Music vs Ceramics

     In ceramics, practice probably would not end in perfection, but none the less it would make us better.  Up above is my beautiful display of "bad results".  The bowl always had that crack because I pushed through it when I was trimming and had to glue it back.  The nails turned out darker brown when they were supposed to be a orangish-brown and my combination vessel has a paddy stuck to it permanently; however, these bad results can all be prevented with practice.
     I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about my other hobby.  Not only am I an artist, but I am also an artist in another way, music.  I have been playing guitar since 2003, but I am not all that great.  I can play a little, but I don't know a whole lot of chords, and I only write my own stuff.  Not only do I play guitar, but I also play piano.  I am not a pianist, but I can play a couple things, but I mainly write my own stuff like what I do with guitar.  The 3rd instrument I play and have been playing for 20 years since I was 5, is drums.  I don't get much time to practice because of my all day school/work schedule, but I try to play them on the weekends.
    Practice is the key to music.  I've played more of the guitar over piano so I am better at that; however, I have played a whole lot more of drums than guitar so I am 10 times the drummer than I am guitarist.  The reason, because of the time I have put in.  The same applies to ceramics.  I am not a good ceramic artist because I haven't put in the right amount of time.  When I am getting frustrated on the wheel, I just need to relax and know that "practice" will make "better".  Next semester, I hope to get better results because I really want to become that well rounded artist...

Total Meltdown

     This semester has not been the way I have wanted it to be.  As I've said in past blogs, my vessels and my mugs didn't achieve what I wanted them to achieve.  I had paddies stick to the bottoms of my vessels very badly.  It was a meltdown of epic proportions...  The jug turned out a much lighter brown than what I really wanted.  I expected the jug to be dark brown and for the smallest vessel a bluish-purple color.  Instead, I got the brown I intended for my jug.  Needless to say, this has been a very awkward semester; however, if only I had put in more time and effort, my results may been twice as good.  But, the glazing is something that takes a lot of practice to get just the right color and we do not always have control.  I see more and more people who do not get the color they originally wanted.  I had this trouble last semester with one of my pieces as I mentioned in previous posts.
     Next semester, I am honestly going to go crazy and put in long hours and the studio if that is what it takes.  I would like to become a well rounded artist, one who can do it all.  In order to do that, one must practice..

Mugs

    
     Just like my bowls, the effort put into my mugs was no where near what it should have been.  Personally, I believe I had more trouble with the mugs than I did with the bowls, only because with the mugs you have to really bring your sides up, but when it comes to the bowls, you still have to bring them up but in a way, things just work out naturally.  Due to centrifugal motion, bowls have a tendency to want to form outward.  What I am trying to say is that when you are throwing mugs, by leaning in and placing yourself directly over the wheel, it makes it a lot easier to throw forms strait upward, but with bowls they form at an angle creating that bowl shape a lomost on their own.
     With mugs, not only do we need to create the forms themselves, but we also have got to create the handles which has its own separate part.  After creating the mugs, we then take a thin piece of clay and pull downward using water which creates the handle.  After we get the handle the way we want it, we have to set them aside to dry a little.  After both the mugs and handles have dried a little, we can then combine the two.
     In all theory, mugs don't take any longer than bowls because with bowls, we have to trim them after they have become leather hard....With mugs, we create the forms and have to pull handles.  The both of them require two stages...Next semester, I plan on pushing myself with mugs if that is what we will be working with....    

Bowls

    
     My bowls this semester did not turn out the way I had wanted them to...One of my bowls ended up with a crack down the center.  I had wanted one of my bowls to turn out blue and that is exactly what it did, but as a result of the poor glazing I had done, the glaze ran and I ended up with more than I wanted.  I then had to use a machine to chisel extra paddy off. 
     When I was first creating the bowls, I had a lot of difficulty getting the bowls centered on the wheel.  I would have to say that the hardest thing about throwing for me is first getting my clay centered on the wheel.  The next thing would have to be pulling my clay up to the top to increase the size of the piece and to thin it out.  I think my biggest problem with the wheel is that I didn't give myself enough time to get used to it and to really bond with it, lol.  It is very important for artists when first starting out to practice, otherwise we will never get better as artists.  Next semster, I really plan on challenging myself and really putting in a lot of effort. 

