With my new colors, I can DRAW anything I’m DRAWN to!

vanilla orchid bowl

 

 

Photo: Vanilla Orchid Serving Bowl

This is one of my newer ideas… another work in progress, but it captures what I’m going for with drawing on my work. I have a deep love for orchids, and I don’t feel restrained to draw local imagery (like pine trees and moose and horses and bears and grass or dead trees). I feel like I can DRAW anything that I am DRAWN to 🙂 Why not take a floral safari through rainforests and jungles and around the world? I am going to start drawing all sorts of weird plants on my work because that’s something that has always interested me. I can’t help but think of orchids and passion flowers and heliconias when I use my bright new colored underglazes 🙂

Here’s a cute little gathering of flowery espresso cups… for fellow coffee and orchid lovers 🙂

orchid espresso cup

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The devil is in the details: new orchid mug design

Orchid Mug Design

 

 

This mug is part of my newest series of work and drawings. I’ve decided to go all out and start putting more detail and variety in my imagery. Besides just drawing the simple 5-merous flowers, I’ve decided to try drawing different orchids and other tropicals… I started a new eucalyptus bark idea today but I wanted to come home and make some bread for the week, so I didn’t finish the tumblers just yet.

Anyway, I ordered some new colors. They should be arriving any day now… the newest addition will be purple! And some different versions of red, orange, and green. I’m really excited about the purple– as if you couldn’t tell 😉

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Color at cone 10– I did it!

Colorful cone 10 porcelain family

This is my newest happy gathering of ceramic creations… and I’m growing attached to them 🙂 I just took a casual shot in my studio space… so don’t mind the messy background. Anyway, The colors held true at cone 10, and now all I want to do is keep making. I can’t even get myself to actually go to work (it is officially spring break for the school), so I am in the process of sculpting a passion fruit scientific model at home instead. If I go to work, I have to dedicate myself to stay there for a few hours… but my mind is exploding with new surface ideas! I threw some little espresso cup forms yesterday at the studio.

Most successful mug

 

This mug was the most successful piece out of the test firing– the others had bloating issues in the glaze. Apparently I’m working with two very different glazes. My satin matte white glaze that I use doesn’t like to be fired under cone 10, and the black glaze thought it was too hot when I let cone 10 fall down– it wasn’t even a flat 10. Maybe I will work on the satin matte glaze to make it melt at a slightly lower temperature… it’s just a matter of messing with the fluxes and silica.

I guess I should go color shopping, since I know they work so well now! 🙂

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Bright and colorful, happy and new: inlaid flowers!

new color inlay mugs

 

These are my latest forms… and canvases. I feel as if I’ve found a new way to breathe life into my work. I’ve got new forms and a tedious new way of treating my surfaces. I’ve decided to go all out and use the right materials for the job, even though they are a bit pricey. I’ve finally found the perfect way to translate my drawings into my ceramic surfaces… and it’s turning me into a studio addict! I’ve been spending as many hours in the studio as my body can handle this week– today I feel rather out of commission, because I fired a big kiln on Friday and when I unloaded it there were enough re-fires to fill a small test kiln… so I fired again yesterday. In addition to the re-fires, I threw in a few of the mugs from above, so I will have pics of the finished work hopefully later today or tomorrow 🙂

 

flower bottle underglaze

 

This bottle (above) is in the bisque state– I painted a thin layer of underglaze on it as a test to throw into the big kiln on Friday. Luckily, I did get color at cone 10! But unfortunately I was too caught up in working yesterday to remember to take a photo of the finished bottle… I might just take a quick pic of it along with the mugs later today…

 

 

orchid tumblers

 

THESE are my newest of new pots… I finished decorating them at around 1:00am last night. I did use a photo reference for the orchids, but obviously I didn’t try to match the drawings exactly to the photo. I just drew the main structuring lines that characterize an orchid 🙂 The blue underglaze goes a bit darker than I thought it would, and the green goes lighter, so we will see how they look when they get finished. I was really excited about the forms of these tumblers– I made a new rib in the tool making class a while ago, but I didn’t plan on this form at the time. Oddly enough, the teardrop-shaped rib made the perfect profile at the bottom of the pot pre-trimming. I like the crisp line I get from trimming to that point, but the rib made it really easy to match the inside of the pot to the outside 🙂

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If your feet hurt at the end of the day: you’ve accomplished something!

