiln firing and I'm starting to get excited about firing. My Modules project is in the bisque kiln and hopefully when it gets done it will be ready to go in the wood kiln. I also have some lidded vessels that are going to be in the wood kiln as well as project 3 if it will dry fast enough.

Design project

Almost done with the design project this is the form with the lid. All I have left is to put a handle on the lid and this project will be all wrapped up. I really enjoy where cutting the pots and making something out of them is going. I'm getting more comfortable doing it and I hope to continue working this way.

progress on project3

I have been throwing a lot of lidded vessels and so far it's going really good. I will be cutting these in half like my previous projects, but instead of stacking them I will be using the halves to make a unique lidded vessel. As of right now they are not going to be the same height so the lid is going to be the most difficult part to construct, but I think I can make it work. I'm not sure how many vessels I will be using , but I thinking around five.

progress

Project two is all finished I enjoy working this way and hope to do more in the future. It was a big step for me, but I think it is one in the right direction. As for project three I'm still a little undecided, but I'm probably going to do the design project. I look up the countries he said to for the research and there were a  lot of lidded vessels. So I started there trying to trow some. The concept from project two is still in my mind and I might try to incorperate that into this project.

Project 2

Project two is alomost done and looking good. I have a little more work to do before Tuesday, but it's close. I have a few more pots that need to dry before I can trim them so now it's a waiting game. As of right it looks like I'll have wnough time to get it finish. I have really enjoy this  project it's something different, but I think in the future I would like to re-visit this idea now that I have one under my belt. I'm still undecided about project three, but I might like to stay down the road I'm on if I can fit it into a prject selection, but as of now all I need is more clay.

project 2

Almost done with project two. Instead of making a functional pot I decided to do something more sculptural. So I cut each pot in half, except for the base, and started stacking them. So far there are eight pots in the sculptue, I plan to use ten, but depending on time and weight of the object it may be more.

ideas for project 2

For project two I've decided to make a combination pot made of multiple thrown objects. So far I've thrown five pots and I'm waiting for them to dry so I can start the trial phase to see exactly what will work and what won't. For now I'm going to continue to throw so I have plenty of pots to work with to make the final product. I don't have pictures this week, but hopefully by next week I will have something to show.

solutions

No pictures this week, but I've been doing some trial and error with the verb project. I used many different items to cut with and I was using items made from different materials. I wasn't happy with the look of the different items, but found a combination I am happy with. We discussed last class how I was going to display the work and I wa thinking about displaying them on the tables in class, but after thinking about it more I decided to bring in saw horses with a board across them with the work on top. I thought the saw horses were a good solution to that problem.

Verb

For project one the verb I chose is to cut, or split. Instead of just throwing pots and cutting them in half I think what I'm going to do is use different cutting devices and leave them about half way through the piece for the crit. For this pot I'll use a bow saw and leave it halfway through the cutting process. I was also thinking about using a pair of scissors, a hatchet, and maybe a knife in a few other pots. I feel the overall concept of the project will be stronger with the cutting devices left in the piece.

busy busy

It's been a few weeks since I blogged I've been really busy. the train kiln fired for the first time last weekend and everything came out very nice, excxept for my plates. I was very happy with how my mugs came out, all the colors arfe amazing and the shino glaze I made looks amazing. Right now I'm going back and revisting throwing mugs, bowls, and plates. I've also been working on throwing altered forms, I chose to throw a couple flaskes.

With the little time left in class I'm going to continue to throw.

Finishing up the kiln

We are putting the finishing touches on the train kiln. Last week we did a lot of work on the kiln. We finished the fire box, and the red brick around the outside of the kiln. We also kiln washed the inside, but one more layer will need to be put on. There was still some little things to do, like some welding, but it's getting very close to being ready. After we finished working on the kiln we did some clean up in the kiln area. Now all we need is some wood, I'm still working on getting some.

I'm going to have a lot more time to throw this week, so I'm excited to get working on my altered pieces.

progress

This week Brian showed us some techniques on how to create an object using only thrown. Our assignment is to create something that is mostly thrown. I'v been thinking about some half and half mugs, throwing two mugs cutting them in half and rejoining them to each other. I wouls also like make a nice three bowl plater for chips and dip. I'm still tryimg to think of some kind of sculptural piece to make. Last class Brian mentioned that oune of his professors use to throw mugs upside down, that really caught my attention so I tried it. Of course the hardest part about it was closing the top, but all in all I really enjoy it. Before I could start I had to make clay, so friday I made some. It takes a little bit longer to do by yourself, but the clay turned out great.

more plates and progress

The train kiln component is getting close to being finished we have a few more things to do, but we are getting close. We built the fire box and the chimney last week and it looks great. Im not sure if we are going to be able to work on the kiln this week do to the snow, but hopefully we can get it finished very soon.

