Conference Success!

I recently got back from the 2011 American Art Therapy Association conference and what a great and successful conference experience!  The picture is of my table at the craft fair that I shared with someone from my program (I'm on the left with my pottery).  It was a pretty successful craft fair for me, and I made enough money to pay for almost half of a replacement camera off of selling my pottery alone.

Selling my pottery was really motivating for me - I charged more than I thought I should, and people seemed to think these were reasonable prices.  It was great because I think I would otherwise very much under-charge for my pieces.  Four bowls broke - four great bowls - so that was money lost, but I brought home the shards to use in my garden, so at least it doesn't completely go to waste.  Also some people took shards for their own art work.

I also presented my thesis again.  I actually had a decent crowd even though I was scheduled during the lunch hour and across from the Town Hall meeting.  People asked really nice and supportive questions, no heckling (which can happen, even from a crowd full of therapists, it's surprising).  My thesis (and a handout summarizing my presentation) will be up on my website soon so that people can access it and cite me in their work.  In general it was great to get my feet wet in national presentations, and I've got two proposals in the works for next year.

(What am I thinking?? I'm also planning to take the ATR-BC exam at the conference next year?? Clearly I am insane.)

Some finished work... (finally?)

I've been making lots of stuff in the studio but I haven't shown anything.  Also I have forgotten to pick it up AND I was having trouble with glazing on the dark brown clay that I love so much.  Here are three of the seven things I brought home with me this week.  One of them is another handle-less coffee mug.

The glazes aren't so exciting because I am working on the form more than the glazing.  I've got a few bowls of varying sizes and one other small cup.  Two tall narrow cups and one tall narrow vase are in the bisque fire this week so I will glaze them next time I go in.  I made a third tall narrow cup this week after much struggling with the clay - I felt like goldilocks in there (this clay is tooooo soft, this clay is tooooo hard).

I'm excited because I'm really starting to build up inventory.  In July I will have lots of small bowls and cups to sell at the conference.  Yay!

Tall Narrow Cup Goal: Accomplished!

Well, mostly.

A bit ago I mentioned one of my goals was to make a tall, narrow cup.  Here we have one vase and two tall narrow cups!  The vase is the one that's finished and the cups still need to be trimmed on the bottom.  They are pretty much the shape I wanted them to be and so far have survived in my care - that is, I transferred them to my shelf without dropping them.  Pretty good!

Today I went to the studio for a while because there was a silly miscommunication and I ended up not at work today but not at the other site I was supposed to visit, either.  So, finding myself with nothing to do, I decided to spend at least two hours on my pots.  When I got there I found a lot of things had made it through the last bisque fire, so I was able to glaze five pieces!  Then I trimmed the vase I made last Friday and made the two new cups.  Pretty productive day!

I wouldn't say my goal is completely accomplished, however.  I did manage to make a cup, but I want to make this cup shape consistently.  Then I will try another shape.  But I think I've really started to understand how to make the shape I want, which is largely about feeling the difference between pushing on the outside and pushing on the inside of the clay.  (Push on the inside to go wider, on the outside to go taller)  I don't think I have special talent for working with clay, but I'm proud of the hours I've put into this to get where I am and I'm seeing real progress.  So... yay :)

Distressing Distressed Clay

I am really loving how my latest stuff is turning out.  The dark brown clay looks beautiful under the white glaze.  I just can't get enough of it.

modified coffee mug

The top image is a mug design inspired by my friend who is something of a coffee fanatic.  He asked me if I could design a mug that wouldn't have a handle but that could be used while the coffee is hot.  So instead of making a handle I used two slabs and made a built-in coffee sleeve.   Plus I think it looks kind of cool and modern.

There's only one problem.

The insides of all of these vessels is pitted and pocked, which means none of them are food safe.  I now have four great bowls or cups, including the modified coffee mug, and I can't use any of them because they're just not sanitary.

tea cup

Sigh.

One of my bowls is in line to be re-fired with a transparent glaze inside to hopefully seal all of the pits, so we'll see.

I have about five more things ready to trim either today or next week sometime.  I will have to come up with a different way to glaze the insides.  My theory is that the glaze is too thick inside, because it's not pocked on the outside and it's all the same glaze.  I'd like to have a nice solid white inside of the mug, but I might have to change my technique.  Right now I'm dipping the bowl quickly in the glaze but I might need to brush it on watered down and then coat it with transparent gloss.

