Wednesday, June 30, 2010

treasure!

jared, along with brad mike and dan, discovered and purchased 2 storage units full of plaster molds!!   they spent over 10 hrs going through all 3,000 of them to sort out the good ones... lots of hard work, but considering it was only 80 bucks for it all, everyone got their moniesworth ;)


brad, amongst the molds


look at them all!

i think i might be the luckiest of them all, i was in class last week during most of the dirty work, sorting, piling, moving.... but jared still had his eye out for me and pulled out some really adorable cutesy molds for me :)  he is the best!!  i still can't believe we stumbled across such amazing treasure, stay turned for slip casting and new projects! 

annnd, for those of you in the greeley area - we will be at marjie's java joint friday night @ 5 selling our pots for the opening show put on by diane richards :)  would love to see you there! 

hugs and love xoxo

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

a little bit of happy news

hey everyone - just had to give some happy news about annual conference and how awesome it was!  jared and i were so happy to be there, showing off our artwork, meeting lots of peeps, and selling a bundle of chalices!  couldn't have done it without the sweet hook ups from rusty, thank you!!  and thanks to all of his supportive friends :) It was great to hang with both of our fams and take a vacation from the studio (and kenny's!).   

this was our setup, homemade banner and all ;)
and, handbuilt shelving unit, thanks dave!  i thought it looked like a picture frame for the goblet sets, perfect.  
more goblets 

and a little more happy news... on thursday morning last week jared had an interview with university schools for a part-time middleschool art teaching position.  . . . ... he nailed it!!  and i am so proud and happy to say he has a job!!  officially accepted the position yesterday :D  he is like a real grown up now!  his own classes and own curriculum ... own desk!  He is super excited, and already telling me his lesson ideas.  I am just as excited and happy for him!! 

I am taking my last undergrad class this week, it is bittersweet!!  I am sad that it is almost over, but happy to be getting that degree :)  the class is PMC, stands for precious metal clay.  It is really cutting edge jewelry technology -  clay that turns to fine silver when it is fired!!  i think i am in love.  it is pretty amazing stuff and i am enjoying working with it (not as much as real clay!!).  hard to wrap my head around it turning to metal after firing though....  we are doing 5 projects in the week long class and it feels like they are flying by, sadly. 

fine silver earrings!!  so cute!  i did the wire wrap and everything ;) 

during my jewelry affair the last two days i have missed being in the studio with jared and brad who are working hard on new projects!  I am crossing my fingers to not get called into work and have a little free time for throwing tomorrow... I am having withdrawls!  hah 
hugs & love xoxo

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

new processes!

well, Raku isn't that new.  you have all seen jared's fantastic platters n such.  but RAKU is new for me!!  i had only done a couple things in the past that weren't really made to be raku fired.  since the clay is still porus it is simply for decoration, it's a little opposite from most of my functional forms!!  I got over my fear of flames fire and heat firing this last week.  Friday -  i fired with my friend molly all day!  we each had a weeks worth of pots (about 50 lbs) of stuff to fire one at a time.  
all of my new pieces, mostly platters plates and bottle forms

and here is a little play by play on how each was done...

this is the kiln we used (the most) Vadar.  kinda like Darth Vardar... you see how it is glowing red hot?!  we heated it up to 1800 degrees f with pots inside.  the shelf isn't that big maybe 12" by 18" so we did our pots in batches of 3.  

almost hot enough!!  (that's the pyrometer)

after it got to temp, i would reach in!!  haha of course wearing tennies, jeans, a leather coat, face mask, and leather gloves.  it was crazy hot though!  i could still feel the heat through all of my protective wear.. intense

this is me preparing to take it out with tongs.  i have my wheelbarrow ready with combustables!

the hot pot!

instantly ignites newspaper, duh.  



i cover it with a trash can lid to create a "reduction" atmosphere where the fire is looking for oxygen to burn and taking it out of the copper and cobalt in the glaze.  


back to the kiln to close the door and turn the gas back up!  
ahhh, fresh air.  

