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!

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.

Isaac Button

March 15, 2009

IT has been way too long since I have updated. As of late, everything for me has been going good but I just can't seem to find the drive to update this blogger. I really want to at times, and wake up saying "this is it." Then I go to work, have a crap day, come home, eat and pass out. So, today is different. Today I am actually following through. I hope to do several blogs today or within the next week; There's a few things I've been waiting on posting.

First and foremost I just want to say that an actual update on my work as of this semester is overdue and it is one of the topics I wish to cover in an upcoming blog. This blog on the other hand, I want to relate to something I've told my peers about and haven't had time to post.

Isaac Button.

Probably never heard of the guy, have you? Well, don't be surprised- there isn't much information out there on this man. Who was he? One of England's most/least known country potters. What do I mean by Country Potter? Isaac and his pottery produced ceramic ware for the home, kitchen, and for production ware. Back in those times, there was no readily available glass containers, plastics, or metal containers. The cheapest to purchase, was ceramics. Because of this- many people considered them disposables and were not used past the first few times.

Isaac's Pottery was located near Halifax, near Soil Hill. The pottery, also named Soil Hill. Having been in operation since the 1700's, Isaac acquired the pottery a bit before the turn of the 20th century. It was open up until 1965 when bad health made him retire, and he ultimately passed away in 1969. He ran that pottery alone, for 18 years following WWII, which I consider amazing. He had a full staff of 13 workers and potters before the war, afterwards he was pressed to find anyone who could put in a decent days work.

And each day he would show up to work, bright and early, proceed to go dig up the topsoil, behind the shop, to reveal local clay bodies. He would then harvest the clay in wheelbarrows that would be transported to a large industrial blender. Here, the clay was blended with water to produce a thick slurry that would be sifted through a mesh screen and flow into a trench that would fill a basin adjacent to the kiln. The residual heat produced from the large kiln inside the pottery would quickly dry the clay so within a few hours he was able to harvest hundreds of pounds of fresh clay. After this step, he would pug the clay once to remove all air. The clay then would sit and "sour" for a month or two before pugging again right before being used. After a long day he would wind down by visiting the local pub, which he was rumored to have never left the day he entered.

This man was an unknown legend and thought nothing of his skill beyond being a simple craftsman. Potters like this, I want to try and feel a connection with. It burdens me that these people, quite possibly, never knew their true importance or respect they deserved. Isaac did phenominal work and has skill I've rarely seen matched.

When Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada came to England and helped start the modern ceramic studio practices, they seeked out Button to ask him how much grog he used in his clay for large forms. His simple response, "I have enough trouble gettin' t' bloody stuff out wi'out puttin' it in."

I also forgot to mention this man religiously smoked his pipe from sun up to sun down and threw with a collared buttoned up shirt and tie. How many people can do that and still feel comfortable? I'd imagine not many. :)

I hope you are all as impressed as I am. Here are the videos I've been talking about. Running time is about 41 minutes.







Sources: http://www.youtube.com/user/Flush2wice, Grits in the Gears.
Big thank you to these two for sharing this information on the internet.

Overdue Update

Hello everybody, I'm terribly sorry for the long pause in updating. It's not like I have many readers, but I did say I would try and update more regularly and I let myself down on that one.

But, just because I haven't made any posts lately doesn't mean I have been slacking! I have actually been pretty busy as of late. I'll try to explain everything that's gone on.

In early November, my ceramic class and professor made a trip to Houston to check out a few galleries and to swing by The Ceramic Store Houston. We were able to stop by 18 Hands Gallery on 19th St. as well as the Houston Center for Contemporary Crafts. At the HCCC there was an exhibit over Warren McKenzie (pictured above), who is an American potter who studied under Bernard Leach for three years. Bernard Leach is Simon Leach's grandfather and was a contemporary of Shoji Hamada. All of these people I highly look up to for their aesthetics and abilities. What they have accomplished in the ceramic world is amazing in my eyes and it was amazing to see so much of Warren's material in one spot. Also on this trip I was able to pick up some tools for my wheel here at the house, so the trip was great all around. I also got to see one of my best friends, Jodi, who had just gotten out of adominal surgery. It was a hoot traversing the medical district, but I was glad to see her and know she was ok.

