2018 Progress Report: June/July

Throughout June and July, I focused on the continued development of the work I was doing throughout the spring. I also started modifying some older unfinished projects with the intent of using them in conjunction with ceramic work later in the fall. In the last post, I mentioned some major changes that were taking place. Some of these projects are the major changes. Originally, I was going to start some brand new projects in the fall just like I did in the spring, but due to some financial difficulties I was having at the time, I decided to look at what older, unfinished could be modified instead. Some of these older projects that I am working on are not intended to be finished this year, however.

So that's what was happening throughout most of the summer. The next entry will be combining August and September. 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

6/29/18: I started working on this project for the first time in years. I covered up the drawings and molding paste work I had going on in the middle. The ceramic stucco that is painted in red will eventually be covered too. What interests me most about this piece is the overall shape and the potential it has. This also happens to be one of the pieces that I intend to do ceramic work on later in the fall.

6/30/18: Both the Bristol board and foam board pieces have been cut out.

6/30/18: The Bristol board has been glued in place. Canvas work has also been done on the outer parts of the piece.

6/30/18: I started covering the holes in the back using molding paste. It isn't the most ideal thing for me to do since it will add some unwanted weight to the final product. However, I also try to avoid leaving hollow parts of a project. I know it doesn't entirely make sense, but I feel leaving something hollow is a lazy design process. The only exception I have is with ceramics.

7/2/18: The back has been smoothed out for the most part. Also, more canvas work has been done.

7/5/18: All the canvas work that I want to do has been done. What I really needed were the shapes and textures.

7/5/18: A piece of foam board has been glued to the back. The title of this piece will eventually go here. Also, whenever I figure out which side of this piece is the top, bottom and sides, that will determine where the hump on the back will go. For those of you who haven't followed my past projects, I started adding a hump to my work back in 2015 in order to balance the piece I hang on a wall and make them stick out.

7/6/18: The development of P6 has continued after several years. Both the Bristol board piece and foam board piece have been created.

7/6/18: I started working on the back of P6 since I already know what shape I want the project to be in.

7/10/18: Chicken wire has been glued down.

7/10/18: I finally resumed work on P23 after about 6 years of no progress.

7/10/18: I started working on the back of P23.

7/11/18: Here's another project that hasn't made any progress in a long time. The continued development of this piece is going to be messy for a while.

7/11/18:I glued some foam board on the back to balance everything out. The canvas that  you're seeing was glued down years ago. My actual intention to to cover the back of this with one large piece of foam board.

2018 Progress Report: May

Throughout the month of May, I had worked on projects that I wasn't able to finish for my show. Technically, I was working on five projects this month, though it looks like a lot more. That's because these projects are still in pieces and in early stages of development. If you were to look at some of my posts from earlier this year, you would see the development process of my project Prison of the Mind and you'll get an idea of what's going on here.

I know the blog has been progressing slowly over the last few months. That should be changing soon. The reports for June and July will be combined into a single post since I didn't enough pictures for June to justify its own post. The fall season will be starting soon, meaning that I'm going to be very busy again. I had made major changes to my projects and scheduling and I should be talking about that soon enough. Also, since I should have a steady job again, I will be updating my Etsy store with new button designs and ceramic pieces.

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

5/1/18: I'm still in the early stages of my drawing on the top half of P13.

5/1/18: I'm still in the early stages of my drawing on the bottom half of P13.

5/4/18: The drawing part of P1 has made some progress.

5/7/18: I made the bristol board and foam board parts of P4. 

5/8/18: I'm doing a second firing for the ceramic part of P4.

5/8/18: I'm working on the back of P4, which is the foam board part. The cut-out Bristol board square is where a future name label will go while the additional pieces of foam board that have been glued down will help balance the piece on the wall when it is finished.

5/9/18: Chicken wire is being used over the foam board pieces to help further define the hump I'm trying to create. The wood has been glued down which will eventually be used for hanging hooks.

5/9/18: This is a big improvement.

5/14/18: I'm doing the same work on the back of P1 that I was doing on P4.

5/14/18: Chicken wire has been glued onto the wood in order to help further define the overall shape that I want.

5/15/18: Molding paste was used to glue the broken pieces back together. This is vital  for me to make the proper outlines with the Bristol board and foam board.

