La-bor-atory Artmaking

Last week I was interviewed for an upcoming article/project on artists. The questions were e-mailed to me ahead of the interview, which gave me added time for hopefully, more thoughtful answers. The additional time had allowed me to better consider some of the questions such as “my first memory of making art” and “was art a part of

my childhood?” Lately, I’ve been working hard to “stay in the moment” after all of the grant writing proposal stuff and being forced to project what my artmaking could become should I be a grant recipient. Another self-analysis personality quirk that came up during the interview is that I’m a rule maker, an observation that Daddy-O keenly diagnosed years ago. Which by the way came in handy yesterday because one of my new rules is “don’t open the kiln until it has cooled to 150 degrees.” Having a rule is THE ONLY thing that keeps me from popping the top at 500 degrees to peek inside after the firing cycle is complete! The load of ^6 came out mostly OK –with the exception of my “Sedna Masks” which portions exploded due to air bubbles in my slabs. The good news

is my Pods all turned out wonderful and the test trays using the Duncan HF 583, Black Gloss High Fire Glaze onto the green ware came out great. Actually, better than I expected. This was the first time I applied a gloss glaze to the greenware without it being an underglaze. This Duncan glaze was part of the large lot of misc. glazes I bought second hand last year. I thought the gloss black really lent itself to doing some more Ravens. The extra large Pod that is over 18" even fired beautifully.

During the interview I was also asked about working and combining the two different mediums of steel and clay and their different processes. I made a comment about how steep the learning curve has been with clay and I thought I’d be farther along by now with the medium. The interviewer asked if I kept those detailed journals potters do on firing schedules, kiln temperatures etc.

“Ha!” I replied. Good intentions went by the weigh side on my second firing last year! I scribbled my outcomes on various box flaps, scraps of paper and whatever else I found lying around that are now, nowhere to be found. I dreamed early on that I would have a thick, leather-bound journal STUFFED with glaze recipes and secret firing schedules by now... Then the writer pointed out a very important observation and she said “well, isn’t clay more SCIENTIFIC?” Exactly, I thought. Good science practices are necessary for good outcomes and every phase of working in clay takes more measured practices than I’m used to. I love science, but I'm learning I'm not a very good clay scientist!

**So Many Trips That I Want To Take and Speaking of Ceramic Science, Look What I Just Read on Slipcast -The Ceramics Blog "It's Educational" by Matthew Katz

Feeling the Heat

Anchorage is having unseasonable warm weather, in the 40’s! Normally we’re locked in a deep freeze –but not this year. Unfortunately with the warm temps and rain creates a higher risk for avalanches. Daddy-O just called from Girdwood and said that Max's Mountain had slid all the way to the top of the Tanaka lift(!) he said it looks like one big giant brown skid! In all our years in Gird we've never seen Max's slide to the Tanaka run. Normally the mountain crews blast the ridges with the cannons to purposely create small slides before the lifts open but this slide was all due to Mother Nature. With the daylight finally gaining time and the crazy, spring-like weather, my industriousness has been at an all-time high. Good thing too, there are several deadlines approaching and a lot of art making getting done. With each success in clay I find that my tempo increases –a bit too much. I get so happy with a clay success I really crank up my metronome.

I’m finding that working in clay takes patience and my impatience and excited fervor need to be tempered IF I want positive results. The mantra I repeat to myself is “you can’t rush clay, you can’t rush clay,

and DON’T rush clay, DON’T rush clay.” One of the main reasons my metronome is peaked is that my kiln fired fine at cone 6. I know I shouldn’t be so surprised, but I’m happy I tested it before buying a pallet load of higher firing clay. I even found some ^6 cones to put in with the test Pods and it appears that the kiln reached temperature. I only had ^6 so I couldn’t add the traditional range of higher and lower cones to the ^6 cones. Everyone that

has been encouraging me to fire at higher temps was absolutely right –I LOVE the feel of the clay fired at the higher temperature. The texture and sound of the Pods at ^6 is completely different than the trays that were fired at ^04, even though it was the same clay and well within the recommended firing ranges. With the successful bisque firing at ^6, I was ready to test the buckets of mystery glazes that are supposedly also ^6. I had 6 test Pod sculptures and tried two different glazes, the Galaxy (a blueish gray green) and Antique Iron (for some reason I thought this would be blackish like iron but it fired rust colored -duh, ANTIQUE iron would be rusty, what kind of metal chick am I anyway?!). The Galaxy was just as I had hoped and the Antique Iron, though a nice color would not be a top pick. I purposely rubbed off the glaze along the seam of the Pods so I cold still see and feel the clay. Fresh from the kiln, the warm Pods felt so wonderful in my hands! I did lose two of the six Pods in the glaze firing though. One small Galaxy glaze fired Pod appeared to have exploded(?) because there were shards on the shelves and one of the small Antique Iron Pods appears to have tipped over, maybe during the explosion, and broke a leaf tip off. I’m so happy with the results of the Galaxy glaze that the broken Pods didn’t bum me out too much. It was more of a shock to see the bits and pieces in the kiln. At first I wasn’t even sure what they were because I haven’t had an explosion in a while. I must be making progress!

Adding to my clay excitement the clear glaze load of tiles and trays fired beautifully at ^05. I wanted to repeat some of my favorite sgraffito designs that were on the first batch of trays that didn’t turn out. I liked how the Coloramics NM-450 Clear Soft Matte, made by Mayco applied with only two coats. The load was a bit more shiny than I like, but hey, at least it was uniform and was successful! I bought plate hooks to secure the tiles/trays so they can be hung on the wall. With some new clay Pods drying on the shelves now, I need to switch gears and tend to some upcoming deadlines. The Rasmuson Foundation Individual Artist Awards grants deadline is March 1. I’m applying for an Individual Project Award grant to hopefully help fund some future clay work and a visit to North Carolina for the “Clay and Blogs; Telling a Story” of which I’ve been invited to participate in. Here is a link to Mered

ith Heywood’s Blog, Whynot Pottery, she is the curator of the Show. I've got my work cut out to submit 3 incredible pieces by October - I'm practicing though!! Scroll down her Blog and to the right is a link to all of the artists and their Blogs that are in the Show. The Mt. View 1% for Art Outdoor Sculpture project process has also started. On Thursday I met with SteelFab to outline the fabrication specs for my sculpture “Bicycle Bloom,” that was selected and we saw the project site and are working on the fabrication details. We’ve got a meeting with the engineer on Monday and the foundations will be

ready to be poured as soon as the building season allows. With the way the weather is might be much sooner than later. PLUS, I just saw that the Anchorage Museum of History and Art All Alaska Juried Biennial Art Exhibition XXXIII deadline for submissions is March 2! I have received several solicitations to donate for the upcoming annual Museum Gala, but did not receive a prospectus in the mail for the All Alaska Juried Show… For all my Alaska artist friends, here is a link to the prospectus. Hurry, deadline for digital submissions of works for the All Alaska XXIII Show is a week from Tuesday!