CHRISTMAS in April!!! My 2nd term projects

It was seriously like Christmas today!!  Seriously!  Professor H. pulled all my pieces out of the gas kiln.  I posted a few earlier.  They were from the electric kiln. And while it does leave the colors more vivid, I prefer the smokey deep colors in the gas kiln, so that's where most of mine were fired.

Birds.  These first ones were chicks.  I used a yellow glaze that ended up not being yellow in a gas kiln. 






The second batch are my song birds.  

And my seagull.  He's my favorite of the birds. Frankly, seagulls are my favorite birds.

I did Book Bookends.  It's hard to see, but the book on the left is The Hobbit, with a hobbit hole.  The middle one is Charlotte's Web...Charlotte's there, but hard to see.  And the last one is Anne of Green Gable...her braid and the house.



I did two sets of four mugs.  The bottom looks like tree bark.  I'm really thrilled with how they turned out!

And oh, how I love my face jugs.  I have family requests for more.  I'm thrilled with how their eyes turned out.  I want to work on their ears next time.

I wanted to try making a hand...the kids are referring to it as my Dementor Hand.  Hmm.  You think JK Rowling would like it?

My wooden spoons (I used them in that short story, Spoons) turned out great and Im' happy with my acorn scoops. I think the one in the back on the right is probably the most practical.

And here's my mocha diffusion tray.  I'm so happy with how it turned out!!  It's another one of my favorites of the year!  Underneath is my mocha diffusion bowl.  Love that one, too!

I worked on faces too this term.  This is one of my best girl ones.  I love that she's reading her book in the woods with her buddy!

These were my first faces...uh, yeah, they weren't great.  I mean, you can tell their faces, but they're no really people looking. So I made them goddesses.  LOL

I went to an art show where they had a beautiful leaf painting.  I tried to emulate it.  I did two experimental pieces and I'm happy with the final product!  I'm going to hang it out at camp!

SANTA PALOOSA!!  I wrote about my father-in-law's years of making folk art Santas out of wood.  Here are my ceramic homages.

The kids love these
"Butt Santas."

A bunch of Santa faces close-ups!

I'm so happy with how these tree mugs turned out!!

Last but not least, here are my quilt pieces.  I'll be mounting them in the next few weeks.  I'll post the finished "quilt."  I did two of each color and fired one in the gas kiln, one in the electric kiln.  I wanted to get a feel for how much they'd change.

Seriously, I can't tell you the amount of glee I had today.  You know how you felt on Christmas morning when you were ten?  Yeah, that describes my feeling today!

Thanks for everyone who followed my adventures in school this year! 

Holly

Pushing my Limits...My Novel Freshman Experience, Part 20

   Wow, twenty posts on going back to school.  I'll do one more wrap up blog on it this term.  (I'm taking Ceramics 2 next term, so there will be more!  The Hobbit Hole is still in the kiln so I'll showcase that one on the last post.)             


We're glazing now.  And my pieces are coming out of the kiln. 

I'll confess, it's like Christmas.  I know how I wanted them to look, but I've never done it before so it's a surprise!  The uncertainty of glazing is pushing my comfort zone.  You see, I like to know what's coming up.  I like having a plan.  I can plan all I want with glazing, but it's still a crap shoot.  I can look at chips of how a glaze reacts to our clay body, but there are variables and even experienced potters can be surprised by a glazing result.   

I'm doing my report on Rob Barnard, I've talked about him before.  (You can read the post here.)  His career is built around controlled chaos.  He can plan and bring to a project his years of experience, but things still just happen.   “A key dimension of Barnard's aesthetic has been a tolerance for the slight irregularities and imperfections engendered by the wood-firing, and this new work goes a step further. The shows inclusion of a number of cracked and dented works indicates a Zen-like acceptance of all of nature's workings, not merely those that suit the preset needs of man. The results are highly poetic." (Rob Barnard by Alice Thorson, City Paper, Washington, April 26, 1991)   


So, I glazed my cups trying to be free and not worry.  I experimented.  And even though my Kiln Goddess's arms fell off, I'm confident I can glue them back in place.  And maybe I love her just a little more because she's damaged.   
           

        I tried for a bit more control with my teapot and Hobbit Hole, realizing that glazing effects can surprise even the most experienced potter, like Barnard and Professor H.  I'm hoping for the best. The  professor was very patient answering my repeated questions.    

And my teapot (the quote on the back is from Carry Her Heart...the heroine's garden was the inspiration) I really wanted the matte, rough tree look for the body, but the glossy, color for the flowers, butterfly and leaf on the lid.  I'm so pleased with how it turned out.  


So here's what I'm walking out of class with...a renewed effort to push my own limitations; to push my personal status quo; to experiment.  To find glee in even my failures.  So this class not only gave me an entry into earth art, but it also pushed me to try to relax my expectations.  I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving! And thanks for being so sweet and following me on this new journey! I'm already so excited about next term!  

Holly   

PS If you missed any of my Novel Freshman Experience posts, here are links:
Part 19, Part 18,  Part 17, Part 16,  Part 15, Part 14, Part 13, Part 12, Part 11, Part 10, Part 9, Part 8, Part 7 Part Six, Part 5, Part 4, Part 3, Part 2, Part 1