Hooowl for the arts

Every year Seminole Cultural Arts Council holds "Hoowl for the Arts" where they have Seminole County artists create masks, and then auction them off for charity.  This was my entry for this year's contest.  I'll keep you posted on if my entry gets selected for the auction.

 

Getting ready for the fall..

Its never too early to start working on projects for the holidays.  Below are a pair of my pinch pot pumpkins.  This is a fun, fast, and easy project for the fall months!

A few recent pieces from my students..

Here are a few new pieces from my students at the Casselberry Art House.  Classes there start again tomorrow and I can't wait!  I miss the clay and my students so much over the breaks!

Yet more bulletin boards..

With the start of a new year comes new bulletin board designs.  Here are two that I did for the ITMS special education classroom.  The first one was really fun.  It displayed current events and fun facts from the past 20 years since it was the school's 20th anniversary.  The one at the bottom was Dr. Seuss themed.

Summer Camp

I was an assistant at the summer camp at Maitland Art Center this summer.  Check out this awesome display of talent as we celebrated our last day of camp!

A simple slab project...

I really like this project because its great for beginners working with slabs.  All you have to do is cut out a very long right angled triangle, add some texture to both sides, and then fold it up attaching the folds with a little slip.

Cupcakes

Lately I have been using Pinterest a lot to get new ideas for pottery lessons and projects.  I saw some cupcakes on there and thought they would be fun to make.  Here is my version of the clay cupcake:

Warm and Cool Landscape/Cityscape

I thought of an idea for a lesson plan involving the use of warm and cool color schemes using underglazes.  I figured the students could choose between a landscape or cityscape and produce a silhouette type effect on their pots.  The blues in the cityscape turned out a bit darker than I planned but you still can see it somewhat in the photo.  Below are my samples:

Baltimore Cityscape

African Landscape

What makes underglaze run?

Recently I made the pot shown below, painting the design on with underglazes.  After I painted it, I fired it to make sure the design did not smear when I applied the glaze.  Needless to say, the underglaze still smeared (Mostly the black).  Why?  I investigated and found this answer on a ceramics message board:

It doesn't really matter how high you fire your glaze kiln but 

you have to fix the underglazes at a HOTTER temperature to keep them from 

moving under the glaze. So if you bisc to 04 then your glaze firing is 

supposed to be at a lower temperature. That's if you want your 

underglazes to stay put. 

Blue & Purple

Recently I rearranged a lot of the pottery I have all over my house.  I decided to do a purple and blue display in my kitchen.  What do you think?  I love the cool colors.  They seemed to turn out darker in this picture than in real life :(

More student work from the Art House

Here are a few more examples of some recent work by some of my students at the Casselberry Art House.  They were made using a artificial plastic fern, and brown underglaze that was wiped off and used like a stain.  Although it would seem to be more natural to use real ferns, I like how the fake ones make a nice, crisp, deep imprint into the clay.

Card Making Party

Recently a friend of mine had a card making party.  Of course, I had made a few cards before, but have not been really into the whole "stamping" craze.  I must say that I really enjoyed making these and will probably be making more in the future!

Pottery App for Iphone & Ipad

I found the coolest little app for my Iphone where you can throw your own pots on the wheel, fire them, and then decorate them.  Its an awesome little game!  To find out more use the link below to take you to Idreams website.

Pottery App

http://www.idreams.pl/Pottery/

Latest Endeavor..

Lately I have been working on projects that would be good examples for secondary art lesson plans.  I have been exploring the idea of adding landscapes to pottery.  I finished my first piece that is an example of an African landscape using a warm color scheme (below).  Now I am working on a night time city scape piece that I will upload a photo of when I am finished.  I think that these both will be good ways to have students explore different countries and cities, while honing their ceramic skills!

There is also a continued design on the back with more trees and a giraffe.

Chihuly at Las Vegas

I had the lucky experience of getting a free three day vacation to Las Vegas.  I was more then happy to see all the free art exhibits around town!  Represented everywhere I looked was Dale Chihuly.  He had a small exhibit right outside the Aria hotel where I was staying, as well as many installations at the Bellagio next door.  I got to see one of his most famous pieces, the ceiling at the Bellagio entrance, simply breathtaking!

www.chihuly.com

My Maitland Art House Installation

Along with the lizards, catipillars, frogs, snakes, and cats, a breath of life is given to a dead tree with the addition of this small installation of low fired cone shaped forms.

Conic Trio

Casselberry Art House

I started teaching pottery back in April at Casselberry Art House.  It has been really fun and my students there are awesome.  Here are just a few of their slab projects:

To go along with the Cat in the Hat...