Another problem is that I am really struggling to find time and energy to go into the studio lately.  I'm up to four days a week where I volunteer (I got my LCAT limited permit, yay! now I need 1000 client contact hours...) and I am trying to work out in the evenings, so I am missing the open studio hours and the evening classes are too full for me to try to sit in the back and work on my own.  It's been two weeks since I've been able to work and I'm not sure I'll make it today as I had planned.  Well, we'll see, I am mustering up some energy as we speak...

Face Jugs

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Face Jugs have a long history in the Southern US but nobody seems to know exactly their origins.  The most common stories are that they were invented as a way to warn children of the poisonous contents of the jars (be it arsenic or moonshine) or that they were meant to keep away evil spirits from the graves of family members.  Most believe the tradition began with slaves who worked pottery wheels for manufacturing goods and created face jugs for their own use.  One source even mentions that the face jugs may be an artistic coping technique, to deal with the harsh and oppressive conditions in which these people lived and worked.  The tradition of face jugs has continued to this day in many areas of the Southeast, especially in North Carolina and Georgia.
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Gramma's Gator

My gramma likes ceramics, too! She hasn't used the wheel much but she has taken many ceramics classes in the past and is now going to the ceramics class where she lives.  She hasn't gone much lately because her eyesight isn't what it used to be, which frustrates me because clay is something anyone can do (even people who have a hard time seeing - or can't see at all).  I'm not frustrated at gramma, but I wish the person running the class would make an effort to help her work with clay even with her sight issues, because she clearly likes it.  Well, I can't be the art therapist everywhere, I guess.  At least the person who does the jewelry making still encourages gramma to make necklaces, and I really think beading is harder than clay for people who have bad eyesight, so I don't know.  It really shows you how much the joy in art making depends on the facilitator.

Gramma gave me her alligator that she made in ceramics because I gave her my teapot.  I'm planning to give her another ceramics piece but not yet, I don't have anything I want to give her yet.  Just lots of bowls.  I love this alligator, especially because it has no teeth.  He kind of looks like a grampa gator.  She says his name is Ally the Alligator.  He's on display in the living room :)

Yesterday I went to visit gramma (my mom's mom) with my parents.  It's always fun to visit with gramma and I wish I had a car or an easier way to get up there.  I can get most of the way on public transit but there's 15-20 minutes of driving after the train stops and it's really hard to do that on a regular basis with cabs (or renting a car regularly to drive up there).  We never run out of stuff to talk about!  97 years old and she uses email.  Excellent.  Yesterday we talked about shopping, and how good bargains take a lot of work but can really be worth it.  She said she used to love to shop, especially at the discount stores that used to be at Union Square.  Well that explains my gramma's fashionable wedding dress!  It was, by the way, aquamarine, which I still can't get over... how awesome is that.

New ceramic goals

I have discovered the dark brown clay at the studio and now it's all I want to use.  I just love it.  My favorite part of using it is that I don't feel like I need much glaze at all because I love the color of the clay so much.

top bowl

This technique I figured out by accident when I tried to wipe one of my other bowls because it had too much glaze on it.  I realized I really liked the crackled, faded look of the glaze, and so I set about to achieve it on purpose with the dark clay.

The top bowl just has one, thick coating of white glaze on it that I gently dabbed off with a sponge.  I left the inside untouched so it would stay sealed (for sanitary reasons).  The bottom bowl I made a while ago and I wasn't sure how it would turn out, so I couldn't resist dropping some green glaze on it.  I'm not sure how I feel about the green glaze, though, to me it kind of looks like someone sneezed on it.

bottom bowl

I went into the studio this week and made eight things.  I'm getting better at envisioning a shape and then creating it.  Sure, I have been able to make bowls, but their shape is largely by accident.  I've gotten to the point where I can make a decent shape and then trim it so it doesn't weigh five thousand pounds when it's finished, but now I want to be able to make what I want to make when I want to make it.  That was my task for myself when I went into the studio this week.

Not all of these pieces may make it to the finishing stage, but I am proud of them.  I don't have a picture yet but when they're trimmed and ready to fire I will take pictures!  I made four bowls, one tea cup, two mugs, and one hand washing cup (something like these, but I'm not sure of the finished shape or design yet).  I tried to make a plate but it was a disaster.  Plates are somehow so much harder than the other shapes!

My main goal right now is to make a ceramic cup.