and my partner in crime!  
i don't have photos of the next steps, but after waiting about 4-6 minutes (depending on the size you do less time for smaller pots and more time for bigger pots) we uncover the smoky mess and watch for the glaze to change colors as the air hits it and glaze reoxidizes - as it is doing this i pour water on it to freeze the colors i like.  sometimes i had too much smoke in my eyes to really see what is going on... blues tend to be considered the lesser of the raku colors (i think it is nice on some pots) and the coppers are the most coveted!  there are so many variables to the process it is hard for me to say what works the best, i really am a noob.  



this is my fav. bottle.  it had a crackle glaze on it - which yields a different look and requires different steps.  instead of taking the red hot pot from the kiln to reduction - you spray water onto it to create a very quick cooling.  this makes the glaze crack and separate.  when the pot is still hot, you place it in a bucket to smolder and burn combustables for about 15 minutes.  this allows all of the cracks to absorb the smoky black color.  whalah!  crackle pots!!

Jared has also been doing some experimental firings.  he has been looking at Biz Littell who discovered a process called "vapor glazing" which gives pots a permanent luster finish... very s e x y.

he has yet to show me what exactly happens during the process but i know it involves vaporizing VERRRY toxic oxides.  and here are some results to give you a taste of his latest obsession.  


i told you they were sexy!  i am signing off for the night, sweet dreams xoxo

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

art haus ceramics update!!

hey everyone, exciting news!!  We got into the greeley arts picnic!!!  woo!  we are thrilled to be in our first juried craft fair :)  and i thought i should share our show schedule thus far for the summer

JUNE 17-20
we will have a display booth at Rocky Mountain United Methodist Annual Conference!
at the Marriott Denver Tech Center at 4900 South Syracuse in Denver

JULY 24 &25
we will have a booth at the 32nd Greeley Arts Picnic!

the arts picnic is held downtown at Historic Lincoln Park.  for more info on all the events going on at the arts picnic go here. ;) 

pretty awesome stuff!! we would love to see you there !!
and because i can't help myself, here are a couple of studio peeks lol


hugs and love xoxo

Saturday, June 5, 2010

severance co

our new home!!  we are so happy to be settling into our new house!  that's right, no more one bedroom apt. business... we have  s p a c e ... es fantastic!! luckily we planned the move this past weekend before our classes started, it would have been too much work inbetwix the full days we are workin now.  

we rented a 14 footer and fit almost everything!
 i felt very strong and happy after lifting all of our stuff!

jared on the other hand was a little saddened by all of the stuff... 

(he thought i could have done more downsizing on my wardrobe... )
(i didn't think so)

lil pup new it was a big day, she hopped in my car and was ready to go to the new house!!

yea!  got everything unloaded with a little time to spare, so jared started mowing down the amazon for bees.  it was a little overgrown, but i think jared was excited to be doing yardwork again :)  he has been taking good care of organizing things outside, cleaning up the firepit, and weed whaking around edges.  all the activity meant discovering garter SNAKES!! it freaked me out, but we haven't seen one since tuesday.  i am crossing my fingers they have left to find a new safe haven.  jared did manage to do a little hunting tho... bees ssniffed one out and jared came in with a cinder block (we have no shovel, otherwise that would have been his first choice).  it trapped the snakes tale twice and he put him out of pain with the rake.

my hero!!!
i am so glad he isn't a sissy like me haha

we are still keeping busy getting things organized, but it gets better and better.  the first week flew by with jared starting his summer camp teaching middle and highschoolers he is workin hard from 8-4.  

i was going through car problems early this week and the silver bullet had to get repairs done.  thanks to mom and dad she is back on the road !! :) I was able to go down to b-town for shannie's baby shower, so fun.  chocolate fountain, cute baby clothes, and family, it was awesome!  i also started class this week, i am doing RAKU!!  making a lot lot lot of pots and taking advantage of still being able to fire in the unc studio... i will share pics asap, we are hoping to fire the gas kiln this week.  yesssss

annnd we also have our wheel in our studio!! feels so cool to be able to say!!! we are really happy and thankful to be setting up our own place to keep making art, it is a dream come true. i will have to do a virtual tour when everything is a little more put together :)


hugs and love xoxo have happy weekends!