This is my extra hip mug. It is both extra credit, and just exceptionally hip. I wanted to make a nice gift for my friends Madelyn who compliments my ceramics projects every single time I bring one to class with me (which is frequently, as you can assume). She's a very hip person so I wanted a mug that would be as hip as she is. I came up with the idea for the glaze idea after I had such success with my last vase (bellow) with using the tape to segregate areas of glaze and I hadn't used my pattern stamps in a long time so I combined the ideas to create this look. I feel like the mood of this mug is classy but with like a funky twist. It has a pattern, but it's still random. The lines are clean and yet unfocused. It's a bit contradictory but I think it says a lot about Madelyn and works really well for her.
This is my first attempt to use lace to glaze a project. I pressed the lace to the surface of the project while I then dabbed glaze onto it with the barbecue brushes, making sure that it didn't get bumped in the process. Then I waited for it to dry and pulled it off. On my weekly page you can see what the glaze looked like before it was fired but even though it blurred a lot, I still really like the way it turned out. The dark color against the white of the sea mix creates a powerful impression and the blotchy shape of the glaze makes a confused and dramatic image. I like thinking that when people look at it they will be able to tell that there's a pattern but won't be able to tell what it is! That's so cool. I feel mysterious. You can't really tell from this picture but this vase is actually really well made too. I pulled up the maximum amount of clay from the bottom and I've mastered the downward pull to even out the sides. I'm very happy with this vase and we shall see how the second and third attempts with lace turn out. I don't really know what to call this but I LOVE IT SO MUCH. I know I'm supposed to be getting away from just carving into the clay but I think that if I carve into it with this much detail it should be allowed. This was the second porcelain project that I brought home to carve as a break from AP studying. It has a sort of friendly but relaxed mood. The design is supposed to be complex and catch the eye but my use of blues here is intended to make the project seem chill and calm. I've been playing with this shape a lot lately too and I really like it. The way the clay itself has a sharp edge to it (the lip). I don't do that with many projects but I like the way this one turned out so I'll probably try it again sometime. This is an extra mug that I made. The fun story around this mug is that during the craziness of AP week I just wanted to be able to do ceramics in between hours of studying but since I didn't have a ceramics wheel, I decided to bring home a couple porcelain projects and some tools so that I could just carve out some designs to relax my mind. I love how this mug turned out. The metallic brown glaze separated into its components when it was fired so some of it looks irony red and some of it is greenish like copper. The feeling of this mug is supposed to be very resigned. There's strong lines, lots of contrast and a combination of abstract and shapes. I like the way the dark colors look on the porcelain. It makes the whole piece stand out. This is one of my favorite designs that I've done yet. I LOVE this set of 2. I just came up with this idea out of no where and I love Fire and Ice by Robert Frost, I've had it memorized since 4th grade, and I just felt like making these two projects together and they turned out so well! As you can see they both have the same type of design but with the fire one having curved lines, circles and squiggles, whereas the ice one has jagged edges, lightening bolts and squares. The words "Some say the world will end in fire" are written in cursive on the fire one (the first line of the poem) and the words "But for destruction ice is also great and would suffice" are written in block letters on the ice one (the last lines of the poem). I love the duality, and how they fit together but are exact opposites. I love how the colors and text and words are opposite but they work so well. Duality. This project doesn't really have anything to do with my theme and isn't very typical of my other ceramics projects but I just wanted to make something functional with a joke on it that makes me happy when I see it. I love this mug, I made tea in it just yesterday :) It has a cynical mood due to the quote "Should I kill myself or have a cup of coffee?" But also a cool exterior with the colors and pattern of X's. I like that I can take a break from all the super complex, technically challenging projects to just make a cup with a joke. This is my lidded project! It's made of porcelain and I used a ball tool to create a nice pattern of dots which when fired created an effect where the bottom glaze (in this case white) bubbled to the top when it was glazed and created this legit faded, blobby, dotted look. I feel like the mood of this piece is almost spiritual? That sounds really arrogant (my projects make people see God), but in all honesty this project makes me think of when you stare up at the stars on a really clear night but you start to get tired and they all fade together in beautiful swirls and blurry lights. It's a serene mood. A calm sense of safety. And I'm excited I found out about this technique, now I can use it on more projects! This is an extra porcelain bowl! The design wasn't really intentional....I shall explain. This bowl was extremely frustrating. I wasn't really happy with the way it turned out in general (it's really thick, I footed it poorly, etc). And then when I went to glaze it the blue/grey glaze I like was SUPER thick. I didn't really care until it started chipping off which is when I got REALLY annoyed, took a carving tool and scratched all the chipping sections off. And then I put clear in the cracks and voila. I think the mood of this piece is sort of numbing. When I look at it I think of storm clouds and tiredness. Maybe when I look at it I still see all the frustration I went through, but it's funny that that frustration somewhat translated into the art. I think that's both amazing and completely obvious. This is my choice project! It's a large cylinder with a pretty flower carved into it that I gave to Mrs. Lucking because she is always so nice to me and loves my ceramics projects when I bring them into her class. I think this project conveys a happy but classy tone (I know, how can a tone be classy? I shall explain). I was really thinking about lucking when I made this so I tried to convey the way she is with her beautiful and posed exterior but with a snarky brilliance on the inside. This is flowy and flowery on the outside, but really, if you think about it, any of my designs are just lines and dots! And yet I've somehow been able to take something so simple and made it look complicated. That is Lucking to me. And so I made her a cylinder to match. This is an extra bowl I made! It has a really weird pattern because I was bored one day and just decided to get weird. This bowl is 8 inches across and 6 inches tall. The main art element it uses is texture but I also tried some dark/light contrast with the glazing. I also thought the splotchy rubbing off of the green glaze would add to the texture from the carving. I think this bowl represents a calm mood because to me, the green reminds me of moss and the outdoors and looking at it, I feel just as happy as I might be sitting in a field on a sunny day. I gave this bowl to Maile so she can use it in college and think of me :) |
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