Architectural Ceramics

No time to write a proper entry as I am trying to force myself to go to bed in liu of having to open the bakery tomorrow morning, but just wanted to quickly post this announcement for an upcoming group show. Vestigial Organs will travel to Warren, RI the day after South Boston Open Studios for Mudstone Studios‘ Architectural Ceramics show.  So if you can’t make it to the show here in Boston, catch it in Rhode Island instead!  It will be up until December 2nd so you’ll have plenty of time and no excuses…

Show Announcement

Production Mode

Last week was my first full week of production mode–woohoo!  Production mode is always my favorite part of any project–you get to just do it, machine style, without thinking anymore, whatever “it” may be.  The thought process part is over (or at least stalled for a while–I’ll probably have to think again when it comes time to actually install) and I get to just make stuff!  Freely!  I have to say it feels pretty awesome to just blast through casting, although I’m also going through the slip really fast!  I ordered a new 5 gallon bucket the previous week and it’s already 3/4 empty!  Thankfully that was the last bucket I’ll need to purchase–from now on I’ll either make slip out of the studio porcelain clay body by adding defloculant or make my own casting slip from scratch.  It’s great to have 2 buckets though, because I can cast that much faster.  I’ve managed to figure out a really nice rhythm of casting 4 molds at a time (I only have 4 mold straps and 8 molds) and then switching to cleaning up the last set of 4 while the new set dries in the mold.  It’s going great so far!  See for yourself!

beautiful porcelain casting slip

molds all lined up, waiting for slip

Yay production mode! This sort of represents 1 8hr. day of work

fresh casts in the newest molds, including the six parter!

these guys were fresh out of a bisque kiln, ready for the reduction kiln

the previous days' casts, mostly dry and ready for the bisque kiln

the hotbox is one of the best tools ever! helps dry out the molds during and after casts, as well as the casts themselves--totally speeds up the process, especially given the summer humidity

opening the bisque kiln and finding teeth mixed in with the pots

Post Show & Sale Post

OK, so I lied about getting all caught up on the blogging while visiting my family and friends in Virginia…  In fact, I didn’t even manage to do much of anything AFTER returning from Virginia…  What can I say, I’ve been lazy, unmotivated and uninspired for nearly a month… but now I’m back!!

So lets jump right in with some photos from the Show & Sale…

I chose to do the least you can do: share a bank of shelves with another person

My top shelf was all the framed pieces from Post-Processualism and the middle shelf all teeth

The night before, I experimented with watercolor and wax

And I LOVE the results!! I'm definitely planning on doing more with the wax/watercolor combo

This was a glaze fusion accident that I really like, so I showed a mix of traditionally glazed pieces and waxed/watercolored pieces

In terms of sales, I ended up selling 3 pieces, which to be honest was unbelievably shocking since the show and sale is overwhelmingly dominated by pots and people looking for pots…  I was really planning on just showing them, not actually selling any so to have 3 teeth walk out the door was crazy to me!!  I only sold raw porcelain pieces; since I had just watecolored/waxed them the day before, I wasn’t willing to risk parting with any waxed or glazed ones yet so they were all marked Not For Sale.

Next up, I fnally took some “real” (ish) photographs of all the teeth after the sale so I will post them soon.  In the meantime, a little gem taken at the studio today:

The first successful cast of the largest tooth to date was born today--it's baby-sized!

Sculpture Residency!!

Oh!  And I got a residency!!  I got the official acceptance letter today (even though I’ve known about it for a few weeks now) with the handbook and request for a deposit.  Of course it has to cost money, which is most unfortunate, but they’ve agreed to pay for half through grant aid and work study, so I figure I ought to be able to save up the rest.  It isn’t until November, so I have plenty of time to prepare for it (which is really good–if it was this summer as I’d originally hoped, I wouldn’t be ready for it!!) and it’s at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnston, VT.  I’ll be going for sculpture for a month from November 22-December 18.  It’s sort of unfortunate that it falls on Thanksgiving, but seeing as I don’t really go home for the holiday anyways (VA is pretty far to travel for only a weekend), I don’t really mind.  And winter in Vermont will just mean that there really isn’t anything else to do except concentrate on my work, and isn’t that the whole point of a residency?  So I’m pretty psyched about that.  I didn’t have to specify any plans about how I want to spend my time there, but I’ve got a few ideas…  so we’ll see where I’m actually at when November rolls around…

