SO :) These are two projects that I have been working on this week. I thew both of them last Friday, as you know from my previous post, but this week is where they have really come into shape. I carved flowers in reoccurring pattern onto the outside the wide bowl like project, and the little vase/cylinder I slipped and scored on two little handles and carved some 3-dimensional leaves into the outer surface. I really think these two projects help portray the lessons I am learning about art forms in ceramics and how to successfully create an ascetically pleasing piece of art. 

Made two more projects today :) and my other two mugs are being bisqued this weekend! Yay! Now I just have to figure out how I want to glaze them next week.. That's the really hard part!

AND I finally took photos of all my recently finished projects, you can check them out in my Gallery or on my Grading Blog, but I figured I'd put them up here as well, what the heck, why not? Hope you like 'em! :)

Hey! Oh my goodness today has been a good day :) so much stuff to talk about! First ceramics though. 

SO! Heres my mug!!! I finally finished carving it out and now I'm letting it dry along with my other mug with the mountain scape and hopefully they will get bisqued this week! My swirly cylinder I glazed purple and it came out of the glaze kiln today but I put it in for another firing because the color didn't turn out quite like I had hoped. Plus I finally got up the nerve to glaze my round mug today!! I glazed it so that the bottom half is white and the top half and inside are light blue turquoise and shadow green overlapped, I'm hoping it turns out like my large vase (that I have yet to put on my blog... I know, I know). Hopefully its out tomorrow!

Anyways! So now onto the good stuff! :) In class today...

when I was drawing the flowers onto my mug, at first I didn't really know what I was doing and just drew them in as linear lines, pretty but overall kind of dull. Then Ms. H came over to me and told me that I should really try and create 3-dimensional projects with 3D forms and designs on then and that that would really help bring my art to the next level...

SHE WAS RIGHT!! She showed me how to carve out the flowers with a loop tool and make them appear like they are coming off of the surface by pressing the clay around it down. It make the whole project look a million times better! I love it! 

Afterwards she and I got talking about art and some of the ways that art appeals to human senses and looks ascetically pleasing. Fratals. 

By definition: a curve or geometric figure, each part of which has thesame statistical character as the whole. Fractals areuseful in modeling structures (such as eroded coastlinesor snowflakes) in which similar patterns recur atprogressively smaller scales, and in describing partlyrandom or chaotic phenomena such as crystal growth, fluid turbulence, and galaxy formation.

Some examples of fractals are illustrated below in some pictures I found on the internet, I think its SO cool! The fact that these kinds of patterns and reoccurring shapes and images are instilled in nature and can be represented mathematically and graphically is just amazing! These kinds of pattern are instilled in human nature and is one of the underlying reasons why we find patterns to be ascetically pleasing - because these are the kinds of patterns we are accustomed to seeing all throughout our evolution as creatures on Earth! That's ridiculous! I think its just so amazing what life presents to you, stuff like this inspires me to want to research more about how art, science, math, and life are all interconnected. Really brings your life into perspective.. So cool... :)

I think I am going Mug Crazy, its official, I have made 5 mugs now, and have TONS of ideas for even more! What can I say? I love mugs! This one above is really cool, I'm pretty proud of it - if I do say so myself :) It was the one that the lip broke and I had to carve the lip up, so it definitely doesn't look like the typical mug shape, but I really like it. It will end up being more of an artistic piece rather than an actual functioning drinking mug. It has a carved nature, mountain-esce scene on its outer surface which includes mountain ranges, trees, small ferns, and a flowing river :) I'm so proud of it! Its finished and drying in my locker, I still need to finish the other mug I have going, as well as glaze the round mug. Then I'll be back at making wheel projects!

Look how tiny these are!!! 

http://www.brealityrox.com/pottery-gallery.html

Check out this link, the stuff she makes is ridiculously small! I want to try and make something like these! And here are a bunch of other images of ceramics stuff and images I like :)

Hey everybody! SO... I'm making two mugs right now, this one is my favorite though of the two. Its smaller and much prettier, the shape is better than the other one. As you can see I have footed; pulled. scored, slipped, and attached a handle; and now I am adding small "accessories" such as the two overlapping leaves (as seen in the picture) and I am going to add a flower on the right side of the handle too. The other mug has a ragged lip because it broke :( but I was able to save it and turn it into a pretty cool looking mug, I think I'm going to carve a mount scape into it, it would look pretty neat then I think.. We'll see. My other mug and caved cylinder are in the bisque and should be out tomorrow too! 

Hey! Its May! :) Hopefully we will finally get some sun this month!!

Anyways - The two cylinders (the middle and far right one) are two projects I threw on Friday and bagged them for next week. I am hoping to make them both into mugs :) I might give the far right one to my mother for Mother's Day, maybe engrave her name in it or something.. Not sure yet, but we'll see. The middle one I might make for my dad, he deserves a nice big, sturdy mug for his soups and coffee! The one on the far left was the cylinder that I made last week and it was too dry to make into a mug so I was able to foot it and carve some cool little designs and shapes into its surface, and I carved out the lip to make interesting form. I'm hoping the grooves on the outside are deep enough for me to have the glaze only appear in the grooves and then do a clear over the whole thing. not sure what color yet thought. That cylinder and my round mug are drying and are going to be bisqued next week. Two other mugs are in the glaze kiln and should be out on Monday! YAY 

This is by far my favorite project I have made! I LOVE IT! Attached the handle today and its bagged with some wet clay for tonight before drying and heading into the bisque! I also footed that tall cylinder today, but it dried so much last night that I can't attach a handle anymore, so I guess I'll just be turning it into a vase or something, who knows.

I LOVE THIS MUG! 

I threw it on Monday and footed it today and pulled a handle for it. Hoping to slip and score the handle on tomorrow. I love this project so much! Its actually thick for once, since usually I make projects really thin, but this one is nice and thick and has some good weight to it. It's going to be a perfect mug! :) I'm super proud of it! 

The cylinder I threw Friday was WAY to wet to foot yesterday and even today still, odd.. Ill try footing it tomorrow and making a handle for that one two. Plus! That vase came out yesterday! The big one I finally got around to glazing. It gorgeous! I'll post pictures soon. I love it! Hope you do too! :)

I finally made something!! Yay!! :)

This is a tall cylinder that I made on Friday and I am planning on turning it into a tall mug. I'll foot it and pull, slip, and score the handle on Monday. 
Also! The projects that I had put in on Thursday didn't get fired by Friday so unfortunately they wont be out until tomorrow. Hopefully they'll turn out nice though! Fingers Crossed!