Getting Jiggy with It

What I did this week in studio!Work in Ceramics studio: 5 hours
Talk with lovely GSI's/Mingle/Read: 1 hour

This past weekend/week I worked on my second sculpture which is a pair to the first one I finished. I am really digging how these forms are interacting with each other and the negative space between the two. I think the segmentation and gesture of the forms portray a humorous character. I would like this, as Amanda said, "dumpy" or clumsy form to continue pressing the limits of extension. I've had some technical difficulties while building, most pertaining to the weight of the upper half of the sculpture causing the clay to break in half. I am working through it though because I want the smaller sculpture to reach and extend it's body under the first. These pieces should flow into each other by utilizing the space and structure. (This is a totally random side note but it would be totally awesome if I could have water coming from the larger sculpture's mouth flowing into the smaller ones, as if it were a fountain. Not for real though). With the second piece I attempted to build a melting or more bulbous shape, which happened in the bottom of the piece but not so much in the top.

Overall I am really happy with the direction these are going in. I did some glaze testing yesterday and are being fired today so by Sunday I should have a better idea of what some of my coloring options will be...... Glazing has always been tough for me because when I plan or think about my sculptures half of the time I only picture them as leather hard ( what they are in the photos) and the other half I choose to not think about because it scares me. I'm trying to see glazing as an opportunity to get my point across even more so and not as a burden. I was talking with Saree about the pieces the other day and came to the conclusion that if I use cooler colors I will convey a more ocean or sea creature organism but if I use warmer colors (which are harder to retain through the firing process) I will be referencing more land organisms. At this point I'm not really quite sure what to do. I want my sculptures to pop, which would mean using bright colors, but at the same time I could go the other direction and uses washes to make them seem as if they're growing up, or originating from the earth. Could go wither way. Also because there is no texture on the pieces I could use a glaze called Terra Sig which would emphasize and maybe even shine the smooth surface of the clay. It's hard when there are so many options. I just need to buckle down on what I'm trying to say and then it won't be so difficult to decide.

I am a lucky woman this week. There is a small studio space in the ceramics studio and I asked John for it and he said yes! Yayyy. There's a picture of it below. It's great because
I can have all of my images up and around me while I'm working and also creates my own personal working/storage space.

This weekend/week I plan on making some smaller mock up sculptures due to many suggestions. I will play around with the space and shape of the forms. I also want to start working on a larger sculpture and continue looking into textures of different sea creatures to possible emulate on a larger scale. I also want to write about families and my experience in Turkey, I feel that they may become a part of my project. The picture's I've uploaded are taken from many angles, especially looking down, so I can see what the viewers will seeing while walking around or from a distance.

Pretty groovy.