I decided to make some friends for the Cat in the Hat that I drew on the white board while subbing last week.  What better than Thing 1 and Thing 2?  I could not draw them on the board because the students were watching science videos, so I sat down and made them from construction paper.

Whats the difference between stoneware and earthenware?

People often are confused about the difference between stoneware (high fire clay) and earthenware (low fire clay).  I found a nifty chart online that offers up some easy ways to compare the two and clarify the strengths and weaknesses between them:

Differences in an undecorated piece of stoneware and earthenware:    

Stoneware Earthenware (ceramic ware) Impervious to water (water tight) Not impervious to water (cannot hold water) Chip resistant Chips easily Color: Buff or terra cotta Color: white Feel: textured Feel: chalky Look: like pottery Look: rough white Looks great undecorated or decorated. Can only use when decorated. Can withstand high/low temp. Cannot withstand high/low temp. Oven safe Not oven safe Suited for household use. Suited for decorative use Painting bisque: Wipe off mistakes.   Glazes flow: bisque is not porous Painting bisque: Cannot correct mistakes Glazes adheres to bisque: bisque is porous Firing: Leave the bottom of the piece dry and place on shelf Paint or glaze the bottom of the piece and stilt on shelf.

Step by Step Gnoming!

Today I found a wonderful tutorial on gnome making on weefolkart.com!

Step by Step Clay Gnoming!

Homes for Gnomes!

I've been researching different types of gnomes online because my husband told me my clay mushroom out back needs a gnome.  I have found some really cool websites/artists/gnomey goodness!  I really liked the simple construction yet creatively detailed designs of these little gnome-homes! Have a look:

www.fairyhomesandgardens.com

Kiln Firing..

Tonight at pottery class someone asked me, "How hot does the kiln get?"  I found a really nice chart that explains the basics of kiln firing and what happens to clay at each temperature.  Check it out!

Experimenting with glass...

I decided to do a little experiment with small glass flat marbles and clay.  Check out the before and after.  I  think the blue coloring came from a small amount of baby blue underglaze I had painted on the clay.  Next time I will make the channels bigger so that there isn't so much spillage.  Thank goodness I had a ton of kiln wash on the kiln shelf because it made cleanup of the melted glass a breeze!

Cat in the Hat

What do you do when you have a little extra time at work?  Doodle on the board!

Ancient Peruvian Moche Pottery

While on my quest for the perfect clay crab I found this interesting example.  It is an example of Moche Pottery.  A dominant force on Peru's northern coast, the ancient Moche culture created finely crafted pottery of compelling naturalism.  The Moche culture lived from about 100-800 AD.  These ancient Peruvians used primarily red and white clays/slips while they created spouted vessels of all types.  Their works focused on the passage of fluids as irrigation was the source of their wealth and the foundation of their empire.

Moché, Crab Effigy Vessel, 100–800 AD, ceramic,

gift of Frank Nelson Carroll, Jr., in memory of his grandfather, Francis Lafayette Carroll, II

Feelin' Crabby!

I have been surfing the web for inspiration on a new ceramics project.  Beings that I am from Baltimore, MD, I decided to research "crab" pottery.  I found some lovely examples and ideas from Carolina Creations Blog

Native American Symbols

Not long ago I was looking for a picture of the Native American symbol for kokopelli (the flute player).  I found a nice list of basic native symbology and used it as reference to paint meaning into my piece.  Using symbols in pottery is a great way for people to learn about Native American culture, as well as a fun way to add context and decor to a plain piece of pottery!

Playing with the Gouache .

A page from my art journal.

Art Contest :)

I entered some of my work in an art contest.  This is my first contest... exciting!! The site holds regular art contests that anyone can enter.  The link is below:

Artistic Circle's Website

What is Gouache?

I had heard about it, I had seen it before, but until last week I was unaware of my love for GOUACHE!

According to the art pro's at Dick Blicks,


Gouache is an opaque watercolor paint. Whereas transparent watercolors allow you to see the "white" of the paper below the paint, gouache can be applied in solid colors. This allows an artist to paint in layers from dark to light.


Gouache dries to a matte finish, which makes it easy to scan or reproduce electronically, since there is no glossy shine. Designer's Gouache traditionally offers colors blended from a number of pigments, but some lines of Artist's Gouache offer single-pigment colors. Student Gouache will have working characteristics similar to Designer's Gouache, but with lower pigment concentration, less expensive formulas, and a smaller range of colors.

Frying Pan Encaustic Printmaking by Me :)