2015 Progress Report: February

In February, I finished up my mixed media work and moved on to ceramics. During this time, I also had a show but I'll talk more about that in a different post. For now, enjoy these pictures.

2/1/15: The bottom of P2 was spray painted. This was done outside during the day so it's easier to see everything.

2/1/15: P2 sitting upright after the spray painting work is done.

2/1/15: The bottom of P15 after the spray painting work.

2/1/15: P15 standing upright after the spray paint work is done. At first, I thought this piece wasn't going to turn out very good. It wasn't until the spray painting was done thatI foun out that the glass bead texture actually would work out just the way I wanted it to.

2/2/15: The name label is in place for what is now known as Stone Cold. Usually, when I make these, the labels themselves are done on a computer, then printed out. Up until recently, my methord was to use rubber cement to glue the label onto a tick pieces of bristolboard which itself has hot glued onto the bottom of the piece. Soft molding paste is used around the edges because it dires quickly. I miscalculated the sizes of these name labels and as a result, my name does not appear on this or the other two pieces I was working on at the time. I should also mention that as of this year, I switched the typeface on my labels from Nosferatu to Crimson Text, the same typeface I use on my blog.

2/2/15: The label is in place for what is now known as The New Dawn.

2/2/15: The label is now in place for what is now known as Dissonance.

2/2/15: Stone Cold in it's final form. The final colors used were a mixture of black and white. Silver metallic paint was applied using a palette knife. My only problem with this piece is that the polymer gloss I used dried too quickly and it shows. Some people like the effect it created. I didn't.

2/2/15: The painting is done and the felt is in place.

2/2/15: The New Dawn in it's final form. The different colors and four holes are supposed to represent the changing seasons.

2/2/15: The painting is done and the felt is in place. One thing that continues to be a pain in the ass after these projects are done are the stubborn strings of hot glue that remain. I try to get rid of them and always end up finding more of them.

2/2/15: The painting and felt work is finished. This one was a little tricky.

2/2/15: Dissonance in it's final form. Out of all three of them, the form on this one is not my favorite, but the texture and usage of glass beads are. Everything looks even better with the usage of polymer gloss.

2/11/15: I guess this is technically the first clay project I started in 2015 but it wouldn't be the first one that I finished. Starting where I left off in 2013, I've come to rely on the usage of negative space for my ceramic pieces which explains the large hollow area. The smaller hallow area is for the eventual name label placement. For right now, we'll refer to this as the square project.

2/11/15: The bottom of the square project. With future name label placement, I tend to do an inverted cut because it allows to use that same piece of clay to seal the top. It saves me time from having t create a whole new piece just for that purpose. Although it's not pictured here at this stage in the project, it must be pointed out that I usually tend to give my word rounded edges. The ends here are still very flat.

2/11/15: This is the second clay project I started but it was finished before the first one. We'll refer to this one as the circle project, even though it ended up being more oval-shaped.

2/11/15: You can see some of the rounded edging here. You can also see the removed piece of clay that would eventually be used to close off the name label area.

2/11/15: The square project is nice and rounded and is ready to go for further development.

2/11/15: The bottom of the square project is nice and smooth. You'll notice the holes by the name label area. This give the two joining piece breathing room in order to prevent air from being trapped inside during the eventual firing process. Trapped air inside a shrinking form can casue the piece to explode.

2/11/15: The circle project is now ready for further development.

2/11/15: The finished bottom of the circle piece.

2/11/15: Here we have the third project which for now, will be referred to as the triangle project. I must point out now that this was the first attempt at this project. Early on in development, this piece broke beyond repair and I had to restart it.

2/11/15: The bottom of the triangle project.

2/18/15: The circle project is coming further along. The textures for the bottom part have been completed. The major problem I had was that the project wasn't sealed well enough and the clay that I'm using seems to dry faster than the college's clay that I'm used to using. This is both a good and bad thing. It's good because it means I can build projects faster but it's not good if I'm not careful about giving it enough water or keeping it airtight for a week.

2/18/15: With most of the projects that I worked on between February and May, they usually started out with slabs and were hollow on the inside in order to reduce the weight of the piece. As they got higher and the pieces got smaller, I had to use coils, which would normally be heavier but the weight evened out since the coils were small. Since each piece was based around a shape or a number of angles, each of the slabs/coils were also based around that. These pieces here were made from four sides.

2/18/15: The triangle project is starting to come along at this point. Sadly, it won't progress much further than this.

2/25/15: As I said earlier, the circle project wasn't the first project I started but it was the first completed project. As with the other project I would be working on for the next few months, I tried to incorporate multiple textures. At this point, it's ready to be fired.

2/25/15: The square project is slowly coming along. The complicating part is applying the texture to parts that are hard to see and are hard to get to with my needle tool.