I saw stepanka ceramics at the One of a Kind show this year and have fallen in love with her work.  I especially like the shape of her cups.  In a way, mugs are easy because they are short and wide.  Cups are hard because they are tall and narrow, very hard for me to throw right now.  Lots of people make cups this shape (usually called "tumblers") but when I saw her cups at the show I said to myself: I am going to make one of these!  Actually, I wish I had just bought one, because even when I get this shape mine will never have the same look as hers.

stepanka ceramics

Once I make a ceramic cup I hope I will decide on a new shape to conquer.  Maybe a platter.

I'm so excited that I've gotten to a level of throwing where I'm not struggling as much with the basic throwing technique anymore.  I can center my clay and generally make something out of it more often than not (on a good day).

Coming up I will show some pictures of an interesting coffee mug I designed based on an idea by my friend Jason.  It's still in the beginning stages so I might not show it until it's completely finished, but it's exciting!

Landscape in a Coffee Cup

This piece, created by Yukihiro Kaneuchi , is a little landscape in a coffee cup that appears over time from the stain of the coffee inside the mug.

(Image credit and original article from designmilk.com : http://bit.ly/i7NoSb)

I love this idea!  It's cool to make art that changes over time, reflecting how often it's used (and making art that encourages being used).  It reminds me of Japanese tea ceremony cups described in the book Thousand Cranes, that sometimes were stained on the rim from the lipstick of generations of women.

My only concern is how the stain is able to stick to the mug... the only way I can think this would be possible would be for the bare clay to be exposed, which unfortunately isn't very sanitary.  I would be interested to know how it works!

Ceramics what what

I got my ceramics pieces back from the kiln in November but I didn't want to interrupt Found Object Art Month too much by posting them.  SO.  Here they are!

I will try to remember what glazes I put on them.  YES.  I KNOW.  I should have a glaze journal.

 

 

This bowl (above) is  about 5" diameter, so not huge but a good size (it seemed huge when I was making it).

Outside: Ada's Ash

Rim: Plum

Inside: Blue Celery and Floating Blue

 

 

A small but nice sized bowl, probably good for ice cream.

Outside: Nutmeg and Floating Blue

Inside: Ada's Ash

 

I like to think of this as being the perfect cup for hot chocolate... no handle, so it will warm your hands while you drink it, but probably too large for tea (although the mugs I use for tea are pretty large).

Outside: Floating Blue

Rim: Plum

Inside: Ada's Ash

 

This bowl fell in the glaze bucket while I was trying to put Plum on the rim.  I dabbed it off with a sponge and I kind of love how it turned out.  Also, you can see my signature that appears on the bottom of all of my ceramic pieces (it's my name in English and Hebrew).  This bowl, as it is, isn't food safe because there are a couple of spots inside that are rough.  I may re-fire it to fill in the holes.  It would be a nice size to serve hummus, for example.

Inside: Blue Celery, Floating Blue and Plum

Outside: Ada's Ash and Plum

 

This is my second hot chocolate mug, pretty much exactly the same size as the first one.

Inside & Outside: Nutmeg under Floating Blue

My work is getting better and better.  I think I am driving the other people in the studio nuts with my disorderly glazing.  I'm like, let's see what happens when I do this!  And they're like, KEEP A GLAZE JOURNAL.  So this blog is kind of like my glaze journal.

I hope to built up a good amount of inventory and then start selling on etsy and in handmade markets by next year.  I'm hoping my debut will be the next AATA conference (in July), but only if they keep the marketplace on Thursday (as opposed to Friday night - aka, Shabbat - which up until now was the recurring time).

First bowl this semester

Soooo... things at my new studio are moving through the kiln a little slowly right now, which is okay. It is testing my ability to reframe things, but I am learning and staying positive, so it's okay. Really.

I made this bowl back in September and it just came out of the kiln on Tuesday. I heart it. My craftsmanship has really improved, I think.



It doesn't hurt that I am much more inspired by the glazes they have at this studio than last studio. What fun colors! This bowl has kind of a retro feel to it, with the yellow inside and the green and brown outside.



Also, the clay is really interesting. This clay is called "brown speckle" (at least that's what they call it in the studio). When it's wet it just looks like normal clay, but look at all the cool brown speckles!



Glazes:

Inside: "Ada's Ash" and splattered with "Warren's Green"
Rim: "Warren's Green"
Outside: "Nutmeg"

I have six bowls in the bisque fire right now (well, maybe they are unloaded now) but they won't make it into the glaze kiln in time for the AATA Conference, which means I won't be selling ceramics this year there. However, I am going to be in a student show in December, and I hope to build up inventory over the winter so I have things to sell at summer markets (and next year's AATA Conference in July).

