Shop Update!

I have updated my website with all of the pottery I have left after this week of sales. Grab some Christmas gifts, or a gift for yourself! All of the necklaces are on an 18" leather cord, but if you would like the cord to be longer just send me a message under the "Contact" tab after purchase or leave a message!

www.AndreaLynnArt.com 

Kiln Unload 11/30

As promised, I unloaded the biggest batch of work I have ever made at one time. It was definitely like Christmas. To a potter, the feeling of opening a kiln full of work is almost like getting paid. The kiln can be the best firing I've ever had, or be a disaster with ruined pots and lost money. Glazes are a funny thing to work with. Sometime they turn out better than expected, and sometimes they can really ruin a pot. Some glazes are incredibly picky in the temperature and oxygen levels that they need, which can lead to some disastrous outcomes if those levels are not right. The glaze I use on most of my pots is meant to turn out in a range of blues. If the glaze is applied really thick, which would almost the consistency of pancake batter, the glaze will turn a light blue with areas of almost white. If the glaze has the perfect amount of water, it will be the consistency of a krispy kreme donut glaze, and will turn out a medium blue color with some lighter areas and darker areas. If the glaze is really thin with too much water, it would be similar to the consistency of a milk or a light cream and be a deep blue with dark blue spots. In the pots that came out of this kiln, the glaze was on the runnier side, and came out pretty dark with areas of brown.

Everything came out of the kiln perfectly and had no runs on the feet. When you make a jar, you always fire the lid on the pot so that the lid will not shrink differently than the jar. That would cause the lid to never fit correctly. When I pulled my three jars out of the kiln, the lids are stuck on the jars, but I was able to get them to separate by tapping the jar with a piece of wood while holding it slightly off the table to have gravity help me. While holding the jar by the lid, you spin the jar and keep tapping on the top of the jar where the lid meets it. After a few taps around, the jar will separate and fall, so it is important to have a pillow or something soft beneath it.

These are a few pictures of pieces that I took out of the kiln today, as well as a few from a couple of weeks ago. I don't have pictures of all of the new pieces, but I will post those later this week.

The Final Stretch

This semester has been insane, crazy, overwhelming, and exhausting. Trying to work 30 hours a week or more, and taking 18 credit hours (which is around 60 hours of work) has been more than enough to stress me out. I am SO excited for this semester of classes to be over. Don't get me wrong, I love my classes and all of the time I have in the studio, but all together it has just been too much.

On the bright side, I have almost 40 pieces of ceramic work coming out of the kiln tomorrow morning. The process of opening the glaze kiln is like Christmas to any potter. All of the hard work we put into our pieces becomes evident at this point in the process, and has an excitement level equivalent to a 5 year old on Christmas morning. I loaded 2 full kilns yesterday (and almost ruined half of my pots by loading a few that were meant for a different temperature) and they will be cool and ready to open first thing in the morning! I will put some pictures in my post tomorrow, so check back to see all of the work that was unloaded! I usually document the pieces with photographs and post them on my website for sale almost immediately, but this time around I have the art festival this weekend in Rome Georgia that I will be selling them at. Selling pottery to people face to face is so much easier than selling online because I do not have to pay for shipping or risk the pots breaking from rough handling during shipping. Ideally in the spring or next summer I would like to get a list of festivals together to sell at. I would really LOVE to make a living as a potter, and while that may sound crazy to a lot of people, it is very possible with dedication and hard work.

I will post pictures of the new work tomorrow! I have also started a small youtube account where I will post videos of making pottery, sculptures, and cake decorating! Check it out and subscribe to see future videos!  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM9PAt4sfq-cIcaf8D5-uiw

