New projects!

I’ve been busy this last week since my assessment exhibition, trying my hand at wheel throwing (not very successfully), reclaiming clay (the results of my unsuccessful attempts at wheel throwing), and getting started on a new project for a self directed module I’ll be completing for uni.

I am really really excited about this project. I am creating a ceramic ‘quilt’. I am using a quilt pattern (Storm at sea) to create tiles, which I am putting holes in, so that they can be ‘sewn’ together (with wire) after they are fired. Once they are joined they will be installed as a wall hanging. I intend to use slip to decorate and pattern each tile. I will build on the centre tile relief images relating to technology and space travel. Telling a story of humanity’s technological advancement leading to new frontiers full of possibilities and unknowns. The storm at sea pattern will work perfectly for ‘space’, as the design creates a sense of movement.

I then plan on continuing this theme into a large oil painting. The background of the quilt will caintain that same storm at sea pattern. Painted on top, I am envisioning painting a female figure in an armoured spacesuit, likely with some weaponry of some description, as well as a Heads Up Display (HUD) and / helmet of some kind. I think she will be positioned to the side, and around her, in the background I will work some different technological and space travel related items that work to help tell her story.

I am very excited about these projects as they work to combine some of my biggest passions and interests, and I think they will work really well together to tell the story I want told.

The tiles I have been making today are a prototype for the final project. Putting together this prototype first will allow me to determine and changes or adjustments I may need to make before committing. I can tell from this effort so far that this project is going to be a very labour intensive and time consuming process. I am hopeful that I will be able to ‘sew’ the peices together with wire like I am envisioning, but I need to check that I have the holes created correctly, to account for shrinkage, and that the weight of the ceramics themselves will hold up to being hung from each other as I am attempting to do. I also need to make sure the relief work turns out and check the glazes I plan on using to get the colours and textures I am wanting. If the wire turns out to be insufficient for my plans, then I am end up eliminating that element and doing flat tiles that are adhered to a wooden board and grouted. But I would prefer to keep the wire if possible. I love the way it related it back to a traditional quilt being peiced together, but I also love the symbolism of using copper and / or gold wire , as it they are common elements found in computers and other electronics.

Kiln unloaded today!

so thrilled with the results. There are a few minor things I wish I could redo, but overall the results were great. Feeling very happy and positive.

Working hard to get my paintings completed in time for assessment. A little bit stressed about whether I’ll make it or not. No doubt I will be hanging wet paintings on the wall. I am still undecided about which paintings I will put up. Not sure if I should display all the finished ones, or if I am better off just putting up those that fulfilled the brief for each resolved work. I feel like whichever decision I make will probably be the wrong one.

I went back with the palette knife and lighted up the colours in this painting. I also added so texture by scraping the knife through various layers of paint. It’s very different to how I normally paint, but I am not hating the outcome. I do feel it’s a significant improvement on what I had previously.

Moving the positioning a bit so it is the correct shape. I am pretty excited about this painting. Cadets has a special place in my heart, being where my husband and I first met as teens, and still being involved now as adults.

Feeling this painting is too dark and heavy at the moment. I’m going to put it aside and revisit it later to make it lighter and more playful.

I have glazed all of my remaining work and it’s now sitting waiting to be loaded into the kiln on Monday. It’s always a bit nerve wracking, not knowing how the firing will go, how the glazes will turn out, whether anything will crack or break.

Yay!!! I came in this morning to find my kiln unloaded and everything bisque. No issues at all, ready to get glazed.

Got the peices from my first glazed firing. A few minor issues. A test tile falling over and adhering to one of my peices. Some cracks in the back. But overall I am very happy with the results. I am especially happy to see how the glaze on my androids turned out, as I have more androids and cyborgs to go in, and this has let me see how to progress. There was some slight issues with underglaze running, I think that would have been solves if it had been underglazed before the bisque, unfortunately time was the deciding factor in that. But lesson learned for future projects.

All of my Hampton Court peices came out well. It’s always a risk mixing underglaze colours what the end result will actually be. But I like the effect I got, and it’s pretty consistent across peices.

I think I have finally reached a point where I am happy with this painting of my son. Adding the highlights and lowlights, and changing the hair colour made a massive amount of difference.

all dry, waiting to go in the kiln for a bisque fire tomorrow. Fingers crossed it all goes well.

I have glazed a couple of peices I am hoping to sneak into a glaze firing tomorrow.

This painting of my son just isn’t quite working for me. Not sure if it’s the background, or if it’s the hair. I’m going to sleep on it and come back with fresh eyes I think.

I am honestly not sure how I feel about this figure painting. Sometimes I look at it and love it, othertimes I hate how cartoonish it looks.

I have the underpainting in oil down. This was really just getting some colours down to see how it will look before I go back and put the colours down thicker. Not loving the background, think I will be going back and changing that colour. To something else. Maybe orange or pink? Probably not pink.