During our stop at the 18 Hands Gallery, I met Kathy Blossom who is Volunteer Chair for Clay Houston, and was offered an opportunity to volunteer at Clay Houston's Clay Festival. My professor, Linnis Blanton, was participating in the festival as an exhibitor so I felt it would be benfitial to show up and help anyway I could. A friend of mine, Chelsy, accompanied me to Houston on the 7th where we volunteered mostly at the kids table. The festival was pretty nice, a lot of great work and very nice people. I was able to meet Lotus, a Houston clay artist, who has a great way of working. Her pieces generally are biker-esque, much like bandannas twills worked in with skulls and metallic studs. I really enjoyed the trip, working with kids has always been a joy of mine. I wouldn't want to do it for a living, but seeing them happy is great. There were a few kids who had been coming for a few years to the festival, which I thought was awesome. I had never heard of Clay Houston until this past year personally.

The next big thing to happen was our ceramic class critique that left me rather depressed. I was largely unhappy with what I had produced over this past semester. I had all intentions of working on craft and trying to graduate this upcoming spring semester. My professor and my thesis committee chair agreed that I was far from ready and that a lot of work needed to be done before I could graduate. Huge shot to my ego, but I sucked it up and believe it will be a good thing. To the right is me with some of the things I threw this past semester. The one jug I was really proud of is cut off on the right hand side, but you can get the jest. All of my mugs were way to heavy and most had extruded handles. I have been working hard on getting good forms and sizes down, as well as pulling my own handles. A lot of the items from this past semester I've already given away as gifts to family, big step for me. You can see more pictures from my classes critique at my friend Jodi's blog, All Is Truth.

After the critique, the next big thing was our class show Fire and Ice at The Ice House Museum in Silsbee, Texas. It was a very nice show, looked great. I was a little let down that out of the 5 pieces I submitted, only 4 were accepted. The one piece that was left out, I felt was one of my best items and would have easily sold. When I got there, all my name tags were out for the pieces, but that last piece wasn't there and my professor told me "Well it must not have made it in the show." To top that off, my aunt showed up and told me she'd like to purchase a piece of mine. I told her not to as in I would just give it to her after the show. She disregarded what I said and bought two of my 4 pieces in the show and THEN proceed to take them home with her, on the day of the opening. So for the duration of this show, I've had two pieces in it. The least amount of pieces of anyone now. Another shot to my ego, but this whole semester has been hectic. Dropping thesis, hurricanes, medical issues, etc. One thing after another.

As for what I have been doing lately... well... I'm going to reserve that for another post. I have pictures and a good bit to talk about. So, I swear to it- I'll get that update sooner than later. Hopefully today or tomorrow, no promises ;)

Simon Leach - Small Bud Vase

Simon Leach is a potter with a long history in ceramics, born in England but residing in Spain. His grandfather and father were both ceramic artists with well established reputations as well. The Leach Treadle wheel was first created by his lineage and is a wheel I would absolutely love to own. It is quite impressive watching him work, the way he goes about doing his videos keeps you entertained and also intrigued. He has a few little nuances that a lot of people have on the wheel and it's funny to watch them come out. He also throws in a little casual conversation in the videos, adding some humor.

"My grandfather Bernard, [...] he gave me the advice "look for beauty but also usefulness in a pot". Words I still carry with me today." -Simon Leach

Simon Leach Ceramics



P.S. - Update on me: The incense thing I'm making... the plaster is finally dry enough (damn tropical storm) but I am ready to get started. I figure I'll try and get one going on Thursday, maybe work some other things up. I have plans for a gift for my ceramic class this coming fall, a towel and apron set.

I hope you enjoy this blog and the videos, if you do, let me know!