Glazing

Even the small things count. Sometimes it’s the only thing I can remember to think about when the day is over– what I’ve accomplished with my waking 17 hours of the day. Today, I feel confident in saying that I accomplished a lot. My feet are killing me. Exercise, then work (I mounted over 60 plant specimens on paper in 4 hours, which is a feat of its own kind), went to class, then to the studio.

Today was a long day at the studio– I started waxing and glazing work before 5:00pm. I was glazing and loading my kiln until about 10:30pm. It feels good to walk away at the end of the day knowing that I got something done. I will fire the kiln tomorrow– it will take at least 12 hours… but here’s what my kiln looked like before I left the studio tonight:

Kiln load

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Why ceramics? Why function? Why decoration?

image

Why ceramic art? I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. I still love to draw, but I wanted to bring my artwork into the third dimension… I also really like the idea that something beautiful can be functional. Why functionality? Being able to create something unique that functions as a common object of everyday life, like a coffee cup, makes me excited because it plays a personal role in someone’s life. The intimacy that a cup automatically receives from the user leaps bounds that humans never could so quickly– to touch the lips immediately. I am trying to make work that is enjoyable to use and happy to look at. Why decoration? Decoration transforms a pot from just a nice functional pot into a functional canvas. I am very interested in treating the surface of the pot as a canvas. It’s a real challenge in ceramics to figure out how to get the surface you want– I still haven’t figured it out yet. For me, decoration ties my drawings to my pots in a direct and satisfying way.

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Working with color… and my own handmade ink brush!

image

I just got my amaco underglazes in the mail. I have new direction and new motivation- my sketchbook looks like a tornado of color. I made plates to test my new colors on.. I will take some
pictures of my progress next week. For
now, here is one of my mugs that I finally finished and fired! I’ve gotta get busier in the studio..

image

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Making small steps: Wax resist inlay flower plate

wax inlay

 

Photo: My latest inspiration– a big thanks to Joe Pintz for pointing out that I could just paint wax resist over the green underglaze and then carve and inlay an image in black. I should have tried this ages ago, but for some reason I didn’t even think of it. This will allow me a whole bunch of new possibilities. Plus, I was thinking of going back in a second time and carving highlight lines that show the porcelain underneath– OR… I had a great idea while walking home:

Once I get my new colors of underglazes that I ordered from AMACO, I want to paint down a base coat (like the green on the plate above), and before waxing the surface and carving through it, I want to layer other colors… with painting methods. I want to try splattering similar colors over the top of the first layer– for instance, if I was using an aqua blue for a base color, I would splatter some lighter green in some areas on top of it. Also, I want to try adding highlights back in by sponging on grolleg porcelain slip in select areas. After I create a diverse layered surface, I will go back in and carve inlay lines to create detailed imagery similar to my watercolor drawings. I can’t wait to make some new pots first thing tomorrow morning to get started on it. I still just have the green and red underglazes… and the red turns out beige at cone 10.

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Awake, rise, and create– spring is coming.

Tribal Awakening

 

Photo: Tribal Awakening. Sprayed watercolors, ink, colored pencil, and white charcoal on paper. Kira Call, 2013. Just another doodle in my sketchbook… it’s what I was feeling that day. I have been trying to follow my artistic instincts for laying lines down on my surfaces: pots, drawings, painting, and even with jewelry that I make. When I sat down with the blue watercolor surface, I immediately envisioned a horizontal silhouette of a woman’s face. I let it flow from there.

I feel like I’ve been hibernating, sleeping, walking around like a drone. I do things that are required of me, and every once in a while I have a great idea. The winter is great for creativity because I’m stuck inside with all of my materials and sketchbooks, but I need to refresh my reservoir of inspiration. I’ve been sleeping, but I’m ready to wake up. I want to go and scale a mountain as soon as the temperature reaches 45 degrees Fahrenheit! Or at least go on a nice hike… 🙂

I need to wake up and observe the world around me.

 

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Progress: slip design plate– Aquamarine Waterlily pattern

804400_10200571490397891_239823901_n

 

 

I’m trying to develop the new idea… but I am currently waiting on an order from AMACO to arrive, so my color palette is limited at the moment. I do have this lovely green underglaze that fires to an aquamarine color on my white porcelain. I am working on a theory– carrying over my new drawing technique to my clay work. I want to learn how to make my surfaces look similar to my drawings. I know that I won’t be able to duplicate the watercolor effect, but I need to find better carving tools and brushes for finer lines. This is just me attempting to draw outside of my own lines 🙂

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