I’ve put down the underpainting for my daughter. Not in love with it yet, but I think if I do the background properly and fix up those eyes (not even sure what I was doing there, yikes!), then it might start working better. I will set it aside for now to let it dry and work on my other paintings. It’s interesting how many ‘ugly’ phases my paintings all seem to go through, before the get to a point where I like them again.

Added some white oils paint in to lighted a few areas before I add colour. Kind of half a grisaille, lol.

my nude figure is a bit cartoonish. I think the outline and the colours contribute to that, along with her perfect figure. But the life model who posed did have quite a perfect figure. Kind of digging the look at the moment at the moment. Still need to add white highlights, but will wait til this layer dries.

More androids and cyborgs completed to dry.

I am going to add wir to this one after its final glaze firing.

I think the headset turned out well. Fingers crossed it survives the firing intact.

Hampton court all underglazed. I will glaze them all when I come back up to uni.

An outline in acrylic paint of my youngest child. I think I’ve captured her features.

An outline in acrylic paint of my second eldest who is seventeen. Trying to capture his personality. I am thinking I will do something different and very away from realism for his portrait. Some bold colours instead.

One of the exercises in class today. Was feeling a big unmotivated today.

Yay! I think I am happy to call this one finished now! Very happy with it. I think I captured my parents reasonably well.

underglazing my architectural works. Mixing and layering different underglazes, always a risk when the test tiles haven’t been fired yet, but time waits for noone, and I need to get these done so they can go into the kiln.

Slip cast test tiles. I had issues with them breaking when folded the first batch I tried. So I tried a second batch and folded them in long peices before I cut the individual tiles. I then pinched the fold so it holds its shape better. So far so good.

getting some oil paints onto the canvas finally.

Went to the park at the end of the street with the kids and sketched them out quickly whilst they were climbing the tree. Kids don’t stay still for anyone, so quick sketches were all that was happening, which ended up being a good thing I think.

acrylic paint slapped on canvas, so that I don’t have to work off a white canvas. I used bubble wrap and spray bottles to add texture and dimension – not that it will probably matter as it will all become covered with oil paint in the end no doubt. But think of it as inspiration. I’m thinking something outdoors. Maybe a garden or something.

The back of my androids. This will be the screen they come out of. I have put keyholes in the back for it to hang.

I love this two sided head! It’s so awesome. I want to make a three sided one it I get the time.

making the virtual reality goggles for my cyborg.

My second vase, ready to be bisque fired. Loving it.

All bisque fired and ready to go!

Slip casting. I am actually enjoying this a lot more then I thought I would! Once I got a handle on how to do it best, and stopped panicking about getting enough of them done in time for them to dry and be fired for assessment. It is a time consuming process, and wet weather slows it even more. Drying my plaster mould in the oven seemed to help a lot though.

Disaster. Tried something. Failed big time. 3hrs wasted.

Putting in places to string wire to hang.

Impatience will kill it everytime! Being too impatient, and then setting myself back even further. Lesson learned. Into the recycle it goes.

bisque kiln packed. Fingers crossed!

Some figure painting in oil from life drawing class. Mixed feelings about these. There are aspects I like and others I don’t. I won’t be continuing on with any of these particular ones.

working on the painting of my parents. Its going through a real ugly stage at the moment. Going to step away and let it dry so I can come back with fresh eyes.

life painting exercises in class. Not enamoured with any of them. I like the stuff I’ve been doing in the life drawing class better.

Putting together a second vase to go with the first. It was a much quicker process this time, in part because it is a smaller size, but also because I have already learned some hard lessons and was able to avoid making the same mistakes. Very happy with how it is turning out. Keeping that nice imperfect organic shape.

Making the bridge to my palace. This took a bit of thinking to figure out the best way to approach it and draw up a pattern. It was pretty nerve wracking as I was using pretty slim slabs and there were a hundred times I easily could have messed it up in construction. In the end it came together remarkable well though. I just hope it dries without falling to bits or warping out of shape!

my front gate is complete! This was a bit more of a challenge then I thought it would be. And because the whether is so wet at the moment, I was finding the clay was staying too wet, when I wanted it to be a bit firmer. All up this took me several days to construct. I used thick paper in the towers to support them through construction. I am just hoping it doesn’t collapse or slump while I am waiting for it to dry.

Trying out an idea on a minuture scale. I want to do some androids climbing out of screens. I don’t think it’s going to work how I envisioned though, so I am going to rethink this and see how I might be able to move forward.

My ceramic work drying out.

Using thin auto detailing tape to help guide my lives for the circuitry on my vase. I put the tape where I want it, then I paint a thin layer of slip for texture, and then I paint the underglaze on top, before peel the tape back off for nice crisp lines. Loving this method.

my stairs have warped a little as they have dried. Nothing too bad, but it is still disappointing.

