Beaumont Enterprise

Here is an excerpt from the article in Sunday's paper, Stars on the rise.  Woot!

Update!! Holy Moly!!

Everything is Bigger in Texas

Lost faith in me updating? I almost did! Okay... well not really. But I have been soooo lazy since I graduated! Yea, I finally finished. Who'da thunk that. I am a horrible blogger since I didn't keep my word and update my blog in regards to my thesis, pretty much the entire semester.

My thesis involved producing 254 ceramic bowls arranged in the shape of the state of Texas. Each bowl was to represent one of the 254 counties in the state. The bowls were colored with four separate glazes used to represent the over-all percentage of poverty per county. White being the lowest then green followed by turquoise and black being the highest percentage. Inside each bowl was placed an amount of rice that was used to represent the actual number of children under 18 who are in poverty, per county. Each grain of rice was to represent one child.


I ended up throwing about 360 bowls total and had about a 10% failure rate ranging from kiln wash flaking into bowls to cracks and broken bowls in transportation. I really was scared of doing that many bowls. I knew I could do it no problem but it was mighty harrowing and I ended up trying to ration myself to 10-15 bowls a day, where I'd work two days, trim one day. I ended up slacking on that and towards the end I did a few days of throwing 40-50 bowls a sitting and it was a breeze. I had this fear of doing it, and pushed it off... but once I sat down and barreled through it, I had no problem. I trimmed them all on bare wheel head without the aid of a grip, something I pride myself on. I still don't have tap-centering down but I did get use to the rings on the wheel head.

I ended up worrying endlessly over my paper when I really shouldn't have. I started out somewhat ahead of the game by turning in a rough draft early, but the rough draft had a lot of revisions. I went from a 24 page page to a 17 page paper and feel confident with what I have produced and feel accomplished with finally getting my BFA in Studio Ceramics. I did a good job on my oral defense also, had no real hiccups in the speech and didn't really have any questions.

Photo by Randy Edwards.  

Now that I graduated, I haven't been doing jack. I have taken my last two weeks as vacation and finally caught up on sleep, video games, and friends. I was interviewed for the local news paper that came out today, has a rather nice article. One correction, I should have stressed but hadn't- It was printed Oak Wind Pottery where I intend it to be two words, Oakwind Pottery. :) Oh well, not a big thing, very grateful to be in the paper and receive the honor of being part of the article. I will try and get a copy of it scanned soon and uploaded.

Oh a side note, I actually went through and cleaned everything in my studio area. I washed all my tools, bats, mopped, etc. I am completely ready to get started, just don't know what to get working on. Christmas was nice and I got a wonderful Giffin Grip from my parents which means I can throw and trim a larger variety of shapes, more easily now.

For Christmas I have participated in this Secret Santa ordeal on Reddit.com. I got the pleasure of sending a gift to someone in Europe so naturally I decided to send them some of my pottery. I sent an extra bowl from my thesis, a CD with some pictures, a copy of my paper, some local issues of The Art Studio, Inc.'s The Issue as well as a t-shirt I made a custom design on. It has officially been 20 days and the package still hasn't arrived as far as I know. USPS won't update my shipping... and he hasn't confirmed the package has arrived. But I keep hoping he likes it, because I was screwed on my end. The person who picked me got me a crappy movie that will cost me a dime more than it cost to return it, just to cover shipping. Lame.

I had been procrastinating for so long on making myself a stamp for my pots but after watching a lovely video from Brookfield Pottery on YouTube about how to make one, I finally decided to do it. I was always weary of carving into clay to make a mark because I knew if I messed up, I'd have to start all over on a new piece and I would get frustrated. Well using his technique, I cleaned off the side of an old plaster mold and carved my stamp into it, several different sized ones at that. I did so to test what I feel would be a good size, since there will be shrinkage in the stamp itself and then once again when it is applied to a pot.

I have plenty more books, videos, etc to share so I hope to be updating more. I have been pushing it off because I felt like I had too much to talk about and once I got started, I wouldn't be able to stop. Well.. this post is getting long :) But I have gotten most of what I wanted to talk about out now so I feel much better. If anyone would like to read my thesis paper, just leave me a comment somewhere and where to send it and I'll be glad to assist.

Time to wrap this thing up. I apologize for my laziness on updating, this is the part where I say I'll update more often. Lets see how well I do that... Till next time!

Get ready to read a novel.

So, I said I would do a big update right? Well... I warned you. I have been putting this off for way too long, and I hate making really long blog posts because I know the likelihood of people reading them drops dramatically. But- I hope this works out and doesn't bore everyone to death.

