Big day tomorrow...

HUGE.

 

Thesis (The Final Countdown)

From top to bottom: Plans for a soda fire wall piece. | A very productive night in the studio. | Taking my work home with me for an all nighter. | First time playing with washes. | Beautiful test tiles! | Ordering some postcards for friends and family. | Finished small pieces!

Now to string them up and cover them in hair.  T-minus 8 days until install!

Thesis (in Progress)

From top to bottom: The beginning stages of research in the home studio. | Getting my hands on clay after a long summer - such a wonderful feeling! | A rare, cool September morning in the warehouse. | Plans for installation. | Plans on plans on plans. | Where all my money goes. | A nest is born. | Ready for the first firing! | Ghetto transport between studio and school. | Experimenting with some terra cotta. | A much needed happy hour with my best friend. | The first look at the clay and hair textures together.

Drawing to a Close

Here is what I have been working on for the majority of the semester in my internship with my ceramics professor, Holly Hanessian.  It is a catalogue of her works that we have been sending out to museums all across the United States.  

We worked on the complete package, including envelopes, stickers, mailing labels, and miniature business cards.  We had the book bound with a local printer and worked collaboratively on the layout.

 

Holly is so great. Please check out her work at www.hollyhanessian.com.

Schism

Here is another assignment for Pamela's class.  This was for the mixed media assignment, in which we were challenged to create a piece that was 50% ceramic, 50% mixed media. 

I have had this idea in my head for a while.  I picked up a Home Economics handbook from Good Cents that was from the 1950's, and with Mad Men always on my Netflix queue, I have had the idea of women's roles and the schism between the public and private spheres stuck in my head.  While flipping through the handbook, I was really interested in the words that they used to describe household chores and what they mean when taken out of context- rules, separate, beat, method... I took these words, along with others, and wanted to put them inside an icon of female craft- the embroidery hoop- and recreate the idea of sewing.

Originally, I was going to have all ceramic circles within the hoops, but I found that incorporating fabrics with traditional, soft patterns would compliment the ceramic slabs, which were worked to have a very subtle lace texture through acrylic paint.  I took the idea of female identity to the next level by incorporating the hair of myself and loved ones, as well as synthetic hair in slabs which needed a hefty amount of hair.

A detail with the braided hair of my sister and myself.

Human hair, thread, fabric.

Synthetic hair and fabric.

Thread and synthetic hair.

The hoops are 4.25" in diameter and 12.5" in diameter.

White earthenware, fabric, embroidery hoops, thread, synthetic hair, human hair.

Damaged Goods

 

White earthenware (press molds and slip casting) and sand, 2012.

A progression through time, a lifelong struggle.

Inside

Inside, 2012.

White earthenware fired to cone 04 and pine needles.  Installed in the forest around Silver Lake in Tallahassee, where the pine needles were collected from.

Going back to where you came from.

A strange happening in the woods.

What is growing?

Inside

Inside, 2012. Pine needles, twine, glazed white earthenware fired to cone 04.

Never going near a pine needle again. So many scratches.

Damaged Goods

Current project in its greenware state.

Artigras

 For the past two weeks, my class has been working to create wonderful animal costumes/puppets for the annual Artigras parade in Railroad Square.  Unfortunately I couldn't go, but I am still so proud of my fox head.

Thirsty?

This is a new project that I have started in Pamela's class.  I am casting beer bottles... I don't think I want to go into the meaning so much yet, because this is really a piece that will be about process.

Here is the making of the worst mold on the planet.

This was my first slip cast ever! I can't use it because there is so much plaster on it and of course it did not come out in one piece... but it's still awesome to see a pretty much exact replica of something that you created yourself! 

Keeping this for sentimental value because I am weird.