My chimneys looked so much better in my head then in reality. They were much trickier to do then I was expecting.

Working on my staircase. I am really loving it! It’s coming together just as I had planned in my head, which is always nice my pattern only needed a minor revision, to cut the width of each step. Once I had each step cut, them came together quickly.

I am doing Hampton Court Palace for my architectural build. I am wanting to do a series of several smaller peices that can be assembled together as one larger artwork. I am pretty excited about this project. This tower is my first peice. My trial peice.

I have done the outline of my parents in acrylic paint. I then painted a grisaille overtop in oil, and the plan next is to add colour in oil.

Patience.

learning the difficulties of painting with oils. I ended up making mistakes trying to paint details wet on wet, when I should have let that layer dry first. It was looking very Frankenstein. Lesson learned. I wiped the face off completely to start it afresh. Sometimes starting fresh it the best option.

Adding details to my vase. Little microchips and wires. The handles are big wires.

Home stretch I am loving this form the vase is taking. I am never quite sure what it’s doing until it gets there.

Grisaille Underpainting

Attempt number 2

This time I have started the split section seperate and joining it once it is built enough to support itself.

Painting exercises in class. It is very different working with oil paints compared to acrylic. I think I am going to have to learn patience to use them effectively, not my greatest strength. But I like the outcomes oil paints can have, so hopefully it’s all worth it.

Disaster!!!

working on my vase and trying to create a divide in the structure. Unfortunately, despite using kiln props to try and support it, the entire thing started cracking and collapsing. And when I realised there was not saving it and maintaining integrity, I threw a temper tantrum and scrapped the lot. And I didn’t even get a photo first! Sigh. Sometimes I just have to learn things the hard way I guess. A week worth of work scrapped. Back to square one and starting again. At least it gives me time to consider how I will approach adding the division next time so it won’t collapse.

07/08/23

I have started working on my jugs. The first two are supposed to resemble hessian / canvas bags, with vines growing out of them for the handle. I wanted to keep it looking very ‘rough’ with as much texture in the clay as possible.

The third jug will continue on with the same theme, exploring the adaptability of nature, and its ability to survive despite humans. But I will move away from the hessian sack towards a more rigid kind of structure like a building. and my final ‘disrupted’ jug will continue that idea even further.

My cups and bowls have come out of the kiln after being glazed and their final firing. I am happy with how they have turned out. They are not perfect, and one of my flower mugs does have a leaf that need to be glued back on. But I like the way the underglazes have come up. The blue inside was to represent the sky, and I deliberately left it a very light inconsistent coating. I love how that turned out. The ‘painted’ on vines look ok. But I think that in my pieces moving forward I will attempt to use clay to continue the vines around my work. I do like the imperfection of the shape of the bowls and cups. It feels very organic which is in keeping with my ‘nature’ theme.

25/07/25

I have been working on a ‘crazy critter’ whom I call Morphling. He is a special beast, who is able to adapt and change to suit the environment and circumstances surrounding him. He can ‘morph’ different parts of his body at will. The audience is encouraged to interact with him and will be able to change parts of his anatomy, swapping them.

This is a picture of his bee stinger. I am quite happy with how it has turned out. The stinger itself is hand stitched leather, whilst the lower body section is made crocheting with 2 strands of 8ply acrylic yarn together, to ensure the thickness I wanted.

29/05/2023

Printmaking

I have been working on the final layer of my lino print this morning. No photo’s for this, too much ink to be taking photo’s whilst I am working on it. I am really happy with how they have turned out. This is despite having issues with them taking way too long to dry for the first layer, and having to throw some out, because they had been piled on top of each other before they dried. And then having issues with my alignment and registration for the second layer. The third layer I decided not to use the press, but simply used a clean brayer on the back of the lino which I laid onto the paper. I really love the end result.

I also worked some more on my screen printing. I am very happy with how that is coming along. I did manage to take a photo of some of this work in progress.

27/05/2023

I have been working on some painting for my resolved works. I am doing a portrait of my husband, it is harder then I thought it would be to be honest. And I have a house full of critics that are making me second guess myself. I am on the fence at this point, but I am not yet finished, so hopefully it will turn out in the end. Vincent Van Gogh was the original inspiration for the painting style used in this artwork. But I think I might take it in a different direction, going back to skin tones and lightening it up a bit.

12/05/2023

I have been working on some of my portrait painting exercises. I am really enjoying this.

Painting 19/04/2023

Today in class we have been working on….

Printmaking 19/04/2023

Today in class I was able to put my steel plate in the acid bath to create the etching. After I got the plate out and cleaned it up with turps, I used it to create too prints; on in silver and the other in green oil paint. I am extremely happy with how these have worked out. It is amazing to me the amount of fine detail you can create with an etching.

I really love how my etching turned out. It is amazing how much fine detail you are able to get from an etching.