What's Cooking

During the last class of teen wheel we baked sugar cookies in the test kiln. I have always wanted to roll out dough in the studio slab roller for cut out cookies. I used silicone baking liners to sandwich the dough before steam rolling it as thin as possible. They then cooked two at a time on a sheet of parchment. The kiln seemed to only cook the top surface which turned brown and crisp but very gooey underneath. Some we flipped over to cook the other side and some we took our chances and just ate raw.

I think next session we'll go back to making s'mores. The marshmallows get obscenely large in the kiln and I miss the chocolate!  Sign up for class at 171 Cedar Arts.  We start up again on January 3rd for 7 weeks of sculpting mayhem.

Sticker Risks

For weeks I have been in overdrive producing Christmas wares. Every time I enter this zone of mass production or hyper output my mind wanders and I actually become more creative.  Just today, while shopping at Big Lots the creative force lured me into the craft aisle where what to my wondering eyes do appear but Thickers, thick stickers. They remind me of the puffy stickers from my youth. I had a whole sheet of Ziggy stickers with quote bubbles. Ziggy is a little like Dilbert and Maxine. He's definitely got a chip.  By the way I also purchased Thickers in chip board and foil covered chipboard as shown.

I am going to attempt to use them with clay. If you have seen my pottery each piece is quite unique in part due to my creative A.D.D.  It is impossible for me to let myself make the same thing twice. I need to learn something new each time I make a piece or I get bored.  And if I am bored chances are you will be too.

So we'll see what comes of my new tools.  I can add them to a plaster mold before I cast it with a soft slab or lay out a design to impress on a flattened slab before constructing it into a cylinder to create the body of a mug or vase. The decorative corner pieces are going to become feet for my square dishes. Oh, if only I had bought another package I could use them on my hexagonal and octagonal dishes as well. Yikes, I may have to go back to the store which means I may find more toys to play with.

I'll try real hard to focus and keep to my studio for the next couple of days.

Needs More Cow Bell

It's nice to be back in the studio after the holiday break. I actually got an early Christmas gift (or a late birthday present). I have been rockin out all morning to Pandora on my new Sony Dash. It came yesterday in the mail and my husband and I stayed up late creating different stations.

I'm a little disappointed with my Eye of the Tiger Station. I was counting on it to wake me up and get me moving in the studio. It's one of my favorite tunes on Just Dance. For those of you who play my high score is 11,476. That song is a huge confidence booster and a great warm up (the dance version) when I get a little chilled in my subterranean studio. I frequently take warm up breaks making a cup of tea, checking email or playing Wii. However, I skipped so many of the preselected Pandora tunes that I ran out of skips. It kept playing John Lee Hooker type songs. Go figure. I was sure to thumbs up my favorite tunes, Police, Foreigner, Guns n'Roses, then I noticed how much I really like the cow bell.  I wish there was a way to create a station around this instrument. It is perfect for getting in the decorating rhythm. And I was doing a lot of decorating this morning. My shelves are filling up fast for another pre- Christmas firing but not quite as fast as if I had more cow bell.  Now I know what to ask Santa for!

Sweet Beast

Here's the little beastie himself
at the show posing with his finished
piece. I never saw this piece truly
vertical until it was hung on the
pristine gallery wall the night before
the opening. As you'll see below the
piece was built on a giant easel which
was slightly tilted.

I actually built this to look more hefty
and solid than the other two mural
pieces in the show. However, the
weightiness contradicts the tone of the
subject which is why I chose to paint it
like a cloud alternating layers of
translucent blues and yellows.

The detail to the left is an earlier blue layer.
The thick french cleat adhered to the back
of the piece suspends it from the wall so it
floats about an inch off the surface.

I love the depth within the image, the
vulnerability of the dangling arm and the
intrusive high relief of the wild boar.
Many of the Greek metopes are miniature
scenic sculptures with figures carved in full
dimension on a shallow plane rather than
contrived relief.    It was somewhat difficult
to stay true to this method of composing.
I made many small clay sketches to visualize
and correct the proper pose and tension.

The easel is still flat while the clay sets up.  Once firm it can be tilted almost vertical.  I started modeling from a thick slab slicing through and stuffing with shredded paper to plump out the figures.  The arm was coiled from the shoulder down to the hand.  When dry it was fired flat in one piece in an electric car kiln (my dream kiln) which happens to be the same identical size as the trunk of my car.

Pieces Parts

Had to look at my photos from Greece as I contemplate my new figurative work. I'm still hooked on the fragment although I've added a narrative element. My son has inspired a new take on the Centaurmachy. I'm having some trouble finishing up the series I started in July since my muse has been behaving. Of course we have taken actions to curb his appetite for sugar by providing lots of fruit and implementing a ban on all frozen treats. If given the opportunity, he is weak. Halloween will be here but not soon enough my show opens October 29th!