A Crazy Week

     This week has been insane. I put off a lot of my work for the semester until the end, which is always a terrible idea, but I do it every semester. I am taking 6 classes that totals 18 credit hours. I only have 2 studio classes, but both classes require so many hours of work a week. These classes are 3 hours long, two times per week. They expect us to be in the studio an extra 6 hours a week on top of that, which puts me at about 24 hours a week just in my two studio classes which are sculpture and small metals. I also have an art festival that I will be a part of next weekend in Rome, GA, and a pottery sale in the social sciences building the following Monday-Thursday that I need to make work for. I have a pottery wheel at home, but my schedule has been so insane that I have not used it in a while.
     My sculpture for the semester, for those of you who may not have seen my previous post about it, is a 6 foot coral sculpture that will highlight the effects of coral bleaching. Of course, I put off making the coral until the last minute and had to sculpt around 30 feet of coral tubes.  That was no easy feat..  In the ceramic department, they have a greenware cut off day, which means after that day, no more wet clay can be made or fired and they will only be firing glaze kilns. That cut off day was the Wednesday before thanksgiving...Sooo for me that meant making 30 feet of coral, and making enough pottery to sell at both of those events..and working all day Tuesday for the bakery, and doing other projects for my sales class, social media class, and 2 history classes. Stressful to say the least.  I spent a total of 22 straight hours working on coral and making mugs/bowls with no sleep, and went straight to work for a 10 hour shift.. I was barely awake.. I went home, slept for a much needed 8 hours, and woke up at 6am the next day, which was Wednesday, to continue making coral for another 17 hours in order to have it at school by midnight to be fired. I finally have all of the coral completed, and around $1500 worth of pottery to sell next week.
     I will keep you all updated on the coral sculpture and post pictures really soon!
The first picture is all of the work that was completed in 3 days of last week which includes 33 mugs, 3 bowls, 1 strainer, 1 plate, and 30 feet of coral tubes.  The second picture is all of my coral ready to be painted and assembled.

Recent Updates:

As some of you know, I was waiting to hear back on a couple of shows that I had applied to. I unfortunately did not get in, BUT I made it to the fourth and final round of the largest ceramics conference in the nation, NCECA. Even though my pieces will not be in the show, they were considered against people from around the country and made it really far in the judging process. After talking to my professor, I was made aware of the fact that no one else at Kennesaw had made it that far in the judging process in a really long time, if ever. I am proud of that, and in the notification letter that was sent out, they let us know that 63 pieces were chosen for the show, and 40 of those were graduate students, and 7 were post grads. Only 16 undergraduate students from around the country were invited to the show, so knowing that, I can be proud. I will be applying to several more shows this coming week and hoping for the best.

This post really has nothing to do with my artwork, but it is something I think about a lot, and something a lot of people don't understand about me.
     Sometimes I feel like my life is just a blur of running from place to place. I feel as though I have no time to enjoy this stage of life like all of my friends do. People say our 20's and our time in college should be the best times of our lives. But that is definitely not the case for me. I honestly don't like being in college at all and cannot wait to graduate and have more control over my time and my life. I've lost friends and relationships because I have no time to hang out and go do things. Being a full time student and working practically full time has really taken a toll on me for the past year. There are very few people who understand me and have stuck around through my busy life.
     I spend my weekends working on commissions for pottery, working on my sculptures, or physically at work. This weekend all I have wanted to do was go to Amicalola falls, or even just Kennesaw Mountain and go for a hike to clear my head. But I can't. I am stuck inside continually making things or being productive in some way.
     I was told just this week that I am the oldest 21 year old my teacher has ever known. I have my life planned out as much as I can possibly plan it, and  I have a direction I am heading.  I have plans to buy a house, and every dollar I make goes towards that goal.
     When I was 15 my parents got divorced, and I learned really quickly that as a woman I should  never depend on a man to support me. Marriage can end terribly and tear families apart, which is exactly what happened to our family. My mom was forced to be on her own, and luckily her business was thriving and was able to support us and has continued to support us all of these years. I want to be at a point in life where I am stable on my own. I want to buy a house, which is scary, but it is an investment I want to make completely on my own without help as soon as I possibly can. As an art major I have received a great deal of comments like "I guess you want to be a starving artist" or "Well I hope you find a rich man to support you," and these comments come from people in my life that I thought cared about me. I feel like these are the people that push me to work harder just so I can prove them wrong. I work so hard to make sure that I can be independent person, and can make it on my own if that is the case. My personal future is more important to me right now than a relationship where I feel restrained or held back from my goals.
     Eventually all of this work and dedication will pay off, and I can prove that what I am doing right now was worth it.

