August was a strange month. I was making progress at the beginning of the month and after a few days, nothing really happened until September. This is why this monthly report has August and September combined. Things really started to pick up in September after the college semester started and I had access to the studio. Also, I got a date for my next show which isn't until December. That gave me an idea of what to focus on. What was interesting was my latest work with clay. With my project from the spring (several of which I'm still working on), I started everything from scratch. With the projects that I was working on later in the year, they weren't started from scratch. They were older, unfinished projects that were modified into my latest projects. While I have integrated clay into my mixed media work in the past, I have not done it to the extent that you'll see in these pictures. If this process works out, that could revolutionize how my projects are made in the future. I could rely less on my acrylic mediums and more on clay which is more cost efficient. This could allow me to make replicas of my projects and sell them for a somewhat affordable price. We'll have to wait and see though.
I should take this opportunity to talk about future posts. We're now into November and I got a lot of pictures to show off. Because of that, the October Report will most likely be divided up by weeks. Also, the Weekly Reports should be making a comeback this month. They have been absent throughout the year and that's a shame because a lot happens that can't be explained in the monthly reports. The reason the weekly reports disappeared was because I had spent much of the year without a job and because of that, I wasn't as devoted to the blog as I was last year. Hopefully, some other surprises should be coming along soon enough.
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.
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| 8/1/18: To see how this older piece has progressed, look at the last two picture of the previous post. In this picture, the new back of the piece has been glued on using thin foam board. For a while, I was debating on wether this should be the front. |
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| 8/6/18: I finally made the foam board piece and the Bristol board piece for P5. |
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| 8/6/18: I finally made the foam board piece and the Bristol board piece for P9. |
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| 9/4/18: The wood piece and balance bump for P23 has been added to the back. |
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| 9/4/18: I wrapped canvas around the edges of P6 in order to prepare for the clay work. |
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| 9/4/18: I wrapped canvas around the edges of P6 in order to prepare for the clay work. |
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| 9/5/18: I used one coat of gesso on the back since that was all was necessary for the time being. The canvas will be durable enough for the clay. I will finish the gesso work at a later time. It is also worth mentioning that you're not seeing the front since the gesso work had been done on that long ago. |
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| 9/5/18: The front of P23 has one layer of gesso for the same reasons I mentioned with P6. |
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| 9/5/18: The back edges of P23 has had gesso work done to it. The rest of it will be finished later on. |
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| 9/10/18: I finally started doing the clay work for P23. To understand what I'm doing, the clay will not stay on here. It will come off, get bisque fired, glazed with raku glazes and fired again. After that, they will go back on here. In order for the pieces to east to peel off when they dry, I'm working with quarter inch slabs that are damp enough to work with but I don't use any water while working with them. |
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| 9/11/18: The pieces came off successfully. I kind of mapped out where they were on the canvas, though I think I could have done better with that and I did later on. |
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| 9/12/18: This is the same process as P23. |
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| 9/17/18: Everything came off almost intact. As you can se toward the bottom, one piece had a break. |
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| 9/17/18: The bisque firing has been done. I stuck the pieces back on the make sure they still fit since clay shrinks by 12% when it is bisque fired. |
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| 9/18/18: P8 is a project that has been in development on and off since 2006. This is the latest stage of development. If you're wondering why not all the clay parts are attached, it is because those pieces dried enough to where they won't stay attached. |
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| 9/18/18: This will actually be the new bottom for P6. Unlike the other slabs, this is a half and inch think instead of a quarter inch. The clay is thicker in order to maintain durability and to help balance a piece that will now contain clay slabs and eventually other things. |
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| 9/24/18: The squeeze firing was done. The pieces fit just fine. |
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| 9/24/18: I did some gesso work on P13. Many longtime followers of my blog should be familiar with this piece. Every time there's a show around the corner, I always try to have this piece done and it doesn't get done. We'll see if this time is any different. |
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| 9/25/18: The clay slabs are much larger here since P13 is thick on the sides.This will be rather challenging to remove these pieces intact. |
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| 9/25/18: I'm slowly getting this done. I won't be able to do it all in a single day. |
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| 9/25/18I have to have part of the piece sitting up on something while working on the slabs. |
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| 9/27/18: The bisque firing is done and these pieces fit on here for the most part. There is some curving that happened during the firing and some slight modifications will have to be made. |
