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!

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 ;)