Art 399: CUPS 1-10

This is the beginning, but not the end!  A whole semester worth of cups await to be conceived and shared.  Here I have shown the cups with and with out the surface designs, stains and glazes... it alway surprises me how each vessel is completely transformed once glazed.  They take on a completely different personality... I often don't recognize my own work.

These pieces are some of my early experimentation, trying to get a survey of the glazes that exist at school and how they behave on this claybody.

Stoneware, Chris Pettingill mix, Cone 6-10

C U P   0 0 1 

Dutch Blue (I made this glaze!), Brushed, 1 coat.  Reduction fired.

C U P   0 0 2

Emily's Purple, Dipped.  Underglaze pattern with White Sao Volcano.  Reduction Fired.

C U P   0 0 3

Tea Dust, Dipped.  Copper Oxide Stain.  Raku Fired 2/22/10.  Reduction fired 3/30/10 

C U P   0 0 4

Jade Celadon, Dipped.  Wax Resist.  White Sao Volcano Underglaze.  Reduction fired.

C U P   0 0 5

Jade Celadon, Dipped.  Wax Resist.  White Sao Volcano Underglaze.  Reduction fired.

C U P   0 0 6

Two part cup.  Bernie's Satin Matte, Dipped.  Wax Resist.  Bottom section dipped White Sao Volcano Underglaze.  Reduction fired.

C U P   0 0 7

Cannon Ball Blue, Brushed 1 coat. White Sao Volcano Ash Underglaze, inside.  Reduction Fired

C U P   0 0 8

Sana's Green, dipped.  Iron Oxide Stain. Reduction Fired

C U P   0 0 9

Reitz Green, dipped.  Texture, Impression design.  Reduction fired.

C U P   0 1 0

Spotted Shino, dipped.  Wax resist.  Reduction Fired.

March

(SPRING!)
I can't resist sharing all the new life that has brought me joy this month.

Mainly, daffodils (Grandma Tietje Louisiana daffodils, bulbs mom dug up from the old farm house and brought me when we first moved to SC)...

 

... and now introducing Lola Hannah Barden (born March 6, 2010).  The Bardens are dear friends of ours and we celebrate their growing family.

We also took a little vacation over spring break (an early celebration of our fourth eWe went to Ocracoke, North Carolina, a small beach community on the Outer Banks.  I really tried not to go overboard with the photos... here is a preview.

  

Art 399: Stoneware Cups, Progress Report

Here they are!  About 20 cups, glazed, but not yet fired.  It really surprised me, how long it took to glaze these pieces.  It took such time because no two are alike.  Some have underglazes, oxcides, and washes.  some pieces have a surface texture.  Some pieces have designs using a wax resist.  I spent a whole Sunday on these pieces before you.

All the glazes were mixed by the USC ceramic department, so for most of these pieces I was just experimenting with the glazes on hand, unsure of the color and character of the each glaze.  Two of the glazes I mixed myself, my first experimentation with glaze recipes.  All glazes and pieces were fired in the Bailey (gas) kiln to cone 10.  It was reduction fired, which means the amount of oxygen in the kiln was reduced.  The amount of oxygen in the kiln effects the coloration of the glazes.

I can't decide the best way to display these cups for the blog.  I have developed a spreadsheet to document each of the cups: images of the bisque-fired and finished piece, the glaze, clay, texture, firing technique, ect.  I can't decide whether to duplicate all that information here... but maybe I will just post the finished piece?  It is hard not to elaborate on each piece's successes and failures, what I intended and then evaluating the outcome. 

Until I can decide this post serves as a progress report.  Its midpoint in the semester and I have thrown 60 cups, and they exist in various stages: wet pieces needing handles or surface texture, greenware waiting to be bisqued, or glazed bisqueware waiting to be fired.  I've decided to create 100 cups this semester as well, not just 75.  At some point I need to find one form I like and replicate it 10 times or so.  Overall I'm learning a ton and really enjoying the experimentation.  

Art 107: Portfolio 2

Adventures in color theory continue...  The three principles we explored in this portfolio:  Complementary Contrast, Simultaneous Contrast, Contrast of Saturation.

Complementary Contrast
Complementary colors are those that are opposite each other on the color wheel.  I usually tend to think of complements just as pure colors.  For the preliminary I chose to play with different values of pure colors, and how values effect the complements (ex.  if red and green are complements, and the red is lightened then the green is darkened).  After 6 pairs of complements are identified, 3 pairs are chosen to do modulations between the pairs. The mixture of 2 complementary colors should be neutral gray.

The composition for this principle should first be perceived as a black and white grayscale image.  Then our composition replaces the grayscale colors with one of the complementary modulations.

Simultaneous Contrast
This principle illustrates how one color can be perceived differently depending on which color is surrounding it.  The pale blue looks like a different color next to the red compared to the same color next to the bright green.

The composition is a bit different, a very abstract cloud scene by O'Keefe.  The concept of simultaneous contrast is illustrated in some areas.

Contrast of Saturation
With this color principle we were to choose one color and create modulations of that color by adding white (creating tints), black (creating shades), gray (creating tones), adding the complement and adding a combination of the primary colors.  The preliminary illustrates all the colors that can be derived from one hue.

I really liked the gray modulation and primarily used it in my composition.  I really liked the original O'Keefe composition and I don't think my interpretation does it justice at all... but it works with this theory.