Journey To The West - Part 1

A commission I was working on this year for a brand new hotel in China. The work is based on a piece of the same namesake, but on a larger scale.

The pictures here show the progression of the project, starting from top down.

1. Hand built Gault 10 paper clay tubes. The tallest greenware piece is 50"H, the shortest is 35"H.


2. Fired to Cone 10 oxidation, bare clay. One fire from greenware straight to Cone 10. No glazes were necessary


3. Treated with a paint primer to seal the ceramic surface.


4. Custom paint treatment.


5. The finished grouping, "Family Ties." The "ties" were re-purposed from nylon strapping I salvaged from the trash from a well known electronic store. The bow design is my own.

I'll post more pictures after the piece has been installed, sometime early next year.

Tea Bowls

The tea bowl on the left was given to me by my Japanese language teacher before she returned to Japan.

I made the one on the right for my own daily use. Hand built paper clay. Texture is from mixing cooked rice with the paper clay before making the pinched shape. Stained with black and red iron oxides. The inside is green celadon glaze. Fired to Cone 10 reduction.

Work In Progress #2

Another project in progress.

I'm looking at adding a section to the bottom to raise the piece up higher for visual interest.

The piece as been fired to Cone 10 oxidation. The exterior color is the natural color of the sculpture paper clay, Gault 10 PClay from Aardvard. I'm entertaining some interesting ideas for the exterior surface of the pod.

The inside details are from my R&D with dipping coffee filters in paper clay slip (Southern Ice porcelain), and fired to Cone 5 oxidation.

The inside surface of the pod is coated with Black Mountain paper clay (home made) and feldspar crystals. At Cone 10, the feldspar crystals "pop" and you can see them quite clearly. No glazes used. Present height 28"H.

Work In Progress #1

Some pictures of one of my many works in progress.

Am still deciding how to finish the piece. I have several ideas in mind ranging from using acrylic paint washes/embellishments to incorporating hand made Japanese paper.

Hand built sculptural paper clay, southern ice porcelain paper clay. Black mountain sculpture clay and feldspar crystals were used to coat the inside of the pod.

The main piece was fired to Cone 10 reduction. The more delicate "tendrills" were fired to Cone 5 and then assembled. The white glaze on the flared opening is beaded white (Cone 10) on white porcelain paper clay.

Height: 26"H

Taking Time Off

I've been taking time off for myself to work on new projects and to recharge by "batteries" so to speak. Am looking forward to getting back with renewed energies and insights.

Stay tuned for more pictures!

Invaluable Paper Clay Technique

This Is one of the major advantages of paper clay over a traditional clay, being able to continuously work on a piece even though the base piece is bone dry, in this case, adding wet paper clay onto a bone dry paper clay base. I use this technique often in my sculptures.

In this current project, I decided to add some texture to the pyramid base of my new succulent planter. I find the smooth sides too blah and in need of some interesting texture for the glaze to grab onto. The base was recycled from another project so I was happy to be able to use it with a bit of modification.

I knew I wanted some thick heavy texutre so I lathered on a thick layer of paper clay slip the consistency of heavy oatmeal on each side, and then proceeded to gouge deep furrows in the still wet paper clay slip to get my design. This process was repeated for each of the four sides of the base. The piece was then set out to dry. Then it will be ready for bisque fire.

It’s a Gut Thing

No, I’m not talking about the Thanksgiving feast most of us have partaken in this year, nor am I talking about the extra pounds most of us will put on between now and the new year that will make many of us flock to a gym to make good on our New Year’s resolution to be in better physical shape for the new year.

I’m refering to something we feel and use all the time as artists creating our works. It is a very experiential and personal feeling and may even defy explanation, but we all feel it, either consciously or subconsciously.

They are words I say to myself, “I like it” or “It feels right.” At times, it’s the other way around when I look at my piece in progress and, “Hmmm, that’s not working out. I don’t like the feel of it.”

I think as artists we rely on this internal feedback a lot more than we ever imagine. It is done continuously and intuitively as we create a piece of work and all the way through till the end of the project. We rely on our gut feelings and our individual esthetics to place the next  blob of clay on our sculpture, to reposition or remove the clay until it looks and feels right to us.

We do not go by text books or set formulae to direct our hands and eyes which work so naturallly and efficiently that to others it may look like magic what an accomplished aritist or scluptor can do.

Sure, you learn the fundamentals and basics from your teacher, mentor, or from a course. That will only take you so far. After that, you are on your own. It’s you, your preferred medium, in my case, paper clay, your esthetics and your gut.

So, take pride in that feeling that makes each of us unique, creating our own works of art to share with the world.

Trust in your gut.