5/15/18: Molding Paste was used to glue everything back together.

5/15/18: Chicken wire work was done to P1.

5/16/18: The needed molding past as well, but I had  to wait for the molding paste on the front to dry.

5/16/18: This is the same process as the picture above.

2018 Progress Report: April

The month of April was all about getting my P2 project (later renamed Prison of the Mind) finished and ready for my show. Sadly, while the project did get done, I do not have any pictures of the final product to show at this time. I'll have to include it in a future post. A lot of long work hours went into that project despite it's small size. The process that involved drawing was tedious and took a really long time. In the end, I was happy with the final result. The upcoming May progress report will focus on the projects that didn't get finished in time for my show and the progression of those projects.

Just to let everyone know, now that the summer is here, I'm preparing to do more work on various unfinished projects as well as investing time into making new button designs. This work does require a major investment on my part. Though I am not begging, if anyone wants to support the development of these projects, feel free to donate to my Patreon.

https://www.patreon.com/Jon_Erich

4/2/18: I finally began my drawings. They are based on pictures taken of my left eye and my mouth.

4/3/18: The drawings have developed quite a bit since the previous day. This is the phase of the drawing that I always refer to as the rough phase. It is where the drawing is progressing to the point where I get an idea of what the final results might look like, but there are still too many rough spots to be considered finished.

4/10/18: I believe this was the last day before I started using the pastels. I was supposed to use pastels, but I forgot to bring them with me.

4/11/18: I finally started using the pastels. Notice how most of everything looks softer and brighter than it did before.

4/16/18: I made a soft black border using a combination of charcoal sticks and black pastels. Part of the reason for doing this is for the aesthetics while the more practical reason is because it tells me what will be in the middle of the ceramic piece I will end up laying over these drawings.

4/17/18: The two drawings are finally glued to the ceramic piece, though the work on the project is still far from done. 

4/17/18: This is the back of the ceramic piece where the two drawings were glued down. Though it is hard to see, notice each piece was marked as top and bottom. As I mentioned in a previous post, my original intention was to have it be piece sheet of bristolboard with two drawings. It would have made the gluing process less of a pain.

4/17/18: This is the piece of foam board that were be the back of Prison of the Mind. The wood piece where the hooks will hang has been glued down. The thicker piece of foam board are glued at the bottom so the piece will be balanced on the wall. The outline in the middle is where the printed label will go.

4/17/18: Bristolboard has been glued down in the middle since I prefer to glue the labels down on white backgrounds. Chicken wire covers the wood and bottom hump in order to give the piece a somewhat organic aesthetic.

4/20/18: The laminated label has been glued down.

4/20/18: Canvas now covers the back and sides of the piece.

4/22/18: The canvas has been gessoed.

4/23/18: Molding paste work was done on the back. The back had to be done prior to the sides so that the specific design-style on the side can be preserved.

4/24/18: The sides and inter parts of the piece are done.  Now I need to paint them.

4/25/18: The painting is done. It took a while and a combination of many types of acrylic and metallic paints  to make everything look consistent with the ceramic parts of the piece. This piece still isn't done. It still needs work and sadly, I do not have pictures of the final piece ready yet.

4/25/18: The back has been spray painted as a undercoat. The white square that remains around the labels in the result of the label being covered while I was spray painting. The white at the bottom is the result of the spray paint getting stuck to the table. Within the following two days, the back along with the rest of the piece will be finished.

2018 Progress Report: March

When we left off in February I had finished firing a few pieces in the raku kiln but some of those pieces didn't turn out right. During March, these pieces were fired again and the results were much better. I also finally started on some drawings. While there aren't too many March pictures, a lot was going on nonetheless. Even more will happen in April.

3/5/18: I'm using the same glazes as before.

3/5/18: I'm using the same glazes as before.

3/14/18: The results were much better this time around.

3/14/18: I'm happy with these results.

3/28/18: There are a lot of rough edges here, but I still managed to start a drawing on the top piece of P13 nonetheless.

3/28/18: I started the drawing on the bottom piece of P13.

3/28/18: This should have been one single piece of bristol board with two drawings, but I had to make it two drawings since I did not have enough Bristol board at the time to make one complete piece.