End of the Semester

     The end of the semester has finally come, but I am not all that satisfied with my pieces of art I created in ceramics this semester.  The craftsmanship of my pieces didn't turn out all that well.  A lot of my mugs didn't turn out all that great as you can see above.  One of them has thumb prints and the bowl has marks where I bumped it up against something else.  Overall, the quality of my work didn't look good when it came to the throwing and the glazing.  The fact is, I didn't spend enough time on the wheel to really get the feel for throwing.  I have no one else to blame, but myself.  Yes, I am a part-time student who also works, but I have got to find the right balance between both school and work.  School is very important and my artwork is even more important because it happens to be my major.  Art is what is going to get me my future job.
     Next semester, I will be taking Ceramics 3 so it is imperative that I put in twice the effort as I put in this semester for that the ceramic courses only get more difficult as we move forward.  I hear Ceramics 3 is much more challenging the Ceramics 2.  Looks like I will be spending a lot of Sunday afternoons at school, but if it means both my throwing and glazing will improve, that is enough to keep my motivated.  See you next semester Brian....

The Future of my Artwork SUCCESS

   
      For the future, I would like to push myself even more than before...I would like to really challenge myself to see if I have what it takes to create even better pieces of artwork...Last semester, I was more successful with my pieces because I didn't have too many problems with my glazing... My pieces didn't get the golden chisel award and they also turned out the way I wanted them to when it came to the glazing, except for the elephant foot because it turned out gray with blue colors mixed through out the piece.  My ceramic head I did had some air bubbles in it which I wasn't too happy with that but, what can you do? Ceramics is something you can't always expect to be perfect every time you have a go at it, but with the right attitude and patients (the key) you can do anything.  Patients is something I don't really have, but I am learning to develop it because it is very important to have and it must be practiced at all times....
     For the Fall, I will be taking Ceramics 3 so I plan on really pushing myself.  I want my pieces to look how I planned on them looking with little or no mistakes...In order for me to do that, I must be patient and continue to put in the effort they require.  

Glazing #2

 

The quality of my glazing wasn't as good as I had expected...I have a lot of pieces that earned the golden chisel award...Granted, to some degree these things can't always be prevented if you do not know how badly the glazes run because some glazes will run a lot more than others.  The important thing is to make sure that your pieces are wiped off at the bottom with only a finger nail in thickness left at the bottom.
    Another thing that I wasn't satisfied with was the fact that some of my glazes didn't turn out the way I had expected them to...I made sure to apply the glazes in the correct order, A over B or vice versa.  I did have to go back and correct some of my pieces so that the there were little or no finger prints.  I also had to make sure that I did not put the coatings on way too thick...
The most important thing I learned this semester is to leave a finger nail thickness at the bottom.  Personally, I believe if I had done that from the beginning, it would have prevented a lot of the problems that I am currently having...

Glazing

  

      We've reached the last stage of Ceramics, glazing so over the course of the semester I've put a lot of thought into what I would like my  pieces to look like based on their craftsmanship.  Things didn't start out looking all that great at the beginning of the semester, but I've learned to accept it.  At first, my water jug turned out looking deflated and one of my crosses and its nails broke several times. 
     Because the crosses are crooked and reminded me of historical tombstones/graves, I've come to the consensus that I am going to glaze them to look like old, wretched crosses.  The nails are to look rustic with one cross black on the outside and red in the middle symbolizing blood.  The other is to look like an old tombstone with moss or algae growing from it.  These aren't your typical crosses with tribal design or finely cut wood crosses. Jesus was crucified!  His crucifixion was the only answer, but for me it was never the less the most tragic and unfortunate occurrence in all history.   These crosses symbolize death, but they are fortunate pieces in that they represent what hope and prosperity there is no matter what the sorrow is.
     As for my 1st project, I know that the colors are going to be brown with a vanilla/cream color.  I want for my water jug to look like an old whiskey jug from the 18th and 19th centuries. (if you don't all ready know what I am talking about, go to your closest Blockbuster store and rent a western ASAP, Clint Eastwood movies will do). When you look at these jugs that drunks intoxicated themselves with you notice their brown and cream colors.  The top half is normally brown with a cream bottom.  The normal water jug for waitress water refilling now becomes - "a blast from the past with this all new alcohol jug, perfect for parties and unnoticed drop bys." As for my third project, I plan on keeping the colors the same.  Most Bull Terriers are white and black so I am going to keep things original.

