Rain and Color

I had ceramics class on Saturday (it's usually on Thursday night but with Veteran's Day and Thanksgiving we lost two class days so we have to come in on Saturday). It was raining on and off most of the day. The school I'm attending started out as an agricultural community college and it retains some of that feel still - lots of trees and green areas. They still have a farm and animals (but I hear rumors that they're going to drop the Animal Science programs).

Anyway, as I said, it was raining on Saturday. One of the things I really like about the rain is what it does to trees. It makes their bark very dark and in contrast makes leaves and grass look brighter. I walked around the grounds near the classroom taking photos for a little while. Yes, I'm easily distracted, but hey, I'd been working on my clay creations pretty much non-stop for 5 hours by the time I took my photo break.
 

I wanted to shoot the clouds, but the coolest looking ones were in the direction of the sun and I wouldn't have been able to capture the subtleties of color that I was seeing.  There was also the widest, brightest rainbow I've ever seen that day! It only went up from the ground for a short way (wasn't a complete rainbow arch) but it was amazingly bright for just a couple of minutes (of course, NOT the minutes I had a camera in my hand). I did get a couple of shots, but it was fading by then.I love seeing rainbow and snow on the mountaintops.

Taking pictures on a rainy day can be quite beautiful. I took some when I was down in San Diego this past February (see dates Feb 1 and 14). The lights and buildings were reflecting off the streets. I thought it was cool anyway. So don't let the rain keep you from taking pictures. Get a raincoat for your camera and you're good to go!

My Fish is Done!

A little history of how it came to be:

 It started out life as a pinch pot (two pinch pots, actually, seamed together to get the body shape. Then I added the fins (top, back, sides, bottom) and the base. This is covered in colored slip (colored liquid clay) and has not been through its first firing (bisque fire) yet. The clay is B mix with sand.

Now it has been through the first firing. I added the anemone fingers before it was fired. The fingers and base are now coated in wax so they will not take the glaze I'm going to put only on the fish.  I want the fish to be shiny, but not the base. The wax will burn away in the next firing.

This piece actually cracked in the first firing where the fish joins the base because I didn't join them properly. However, since it broke where it did, the glaze will fuse it together again.

And here is the finished piece. The fish is all shiny and the base and fingers are the rough, unglazed clay. I like the texture contrast and the glaze makes the fish look wet. It is about 7 inches from nose to tail and just over 6 inches tall.

First Pot

This is my first completely finished pot from my current ceramics class. It's a pinch pot. It's ugly! This was just a practice pot to get used to manipulating the clay and to practice techniques. It was also a test pot to try out slips and glazes.

I've been enjoying this class. I'm much better at making 3 dimensional things than I am drawing to this comes easier to me than my illustration class.

My clown fish is glazed and should be baking in the kiln as I write this.I had taken photos yesterday of it with the unfired glaze and wax resist covering it, but somehow all those photos have just vanished. No class this coming week as Thursday is Veteran's Day and therefor a school holiday.

I have my final project in progress. We had to go to LACMA and see ceramics exhibition to get an inspiration piece then build our piece using at least 3 of the techniques we've learned this semester - pinch pot, slab, coiling, slump molds. We have to add a foot and a handle and use the decorating techniques we've learned. I'm also working on a dragon coming out of an egg - that was the coiling assignment. Plus I have a bunch of cups to make.

Lot's of work to do this month!!!

Right Where I Need To Be

I went to a meditation workshop at BodyMind Alliance tonight. I had forgotten that I received an email a couple of weeks ago about this workshop and had responded that I would like to attend. Yesterday I got a reminder about the workshop.

I'm so glad I went. I got some good ideas for processing feelings and integrating them rather than trying to get rid of the negative ones. I got inspired, relaxed. It was definitely where I needed to be tonight.

Denise Reimer is a healer and (IMO) a wise woman. As the owner of BodyMind Alliance, she is concerned with treating the whole body, not just the manifestation of an illness. Check her out on http://www.bodymindalliance.com.

Fish 2

Next phase of my fish (see September 24 for first picture). Now it has anemone fingers. When it's fired the gray looking stripes will turn white. Right now it's painted in colored slip. Next it gets a bisque firing. Then it gets glazed and fired again. The plan is to glaze only the fish and leave the base and fingers as unglazed clay.

I made a textured cup that didn't really come out so well and I'm in the process of making a baby dragon coming out of an egg. I'm a lot better at making things than I am at drawing them.

Little Angel

I was at the cemetery in Carpenteria yesterday and this was a grave marker. No name, no plaque, nothing other than this little angel. It's very small, only about a foot high.