20th San Angelo National Ceramic Competition

I found out recently that I had a piece accepted into the 20th San Angelo National Ceramic Competition.  I mailed out the piece a couple of days ago and it arrived yesterday.  The Juror for the exhibition is Leopold Foulum, from Montreal, Canada.  There was a total of 764 pieces of art submitted for jurying and a total of 123 works were chosen for the exhibition.

The exhibit will take place from April 11- June 26, 2014, at the San Angelo Museum of Fine Art, San Angelo, Texas.  For more information you can check out the website link posted here:  www.samfa.org 

Posted below is a picture of the piece accepted for the exhibit.  The title for the piece is, "Technological Dependence".

Figurative piece in progress

Currently I'm working on multiple pieces in different stages.  From soft clay to finishing surfaces on fired work, I find myself not finding it too hard to deal with the winter weather creeping back in Indiana.

This piece pictured is in it's early stages.  I say early stages because I started it as a bust, but now find myself wanting more.  I plan on adding on more clay, but because of my decision, I am working backwards.  Here's why.  Normally a sculpture is created from the ground up, but because I want more of the torso and body, I'm working backwards.  I don't plan on creating a life size body to go along with the head…I have other ideas in mind.  I've done sketches, but I won't post them, so you can see the actual work being made and the progress along the way.  I'll keep adding new images as I make progress.

Pictured are some images of the "bust" and a form I made, to help adjust the height I need for the shoulder areas and to start the torso to be added around later.

Creating glazes for the Ceramic Studio at University of Saint Francis

This semester I have been teaching at University of Saint Francis and have been creating new glazes for the ceramic department.  I extruded and made some test tiles, with white slip applied to one side of the tile and numbered them accordingly.  I made up 43 cone 10 glazes varying in color.  I also tried to have an even amount of gloss, satin, and matt surfaces for the glaze tests as well.  I also included a couple of textural glazes for those wanting a different look.  I fired two sets of glazes for a total of 86 test tiles.  One set was fired in a oxidation atmosphere (electric kiln), and the other set was fired in a reduction atmosphere (gas kiln).

The students have been really receptive to the amount of options they have now.  I have also made up 21 different Raku glazes, which I have recently fired.  Those glazes really turned out nice and should be a hit with the students as well.  Pictured are the tiles I made and the tests I have done so far…minus the new Raku glazes.  The bottom row of tiles are some of the previous test tiles they had before I started my endeavor.