Today Juana and I were finally able to get back over to Brenda's house to play with clay. Between wintry weather, various seasonal illnesses, and deadlines dictating we finish our other projects first it has been about a month since our initial clay play/work session with Brenda. In our absence she graciously took on the role of Keeper of the Clay and tended to our early pieces to make sure they didn't dry out or get wrecked. THANK YOU, Brenda!
Brenda stirring some glaze.
Juana working on her stuff.
Brenda has two very sweet and very energetic dogs. The larger one is Ginger and the smaller one is Rocky. They are not related, although they really look to me like they could be.
Ginger likes to walk between the chairs by going under the table.
Ginger coming out from under the table on the other side.
Rocky is quite a character. I never realized this fact until I was taking photos and Brenda mentioned it: Rocky's head is rarely not in motion.This really cracked me up. His body can be nice and still, but his head IS constantly in motion.
I tricked Rocky to be still in this photo -- I was holding a ball on top of the camera...he gets really fixated on his ball...LOL
There he goes again...body is still, head is in motion.
LOL -- one more pic of the dogs...guess which one is Rocky.
One of my clay projects will be an Art-o-mat series. I want to make something relatively simple in form and shape but that has several steps in the process of making it. I think these little shapes are going to be creatures. I love underglazes and I really love sgraffito. I want to try and make little creatures using both techniques. I don't know yet whether they will be separate series or some of each in the same series...that is a ways down the road yet.
Quite different from my intense dislike of painting, I really enjoy all of the process involved in underglazing. Layering on of colors and firing in between...using the underglazes like watercolors and building up the colors and shades...and never knowing for sure how it will turn out until it comes out of the kiln. Yeah, you do know a bit more in advance how it will turn out with underglazes versus regular glazes (that often don't even look like the color they start out as) but there is still an element of the depth and intensity of the underglaze colors as the layers build up after firing and after the clear coat.
The very beginning stages of my clay Art-o-mat idea. I will need to submit a ready-to-vend prototype first.
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