End of the Year Plans

Most of everything I originally planned on doing this year has been delayed until next year. Due to the unexpected delays, my work this year will be all digital. As of right now, I am not sure how many digital works I will make but with the material I have right now, I'm expecting it'll be somewhere around 10 pieces. As far as buttons are concerned, it's too early to tell if I'll have any new designs ready in time for the end of the year but given how it is much easier for me to make buttons out of my digital work as opposed to anything I build by hand, those new button designs will definitely by ready by early next year. As far as anything else is concerned, I don't have much else planned for the rest of the year right now. It all depends what I get done over the next month.

That's all I have for right now. Feel free to ask questions and leave comments. Also, share this post with anyone who might be interested. If you want to support me and my projects, you can donate to my Patreon or buy buttons from my Etsy shop.

https://www.patreon.com/Jon_Erich
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Jonerich

2019 Progress Report: April/May

I want to start off by apologizing for the long delay between posts. There's Been a lot of craziness going on this year and I haven't gotten much of a chance to do any real work for almost six months. I held off on posting this because I knew it would be the last post for sometime. I hope to get back to a somewhat normal schedule during November. If that happens then we'll start seeing more frequent posts. 

Both April and May were all about clay building and firing. Unfortunately, I was only able to get 3/4's of the work done. The last bit of work was supposed to resume in the fall but due to unforeseen circumstances, that work as well as the single project that is seen in these pictures will now be delayed until 2020. The process of what I've been trying to achieve is interesting to me and what is even more interesting is to think about the possibilities of trying to simplify the process in the future. 

That's all I have for right now. I plan to have a followup post tomorrow to talk about what is in store for the remainder of the year. Feel free to ask questions and leave comments. Also, share this post with anyone who might be interested. If you want to support me and my projects, you can donate to my Patreon or buy buttons from my Etsy shop.

https://www.patreon.com/Jon_Erich

https://www.etsy.com/shop/Jonerich

4/3/19: Each corner of this project will have its own texture design and glaze combinations. Right now, I have constructed roughly half of what I wanted to do.

4/10/19: A piece from the previous week broke before it could be fired and had to be reconstructed.

4/10/19: Another piece from the previous week broke and had to be redone.

4/17/19: Everything that I have made up to this point has been fired. Two other pieces were fired later because those were the ones that had to be made over again.

4/17/19: The five pieces that have been fired are now covered in raku glaze.

4/24/19: The two pieces that had to be built again have since been fired and they fit just fine.

4/24/19: Two more pieces have been glazed.

4/24/19: The third section is under construction.

4/24/19: Five pieces have been fired in the raku kiln so far. I like the way they're turning out.

5/1/19: All pieces of the third section have been fired successfully and fit perfectly.

5/1/19: All parts of the third section are glazed and ready to be fired.

5/1/19: The rest of the second section has been fired.

5/16/19: All parts of the third section have been fired.

2019 Progress Report: February/March

My first 2019 Progress Report is from both February and March since I didn't get anything done in January and I didn't do enough work in February and March in order to justify two different posts. A lot of what I started out doing in 2019 was a continuation of where I left off in 2018. The ceramic pieces seen in the images below were all fired in 2018 which I already talked about in previous posts. I started putting all the pieces together in February and would continue doing so in March. I also started on some new drawings. As for as doing fresh clay work is concerned, I wouldn't be doing that until much later.

That's all I have for right now. Feel free to ask questions and leave comments. Also, share this post with anyone who might be interested. If you want to support me and my projects, you can donate to my Patreon or buy buttons from my Etsy store.

https://www.patreon.com/Jon_Erich
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Jonerich

2/13/19: This never-ending project, now known as Harmony of Chaos finally has the ceramic pieces glued on. This is the bottom-front perspective.

2/13/19: This is the left side view of the ceramic pieces of Harmony of Chaos.

2/13/19: This is the right side view of Harmony of Chaos.

2/13/19: This is the top view of Harmony of Chaos.

2/13/19: The ceramic pieces for P23 have been glued on.

3/6/19: I started some new drawings for Harmony of Chaos.

3/6/19: I started work on a drawing for P23. I don't normally do the drawing on the canvas like this but the Bristol board was glued down long ago and I have to work with that now. 

3/13/19: I glued down the ceramic pieces for P8.

3/13/19: This is the other side of P8.

2018 Progress Report: December

The last 2018 post is finally here. Overall, it was a satisfying year despite the setbacks I had at the beginning of the year because of financial struggles. I completed 11 projects in 2018 which is far less than what I have done in previous years, though that was intentional since for sometime, I had planned on working on fewer yet more ambitious projects. Ironically, the very first project I started work on in 2018 ended up being the very last project I finished that year and the last project I have finished to this day.

