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.