Secrets and Experiments

After almost two weeks of taking a break from clay I'm very busy at the moment making a secret surprise. I'm utterly excited about it as it is some sort of order and I hope I don't mess it up or don't get it finished in time! It's a lot of fun and an exercise in patience as well as for the muscles in my poor arms, which ache quite much.

This week I was struck with the idea of making an impression of the bisque fired carved flower bowl before I proceed with it. It can serve as a mould if it turns out alright.

After complaining about my stuff being art (and not necessarily functional) I thought I can get more experimental with the first of my textured dishes. Air bubbles got trapped in the indentations in the process of glazing and I just left it like this and added some glass beads. I'm very curious what it might look like when it's out of the kiln. Chances are that it's totally ugly. Well, we'll see...

It's snowing

It's amazing how this is able to brighten up my mood.
Everything looks so quiet and peaceful when covered in snow and the sounds are muffled.

I took a snowy walk today and met a nice old man feeding the nutrias (which is forbidden since a few months) who told me a lot about them. He said, he even found some that where clubbed to death. They are so very tame.

D.I.Y.

Don't take, don't take, don't break my amateur art
I heart my art
Don't make, don't make, don't make a joke of my art
Ne plaisantes pas avec mon art

My fabulous, magnificent, terrific sister comforted me with a hint to the great song by Robots in Disguise quoted above when I complained about some odd remarks by my claymates, that confused me. It was nothing they meant in a nasty way and they had no intention to hurt me and at the time I was rather amused. Nevertheless their words creep into my thoughts and I wonder why of all things the first that came to their minds when they saw the textured bowls shown in my previous post was to tell me, that food will get stuck and dust might collect in the indentations and that they saw something like that to prepare garlic. Garlic? Dust? Do these bowls look as if I ever had the intention to use them for food? And, seriously, I couldn't care less about dust. Do I rate my ceramics too highly when I consider them to be works of art? But to entitle it art leads to another subject matter that drains my energy, the prejudice that art in general is worthless and useless, an opinion that casts unjustified doubt when I need encouragement and that I had to face so often that it blocks me in my work because I can almost hear it hissed into my ear while I'm crafting.
Still I heart my art.

WIP - This Week

Now I'm finally reaching the present! These are my newest elaborate pieces. All bowls are pinched and then altered.

This one is adorned with a painstakingly carved flower...

... and the surfaces of these were sculpted in a very wrist straining but also meditative procedure. I haven't made anything new since then, because my arms need rest and relaxation. I'm very satisfied though how much I got done in the past weeks.

In class I played around with glass and glaze again.
Now I need a sunny day to take pictures of my latest finished pieces.

WIP - One Week Ago

I couldn't reach the big leaves on the trees a few weeks ago, but now they all fell to the ground and I just had to pick them up, so I took the chance and made another clay leaf, quite a big one this time.

I also sculpted a small vase.

In class I mainly painted my poppy bowl...

... and my tea light house with manganese dioxide.

Ceramic Leaves

I took these pictures on a wonderful sunny day.

Maple

Oak

Beech

WIP - Two Weeks Ago

I built a tiny bowl and a little round tea light house with many windows. It was a lot of work and I spent several days in bed with a fever before I could finish the carvings. I'm a bit surprised about how very much I like to carve and how patient I am doing this, although it is so exhausting for my wrists.

Beautiful Bowls

I'm very satisfied with the results of this glazing session and let the bowls speak for themselves. The last two have glass melted into the bottom.




I especially love this lotus bowl. (The picture doesn't really do it justice.) It's a very haptic experience.

WIP - Three Weeks Ago

All these faces of people deeply relieved I saw on TV in the last two days say a lot about US-American politics and I'm glad that for the first time in my lifetime the USA seems to get a President who has brains and I dare say a heart.

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Here's the first batch of work in progress pictures of my time of blogging absence. I made these items more than three weeks ago and most of them are finished by now.

Some odd vessels.

My Christmas ornaments and my little tree glazed and filled with glass.
I used glass beads on the ornaments. I just couldn't resist when I saw the beads on a sale. So many colour possibilities!

Small bowls glazed and filled with glass. I collected the blue shards of a smashed bottle on the street and carried them home like a treasure because I was so excited that I had found so beautiful blue glass.

The Snail Plate and the Folded Pot

These were finished ages ago so it's about time I finally show them to the world. Here's the snail plate:


On the plate is a pretty herb I found at the field where I held my photo session. It's called Taubenkropf-Leimkraut in German. You can see the seeds in the pod.

This is my folded pot. I unintentionally made the walls very, very thin, which makes it even more fabric-like. I'm really proud of this one.

I'm back

It was very foggy and cold all day long, an examplary November day, so I start with a picture of a glorious golden autumn day to make me feel warmer.

I was busy crafting and have a lot of pictures of my work in progress I have to sort through, so some updates will follow soon.