2017 Progress Report: October-Part 2

During this week in October, I wasn't able to do too much. Four out of five if my masks were fired. I managed to apply the raku glazes, though I would have to wait another week to see the results. I also made more progress on my leaf piece. I got it to the point where I was able to finish most of the canvas work on it. The following week would bring even more progress for my work.

This may possibly be my last post of the year. We'll see, but the October Progress Reports will continue well into January. Also, even though it is a bit early to announce this, the Reports for November and December will be combined into a single report due to a lack of pictures from November.

10/10/17: This firing turned out well. 

10/10/17: The firing for this piece also turned out well.

10/10/17: This is still my least favorite mask.

10/10/17: This is still one of my favorite masks. I'm glad it survived the firing.

10/10/17: I finally finished all the chicken wire work on the front.

10/10/17: I finally finished all the chicken wire work on the back.

10/10/17: Most of the canvas work on the front is finished.

10/10/17: The canvas work on the back is almost done.

10/10/17: I applied some glaze. I used black on most of it and red around the edges.

10/10/17: This will use an almost even mix of red and black glazes.

10/10/17: This one will use a little more red than black.

10/10/17: This one will use a little bit of red and mostly black.

2017 Progress Report: October-Part 1

Since it has been so long since my last post, I decided to skip the rest of the Weekly Reports for the remainder of the year since this post as well as some upcoming posts would make those posts irrelevant. Also, as the title suggests, this will be the first of several October posts. Since I have nearly 100 pictures for October, this Progress Report will be divided up by weeks. I think the last time I did this was in May.

October was a rather unusual month for me. While I am usually busy in October, my crunch time is usually in November. However, since I had to have my show ready before Halloween, I had to do everything much earlier than usual. The good part about that is it wasn't as hectic as it could have been. There were several projects that I wanted to have in my last show, but they couldn't get done in time. Since they were much further along in development, I didn't have to rush to get them done. There were still many projects that were started much later and did need to get done right away. There was only one project that didn't get done in time for the show and that was only because I ran out of the supplies I needed and wasn't able to get more before the show.

This week focused mostly on clay work, though I was able to do other things. Despite having less than a month left until the show, I decided to start on some new projects. Also, I had an extra day off from work which allowed for more time to get stuff done. It was really a coincidence that I had as much time as I did. I put in several requests to have off in October prior to the show date being planned for a completely different reason and it coincidentally worked out great for me. Anyway, enjoy these 10 pictures and I will hopefully have the remaining posts up soon.

10/3/17: This is the first piece in my mask series. This particular mask is based on denial. I used foam heads to get the facial shape for the and the other face pieces.

10/3/17: This is the second piece in my mask series. The theme of this mask is anger. 

10/3/17: This is the third mask in my series of masks. The theme of this mask in bargaining. The triangular shape in the middle is supposed to represent hands in a prayer position.

10/3/17: The firing for this piece was successful. I found a way to use about half a dozen different glazes. Some polymer medium will need to be used in the middle in order to give the piece an all around consistent gloss.

10/4/17: This is the fourth mask in my mask series. The theme of this one is depression. The bottom part is supposed to represent either hands covering a face or just the face being covered in general. From a design point of view, this was least favorite piece. I felt like the bottom part wasn't defined well enough.

10/4/17: This is the last piece in my mask series. The theme of this piece is Acceptance. This  was one of my favorites though I was the nose area was a little more defined.

10/5/17: This is the start of my autumn-themed piece. I'm using a leaf as a representation.

10/5/17: I started the chicken wire work to help further define the shape of the piece.

10/5/17: I started the chicken wire work on the back.

10/5/17: This piece was supposed to have been done for my show I had last spring. The drawing is far from finished though it has come a long way.

2017 Progress Report: September

Sorry this post took so long. After my art show ended earlier this month, I got a little lazy and decided to take a break from pretty much everything. I've been playing a lot of Friday the 13th lately. Now it is time to play catch up with my posts.