Irregular Joined Forms

 
 For our last thrown project, we are to construct "irregular joined Forms" as I call them.  Basically, we are to create froms using only the wheel.  Just like any other time when we are on the wheel, we start with a ball of clay, get it aligned to the wheel and then find the center.  After creating many shapes such as doughnuts, we are to then take these forms and join them to one another.  Last class, Brian showed us how to make these doughnuts.  We can use the whole doughnut or we can cut it in half and use two pieces instead.  He is wanting us to take everything we have learned this entire semester and utilize it for this project.  He doesn't mind what we come up with as an end product as long as it is completed on the wheel.  The wheel is going to be the "main" tool for this project.  In the 1st ceramics class, we worked with only hand-built projects. If we wanted we had the option of throwing on the wheel, but none of our projects required it.  This 2nd ceramics class requires both hand-built and hand-thrown projects.  We are now on our last project for both.

     I am not really sure as to what my hand-thrown irregular joined vessels will look like.  I am just going to play it by ear.  I plan on creating somethings that look real weird, others not so much.  I like to jump around a lot.  One thing about my artwork is that it is different everytime.  I go from doing weird stuff to more everyday things such as elephant feet, tribal heads and bowls, etc...

3rd Project

  

      Because my initial plans for my 2nd project (dog head) got pushed back to now, I would like use this opportunity to talk about it since it will be used as my 3rd project.  This year I've noticed a few people in class who have been sculpting thier clay forms.  Whether they were babies, possums or dogs, I found myself rather intrigued by the process.  In ceramics, I've done many different forms of handbuilding.  Of the different handbuilding techniques, sculpting happens to be the one I've yet to start.  I've watched as other students would sculpt their figures, using delicate procedures to get the job done.  Like other methods, sculpting also requires the hollowing of objects.  When an artist takes a large piece of clay and creates art out of it, that piece of greenware when it comes for bisque firing cannot be completely solid when it is put into the kiln.  The reason is because pressure will not be able to move freely throughout the piece; therefore, exploding when reaching high temperature.  We hollow the object(s) out so that this pressure can move easily through the piece.  It is always smart to poke a few holes in the piece so that pressure can escape the object, preventing exploding endings. 
      I will be hollowing my dog head after I have completely sculpted it.  Because I am dealing with only a solid piece (head), I will not be needing to remove and hollow out legs and arms because they will not exist in my piece.  The dog I have chosen to sculpt is my favorite breed of dog, the Bull Terrier.  These dogs have been featured on Target commercials as well as other movies:  "Next Friday" as well as Tim Burton's 1984 short film, "Frankenweenie".

Project #2

 
 The 2nd hand built project for me was going to be very exciting because I was going to work on a three-dimensional dog head.  Unfortunately, I had spent the week before working on my bowl throwing so I didn't get to my 2nd hand built project until Wednesday. I knew I was going to have trouble completing it so I decided to push the dog back until the time comes to do the third project. Now, for my 2nd project, I decided to take a religious direction.  I am a Christian so God is very, very important in my life.  He gives me strength and motivates me.  I knew I would have to pick a design that wouldn't take too long to do, but at the same time be challenging.  I decided that I was going to do two crosses.  I would create these crosses and then hollow them out.  I would then create (4) nails symbolizing the puncturing devices used to post Jesus on his cross.  In both crosses, the nails will be placed inside, one horizontal and the other vertical.  These nails will be able to be held so they must be able to be removed from the crosses.  I had trouble trying to get a good shape out of the nails.  Because in reality, nails are very strait, I had a lot of trouble attaining that.  I also had difficulty getting the right roundness out of my nails.  The crosses aren't the most crafty looking things you have seen, but I kind of like the way they are turning out.  I kind of want the crosses to have a rock feel to them.  I want them to look like stone.  Hopefully, all goes well.