Last semester ended with not much of a bang. I was in a depression that lasted me up until about 5 weeks ago. I hadn't been sleeping good and had been struggling with ideas for thesis and felt as if I was going no where. Wanting so badly to get out of my shell and explore life, yet being locked down and unable to do anything has its toll on you.

My back has been giving me problems for a long time but just over the past 10 months or so my back had been aggravated more so than before. Partially I think this aided in prolonging my depression; when my body doesn't feel good, it is hard for me to mentally be alright. I decided to go in to the doctor and find out what was wrong with my back.

Immediately I was put into an x-ray and the doc told me that I would be going into physical therapy and if the problem was still there, I'd go in for a CT scan. A week later I got a phone call telling me I was being scheduled for a CT scan immediately, which alarmed me. Evidently somethings wrong with my back because it was so urgent. So, I go in and have the CT scan and then get sent to a back specialist who basically tells me that, yes, my back has some damaged disks but there was basically nothing that warranted surgery. He scheduled me for a full body bone scan as my next step.

Well, I go in and have the scan and a few days later get a phone call telling me that my back was fine, nothing was broken, and that they wanted to schedule me for a cranial CT scan due to an abnormality in my skull. Freaky right? I go in and have the scan and then a few days later I get the phone call that no one should get. I was told, over the phone, that I have a tumor in my cranium. What? Yea, a tumor.

Here I am, with my back killing me 1/4 of the day and the rest of the time I am in pain but it is manageable, and they can't figure out whats wrong with my back (still haven't figured it out...) but now I have a damn tumor in my head? Great news... this fueled my depression even more.

To bring some good news, evidently the tumor was caused by a car accident I had in Oct of 2007. I hit my head pretty damn hard against my window... evidently it can cause tumors. The thing, I haven't named it yet, is about the size of a marble and it is not cancerous. It will more than likely never grow and I will more than likely never have complications.

No worries about me, my head will be fine. I just wish I knew what was wrong with my back... I relate it to an incident that occurred in middle school where I was pushed off a table and nearly folded my back in half, I haven't been 'right' since then. But I hope that I can help combat this with healthier eating and exercise/stretching. It will be very hard to be a life-long potter when I have back problems at 24.

So, about thesis. Right? I mentioned it... haven't talked more about it. Well, lets just say I finally have an idea. I will save details for another post, as in I already feel this one is too long. Mostly everyone knows these details, but I feel compelled to write them down.

I'll try and write another blog in a few days about my thesis project. So far, I am ahead of the game. I have an idea, it involves bowls not jugs, and my committee is behind me 100% and are looking forward to me finishing. I am looking forward to finishing, I can't wait. I'll be graduating (unless something terrible happens..) in December! Excited much!

Until next time ;) Thanks for reading!

Thesis.

I am not going into much detail just yet, I have the shower waiting and felt like documenting my first night of throwing what I hope to be part of my thesis body.

I threw 21 bowls in 4 hours and 15 minutes. I messed one up, right before cutting it off too... so I am averaging still about 10 minutes a bowl. I am going to record this data to interpret how my efficiency picks up.

I'll fill in you all about thesis shortly, now that I have this post, it will force me to update. I have a lot to talk about... that is why I haven't done it just yet.

:)

Already July....

I haven't really been up to writing out a long blog because I haven't been fully up to par. I have been having recursive troubles with my back, each night. I went to the doc for it, had x-rays and MRI done. There is a possibility I could have surgery and if I do... say good bye to me graduating in 2009. With that news looming over my shoulder, I've not really been in the mood to do anything. I know... I dig myself a hole...

I wasn't planning on an update but I saw this video and felt I had to share it with others. Truly amazing. If you feel you have trouble on the wheel and that it just can't be done... watch this. Beyond the major thing missing that makes this extraordinary, the form is very nice and it introduced me to a new method of pulling handles. :)

"Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings." - John F. Kennedy

Update + Video

Hey Everyone,

I was just pointed to a thread on Reddit of a pottery students work and it reminded me to update my blog. They have a very good start on their work, very interesting and creative. Creativity is something that I lack a lot of. I am creative when it comes to making renaissance cloths, jewelry, etc. But ceramics... I am more focused on traditional form and more of a contemporary glaze treatment.

This is a problem for me when it comes to developing a body of work for my senior thesis. My idea was to do large regional jugs scaled around 3 feet tall. These jugs were to be modeled after different traditional forms that all helped contribute to the expansion and development of pottery in America. French, German, English, American. All of these countries, plus others, have unique preferences when it comes to pottery, specifically jugs. American pottery is a conglomeration of these different preferences and an evolution of the style as settlers moved west across the continent.