September started out a little slow and then sped up when I found out that I would be having a show on the week of Halloween. In some ways, this show was one of my easier shows to plan for since I had several projects that were intended to be finished for my last show that I couldn't finish in time. I first started out by doing some unfinished work from the summer involving polishing work on some ceramic pieces. Two of the ceramic pieces were going to be for my show while the others will go up for sale someday. Next, I finished my piece Anathema, a project that missed my last show by a few days. Then I started on a new ceramic piece that was a restart of a failed piece from earlier this year.

This is all I have for right now. I will continue catching up with everything over the next few weeks.

9/5/17: I finished polishing this piece. It turned out great.

9/5/17: I finished polishing this piece. Just like my other saggar piece, this also turned out great.

9/5/17: This is a piece I plan on selling. The polishing work turned out alright, though the piece is a little darker than I wanted it to be.

9/5/17: This is another polished saggar piece that I want to sell.

9/5/17: Compared to the previous two saggar pieces, I like this one the best.

9/5/17: This is the first of three pit fired egg pieces that I plan on selling. The polishing with these pieces turned out great.

9/5/17: This is the second egg piece.

0/5/17: This is the third egg piece, though it does have some problems from faulty construction that I'll have to fix later.

9/12/17: It didn't take too long to build this, though the bulges stick out more than what I originally intended.

9/26/17: This piece had been in development since 2008. I finally finished it.

9/26/17: The bottom of Anathema.

9/27/17: I did some glazing work. I managed to find a way to get a lot of glazes on here without overdoing it. It had to be carefully planned.

The Weekly Report: 10/15-10/21

This week was yet another week where I got an extra day off from work. This gave me a lot of much needed time. During this week, I would finally complete a project called Black Widow, a project that originally started 12 years ago, went through development hell, then suddenly picked up steam about a year ago. A lot of other things happened which I'll explain in a bit, but the completion of Black Widow was definitely the highlight.

10/17/17: On this day, I was working on a project which was later named Autumn Decay. It is a mixed media project that is shaped like a leaf. I'm pretty sure I mentioned something about this project in a previous Weekly Report, but I'm too lazy to check. Anyway, I had finally finished getting all the canvas glued on and I managed to get the gesso work done. Aside from that, I was also firing four of my mask pieces via the raku kiln while glazing the one piece that fell behind the others. They all turned out good enough to the point where additional firing was not required. What was also as equally amazing was that despite using the same glaze combinations and being fired at the same time, they all turned out differently from one another. This was most likely because certain ones were removed from the kiln before others.

10/18/17: I continued to work on Autumn Decay. I applied the first layer of the extra coarse pumice gel that I had used on past projects. I also glued wood pieces to the backs of four of my mask pieces and another ceramic wall piece that I would eventually name Heritage. These wood pieces would eventually be used to screw hanging hooks into the pieces.

10/19/17: Today was all about getting the piece Black Widow done. I wanted it done. I was getting sick of working on it. I just wanted it out of the way so I could focus on the other projects that needed to get done for my upcoming show. Since I'm not showing pictures right now, I have to try and explain the unusual situation I was in. Black Widow was a mixed media pieces that a black and white charcoal and pastel drawing that is framed around sculpture work that was done using fiber paste. The sculptural part needed to be painted. I normally finish the drawing before I complete the painting. However, on that Thursday, I couldn't. The sculpture/ceramic studio at the college had a fan that I needed for the paint to dry. The problem is that studio was closing by 8pm. The drawing and painting studio would still be opened, but that studio had no working fan. This mean, I had to work backwards and finish the painting first and the drawing second. The result ended up leading to dust from the charcoal and pastel getting on the still damp paint which affected how the piece as a whole turned out. I nearly finished everything before the day was out.

10/20/17: In the early hours of the morning, I applied the polymer medium to Black Widow and finally completed a project that I first started back in 2005. I was also able to apply the first layer of pumice gel to the back of Autumn Decay.

That's all for this delayed Weekly Report. I know I've been way behind on my posts. I apologize, but I spent just about all of October preparing for my how I had recently. There will be a lot more posts coming very soon.

