Thursday, January 24, 2019

Week 3

     It is now week 3 it is a short week with only one day of class, I stopped in over the break to make sure everything was looking okay and at the right moisture levels but did not really have time to progress on the project. I am really loving where it is right now so I am sitting on where it is for a minute. I am considering adding color, add more organic forms to it or another thrown piece, or even a sculpture of a bird or fox.  I still don't know if I want it to have a use such as a planter or just have it as the sculpture it is. I also want to add more and make it like an adventure and every time you look at it you see something new but I don't want to over do it making it too busy and drowning out the really nice parts of it. So for class I decided to clean up what I already have and make it perfect to me before I really start adding more to it. I did throw a good sized bowl last week to fit the stump but decided it have better attachment points if i put it on the root verses the side of the stump itself.  I also added some vine work which I think I will continue to expand on where I put roses otherwise the look like they were inorganically stuck on to the stump. I also added rings of life to the inside of the stump and apparently did not capture stage two of my teacup. I'm still loving the progress though and with help from the critiques I decided to not put color on it and leave it as a raw clay piece.
Stage three



Week 2

     It is now week 2, last week I achieved a bowl the size I need for the tree stumps base and attached the roots to it. So far it has the overall presence I am wanting for it but now I need to figure out how to do the tree bark texture. The tree texture mat in the studio is no where to be found and not an actual bark texture so I get to experiment to find the right tree bark texture I want. The tea cup I made for the top of the stump dried out too fast so with the help of my professor I decided to use it as an extension of the project by putting it on the "lid" of the tree stump and wetting it down everyday I work on the stump to show the break down as the nature part of my project progresses. I watched a few YouTube videos to figure out the bark texture and got advice form a peer, I have to say I really love the texture that has been produced. I already started building some mushrooms and black roses to go on the stump but the bowl that I threw for it is a bit over bearing and needs to be sized down quite a bit. I decided to throw a few different sizes and will see whats best to attach after the break.

First stage of teacup


Week 1

       First week back in ceramics we mixed quite a bit of clay, discussed the syllabus, and projects for the semester.  I'm excited and look forward to what required and non required projects I will get to make this semester. The first project is Apologia and I have a multitude of ideas for it. We are to do the project over what we have an admiration for as well as the excerpt from the Apologia story. My admiration is for the concept of nature and humans in it. This is the start and reference images for my project. It is now the second day of week 1 I'm starting to build some of the ideas I have for Apologia. I am a little stuck on how to build the base of the tree stump, if it should be slab or thrown, I think if I can throw a bowl the right size that would be the best option. My first couple attempts for the bowl were a bit of a flop but I did get a few other things for this project thrown. I think I did get a viable bowl for the base of this project I attached a "root" to it and it seems that it is around the size and shape I am looking for.