I continued to throw plates last week and it's very enjoyable. however it seems to be the easiest element in the throwing component. The part of the plate process that is the most difficult is the drying. They can't be trimmed when they are to wet and/or to dry so you have to time it just right. I had a plate crack on me while I was trimming it. It was a little moist I should have let it set up longer. so I filled the crack and I'm going to experiment if the white slip.

plates and progress

This week we have been throwing plates. Plates are a little easier to throw, but the drying time for plates is a little slower than everything else. I was going to trim them today, but they were still wet so I flipped them over and I'm going to let them dry a little longer.

Thursday we finally got some good weather to work on the train kiln. We got a lot of the wall done and we got the arch up. so far the kiln is looking amazing. Hopefully tomorrow will have some good weather so we can work on it some more. I'm ready for the kiln  to be done so I can fire some of my thrown pieces. Next we are going to be throwing lidded vessels.

Mugs

We started throwing mugs this week and so far it is my favorite thing we have done. The most challenging thing about the mugs construction is the handle. The handle must be made for that particular mug and sometimes the handle you make doesn't look right on the mug so you have to start over. All and all the mug component is very enjoyable and I will continue to throw mugs.

Hopefully this week we will be able to work on the kiln. The weather last week was not good enough to work on it. I just hope we don't get to far behind because I would like to wood fire some of my  mugs. The next thing we are going to be doing is throwing vessels with lids.

Progress

This week we worked on finishing the bowls we were to throw. Brian didn't get a chance to check them Tuesday, but I'm sure he will check them this Tuesday. Last week we worked on the kiln and we got a good portion of the inside of the kiln done. It's starting to look really good.

Thursday almost everyone went to Kentucky for a show and I couldn't attend it because I work right after class, so instead I worked on my glaze calculation component and finished it. Hopefully the weather stays nice so we can work more on the kiln because if not we might get behind. I think we are throwing mugs next and that's what I've been excited to do.

Throwing bowls

This week we continued to throw and we are doing bowls. To me bowls are easier to throw than cylinders.  Throwing is starting to come a little more nature now that I'm doing it a lot. The only thing I need to work on when throwing bowls is before I take it off the wheel, I need to snow-plow more of the bottom of the bowl off. I think trimming the bowls is my favorite part about the process. It makes them look a lot cleaner and it's really easy to do.

For this week I'm going to be working on the glaze calculation project. I'm goin to be changing to percentage of EPK in the Shino glaze to see what kind of colors we can get from it. I've never mixed a glaze before, but I'm sure if I need any help Brian will assist me. After I finish the glaze calculation I believe we are going to be throwing mugs and that's what I've been trying to do, because I need a good coffee mug.

starting the kiln

Last week we started building the train kiln the process seems to be simple so far and I think I'm going to really enjoy doing the construction of a kiln. I picked to do the train kiln component because I'm not sure when the next time I'll have a chance to build a kiln, maybe never again so I couldn't pass it up.
Last week we started building the train kiln the process seems to be simple so far and I think I'm going to really enjoy doing the construction of a kiln. I picked to do the train kiln component because I'm not sure when the next time I'll have a chance to build a kiln, maybe never again so I couldn't pass it up.

Dan started the process over christmas break by leveling off most of ground where the kiln was going to sit by using sand and rock. He also put the layer of center blocks down. We gathered the bricks, rock, and sand as a class. Then we added the first layer of regular house brick. Then Brian made a mixture of sand, clay, and water to use as a morter so the high tempature bricks don't move. Weather promitting we will do more tomorrow.

We also turned in the ten cylinders last week all in all I think I did a good job there's just a few techniques I need to practice so I can be a more effective thrower.

This week we are throwing bowls and trimming them. Also I belive we are working on the kiln if the weather is nice

Progress

I started throwing this week. I've thrown before, but I had trouble after I got the cone centered compressing it back down and keeping it centered. So everything I did at first was getting off-centered and collapsing.

So I ask Brian what I could do different and he gave me some suggestions that seemed to help. I'm starting to get the hang of it now, but the one thing I'm having trouble with is pulling the cylinders upward, my fingers seem to get snagged on the side of the pot creating a wobble in the pot. Over the past few days my progress is getting better and I'm actually throwing decent cylinders.

As of right now I have four of the ten cylinders that Brian wants done by Thursday so I'm going to be in the studio a lot over the next couple days. I'm hoping to get to the point where I can throw cylinders with hardly any effort, but I know it's going to take a lot of practice

Getting Started

On the first day we went over the syllabus and looked over the components that we can choose from to focus on this semester. For the first half of the second day of class we discussed what components we were interested in and  everyone choice the train kiln and the throwing components. We also got started on the glaze calculation component by making test tiles. The second half of the of day two we had an intresting artist named Shawn Skabelund come in and give a lecture.

Im excited about the rest of the semester, building a train kiln will be a great experience.Im also excited about throwing, I've done it a few times and have been trying to get back into it for some time now.  I would have liked to do the multiplicity component because I did a mold project last semester in Ian's class and I enjoyed it. But im sure ill have plenty of things to do. Im ready to start working.