Studio Update Week 8

This week started off with me doing a demonstration on my building technique- slump molds using a heat rod and insulation board. I personally love to build this way because it gives me a lot of control over my forms and it can be modified endlessly depending on your needs. Monday night we did a Hokus- Makus ( a hokus pokus 1 and 2 make-a-thon) in the studio to prepare for an upcoming sale. We ordered pizza, brought snacks, and just had a good time. On Wednesday, I had an in progress critique on my work and it was pretty helpful. I always struggle with the final finish on my work- more specifically glazing it. I love the look of my engobes on the bare clay but after it's fully fired it tends to feel unfinished. I think I miss the dewyness of the wet clay. A couple things that were suggested was to do a light spray of clear glaze over the pieces ( think a spritz of perfume and you walk through it just to get a little something). Doing this might give just a little shine to the piece and possibly recreate that dewyness to some extent. Another possible option is to do a cone 6 residual soda firing, where I don't spray any soda in the kiln and just allow whatever is already coated on the bricks to give a hint of shimmer. I will try both options out and go from there. Wednesday I loaded my big bee cup set into the kiln and it was a bit awkward and too heavy to do by myself so I had some sudio mates help me. At one point I thought it may be best to move the piece off the shrink slab and kiln shelf so that we could lower them into the kiln separatly since it was proving to be kind of difficult to do all together. The piece was tall and so it needed to go into the bottom of the kiln to fit. I should not have moved the piece but it seemed like the best option at the time, and it ended up breaking down the middle, which led to a little crying session in the kiln room *woop woop*. Honestly, things breaking sometimes is the way it goes with ceramics and you learn to not hold any piece too dear, it's fine I will probably use the piece as a tester in the residual soda. This time of year just holds some unfortunate dates and can be a little rough to manage at times and Wednesday just so happened to be one of those dates. Anyways am I really a *Cancer* if I don't cry in the kiln room here and there? Maybe I'll make a mug about it, haha. Talking about mugs, I have really really enjoyed making mugs again. I feel like you can tell a story just as well through a mug as you can in one of the bigger pieces. I also am planning on making a mug regarding my experience as breakfast server on a Sunday morning. I'm thinking that there will be a group of 11 trying to get a seat and they will say " seat us now or we will commit war crimes". For some reason I picture them as little penguins trying to eat in a fancy igloo. I don't know, something to think about.

Image 1: Demonstration of slump molds

Image 2: Hokus- Makus make-a-thon

Image 3: a piece I finished this week waiting to dry