Summer is always a very busy time, being self sustainable I spend a lot of time in the garden and the growing dome. Always planting something, harvesting something or weeding something. I love it but it means most of my days are spent outside and not in the studio. But summer is over, it has been for a while here in the more northerly parts of British Columbia. The first hard Fall frost brings the death of the garden with it and it is always a double edged sword for me, one part is happy that gardening season is over, the other part is sad that the garden season is over.
Even though we are still getting some very warm days lately, summer is definitely over, and being creative has begun, although this time it is ceramics that have me in their grip. As a member of the Williams Lake Potters Guild I attend their Raku nights and gas firings and I am busy preparing pieces for those firings. I managed to buy a small Skutt kiln last December, it came in my Subaru Forester together with Bitsy the cat and part of Josh's drumset from Saskatoon in -35. I have done two bisque firings and one glaze firing in it so far. Right now I am working on getting another bisque load ready.
My preferred method of working with clay is handbuilding like pinching and coiling. I am intrigued by ceramicists working on large vessels or sculptures that are coiled, and it is my goal to be working large as well but for now I still need to learn all the do's and don'ts of pottery and that is just easier with little pieces. If a small piece cracks because I did not let it dry slow enough or the clay was too dry when joining or the join was not performed in the right manner, I don't mind if the small piece cracks.
Even though I could easily spend my days working with clay, I am also starting to prepare for my trip to Germany next week. I am grateful to have received a grant for professional development from the CCACS, the Cariboo Arts Council, and I am spending it on attending an abstract painting art workshop at the Academy of Arts in Kolbermoor, Bavaria. So, I am slowly shifting my brain from 3D clay to 2D painting again.
Even though we are still getting some very warm days lately, summer is definitely over, and being creative has begun, although this time it is ceramics that have me in their grip. As a member of the Williams Lake Potters Guild I attend their Raku nights and gas firings and I am busy preparing pieces for those firings. I managed to buy a small Skutt kiln last December, it came in my Subaru Forester together with Bitsy the cat and part of Josh's drumset from Saskatoon in -35. I have done two bisque firings and one glaze firing in it so far. Right now I am working on getting another bisque load ready.
My preferred method of working with clay is handbuilding like pinching and coiling. I am intrigued by ceramicists working on large vessels or sculptures that are coiled, and it is my goal to be working large as well but for now I still need to learn all the do's and don'ts of pottery and that is just easier with little pieces. If a small piece cracks because I did not let it dry slow enough or the clay was too dry when joining or the join was not performed in the right manner, I don't mind if the small piece cracks.
Even though I could easily spend my days working with clay, I am also starting to prepare for my trip to Germany next week. I am grateful to have received a grant for professional development from the CCACS, the Cariboo Arts Council, and I am spending it on attending an abstract painting art workshop at the Academy of Arts in Kolbermoor, Bavaria. So, I am slowly shifting my brain from 3D clay to 2D painting again.
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