The pictures seen here are projects that I needed to finish for a show I had back in December. I was actually late getting this stuff done and didn't get the final piece finished until the morning of the day of the reception. I really don't like being in such a position and I'm hoping to avoid this in the future. At some point, I want to make a post about the show.

That's all I have for right now. Feel free to ask questions and leave comments. Also, share this post with anyone who might be interested. If you want to support me and my projects, you can donate to my Patreon or buy buttons from my Etsy store.

https://www.patreon.com/Jon_Erich
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Jonerich

12/1/18: The fiber paste work in finally done.

12/1/18: Spray painting work on the back is done.

12/1/18: The spray painting around the outer edges is done.

12/1/18: The spray painting work on the back is done.

12/1/18: The outer edges have been spray painted.

12/2/18: All the white splotches have been painted.

12/3/18: Silver metallic paint has been added.

12/3/18: Silver metallic paint has been added to the back.

12/3/18: All white splotches have been painted over.

12/3/18: Gold metallic paint has been added.

12/3/18: Polymer medium has been added and now this piece has a nice glaze. The front is now complete.

12/3/18: Polymer medium has been added to the back. Felt has been glued in place . The hook s and wire is in place. This project is done.

12/3/18: Polymer medium has been applied. The front of this piece is done.

12/3/18: Polymer medium has been applied don the back. The felt has been glued in place. The hooks and wire are in place. This project is done.

12/4/18: All white splotches are covered.

12/4/18: Metallic paint has been applied. Polymer medium has also been applied. The front of this project is done.

12/4/18: All paint work, both acrylic nd metallic are done. Polymer  medium has been applied. The felt has been glued in place. The hooks and wire are in place. This piece is done.

12/5/18: All paint work is done. Polymer medium has been applied. The front of this piece is done.

12/5/18: The paint work and polymer work is done. The felt has been glued in place. The hooks and wire is in place. This piece is done. Time for the show.

2018 Progress Report: November-Part 4

I am FINALLY getting the last November 2018 post done. I'm just thankful that nothing got done in January. That means that's one less month I have to worry about, lol. Again, I apologize for not getting this out months ago. Hopefully, soon enough, the "What's Happening Now" blog will be focusing on what actually is happening now as opposed to what happened six months ago. 

Anyway, the final week of November was serious crunch time for me. I had to have everything done by early December. The last day of November was my original deadline though I had to work beyond that date. There's one project that I had to give up on because I knew it would not be done in time. I didn't give up on it for good though. It's a project that I plan on finishing this year. One thing is for sure. I hate these crunch times and I think I may try to get more work done during the summer so I can avoid them as much as possible.

That's all I have for right now. Feel free to ask questions and leave comments. Also, share this post with anyone who might be interested. If you want to support me and my projects, you can donate to my Patreon or buy buttons from my Etsy store.

https://www.patreon.com/Jon_Erich

https://www.etsy.com/shop/Jonerich

11/25/18: This is something I have brought this up in previous posts. There was a major correction I had to make here. I had to switch the pieces on the top and bottom because of a mistake I made earlier in the development of this project. When I started the drawing part, I didn't have the back side with me and I ended up doing the drawing upside down. I did not realize this until everything was already glued down. It wasn't easy to reverse the top and bottom pieces. 

11/26/18: This drawing is pretty much done at this point. Overall, it's a pretty good  drawing in my opinion, though the face probably could have been defined a little more.

11/27/18: I finally came up with a title for this. I was doing some printing and laminating.

11/27/18: I can't remember if I had revealed this already, but The Last Weekend is a followup piece to both 2007's Mary's Necklace and 2016's Mary's Dilemma.

11/27/18: I jumped the gun on this piece. I wasn't able to get it finished by the end of the year and the label has since been discarded. I plan on finishing it this year and when I do, there will be a new label, most likely with the same name though.

11/27/18: I glued the ceramic piece in place.

11/27/18: I spray painted the back of this except for the area around the label.

11/27/18: I started applying the fiber paste on the front. 

11/27/18: I spray painted the back. Now some painting needs to be done.

11/27/18: I got some canvas work done on Invisible Walls.

11/27/18: I got some canvas work done on The Last Weekend.

11/27/18: I did some fiber paste work.

11/28/18: Gesso work was done on Invisible Walls.

11/28/18: Gesso work was done on The Last Weekend.

11/28/18: I got some spray painting done on the sides.

11/29/18: I got molding paste work done on the back of Invisible Walls.

11/29/18: I got some molding paste work done on The Last Weekend.

11/29/18: fiber paste work was done on the sides of Invisible Walls.

11/29/18: I got some fiber paste work done on the sides of The Last Weekend.

11/30/18: I got some more fiber paste work done on Invisible Walls.

11/30/18: I got some more fiber paste work done on The Last Weekend. I didn't finished it yet though.