Jerry Sawitz Wheel Throwing Demo

Jerry Sawitz (JerrySawitz.com) is a ceramic artist and educator. He has been teaching high school for nearly 30 years and demonstrates in this video how to throw a large vase with a small neck. The throwing was very fluid and he has great form. This video is very much worth the near 9 minutes it takes to watch it.

"Shapes are endless and it is a source of wonder for me when I consider how limitless this whole idea of creating is." - Jerry Sawitz.

My life... as an artist.

'Ello!

This is my second blog to be created in a two month span. The first blog I have deals with my profession, what I get paid for. This blog will be about my passion, and what I hope to one day be my profession.

Ceramics. Pottery. Ceramic Arts. I want to be an Artist. I want to be recognized, I want to be awed at. I want to be remembered.

I was first introduced to ceramics at the age of 14 when I was first brought to a local ceramic studio titled the Art Studio, Inc. I have since spent 10 years in and out of the place, hanging out with friends, doing community service, band performances, art openings, etc. The one thing I never picked up though, was ceramics.

I started attending college right after graduating and knew I had to be an artist. My parents didn't quite understand it but were enthralled that I was going into computer art since I spent so much time on the computer. The department has a poor poor program dealing with graphic design and I changed over to sculpture a few years later. That was a bad choice. I took my first Ceramics class in the spring of 2007 from an amazing professor. 30 years of experience teaching ceramics to middle school students, and 5 years of college teaching at that point. He has a great method of teaching and looks at everyone with a smile and isn't afraid to share a laugh here and there with everyone.

Since I first took that class, I became obsessed with ceramics. By the time the first semester was over with, I was ready for the next to begin. To me, my passion comes when I am on the wheel. I have a strong love for symmetry which is partially why I love classical art as well as renaissance art. Getting on the wheel and learning how to produce symmetrical pottery was great to me. I could make bowls! I loved it. The moment I realized I had something going was when I spent one night and pumped out 12 bowls in a row. It was my first time to do a small production run and it felt great. Sadly this was at the end of the semester and I didn't get to do that again until after the summer was over.

My second semester I learned a lot more. I got more confident on my ability to make bowls and began to go into production mode. At this time, I was planning on opening a booth at a renaissance festival that was in production. I produced close to 100 items of substantial size plus about 200 pendants/charms. But alas, the festival fell through due to corrupt land owners and disorganization. The semester ended and voila, we have winter break. Thankfully the winter break was only a few weeks, as in I couldn't wait to get back to ceramics.

This time though, there was a glitch in my plan. Undergraduate thesis. Remember earlier how I said I switched from Graphic Design to Studio Sculpture? Have I mentioned jack shit about sculpture yet? No? That's because I didn't have the passion, I didn't have the drive nor want. Now, the kicker- I was to do a THESIS in Sculpture. What? Yea, exactly. I took on a new medium that semester, fiberglass. I got a concept rolling and quickly learned that I hated it and that I was going no where fast. I ended up getting an incomplete in the semester due to the generosity of my faculty committee and was told to finish this coming fall, the next semester.

Well, I've decided since then that it is definitely not what I want to do. I have since dropped thesis and am in the process of switching majors to Studio Ceramics. My school only offers up to Ceramics III, which I am retaking the comming semester. That makes the tally 3 ceramics, 2 sculpture. So it makes sense that I move to a degree in something I feel passionate about.

I would love to become a production pottery but more-so I would love to become a ceramic artist. There are drastic differences between the two in alot of peoples eyes. To me, the passion comes from creating something from dirt. Creating something from something so old and so forgotten and over looked. Ceramics have been a constant factor in humanity for thousands of years and has held such a prominent place in human society that it has become rather overlooked as an artform.

I have great aspirations. I have great ideas, concepts, plans. I want to make something of myself, and I want to change a few lives in the process.

As I keep going, I will post resources that help me, videos, links, etc. I will also post updates on projects I have going and look forward to possibly having people read this.

As a great man once said, but not nearly in the same context (not to do him a disjustice...) but..

I have a dream.