CuPu Series

 I'm jumping all over the place, as is my way, and I jumped into a new technique a couple months ago and went crazy making...

CuPu vases and cups

The Cut and Push Series, aka CuPu, involves me handbuilding (by way of pinching and smoothing), cutting a design through the wall, and pushing it out to form a relief.  I wanted to explore glazes and how they perform on deep surface changes.  Some designs are free-form, some I measure out and try really hard to make even, and some start one way and end up being made another.  I get too excited to stop and take action shots, but below is a bit of an inside to stages of one particular piece.

First I make the vessel, let it set up a bit, and decide on a design--usually I go from one element of the design to the next and fill in along the way.  With this one I made a stencil and played around with spacing and layout for some time before committing. 

Planning stage.

I use an Xacto knife to cut through the wall and push from the inside out to create a relief.

Boy, that escalated quickly.

Smoothed out but still in the green stage.

After the bisque fire, I sanded the surface and glazed the hell out of it.  Due to the conditions in the kiln, glaze ran down and puddled around the bottom, but the kiln loader was able to salvage the piece in whole so at least all my hours of work weren't destroyed, just a little ragged along the bottom.

Glazed.
Planter with Reitz Blue and Yellow Salt

I will not have this particular piece available at the KC Clay Guild Spring Sale, but everything in the first photo will be there, and many are already available online in my ceramics shop.  I have a lot more of these in me, but I am making an effort to cool it for a minute until I can clear some work out from under me.

See my process on Instagram!  I love to share.

Drawing on Ceramics I

 Around the time I started to relearn to draw (500 years ago?  no...a year ago but still In The Beforetimes), I made a few test pieces with underglaze and sgraffito techniques based on saved dried flowers and seeds from summer 2019. They didn't trip my trigger at the time, but I kept running across them, so I'm going to share.  That also means I can throw them out!

Aliens?

That one is based on my first round of abstract Queen Anne's Lace drawings and paintings.

Pretty sex-organ-y.

Based on river oats

These were only about three or four inches tall, so the nuance I could get from larger drawings, as well as from ink flow, just weren't there.  They're called sketches for a reason.  I let these ideas marinate for my time away from the Clay Guild and during my summer of collecting flower images and drawing on traditional surfaces...

Cat Planters

A friend saw that I was making planters and requested a memorial cat head planter for a coworker who had just lost her kitty.  Instead of making one or two for her, I made a dozen and just kept going...

The first generation.

Trying to keep glazing simple with oxide rubs and underglazes.

I based this one on Clover!

I put some weird nubs on the bottom of this one.

Planted with a little cactus babe.

This was the simplest one I made, and the smallest...and fastest to sell!

Clover-as-Planter with Purple Heart.

Happy customer!
This went to my friend and lives as a home to a beautiful cactus.

I debuted these at the Kemper on Saturday's Block Party and many found new homes!  Looks like, as usual, animals (and cats in particular) are a big hit around here.  

Pecked: Winter 2018 and 2019

Over the cold winter months (and it was FREAKING COLD this winter) I started dreaming of spring very early.  I started making larger, more involved vessels...since I have literally dozens of vases, I decided to try out planters and sculptural pieces.  And then I became addicted to...pecking!

 I used all sorts of pointy-ended tools, including pencils, needles, porcupine quills, pens, and my fave...

 peach pits!

Spent the week of Thanksgiving working on this one.

The carving and pecking took a long time, but I listen to audio books and, as you've seen with my Orzos, enjoy repetition--nearly to the point of mania.

As most ceramic artists, especially the newbies, will tell you, glazing is hard and often the least fun step in the process.  It's "painting blind" as my friend and teacher Amy says.  Very true.

Because this...

Glazed up

Turns into this...

Basically what I wanted but it's still all a mystery to me.

More finished pieces...

detail

This one is NOT FOR SALE because it was the beginning of many good things.

See more from the Pecked collection on my website.

These are a natural step in the evolution of my work, using surface texture techniques from my Faces and moving into something else, because I don't stand still too long...

When you're stuck inside but still somehow have the itch to do something other than watch High Maintenance and Hoarders all day, good things can happen!

Contact me through my website if you're interested in purchasing anything.

And come see me Saturday night at the Kemper Museum for a Pop Up sale during their annual Block Party!  I'll have planters (other than these) and some other goodies...

Ceramics

I've been making ceramics more than other work lately.  Partly because I have a class every week and that keeps me rolling, and also because it's my hobby art (even though I am selling them occasionally) and there's no pressure.  I've been trying to take longer on my pieces, being more thoughtful and going bigger or getting more involved.  That works most of the time...but then I decide to crank them out because I get addicted.  This is a normal cycle for me.

Early 2018 I was working on these wall heads, some of which are actually currently in a show at Smalter Gallery on W 39th...

Since then I was playing around with what my class lovingly dubbed the Barnacle series...

Wide barnacle vase in progress

Finished

...and I was dyeing the clay body with mason stain...

Dyed clay body vase in progress

Finished with an ombre glaze

...and really enjoying making kinda icky blobs on the surface of my vases that look like skin tags and hairy legs...

Dyed "growths" vase.  Skin is weird!!

So that was last summer.  What happened over the winter of 2018?  Stayed tuned....

Neighbor

I do not currently have any neighbors who disguise themselves as humans but underneath are good-natured trolls...so I had to make one!  I'm not entirely certain why I titled this one Neighbor, but I'm sticking with it.  Seems delightfully open to interpretation.

Before first firing.  I dotted the surface with brown slip for some nice
mole action and liver spots on the skin tags.

Before glaze firing.  I knew the colors wouldn't be this vibrant after it was all
said and done, but oh I wish...

Finito!  Recycled clay fired to cone 10 with mason stains
and oxides.

I used the Clay Guild's "G White" glaze on the lips to bring out some of
the iron in the clay.

This is the biggest face I've made so far, about 9 inches wide.  I'm looking forward to going larger but I need to complete the ones I have still ready to be glazed before I move on.

Heads and Faces

Our winter had stretches of dreary, cold days (not that unusual) and I just couldn't bring myself to do much else besides make weird things out of clay.  I've been making tumblers, vases, and mugs, but I've had a hankering to get back to my sculptural roots lately.  So this year I'm focusing more on funny little characters...

He looks kind of big here, right?
(He's still new and wet.) 

He is not.

 I started to play around with oxides and stains to add color and highlight the gnarly textures these quick studies had.  Most of these are experiments and maybe I'm not done with them yet...but here are some more from that first little batch: 

More before pics.

Dunked in yellow salt glaze.

Manganese wash.

Rutile wash.

Spring Ceramics, Vase Edition

I have been thinking about using manhole and utility covers in my ceramics for a very long time, and I finally got around to taking impressions to use as stamps.  Then I used paper clay (clay that has paper mixed in for stability) to make the forms.  So many stamps...so many possibilities!

Throw on some olive oil, press in some clay, pull off, wait a while,
bake at 1000 degrees or something, wah lah.

I used a lot of mason stains to rub into the designs so they'd really pop.

Hand for scale!

Don't forget!  I'M ALL OVER THAT INSTAGRAM THING.