The Weekly Report: 10/1-10/7

The Weekly Report is back! I finally reached a point where I was able to do a decent amount of work more than one day a week. On the first week in October, I had an extra day off from work which allowed for three days worth of work for me to do. I managed too work on eight projects because of this extra time I had.

10/3: On this day I did a raku firing which turned out great and started on my mask projects that required the usage of foam heads in order to get specific facial features. I wanted to make five of these masks, though I was only able to get three of them made that night.

10/4: This day was a little frustrating because of the limited studio time I had. I was already behind my own schedule since I wanted to have all five of my masks done the night before and only managed to get three done. Instead of starting the next project, I had to finish the remaining masks. My clay wasn't cooperating with me either. The clay stated drying and cracking because it went under the slab roller one too many times. Finally, I gave up and used a new batch of clay. I was able to finish the remaining masks, but was not able to start my next project until the next day.

10/5: I finally managed to start my next project which is a mixed media piece that will be a representation of autumn. I got the basic shape down with foam board and managed to start on the chicken wire work. I eventually stopped work on the project to get some drawing done for a project called Black Widow. This piece was supposed to be finished in time for my last show, but wasn't. I'm estimating that this project might have about 4-6 hours of work left.

That's it for right now. I should have a September Progress Report coming soon.

2017 Progress Report: August

August was one of those months where there's something going on in the beginning followed by weeks of inactivity. Then right before the end of the month, we start to see some more activity. Most of what I did this month involved wrapping up my summer work and getting ready for the fall. There aren't many pictures this month, but we do begin to see some interesting developments.

8/1/17: I'm doing preparations for a saggar firing.

8/1/17: Lots of aluminum foil is needed for such small pieces. I want the effects of crinkles from the foil to be seen after the firing.

8/2/17: Even though the polishing still has to be done, the results from the saggar firing are still quite impressive.

8/3/17: This is probably the best results I have ever had from a pit firing.

8/30/17: I'm trying to restart a project that had failed during the spring.

2017 Progress Report: July

Throughout July, most of my work consisted of pieces that I plan to put on sale over the next few months, though there are at least two pieces that I want to keep in my permanent collection as soon as they are finished. This work would resume throughout early August. I hope to have everything here finished before the end of the year. Overall, July was a very productive month for me.

7/5/17: Burnishing work is done. Overall, this turned out okay.

7/5/17: The burnishing turned out okay here, though the grooves left from the coils made the burnishing somewhat difficult.

7/5/17: The burnishing on this piece did not turn out too badly.

7/5/17: The burnishing on this piece turned out pretty well.

7/11/17: The burnishing on this one was somewhat difficult compared to the last one  mostly because of the curve at the bottom.

7/12/17: This piece made it through the bisque firing successfully.

7/12/17: This piece made it through the bisque firing successfully.

7/12/17: This piece made it through the bisque firing successfully.

7/12/17: This piece made it through the bisque firing successfully.

7/12/17: I'm making preparations for a saggar firing. I'm using leaves which something I don't normally use.

7/12/17: This piece is almost ready for the saggar firing.

7/12/17: This piece is wrapped up and is not ready for the saggar firing.

7/12/17: This piece is wrapped up and is not ready for the saggar firing.

7/12/17: This is the first of three pieces that are based on a piece I did last year called Equilibrium. 

7/12/17: This is the second of three pieces that are based on a piece I did last year called Equilibrium. 

7/12/17: This is the third piece that is based on a piece I did last year called Equilibrium. 

7/12/17: The saggar firing turned out pretty good. I'll end up keeping this piece, though it needs more work.

7/12/17: This saggar firing actually turned out pretty good. I'm keeping this one.

7/18/17: The burnishing work on the pieces turned out somewhat okay. It was difficult though.

7/18/17: These are the next generation of dish pieces that I want to put up for same when they're complete. This is the small set.

7/25/17: These are the next generation of dish pieces that I want to put up for same when they're complete. This is the medium set.

726/17: These are the next generation of dish pieces that I want to put up for same when they're complete. This is the large set.