Also, for people who have 3D things and want to take pictures of them but don't have a light box, I will tell you how I took this picture. I had four sheets of computer paper and propped them up on a chair outside. You can barely seen the line where the paper overlaps. I think it's good in a pinch... But maybe soon it will be time to invest in a small light box (or make my own).

Mix CD: putitonrepeat

Today I have my work-study in the ceramics studio so I made a mix CD to listen to while I'm cleaning. The stereo in the studio plays CDs and tapes - how quaint! (haha)


putitonrepeat
Before I Knew - Basia Bulat
Bizarre Love Triangle - Frente!
Cecilia - Simon & Garfunkle
Cold Beverage - G. Love & The Special Sauce
Dancing on Our Graves - The Cave Singers
Letting the Cables Sleep - Bush
Mighty Storm - The Duhks
Mouthful of Cavities - Blind Melon
The Ninjas - Barenaked Ladies
Oppression - Ben Harper
Sabertooth Tiger - Breathe Owl Breathe
Strawberry Fields Forever - The Beatles
Sugarite - Abra Moore
Talk Show Host - Radiohead
Talula (The Tornado Mix) - Tori Amos
Time is All Around - Regina Spektor
To Let Myself Go - Ane Brun
Tymps (The Sick in the Head Song) - Fiona Apple
Veins - Charlotte Martin
Violet Stars Happy Hunting! - Janelle Monae
Way Over Yonder - Carol King


Regular audio CDs are so limited in size... this playlist was much longer, but what can you do.

Views of the studio

I went to the studio today with the goal of throwing away everything I made. I was just going to make stuff and play with the clay and then throw it away.






There were things I made that turned out really well and I was so tempted to keep them, but I made myself throw them away. This is only my second day in the clay this semester, no need to keep anything yet.

Something about smushing pieces you thought you loved together can be very liberating.






I just remembered how when I sat in on the kids class none of the kids seemed to particularly care about their pieces. They just had a good time and if it didn't turn out well they would focus on the more fun parts of the class (like mud gloves).






Once I started throwing away things I liked, I didn't have as hard of a time pushing the clay further. I would stop and say, I like it how it is, but I'm not keeping it anyway so I might as well see how tall or wide I can make it.






And then when I felt I'd pushed the clay as far as it was going to go, I'd cut my piece in half and look inside to see how I did. You learn a lot by dissecting your own work! You can quickly see where you are timid and where you are fearless with the clay.






And then it's time to go, and all you have to show for your time is a bucket of slurry and a pile of mud.






So much fun :)

Back in the studio

I started a new semester in a new ceramics studio, so you know what that means! ...Boring pictures of in-progress clay pieces!!! YAAAAAY!

Because I have extremely limited shelf space in this studio, I'm not really keeping anything I make until I'm satisfied with it. So no more misshapen bowls and stuff in the apartment, just the things I want to keep. The upside of this is that I can cut everything in half to see my technique and where I need improvement.

Today I made the tallest thing I've ever made (it's about 7 inches tall right now):



This teacher is explaining how to use our thumbs, which is nice because until now my thumbs kind of stayed out of the way. It's helping me make things taller, although after I made this I wasn't really successful for the rest of the day. SO whatever. I had a good run (haha).

Then I started my workstudy portion of the afternoon. I work from 3-6pm in exchange for class and studio time. First, I mopped the floors and wiped down the counters. Then I did the crossword.

Then at 4:30 the children's class started. It was chaos but SO MUCH FUN. The kids were ages 7-12, so I positioned myself between two 7 year olds at the wheel and basically gave them lots of attention in order to make sure they didn't fly out the window or something. One of the kids was so hilarious, I would say "I think you need more water," and he'd say "I agree!" or "I was just thinking that!" Ah yes. I'm sure you were.

It's also pretty amazing working with "normal" kids, aka, kids who have not suffered extreme abuse or trauma (this is my most recent experience working with kids). It feels so much different. I say to them, clean your tools, take your bucket to the sink, and come back to wipe down your station. And they do it! Okay, water gets everywhere, whatever, it's pretty much done how I asked them to do it.

And the behavior is enough under control that we can do funny things, like when we were looking at our hands and the girl said ,"it looks like I'm wearing mud gloves!" and I said, "I know, me too, look at my hands." She said, "no you have some spots without clay." "Well, I think you need to help me with that, then!" And then she wiped clay all over my hands so I had mud gloves, too.

