Studio Update: Week of 1/14/24 - 1/20/24

I'm not going to lie, I did not take a lot of pictures this week because it was pretty much 4 degrees most of the time and all my brain power went to trying to stay warm. My job's heat went out and the back studio space doesn't have heat. What's a GA girl to do. This week I finished up decorating some work for the upcoming valentines day sale and then finally got to work on some of my own things. I remixed some small batches of tera sigilata early in the week and then got to work on making templates for some slab built objects. I am building some contraptions to hold jars that I think will be really playful and fun to paint. I also threw on the wheel for the first time since I have been back and that felt so good. My new clay body has a lot of grog in it so that will take some getting used to. My hands are going to get a little cut up in the process but some free exfoliation never hurt anyone. I am experimenting with some jar forms that I can throw in one piece and then trim the lid in place, but I am realizing that I may have done it a little wrong on this first try. I did not create an indent for the trimmed lid to use as a flange when I was initially throwing the forms. I might be able to make the current forms work but I think the other way would be more streamlined. The new clay already feels way better than the dark clay body I was using before and I am thinking through a couple new decorating techniques including a faux mishima using wax resist. During class this week we spent time going over our semester plans with our peers and I left feeling very grateful for this community at IUS. It is truly a group of such amazing artists and I am so excited to see where everyone's artistic careers take them. Later this week it snowed and that took the rest of my brain cells.

Image 1: Working on some Tera Sig

Image 2: Batched out Tera Sig

Image 3: Slab building a form

Image 4: The lake by the studio was frozen over!!!

Image 5: more frozen lake