2016 Progress Report: November-Part 3

This week in November was a week where I was finishing up a lot of projects and taking of the smaller aspects of a project such as name label placements. With the non-ceramic work, there was still a little more to be done. With so much of this happening right before the show, I remember asking myself if I could ever have a show where everything is done well in advance.

11/22/16: This was probably one of the easier labels to do. Whenever I end up choosing a smaller font size, I end up using bolded type in order to make smaller words more readable.

11/22/16: This is one of those labels where I wasn't quite sure how the placement was going to work out. There's a lot of unused space. Usually, when I place these labels on a piece, I try to have the top of the label placed right by what I consider the fron of a piece.

11/22/16: I remember having problems with this label because I had put too much hot glue on one side when I had inserted the foamboard. I did get the label on there but I still looked a little off.

11/22/16: Whenever I put the light molding paste on one of these pices, it's always a tricky process. I don't want to cover the name label and I want to make enough room so I feel the letters on the label has breathing space, if that makes any sense. It doesn't always work out that way though.

11/22/16: With this label, there was plenty of room for everything. I put more light molding paste on the piece than what I needed because I wanted to have a solid surface when I eventually place felt on the bottom.

11/22/16: This is one of those examples of a name label where the letters should have been smaller. There's too much room that was taken up. The letters are too close to the molding paste.

11/22/16: Since the light molding paste dried, I was able to paint this. After the felt is glued on, I'll most likely need to paint over it again.

11/22/16: Even though a large portion of the bottom of this piece will be covered in felt, I still felt the need to paint everything. This way, everything will already be done when the felt is glued down and I won't have to try and arrange anything in any special way.

11/22/16: One good thing about using laminated labels is that if I get paint on it, I can wipe the paint off. On this one, the paint is dangerously close to the letters. Not much can be done about that though. As I said before, I should have made the type smaller.

11/23/16: This is the first of three pieces that were pit fired. There's more black than what I wanted, but I saw enough that I liked. I also figured I could make the black work somehow.

11/23/16: This is the second piece that was pit fired. I'm kind of liking what's going on here. I kind of wish I had more of that though.

11/23/16: This is the third piece that was pit fired. I ctually like the black on this piece because I felt there was an even amount of dark and light colors.

11/23/16: I managed to get the polishing work done. It's probably hard to tell by looking at this picture, but it does make a huge difference.

11/23/16: The polish definitely made a difference here.

11/23/16: The polishing also made a difference here, but I think it was a little less notible than on other pieces.

11/24/16: After a long wait, I'm finally working on this piece again. I'm using coarse pumice gel for the texturing. I'm starting with the back of the piece first. some parts are being left bare for label placement and felt placement.

11/24/16: The felt is in place. The touchups are done. The polymer gloss work is done. This piece is finally done.

11/24/16: This piece is also done.

11/24/16: This piece is done as well.

11/25/16: The first layer of texture work on the front is finished. With pumice gel, it usually takes two layers to get the desired result.

11/26/16: The wood pieces are in place, however, this is far from ready for hanging. Also, I managed to reattach the broken piece.

11/26/16: The wood piece here was placed almost in the middle. I'm hoping that would balance everything out so both the top and bottom hang evenly on the wall.

11/26/16: The wood piece here was placed almost in the middle. I'm hoping that would balance everything out so both the top and bottom hang evenly on the wall.

11/26/16: Placing the piece of foamboard on this was difficult.

11/26/16: Since the label space is bigger here, there wasn't as much of a problem placing the foamboard piece on here.

11/26/16: Like the first one, the small space made it difficult for foamboard placement.

11/26/16: The label is on there, almost perfectly.

11/26/16: The label is in place.

11/26/16: The label is on here with no problems.

11/26/16: The label is on here in the perfct spot.

11/26/16: Although it was difficult to do, a label was successfully made for this piece and was placed on here.

11/26/16: The second layer of pumice gel has been applied to this piece.

11/26/16: Light molding paste work is done.

11/26/16: Light molding paste work is done, although for some reason, I never took a picture of this piece with just the label.

11/26/16: Light molding paste work is done.

11/26/16: The molding paste work here is done. The wood is still somewhat exposed just so I know where it is.

11/26/16: The molding past work is done here. Like the other one, the wood here is slightly exposed.

11/26/16: Not much molding paste work ha to be done here. Still, it was necessary.

2016 Progress Report: November-Part 2

During this second week in November, I worked mostly on ceramic projects that were close to being finished since I knew by this point that the drawing-related projects that I was working on before would not be ready in time for the show at the end of the month. The saggar pieces had actually been fired toward the end of October but since I was on vacation at the time (aka dog-sitting), I could not be at the college to work on them. It was around this time when pressure started to build since I had roughly half a month to get everything ready.