And since I went ahead and started a new entry, I might as well try to do some catch up work:

3 "Mini" teeth, Blue box of real wisdom teeth (donated by Casey--thanks Casey!!), and beginning of a new "giant" tooth

Finished "giant" tooth, realistically modeled after one of Casey's wisdom teeth--pictured side by side to give a sense of scale

Completed 3-part mold of Casey's wisdom tooth

First successful porcelain cast of Casey's wisdom tooth

"Mini" teeth glazed and waiting for their turn in the Cone 10 Reduction Kiln... sadly none of these survived, they all melted into a disastrous pile

Tooth on a post, waiting for Cone 10 Reduction Kiln--I promise I'll tell the story of the ruined teeth soon... the wound is still a little too raw, even after all these weeks...

I’ve also been working on some EVEN BIGGER teeth than the biggest ones pictured here.  Two have been modeled and molded, but not cast yet so… hopefully they will all work as intended.  I’m finishing up the last of them this weekend and will test cast them after I return from VA in another week and a half so stay tuned for more on those… Plus the horrific glaze kiln disaster story, and pics of the new waxed teeth that I’m loving!  I haven’t actually photographed any of them yet (hopefully they won’t all be sold before I have a chance!), so I’ll try to do a lot of that this weekend before leaving the city.  So don’t touch that dial!  I’ll be right back with more…

Nightmare Teeth

Cast Porcelain Teeth

As usual, the blog is about a month behind where I actually am in studio, so let’s start catching up a bit!  I guess it’s time to finally reveal something about the big spring project that I’ve been hinting at.  It’s about teeth!  Shocking, I know.  I’m working on a large scale sculpture/installation based on nightmares about teeth.  You know, that super common one everyone seems to have where all their teeth fall out in a number of gruesome ways.  Personally, mine are always slightly different.  Sometimes it starts with one wiggly tooth that you push back and forth with your tongue, sometimes it starts with a tough piece of toast.  Sometimes they fall out with little trouble, sometimes they crumble, and sometimes they pour out in a seemingly infinite wave.  Regardless of the means, the end result is always the same:  I’ve lost all my teeth and am completely mortified and horrified.

After researching a little about the supposed psychological origins of this dream (add to all this the fact that I grind  my teeth in my sleep as well) and discovering that it is THE most commonly shared dream among… well… humans, it occured to me that a sculptural response was necessary.  For whatever reason, the idea of a dreamcatcher for teeth popped into my head and has haunted me for about a year now.  Versions of what this “dreamcatcher” might look like, how it might function, where it might live have been floating around in my head for months.  I spent some time just researching teeth on their own (and the various diseases and viruses that plague them) and since have become completely fascinated by these bizarre bones/organs. 

From the beginning, I knew it would be porcelain, given the fact that the most accurate dentures are made of porcelain, as well as its permanence.  This idea of teeth as permanent (and yet we have to work so hard to keep them!) stuck in my head and what better means to signal this idea than the permanence of porcelain.  I also wanted them to be slipcast and therefore hollow.  This would make them incredibly fragile (and maybe even some in the sculpture would be broken open, revealing their instability as functional objects?), signaling our ideas about the perfection of teeth and what lenths we’ll go to in order to keep them perfect.  The rest I’m sort of making up as I go.  There have been thoughts about velvet gums, leather cord, and a big luxurious bed with a hand-sewn duvet cover… those are still up in the air.  In the meantime, I’ve begun working on the teeth themselves by creating some “miniature” versions for testing glazes, firing techniques and hanging/display techniques.  I call them “miniature” because they are smaller scale than what the final pieces will be (close to the size of your head?), but they are much larger than life size–about the size of the palm of my hand.

I made some teeth models just from my imagination and began the mold-making process--about to pour the 3rd part of a 4-part mold

A finished 4-part mold, that produces 2 teeth

Prepping the slip--probably one of my all-time favorite parts of the slip-casting process

Opening the mold after its first cast

A pair of finished cast teeth, ready for the kiln

Part I:  Test Teeth Mold-Making!

Next time, Part II:  Casting, casting, casting!

Since I don’t have a title for this project yet, let’s just call it… Dreamcatcher for now…