I feel like I should let you guys in on a little of what I do. I would consider myself an environmental activist in the form of art. No, I haven't been to Africa and protected a rhino's with my life, but I do create art that informs the viewer of the current problems that they may not know about. My goal is not to make art that the viewer has to think about a lot and make their own assumptions about like some artist's work. I make art that clearly states a problem that we are facing at this time in our lives. My hope is that the issue the work is addressing is a problem they may have never heard of, and inspire them to take a deeper look and research more about the topic.
Environmental concerns such as deforestation, coral bleaching, and climate change are all topics that I have focused my work around in the past year as well as the illegal wildlife trade. These are topics that I am highly passionate about and want to inform others of.
My current project is a six and a half foot sculpture that will consist of four coral "branches." These branches will be painted with a paint pigment that turns clear when heat is applied. Coral in nature will get stressed as water temperature rises which in turn causes the coral to expel all of the Algae living inside of it.  This is known as Coral Bleaching. There are several causes for coral bleaching, but the most common factor is a change in water temperature. This sculpture will be heated from the inside and as a result, the coral will lose its colorful paint and turn white as it would in nature. I will have fish that are colorful while the coral is cool, and as it heats, the fish will turn white as well and reveal a skeleton painted beneath to represent the death of the whole community. This sculpture is in the very beginning stages so I don't have any pictures to post, but below are a few pictures of recent work I have done that are all revolving around this environmental concept.

According to https://www.fws.gov/international/travel-and-trade/illegal-wildlife-trade.html Thousands of wildlife species are threatened by illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade. For example, in recent months significant media attention has gone to the plight of the world's rhinoceros species, which are facing increased poaching as demand for their horns increases in Asia. In some parts of Asia, rhino horn is considered to be a powerful traditional medicine, used to treat a variety of ailments. While there is little scientific evidence to support these claims, the dramatic rise in poaching to supply this demand is pushing rhinos toward the brink of extinction.

According to https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/coral_bleach.html Warmer water temperatures can result in coral bleaching. When water is too warm, corals will expel the algae (zooxanthellae) living in their tissues causing the coral to turn completely white. This is called coral bleaching. When a coral bleaches, it is not dead. Corals can survive a bleaching event, but they are under more stress and are subject to mortality.

In 2005, the U.S. lost half of its coral reefs in the Caribbean in one year due to a massive bleaching event. The warm waters centered around the northern Antilles near the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico expanded southward. Comparison of satellite data from the previous 20 years confirmed that thermal stress from the 2005 event was greater than the previous 20 years combined.

This piece has not been completed yet, and is still in the building process, but this pendant will be a visual of deforestation. The saw blade behind the trees is an instant indicator to the deforestation that is happening around the globe rapidly due to mass amounts of land development and agriculture. 

Walt Disney's newspaper editor told the aspiring cartoonist he wasn't creative enough.

J.K. Rowling was a divorced single parent living on benefits when she wrote Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - and the book was rejected by 12 publishers before being snapped up by Bloomsbury.

We've all heard the failure stories of these incredible successful people.. It is inspiring, especially when you seem to be at a stand still. In my last post I talked about being a senior in college and trying to find where I am supposed to be in the world. I also talked about applying to art shows and how I was turned down on the first 2 that I applied for. I had applied for 4 more, knowing that I did not have a great chance of getting in. And, like I had assumed, I did not get invited to the first one I heard back from. It really did take a hit on my confidence when I found out I was denied, but I am still hopeful for the next three.  

