Studio Update: Week 5

This week I finished up some smaller pieces. I am made a small hanging cup set as well as an arched candle holder. I also 3d printed some tools to use in my ceramic practice. I really needed a long scoring and smoothing tool that will reach the back edge of larger pieces because my arm is never quite small enough/long enough. What resulted from this need? A 4 foot stick of death!!! Basically I 3d printed attachments to glue on the ends of a wooden dowel. One end has a smoothing attachment and the other end has rows and rows of nails glued on it, definitely a hazard, but a useful hazard.. which is all anyone can really ask for I guess. I started working on another bigger piece and I opened up the brown bear clay I got from Kentucky Mudworks, and wow.. this clay is everything I ever wanted. It is so rich and dark, it feels amazing to throw/build with and I am super excited to see how my engobes fair on it. Lately I have been having quite the mental dilemma with my work. The pieces I'm making feel more and more about how shapes and forms intersect and adding "paintings" with my engobes feels more and more unnecessary. It feels like adding an identifiable image on the pieces make them about something they are not and the beauty of the form is lost. So.... I don't really know what to do about that yet, surface decoration has been a big part of my ceramic practice and something I have deemed essential for fulfilling my artistic needs. Maybe I can save the decoration for stand alone mugs or maybe I can be select about what I add to my pieces. Either way, my intentions for my work are changing and I'm just over here trying to figure out why and what it means.

Image 1: Candle holder in progress

Image 2: New cup set in progress with Brown Bear clay

Image 3: putting together the stick of death

Image 4: Stick of death- the scary side

Image 5: Stick of death- the smooth side