2016 Progress Report: October

In October, My focus turned to making more of a variety of ceramic work and continuing work on some old mixed media projects. I also had digital projects in the works, although I don't have any preview pictures for those. The complete versions will be posted in the near future. Despite how busy October was, November will prove to be even more hectic, as the date for the show comes closer.

10/5/16: This ugly slab will hopefully become a nice looking piece that hangs on a wall.

10/5/16: This piece dried just enough to allow the burnishing work to be done. Burnishing is not easy and requires patience.

10/5/16: More Burnishing work.

10/5/16: Even more burnishing work.

10/5/16: Burnishing work on these angular pieces proved to be more difficult.

10/5/16: More difficult burnishing work.

10/5/16: Even more difficult burnishing work.

10/12/16: I managed to make that ugly slab look a little more presentable.

10/19/16: The bisque firing is done. Some of the shine went away but it'll come back. I also noticed a slight crack that appeared on the top of the piece. It doesn't ruin it by any means but it is worth mentioning.

10/19/16: This piece also happened to survive the firing. It doesn't look like much though, at least not yet.

10/19/16: The egg piece survived the firing just fine.

10/19/16: This was also fired along with the other pieces.

10/19/16: Not much to say here.

10/19/16: Also not much to say here.

10/19/16: This is the second in a series of wall pieces. This looks better than the first piece in my opinion.

10/19/16: This piece has fallen way behind schedule but it is finally getting somewhere. This is based on something I was working on back in 2010. The piece went through a process of deconstruction before finally going through some reconstruction.

10/19/16: This piece is somewhat large and thin. Because of that, reinforcement is needed. Also, I'm mapping out where everything is supposed to go such as the piece of wood that will eventually be used for the hanging hooks.

10/26/16: This piece will use one coat of ferric chloride.

10/26/16: This piece will use two coats of ferric chloride.

10/26/16: This piece will use three coats of ferric chloride.

10/26/16: This piece will use a combination of copper wire, horse hair, and sugar.

10/26/16: This piece uses the same material, but in a different way.

10/26/16: Again, same materials, just placed on there in a different way.

10/26/16: This piece is now wrapped up like a baked potato and is ready to be fired.

10/26/16: This is also ready for the final firing.

10/26/16: This will also be fired at the same time as the other pieces.

10/26/16: This is the third wall piece that I'm working on. It was a little tricky to make because of the negative space that the other pieces didn't have.

2016 Progress Report: September

September got off to a slow start, although things did accelerate when I found out when my show was going to be, which allowed me to plan certain projects. Future sagger and pit firings were the main focus for the month since I wanted to get those out of the way first, although my projects from the spring were unfortunately still unfinished and I had to get those out of the way. October would be and even busier month.

9/7/16: The remaining work on this piece was somewhat easy. It had a simple design so dealing with everything from the shape of the name label to the molding paste and felt was easy to deal with. Though like all the other hollow pieces, getting the label in place was somewhat difficult.

9/7/16: The story for this is pretty much the same as To The Sky.

9/7/16: Creating the label for this piece was somewhat complicated. There wasn't much room to do anything. Somehow, I managed to do it.

9/7/16: Creating the lable for this surprisingly wasn't quite as difficult as Season of Growth. Still, it is a very small label.

9/7/16: This was easy to finish. In fact, most of everything about this piece was easy. That's also why I have mixed feelings about it. It looks alright, but also looks like something I might have done in 2013.

9/14/16: This is a simple design made out of coils. I'm hoping this will eventually be used for a pit firing. The idea behind this was to create an imperfect sphere.

9/21/16: The idea behind this was to take the imperfect sphere idea and show what would happen if it were squeezed. I have to say I'm not particularly fond of this shape, but I'm gambling on the idea that it'll look good in the end.

9/27/16: The idea behind this piece was to imgine if I took the previous week's piece and squeezed it again. I was going for an egg shape here.

9/28/16: There were three pieces like this that were made. This along with two other pieces were candidates for saggar firings. The difference between these pieces when compared to past saggar pieces is the shape. Past pieces took on more of a cone shape whereas these pieces go for a more triangular shape, though without sacrificing the curviness of other pieces. I have no idea how well this will work out.

9/28/16: As with many pieces that I work on as a series, this is the wider angular saggar piece.

9/28/16: This is the "short" piece in this series of saggar firings.