Friday, January 30, 2009

THE CHALICE SERIES




I had to take a short break from the miniature stacked sculptures I have been working on in order to finish two pieces for an upcoming competition. The competition is sponsored by Lark publishing and they are seeking entries for a ceramic book they are creating called 500 VASES. I thought a few of my current Chalice pieces could fit their format so I have worked this week on finishing and photographing them. I wanted each of these pieces to take their inspiration from the Chalice but I wanted them to go beyond what we normally think of when we think of a communion cup.


The green Chalice (green symbolizing life) is one of the simplest forms I have created over the last year but I really think the combination of form, materials, and color is elegant. The red Chalice (red symbolizing the blood or wine) on the other hand is fairly elaborate with several components. In both pieces the Chalice (cone part) itself is designed to be able to be easily removed and then put back in place.

Friday, January 16, 2009

MORE WORK IN PROGRESS




In these two photos you can pretty much see the stage I am at with this series. Several more miniature pieces were made - both leaves on the left and little wheel thrown pots on the right. These pieces were all loaded into the kiln today and will be fired the beginning of next week. Notice how I try to make each little pot unique through shape or texture. I think I will still need to make 2 more batches like this before I have enough to fill all the boxes I want to use.

In the other photo you can see how I begin to arrange and rearrange the already fired pieces by assembling them on a metal rod. At this stage, once they have been fired and before they are painted, I begin to look at which forms work best together. Once I find the combinations I like I will begin the painting process and start mounting them into the boxes. Of course the boxes still need to be arranged and painted or finished in other ways.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

A NEW SERIES: Step 2


As I continue to develope these new series there are several areas I work on at once. In the photo you can see me making clay "leaves" to fill the laqrger boxes I will be doing. I try to make about 12 leaves a day, hpoefully I will have about 100 to use in the sculptures. After they are formed they have to dry for one day and then I use various clay tools to refine their appearance. They are very delicate at this stage and I usually break a few in the process. Once fired they become much less fragile. You can also see in the foreground of the same photo I am arranging and rearranging the small boxes to try and decide how I want them to look as a finished piece (or pieces). Note how the boxes are totally unfinished at this point in the process. Later they will be painted and altered in a variety of way. I fired the first batch of miniture pots today (a 2 day process) and I should be able to start working with them tomorrow.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

A New Series: from Start to Finish




I just returned to the studio this week after the Christmas/Semester break. I thought it would be interesting to show the process of how I create some of my sculptures, so over the next few weeks I will include in the blog photos of 2 brand new series of pieces from conception to finished product.


I always start in my sketchbook so the first photo you will see is a page from the sketchbook that shows the conception of the new series: first, a set of three large boxes (that may develope into one piece) and second, a series of smaller box assemblages utilizing anywhere from 4 to 7 boxes put together for each sculpture. For inside the smaller boxes I am creating some Miniature Stacked sculptures and for the larger boxes I am creating some clay leaves.


On Monday I spent the day making clay with Bill Farnsworth. We each have a few hundred pounds to get started. Tuesday I began arranging and rearranging the different boxes to see what direction I wanted to head in and I began to sketch the ideas in my sketchbook. On Wednesday I worked on the wheel to begin making thrown forms for the stacked pieces, I also made several more leaves. You can see examples of both the miniature (from 2 to 3 inches high) thrown pieces (unfinished) and some leaves in the second photo. Today I trimmed, sanded and generally worked the individual pieces to a more finished place.
By the way, you can click on each photo to see a larger, more detailed version.
To be continued -