Bowl Throwing

The clay wheel progressively got harder for me for as we transitioned from cylinders to bowls.  I wasn't used to using two and a half pound clay,  not to mention this unbalanced clay only prevented me from achieving better constructed products.  On my first day using the wheel to throw bowls, I had decided that I was going to use matter porcelain as my choice of clay-medium.  I felt that it was very fluid and allowed for quick balancing/centering; however, my day didn't go as planned for I continued to mess up one bowl after another, pushing "completion" further and further away.  Needless to say, I didn't give up.  I had decided that I was going to complete several bowls the next period, better ones at that.  On Wednesday, I arrived confident and ready to get on the wheel, but upon my arrival, I was informed that we were out of clay.  After an unsuccessful throwing with porcelain the class before, I had made the decision that equal parts or some other clay medium would better suit my needs, but with no clay, I found myself another day behind.  Luckily, I found a little amount of equal parts, enough to make three bowls.  I then sat down on the wheel, trying to center my clay.  The wheel was a little wobbly, but I was eager to balance it  For those of you curious, this time around was a lot more successful.  I was able to balance better because of my patients, and I knew that a good attitude always goes a long way.

Up above are a few pictures of the bowls I had constructed through physics.  The bowl at the bottom got smashed because another student either knocked it over and then put it back afterward, or they set his/her art next to mine and bumped it, but in the end I always believe in  my products for accidents are not "accidents" at all.  They are natural and meant to be....

-I continue to challenge myself for I plan on eventually getting good at the wheel.  Patients is all I need.....

My Artwork

I got to thinking about the quality of my work yesterday.  Personally, I don't think I have been spending enough time on my artwork.  Yes, I have a busy schedule, that is correct.  I go to school five days a week, and I work at UPS from 5:30pm until 10:00pm every night.  This makes it very, very hard for my artwork to compete with the other artists at school; however, I have got to find a balance between school and work that will help me in creating better artwork.

     My work isn't at all satisfying in my opinion.  I have a very high expectancy when it comes to the quality of my artwork and that expectancy is for it to be good.  I can't help it, I get it from my father.  Both him and I are perfectionists and all we do is expect the best out of our work.  I come into school sometimes on weekends so that I can get my artwork done.  It is the only thing I can do to increase the creativity in my projects.  I juggle art and music.  Like my art, I expect my music to carry a pleasant tune.  Art is never perfect, but it can be pleasant and it can inspire others...I hope to inspire others through my artwork...All we can do is hope for the best while putting in tremendous effort! 

  "If you ain't first, you're last" - Talladega Nights. 

Clay Throwing

     This is the 1st semester for me in which I get to throw pots with the exception of only doing it once this past fall.  I've got to say, clay throwing is very difficult.  It is so hard that I once struggled with getting my bat on correctly, but you know how the saying goes, "practice makes perfect!"  On Wednesday, I felt I did a lot better this time around than I did last week.  I was having trouble getting my clay center on the wheel, but I feel I am getting better at that.  I am also becoming good at creating bowls, but because this assignment is cylinders, I haven't developed the feel for it yet.  My clay keeps creating this "bowl" shape instead of a cylinder.  I need to learn how to push all the base clay to the top, creating the "cylinder" shape..So far, I have 10 cylinders completed, but some of them have thin bottoms.  I was in such a rush to complete these 10 that I ended up with crappy bases.  I am not sweating it because I am still learning how to throw on the wheel.  Maybe my next 10 will be better than my last.  I am kinda hoping that IUS will not be closed tomorrow so that I can come in and complete these last remaining cylinders.  Weather always has a tendency to play a part in our lives, not being able to go to work/school that is.  Here are a few pictures of some of the cylinders if that is what you want to call them lol...

Project #1

    The new semester has started, and us students have already been given our first assignment. So, I began brainstorming to figure our what exactly it is that I am going to do for my first project.  In Ceramics I, I mainly did organic products with the exception of 1 bowl.  I got to thinking, what is one of the most common ceramic pieces people do?  Tea pots and water jugs happen to be very popular, and I  have never done one.  Up above are the drawings I did for the jug I plan on doing.  I had to go online to see some examples of people's work so that I could see what I am going to do.  I got the idea from an image of one that I saw online.  The sketch isn't all that great for I was just trying to do a ruff illustration to get an idea of what I was going to do.
     Ceramics II is already beginning to be a good start.  Though this may be a harder course than the one before it, never the less, the course will be a fun one.  I like challenges.  After all, isn't that what art is about, pushing youself to better your art?  I hope everything works out as planned....