I absolutely hate the last week of wet clay. I always just feel as though my world is crumbling around me. What will I constantly think about when ceramics is over? What will I do with my life? How will I express myself? I just fall into this depressed yet frantic state because I'm so sad but I don't want to waste any more time. So yeah, I didn't even waste time taking pictures this week. I just threw and threw and threw. Last day is on Monday. I think I'll probably cry.
In case you're not familiar with the cartoons of today's age, this is adventure time. It's a surrealist show that airs on cartoon network that is enjoyed by kids of all ages. This week, I wanted to memorialize my love for adventure time by making this mug and this bowl with three of the main characters. To do this, I had to practice cutting out the clay and carving into it freehand (it was really difficult) and then attaching them. I have had some problems in the past with things breaking off after they've been bisqued, but this time I made sure they were pressed on super well and I smoothed out all of the edges.
This week I broke out the lace that's been hanging in my locker for months without being used. First I did a simple technique where I pressed the lace onto the bisque-ware and used the barbecue brushes to dab the glaze on and then when it dried I pealed it off (top left photo). It worked so well but then I had to put clear glaze on top of it and it sort of expanded a little bit when it got fired (bottom left). Which was ok, because it still turned out really well. Then I tried again with the light purple glaze (top right) but this time I put clear on first and then did the lace part but I didn't wait for it to dry so it didn't stay as clear cut as the first one. I decided that for attempt three I would combine the things that worked on the first two so I put clear over it first, then I pressed the lace on it and glazed it and waited for it to dry before pealing the lace off. It comes out of the glaze kiln on Monday so we shall see how it goes! It was really nice to experiment with this sort of thing this week. It felt like I was doing science or something, perfecting a technique while making cool ceramics stuff! So fun :D So two important things happened this week. First off we are starting to use sea mix again which makes me so happy because all the recycled porcelain sucks, red clay is too hard to make big stuff with, and normal clay is just so normal! But the less ceramics related but probably more important fact is that AP tests start next week and so literally every free second of my life is spent with review books and practice problems and I know that the world doesn't depend on how I do on these tests but it feels that way. Anyways this has meant that my brain has been on overdrive and ceramics has (like always) been my escape. I haven't done the elaborate designs like I planned last week because throwing is just so peaceful. But yeah that's been my week. Stress, stress, stress, then an hour of break. But I forgot to take pictures so you must wait until next week. But there's lots of new posts on the graded page! Whoopie!
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