Now, producing 8, large scale (roughly 5 gallon), jugs would be a hard undertaking for me, but it is nothing I feel I cannot handle. I am more secure with my throwing and assemblage. But my committee chair has other thoughts. He feels that what I am doing is not artistic and that it does not reflect upon what I have learned in art school. He wants me to reinvent the jug. Now, when asked about ideas on how to do this, I mentioned Paul Soldner ( an example of his work is to the left) and how he would take boards with different textures and use them to compress his wheel thrown forms. This idea was struck down saying "why does it have to be texture?" and the ideas that Butch brought up involved drawing cartoushes of greek allegories.... how the hell is that reinventing something that has been done so much that it is now cliche? And his other idea... make an "NFL" jug. Yes... NFL. I told him that was rediculous and that I have a strong distaste for sports and I will not go against my judgement and do something so stupid. His responce... "Well jugs look like footballs." Whatever. I still want to do my idea because I feel it would be better than 3/4 of what has come out of my school in the past 5 years and that I can confidently accomplish this. Anything else... who knows. I got stuck doing something I didn't want to do last time... this time I am trying my damndest not to do that.

And for an update on my jug and drum.... well the jug is in our gas kiln cooling down right now, cone 10 firing. My drum on the other hand cracked and split in two. The bowl and the base are now separated but I will be glazing them back together and hoping that it works out for the best. Always learning... I feel that the weight of the bowl sitting on the stem put pressure on the joint and caused the break. I'll have to figure out another design that can work without leaving weak points.

I have a paper to write today and I really don't know who I want to write it about. Pretty bad eh? My paper is meant to be over anyone whom I have previously written about in a journal entry but my journal is with my professor... Meh.

I'll leave you with a video for a documentary about Paul Soldner. If anyone wants to buy this for me, I'll love you :)

"New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become."
-Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions

End of April

I feel horrible for rarely updating. Really, I do. I know I shouldn't worry about it, but I just have been having a hard time doing so lately. I haven't had much time to throw and have been working extra hard at my 8-5. We are down an artist and work just pulls a lot out of me lately.

But anywho- What has been going on? Well, I have taken the first step to making large pieces. In the past few weeks I have made two jugs, and a djembe drum. I am extremely excited about the drum; I have never headed one myself but plan on learning for the sake of this project. I have had several people already question me about making more, so I think it could be a valid practice I could learn.

First up in the pictures above is my first big jug. I did it in two pieces and learned from that go that I needed to spend more effort in throwing consistent walls on closed in forms. The top piece, when removed from the batt, had about 2.5 inches of clay at the base. Luckily most of it was just thin chunks at the batthead, but I did still have pretty thick walls. I spent a good bit of time trimming it. I also learned to spend more time on the outside detail, specifically since trimming left grog drag marks.

The second piece, middle picture, is a comparison between the bisqued and glazed jug sitting on a bucket, with my second attempt next to it. This jug I had thrown a base and top for, as I did the first, but I didn't have calipers and tried to guess the diameter... that went bad, as you could have guessed. I ended up throwing a second top, since the first one I destroyed, but this time I used twine and made sure it was damn near an exact fit. I spent a good bit of time on polishing this piece, and spent a good bit of effort making a decent handle. Bad thing is that the handle started to show cracking since I let it dry out very quick. Lesson learned.

Third piece is my drum. It is the largest item I have made, standing at a wet height of 18 inches. I used two pieces again, the base, and the bowl. I trimmed a good bit out of the base, but purposefully left it rather heavy. The bowl I did real well on throwing and kept a consistently even wall. The rim is tapered outwards with an elevated point to allow no drag for the drum head on the interior, and good supporting surface area on the exterior.

I generated a good contour for bowls on my computer. I am interested in making a good stacking bowl, where the rims, foot, and walls touch so there is maximum stability and security. I think a big seller could be these bowls and the ability for me to mass produce these is pressing.

I have started looking for property. I am looking for 1-3 acres of land that I can pour a slab and construct a simple metal frame structure to live and work in. My rationale behind this is that the quicker I get self sufficient, the quicker I can become a full time potter. Instead of wasting money renting spaces for long periods of time, why not go ahead and invest that in a future.

Thesis for me is coming up also... At least this time I am more prepared. My only concern is that I will not get much enthusiasm from my committee when I tell them I still want to do tableware that relates to production pottery and the expansion of ceramics in America. I hope to use alternative salt firings to produce some nice work, but I really don't want to venture into something I don't feel comfortable with. I am comfortable with my preconceived idea of producing large jugs, crocks, churns, and jars. Although no one around these parts does this... I still feel like I will be talked out of doing it. It just doesn't have that "wow" factor they will be looking for, I'm sure of. I really just want to do, what I want to. Is that so hard to do?

I hope to update more coming soon, I have new books and videos to review. So keep checking back. Hopefully it won't be another month before updates.