Studio Update: Week of 9/1 - 9/7/24

This was a pretty busy week for me. It wasn't busy in the typical studio mindset of making sure I push out work, but in a tying up loose ends sort of way. Over the weekend I drove to Bloomington to visit with an old roommate and celebrate a birthday. It was a super sweet visit. When I got back from the trip I needed to make sure everything was fully prepped and ready for my upcoming artist talk and lecture at Kennesaw State University. I had about 6 plates that I had dried to the decorating stage. I wanted to keep two blank plates to bring, and three with color already applied. two of those would be waxed already and one I would wax there. It was important to me to have plates to bring that were already at the next point in the process since a lot of making requires time in between to dry. I usually work in a long production line of 10-12 objects to decorate at a time so that things can dry before I get back to them. For the demo, I was picturing it happening kind of like one of those cooking shows where they pop the casserole in the oven and immediately take out a cooked one they prepped before. I am Martha Stewart, she is me, the plates are my casserole!!!!!

Once the plates were fully prepped, I loaded everything into damp boxes and packaged up some finished work to bring with me. I ran through my talk a couple more times, made some slight changes, discovered PNG files, and decided I was about as prepared as I could be. Before driving to GA, I also tied up some loose ends in the studio with other work that I have been making. The drive to GA was slightly more scary when I knew I was hauling around a bunch of greenware. Luckily I am a careful driver and I have never once experienced road rage!!!! I'm literally just a girl.

The artist talk and demo at KSU went super well! It made me feel super validated as an artist and I feel like I projected my experiences and knowledge well. I was worried about how authentic it would feel since I am a bit of an introvert around new people but I think my personality shined through. That was a big relief. As it turns out, I am much less of an introvert if I have a task or a purpose. The class was super sweet and receptive, and I think we all just had a really good night together. It was also just crazy to make things in that studio again, especially after my time at IUS. For reference, the IUS kiln room is about the size of the entire ceramic studio at KSU.

I'm ending this week in Georgia with plans to drive back to Indiana this weekend. I have a bunch of things I'm excited to make. I am almost busting at the seams with creative energy.

Image 1: I am doing a demo on my surface decoration techniques!

Image 2-4: One of the students sent me their super cool notes from the demo!

Image 5: another teaching action shot, courtesy of Jeff Campana