The show that I got denied from was a world wide small metals show. This was an exhibition I assumed I would not get invited to because amazing artists from around the world submitted pieces, and this was one of the first metal jewelry pieces I had ever made. Of course I had hoped that I would get in, but in reality I had no real chance of making the cut. BUT what I do know is that the judges of this contest saw my name and my artwork. Whether it was good enough for their show or not, my name was put in front of people who had never seen it before.  The next show I will hear from is a cup show that is being judged by one of my favorite ceramic artists. I have the same outlook on this show as I did for the small metals one. Whether or not I get in doesn't matter as much as the fact that one of my favorite artists who is known around the world will see my cups and see my name associated with them. 

It is rare to be successful right out the gate. Artists especially take years or decades refining their work in order to become recognized for what they do. I am still young, and I still have plenty of time to find the recognition I am looking for. As I look forward to the next month waiting to hear from the other three shows, I will be applying for more shows, and looking for more ways to get my name and my work out there in order to get where I want to be. 

Being a senior in college, I have been thinking a lot about my future and where I want to be in a year. I know where I want to live, but I have no idea what my future plans are. I know I have a family business that I will work at, but what else? I Think I would like to work at a company called iD3, but they are downtown, and this family business is more important to me than that. As an artist, I don't want to lose that aspect of my life either. I know I want to keep creating, but right now I guess I don't really know how.
I have been stressing since last April about our Senior Exhibition that I will be participating in this coming April. The artists that were exhibiting their work were all students, but there was one in particular that stressed me out. Donté was a fantastic artist who has now gone on to The University of Iowa to complete graduate school. His portfolio of work and his resume was so intense that I didn't think I was good enough. He has exhibited at so many galleries, and had so many experiences that I did not have yet. I was stressed because I knew I needed to get my work out there, and apply for these exhibitions, but I really didn't know where to start.
I talked to Donte and a few teachers to figure out what I should be doing, and they just pointed me to a few websites that have calls for artwork. They basically told me to just build my portfolio of work by making things that I am proud of. Make things for the sake of being an artist and wanting to make things, not just because a teacher tells me to. If I am not proud of the work myself, then no gallery is going to want to display it either.
I immediately got online and started searching for calls. I applied to 2 calls with cheap admission fees. I got rejected from both. It was definitely saddening to get rejected, so I did not apply to any more for the rest of the summer.
I had to sit think to myself about what I am doing. I am a senior art student, and I need to be putting myself out there in order to get the recognition I want, and to get eyes on my work that I need.  I realized how many successful people started out by getting rejected or fired. I realized my starting place will probably not immediately push me into success. There are very few artists who became famous or dependent on their work overnight.
All of a sudden about 2 weeks ago, I started coming across these calls again, and found two that looked like I would have a good chance at. I decided it was worth the application fee just to try. One call was for a cup show that I stumbled upon through Instagram. I submitted 5 mugs I created this spring, and I am hopeful that at least 1 will be included in the exhibition. Another call was for a Small Works show that I submitted my Tipping Point coral necklace. I will hear back from that one in 3 days, so I am crossing my fingers. As a few days passed, 2 more opportunities came out of nowhere. There is no possible chance for me to be included if I don't try. So I did.  I have now applied for 4 calls. It has taken a while to get the courage, but I have started to put myself out there for my own benefit. For any other artist reading this, I highly encourage you to put yourself out there as well, no matter the skill level. We have to start somewhere, and there is no time like the present. It is never too early to try.

Below I have added a few pictures of the pieces I submitted.