11/15/16: Since I was out out for sometime, I wasn't able to open these right away. As always, I run water over these to see if I'll end up liking it or not since doing gives some indication of what these will look like after the polishing is done.

11/15/16: The tip of this had broken off during the time I was out. At least the bisque firing was done. It would eventually be repaired.

11/15/16: This piece survived the bisque firing. This was one of my favorite pieces so I'm glad it came out alright.

11/15/16: There is a crack in this one towards the bottom, but from what I could tell, it was not from the firing.

11/15/16: The glazing is done. Each the only problem is the broken piece is going to look different from the rest of of the piece, when it is fired in the raku kiln, but that is something I would have to deal with later.

11/15/16: The same glazes were applied to this piece. My hope is that the shape of the piece and the eventual location in the kiln will give it enough of a difference with the colors.

11/15/16: This one also uses the same glazes.

11/16/16: The polishing work is done. These piece look much better than they did the day before.

11/16/16: I've started the labeling process. As I mentioned many times in the past, this isn't always easy. With a piece like this, I often end up using my needle tool to hold the piece of foamboard in place while using the glue gun to glue the ends.

11/16/16: This piece was a little easier to work with. The placement was just right.

11/16/16: There was more gliue running off than what I wanted. This might cause problems as I continue to progress with this piece.

11/16/16: I was right. The tip did turn out differently than the rest of the piece. The overall glazing turned out okay, though it would need some work.

11/16/16: The glazing turned out okay here.

11/16/16: I think the glazing turned out better on here than the other two pieces.

11/19/16: Wood pieces are glued in place. Hanging hooks will eventually be placed here.

11/19/16: I positioned the wood piece in the middle in the hopes of having the top and bottom parts of the piece hang evenly on the wall.

11/19/16: This was a little tricky.

2016 Progress Report: November-Part 1

This is part 1 of the November posts. Since I had to prepare for my show, November was a very busy month for me. I have nearly 100 pictures and instead of having them all in one post, they're going to be divided up into several posts. Each post should represent one week during the month of November.

This first post focuses on three pieces, two of which would not be ready in time for the show. They are mixed media pieces that have had somewhat similar processes of development. The next post will focus more on ceramics.

11/5/16: After spending time on the deconstruction phase of P11, the reconstruction is well under way. It started a month earlier but it finally making more progress.

11/5/16: The back of this has also made a lot of progress, though it still looks a bit filthy from the mold that had developed through years of sitting in the back of the basement.

11/6/16: I normally don't like covering all the chicken wire until the drawing parts are finished, but in this case, I left some space where there will be some overlapping with the canvas. This was done because it makes it easier for me to transport the drawing wherever I need it without the the rest of the piece getting in the way.

11/6/16: The canvas work on the back is finished. The middle part where the disgusting mold was is still bare because the name label will eventually be placed here when the piece nears completion.

11/6/16: This project that I had been lowly working on throughout the year has been cleaned up a bit, at least on the back.

11/6/16: Construction started on this piece. This is going to be a wall piece. The ideas for this are somewhat based on the piece I finished earlier in the year called Eternal Light.

11/6/16: The Gesso work is done.

11/6/16: The chicken wire work is done on the front. The pointy parts were left undone deliberately. I wanted that exact shape to remain.

11/6/16: The chicken wire work on the back is done, although there is something I forgot...

11/6/16: The gesso work is done on the front.

11/6/16: The Gesso work on the back is finished.

11/7/16: Aside from working with the cavas pieces, I nesrly forgot the piece of wood in the back that I'm using for hanging the piece. I normally wouldn't forget something like this, but progress on this piece has been going at a faster pace than what I'm used to.

11/7/16: Canvas work on the front is finished.

11/7/16: Canvas work ia done on the back. Normally, the wood piece wouldn't stick out like that, but since it was placed there after most of everything was finished, I kind of had to do it that way.

11/8/16: The gesso work on the front is done.

11/8/16: The work on the back is done.

11/8/16: Molding paste has been placed on the back in order to smooth everything out and to add stability.

11/10/16: This is the drawing for P11, at least the start of it. Some proportions are still out of place, but I at least have a rough idea of what's going on here.

Upcoming Posts

November was an extremely busy month for me since I had to prepare for my show and everything. While December wasn't as busy, I had to deal with more personal matters. With that being said, here's what to expect within the upcoming month:

- The November Progress Report will be divided into four different posts since I have nearly 100 pictures from that month.

- A series of posts about shows I've had over the last few years.

- A review of 2016 with edited pictures of everything I've done throughout the year.

- A new list of upcoming projects for the new year.

- A possible sneak peak of new buttons of ceramic pieces that'll go on sale soon.

Just in case anyone was wondering, there will be no December 2016 Progress Report. After my show, I was busy with other things, but work on any unfinished projects had ceased for the remainder of the year and there are no new pictures beyond November.

That's pretty much it. My next post will hopefully be in a few days.