Wood Fired Cups

I know it has been some time since I've posted anything...almost a year, so I thought I would try to keep up with what's going on in the studio on a regular basis.
I have been creating new sculptural work and have also taken some time to explore functional ware.
I have also been working on reorganizing/rearranging the studio to make it a little more efficient with what I am working on currently.

Below is a picture of a finished wood fired porcelain cup that I have been exploring surfaces with.  I designed the cup from hand and then created a three piece mold for the basic form of the cup.  The handle was created using another mold.  I had issues with the handle and slip casting it, so I had to use the two piece mold as a press mold and then created the handle using the two parts.  By doing this it helped to give more stability to the handle as well as a nice balance of the weight, in regards to the weight of the cup form.

I will be posting other glaze experiments over this form until I find a combination that I will explore in producing further down the road. Enjoy.

This is one of two cups:

This is cup #2:

teapots! 11th Invitational

This Friday is the opening at Morgan Contemporary Glass Gallery, for the exhibition titled, "teapots! 11th invitational.  The exhibit will be displayed from April 7-June 10, 2017.

Below are images of the two teapots I created for the exhibition.
They are both hand built using Terra Cotta clay, and glazes were applied to both teapots.

 

 Turquoise Teapot

 

Mechanical Teapot

To see the digital exhibition catalog for the show, click on the link below.

teapots! 11th Invitational, Morgan Contemporary Glass Gallery, Pittsburgh, Pennslyvania

America's ClayFest IV (April 14-May 21, 2016)

I found out recently that I will have a piece of work exhibited in the upcoming exhibition "America's ClayFest IV-Open Division".  The exhibit was juried by Sergei Isupov, ceramic artist, and Leslie Ferrin, of Ferrin Contemporary.  The exhibit will run from April 14-May 21, 2016, at Blue Line Arts Gallery in Roseville, California.

Pictured below is "Ingenuity", the piece that was chosen to be exhibited.  The piece was hand built using Terra Cotta (slabs, coil, and pinch pot method).  Glazes were applied and the piece was fired multiple times to achieve the desired surfaces.  Enjoy!

For more information: www.americasclayfest.org

New Wall Piece Underway-2016

I usually am working on multiple pieces at a time and thought I would post a picture of another piece that I am currently working on.  I have played with creating a press mold and a slip cast mold for the tile design, but thought I would use the press mold to use with hand building.  I am using terra cotta and have been piecing together the tiles onto a  1/2" inch slab.  The wet diameter of the design is 11 3/4".

I will go back and clean up and fill-in any joints and areas which will need attention and possibly make a slip cast mold from the finished prototype.  I'm still not sure about the gears as they are, and may change that portion of the design…I'm just not sure yet.  I am thinking of creating anywhere from nine to twelve, maybe more, to create a wall piece.

I haven't decided on the surface treatment just yet, and will be exploring glazes through tests that I will be doing shortly.  I know it is only one picture of the design in its early stages, but I thought it would give an idea to the time behind the process.  Enjoy.

New Work Underway-2016

During the school break I have been able to get back into the studio and get some new work underway.
I am still working on creating some new molds for slip casting and have also been hand building some new work as well.

Pictured below is one of the new pieces that I am currently working on.  I have bisque fired the piece and will post that image soon, before I start the glazing process.  Enjoy.

New Work, "Ingenuity", 2015

My time is usually spent working on sculptural pieces, but for last four months it seems all I have been working on most of the time is wheel thrown work.  I finally took time away from the wheel to get back to my first love…sculpture!

This piece, "Ingenuity", is a sculpture that I had been working on for a short time.  It took me seventeen hours to create this piece, minus the multiple firings I put it through and the build up of multiple glazes. The piece is hand built with press mold additions, and is made from earthenware clay.  It is hollow and was built "life size".

With my exploration into the "object/artifact", I came upon an old 1921 gasoline welder, that my dad had found up in his attic above the garage.  I instantly fell in love with the piece and found it to be perfect to try and create with clay.  I used slabs, coil, and the pinch pot method to create this piece.

The piece was fired to cone 05 bisque and then I used glazes that I created in graduate school, at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.  I hadn't had an opportunity to use the glazes, beyond test tiles, and was happy to finally find a piece that I thought the glazes would compliment.

The glazes are low fire as well, cone 06, and really help to make the piece look like the real thing, only with more rust and decay.

Pictured below are pictures of the piece in different stages of the making process.  Enjoy.

Raku Lidded Vessel

I have been working on multiple pieces in the studio and thought I would post an update on a particular piece of work.  I made a wheel thrown vessel with a lid, out of stoneware clay, and fired it in a Raku kiln with Raku glazes I made up at IPFW.

I fired the piece a couple of weeks ago, but finally got around to photographing it.  Hope you enjoy the work.