Sometimes the Best Things in Life Just Take Time

     As I entered my spring semester in January, I set out to make 100 mugs before May. That may not seem like a difficult task, but 4 months is only around 120 days. On top of that, I was only on campus 4 days a week, which puts me at around 64 days. In those 4 months, I tried to create a set or series of mugs that went with a particular moment in time. This moment of time I chose was swimming with manta rays in 2013. I remembered the experience vividl because it was one of the most exciting things I had ever done. I remembered the darkness around us as we swam at night, and the millions of fish and bubbles surrounding us. As I tried to find adjectives to describe that scene, I also had to think of colors to use as a glaze.  Obviously I knew I wanted a dark blue color to show the dark ocean that surrounded us, but I also wanted to add in a light color to symbolize the streaks and spots of light that the divers below us were shining. This was a color combination that I had never used before, so I wasn't really sure how to go about finding it. I searched the internet and hundreds of glaze recipes to find a nice dark blue base to start with, and tried countless glaze tests. None of them were what I wanted. I ended up with lots of light blues and greens. I knew I had a "Floating Blue" glaze that I loved from high school, but it was a lighter color so I didn't initially think it would work. I gave up on finding glazes for a little bit and focused on the aesthetic for the mugs themselves.
     Thinking back to the experience, I remembered the bubbles most of all. Every time the divers below would breathe, it would send bubbles up to the surface where we were floating. It would tickle our stomachs, and leave crazy bubble trails as far as we could see. I also remember the manta rays doing flips in the water while they were feeding, and all the fish zooming past us. There was coral all along the bottom which also intrigued me. This lead me to these first couple mugs I produced.

As you can see, the I hadn't quite achieved the dark blue I was looking for. These glazes were all from the same glaze, but fired in different kilns. The more green colored mugs were fired in a kiln that had a ventilation system which allowed more oxygen into the system. The darker mugs were fired in a kiln with a more reduced atmosphere.  I was still not getting the aesthetic or color that I was looking for, so I continued in my search.

The two pictures above are a combination I tried on a tan clay. I wanted to see if adding a black glaze on top of the floating blue glaze would create the dark blue I was looking for. This glaze combination was tested before I figured out that the different kilns were producing different colors. This did indeed create the dark look I was going for, but I didn't like that the glaze on the outside of the mug was so sudden in color change. I wanted some flowing glaze action, but the two glazes were too stable to run freely. Now I had to figure out how to create that look on the entire mug.

Now it was too dark. The black glaze was too thick and covered up any detail or texture I created. I loved the rim color and a few spots on each of these mugs, but I was not pleased with the overall look of it. The top mugs originally had a beautiful carved texture that was just wiped out after it was fired with the glaze. Unfortunately, as any potter can tell you, ceramics can be heart breaking at times.

This was about March now, Dozens of mugs that were nice, but not what I was looking for. These mugs above were created with a black clay body. I thought that if I used a dark clay, my glazes would turn out darker as a result. This did turn out to be true for the first mug. That mug has the same floating blue as almost all of the mugs above, but is almost black now on top of the black clay. The mug on the right is also the black clay, but with a clear glaze on top. This one really surprised me....I used the black clay for the mug itself, and then used a slip trail bottle to create hundreds of dots with white clay. When the clear glaze was applied to the black clay, it turned brown. Also not what I was wanting, but created a great looking mug.

These mugs are all including the imagery I had designed to create the visual I had of the scene without being too literal, but none of them had the glaze I wanted still. These were all white clay with the floating blue on top. These have dots pushed in, as well as slip trailed dots on the outside. Some have textured carved into it, which causes the glaze to break nicely into a brown. I was loving these mugs that were coming out of the kiln, and I was like a kid on Christmas every time I opened a kiln. But I still had this vision in my head that I really wanted to achieve.

 

I FINALLY FOUND IT. After months of trying, and months of struggling, I finally found what I was looking for. I found that the black clay with a floating blue and a white glaze just around the rim made the most perfect glaze that accentuated the texture, and flowed beautifully in shades of dark blue, green, white and black. This perfectly captured the colors of the scenery and made an amazing glaze combination for the continuation of this series. This, unfortunately, came during the last week of the semester. Four months of exploration and experimenting, but the glaze finally came. The two large mugs are now kept in my personal collection to submit to cup shows. This series will now be expanded further, and will dive deeper into the imagery from this experience.  Pottery can involve extremely involved chemistry, as well as physics. It looks like a fun activity that would be mindless and stress relieving. While Throwing pots on the wheel is my happy place, it can be a challenging venture. It can be extremely rewarding, but it can also be heart breaking. Pieces breaking, blowing up, cracking, turning out completely wrong...
     Ive found wheel throwing to be my absolute passion, and I will continue making pottery as long as I am able. The journey is worth the reward.