That isn't to say I don't like working with kids who have a more difficult history, but it is very different. Working with these kids today makes me appreciate that work more, somehow.

Nice Friday

Today was a nice day. I thought I'd talk about it.

I went to the pottery studio down the street and officially set myself up for their work-study program, which means I get my own shelf, free clay, one free class each week, free glazes, and access to the studio during open studio hours in exchange for 3 hours of work a week. Not bad! I just have to pay for firing (I think it was 50c per cubic inch). I put my name on a shelf now, so it's mine! It's not even that small, but I'm happy having a small shelf because it will help me edit my work down.

Then I went on a job interview, and while I was walking around I saw this free concert so I went in.



The band is called Dumm Spiro Spero and they were playing in a community garden. It was a nice way to wind down after the interview, and also a good place to cool off (it's hot walking around in business-y clothes!).

I also took a lot of pictures of textures and patterns I saw while I was walking around today, which will come in a future post.

Shabbat shalom!

I-Thou Ceramics

I already posted all of this work earlier this week, but it was on display for a short time on Friday so I took a picture of it. Putting the work on display does something interesting to it, I think. I can't wait to install my pieces in the show that's opening this coming Friday!





I came up with some good ideas about my thesis topic (for future research) while I was talking about my ceramics. I've recently been thinking a lot about "I and Thou" by Martin Buber - I read it a long time ago in two separate classes ("Art Theory" and "Modern Jewish Philosophy"). I think about having I-It relationships verses I-Thou relationships with my artwork, and how that plays into the whole processing response art thing that I've been doing.

It also relates to my ceramics - I don't just make an object and then it's done. I interact with my artwork after it's finished being made: my ceramics will be used (in fact I used them at a suedah shlishi I hosted yesterday at my house), my paintings will be processed through poetry and future paintings/objects, etc. So maybe that's an I-Thou relationship.

If I remember correctly the difference between I-It relationships and I-Thou relationships is if the object of the relationship (either another person or an actual object) gives back and the "I" receives that in some way. This came up in Art Theory because we tried to figure out how someone could have an I-Thou relationship with an artwork (I didn't get it at the time) and I think it came up in Modern Jewish Philosophy because we talked about having an I-Thou relationship with G-d.

Anyway, interesting stuff, maybe too philosophical for the art therapy world but maybe not! I have a lot further to go with my thesis topic - though my thesis is done, I plan on turning it into articles, workshops, and presentations. My goal is to present at the 2011 American Art Therapy Association conference!

Final Ceramics

My final work from my ceramics class! I knew I made my best work right at the end. Almost all of this was made in one sitting (wet) and also one sitting for glazing. I just glazed them quickly because when I try hard to make things look the way I want they often don't. But these look quite nice (and some look professional I think!)

I have more work not pictured here, some mugs I made a while ago, but aren't as nice as these.







This little jug is a "commissioned" piece from JewishGuy who asked for a little pub jug to put water in for his scotch. I made another little jug, which is really cute, but it's SOOOooo small (and I don't have a picture of it right now).




This (above) is a little flowerpot because I accidentally carved through the middle so I embraced it!





I REALLY like the way this last bowl turned out, how the blue is on the bottom, very cool.

Anyway, I left all of these at school because my critique is tomorrow and I'll just use these in the critique.

Crawling Green Glaze

I've decided I will feature interesting things about the ceramics stuff I post since I am now churning out a lot and it isn't so interesting to see picture after picture of bowls.

Today's feature is this crawling green glaze on one of my cups that recently came out of the kiln.




From what I can tell, glazes crawl when you put a lot of them on and they have the characteristic of crawling. It means something is melting in the glaze and dripping down the side as the kiln heats up.




Because this glaze crawls and creates these cool bubbles, this cup can't be used for food or drink (it will be hard to clean it effectively). The picture above is what the inside of the cup looks like, you can see the glaze is pooling.



I kind of love this crawling and bubbling the glaze is doing. Right now I have a flower pot in the kiln that has this glaze near the top. Hopefully it will compliment the green under-glaze I've layered on below it. The trick is learning to predict its movements.

I haven't developed any of my own glazes this semester. I feel I don't have time to really make and test glazes, so I'm just using the ones they provide in the studio. Maybe if I start renting a studio and have more time I can make test pieces and send them through with some of my own glazes...