Last week of school!

Me and my student Amy. She took my class for one year and conquered wheel throwing.
 She is so talented!

These are 18"x18" and still need some sanding and stain. 

These boys are 3 ft x3 ft and also need some sanding and stain. I calculated that I will need to make 256 tiny bowls (as shown below) to cover just one of the big ones. I may need to call in some troupes to help. 

     It's the last week of school! We had finals today and I said "Goodbye" to numerous seniors. It is always a bitter sweet week. This year there was a group of seniors who ate lunch in my classroom every day... I will miss them. :-(  In art developments, the wood shop class brought over these beauties above for the project I am planning for Valentien Restaurant in the fall. I plan to attach these to them. I can't wait to see just one finished...

   

Last Week of School...almost.

At the end of the school year I have to play catch up on firing, unloading, glazing and refiring with the students. It has become a tradition to paint wine bottles in my class while we finish all the pottery firings. See previous posts here and here (the second link is my favorite) about the evolution of the painted wine bottles. This year though, the BMOA didn't do painted wine bottles for Winescapes so I got to paint on this little guy as an example for the students. It was actually really fun to paint a small (regular sized) wine bottle. I am giving this to another teacher as she donated some empty wine bottles to the class. She requested oranges, browns, yellows and earthy reds.  

If  you haven't read the children's story, "The Dot", you should. 

In the Works

Today I took work out of the kiln! My favorite kind of day. The vases below will be part of the exhibit this summer at The Younger Gallery entitled, "Playful Minds". The little pieces below them will be shown at Valentine Restaurant and Wine Bar in the Fall. I plan to make many pieces and mount them onto wood to hang on the wall. And the last photo is from our wedding 7 years ago; today is our anniversary. Off to dinner now!

Solar Eclipse May 20th

I knew the eclipse was going to happen today, but didn't think I would get to actually see it. I read about making something to fracture the light and so forth... but honestly I just couldn't get it together enough to make that happen (read lazy). But luckily our two huge trees in the front yard did the trick for us. Check out the eclipse on our house! I'm so glad I noticed it in the backyard and thought to run out front with my camera. 

Soup

     I've been toying around with an idea that I plan to work on all summer... I created these little porcelain pieces last night while watching "The Soup" with Chris and laughing... a lot. Watching The Soup is a guilty pleasure and last night we were both in the mood for it, it's really quite ridiculous.

     But back to the art work. I plan to fire and mount these pieces onto wood panels so they will be seen vertically just as you see them in the photos. I'm not sure if I want them to be in color or just simply white... I have some time to play around with the idea and these are definitely the first batch of prototypes.  Now I've got to order some wood panels to try out some stain... I've been doing a little research and found a company or two that I can order from for a nominal amount of money. I've got to figure out the best method to attached porcelain to wood... epoxy? That's my first inclination, but their might be a better way...