These images depicting the 12 Labours of Herakeles are metopes from the Temple of Zeus in Olympia. Their display is amazing mounted at eye level. The Parthenon metopes depicting the centaurmachy are in situ and are difficult to see. Perhaps the new museum displays them up close and personal. It hadn't openend yet when I visited in the spring of 2009.

The modeling of the figures has a strange completeness about it despite the obvious missing pieces. The roundness of the form in a protruding limb combined with the dynamism of the gesture really captures the essence of the narrative despite the very literal original composition.

The Cupboard Is Bare

This is all that's left after a great studio tour weekend. On Wednesday I'll back it up to deliver to Handwork in Ithaca so if you see anything you like let me know before then. Below are the remaining gargoyles, downspout covers, and bird houses. 

Today's Paper

Check out a few photos of my studio courtesy of the Star Gazette.  Great camera and good eye Jeff Richards!  You made my studio look so spacious.

I also have to thank my friend and professional photographer, Ann Cady of ARC Photographic Images, for the excellent head shot.  The local papers used it often.  See the Corning Leader Article.  She also does an amazing job capturing the true color, surface and form of my ceramics.

Ready for another great day on the tour.  It's been a lot of fun seeing everyone.

Tour Guide Flair

Abel had a lot of fun rounding up visitors on his bike for the studio tour today.  He gives a great tour!  I think he picked up some skills this summer when we toured Laura Ingalls Wilder's Home.  He's also a big fan of my pins and magnets.  You'd think he worked on commission.  They're pretty flowery but if you poke them through Spiderman's eyeballs it's all boy.

www.colleenmccallceramics.com

Check out my new website!  It's very exciting to have it out there.  Hopefully, a few people begin to follow the blog besides my bestest friend in the whole fourth grade, Faith Pray.

Besides activating my site today I finished up decorating some leatherhard work.  Of course, I was thinking I would slop on some clear glaze and still get it in the kiln, once-fired, for the studio tour this Saturday.  We'll see. Not only are they covered in wax, it is raining outside.  Tomorrow I will madly glaze after unloading a warm bisque kiln.  Darn that dentist appointment in the middle of the day.  If only I could glaze in my basement at least I would be in the same town as the dentist office.  Soon enough!

A Studio of My Own

I can't believe it's done!  I mean constructed.  My deadline was the upcoming Elmira Studio Tour on October 2nd and 3rd.  I promise the paint won't be wet but the smell may linger.  It's all good.  We'll toast some s'mores in the kiln and let the sweet scent of marshmallows and chocolate take over.  I'm itching to finish up the painting and move in.  Of course, I am still on the hunt for a mid-size electric kiln.  Perhaps, if you build it, the kiln will come.

Adam cleared his schedule and got down to work a day after I called.    He, along with occasional help from my fellow potter and teaching accomplice, Christian, built me two walls, installed seven new basement windows and two doors as well as wired in six lights and ten outlets.  The walls required some creative rerouting of duct work which also left me with more head room and heat in my studio.

Working conditions were not optimal since the old windows had been nailed shut and there was only one outlet to begin with.  Did I mention we live near the river?  Yes, the one that flooded our neighborhood in 1972.  As the walls were hammered into place thick chunks of flood mud would bounce out of the joists.  It coated the walls as well.  I briefly considered firing a piece in the kiln to see if it had any potential as a glaze but soon concluded I just wanted it gone.  I know there is plenty more in the rafters of the garage if I really want to try it one of these days.

I'll post some finish photos soon when I stop blogging and get back to painting.

What's in your trunk?

The morning sun shines into my trunk as I collect my wet sculptures for their trip to the kiln in Corning.  I love these guys.  They're so fun to make.

The kids want to put more downspouts on the house so we can have one of each animal.  Usually our frog is under the Hydrangea and the fish is on the street side of the house where he does double duty as a chipmunk home when it's not raining. In the winter the fish is very cute too with a drool icicle and a snow mohawk on his fin.

These first two were sculpted from a solid block of clay for a Gargoyle class I taught.  The best part is scooping out the guts.  I should have a good collection of critters available at the studio tour and again in the spring time at Handwork in Ithaca, NY.

Working with the Figure

Spent the month in Alfred working on figure pieces for an October show in Corning.  It was beyond amazing.  A little weird at first to be back at my alma mater and such a time warp when you see old colleagues there in that tiny little town who look almost younger. Then once you get back into your work you forget the past 12 years of your life and it's like you never graduated.  I guess that's why I started sculpting my children.  Maybe I missed them a little too.

Olive is a life-size kore figure complete with archaic smile and Abel is a trophy bust.  The two of them set the scene for our family's real life centaurmachy which is captured in a series of ceramic tiles in the style of the Hellenistic temple metopes.  I'll post more on the exhibition as the date gets closer.

Think Spring

Despite the foot of snow outside, our biggest storm of the year, it is spring in the studio. I am soaking up the extra hours of daylight and slathering on a thick coat of porcealin slip to brighten up my floral designs. The colors are cheerful and the patterns are lush. If you look closely you'll even notice a new and improved clear glaze! Now my greens are fresh and vivid.

New work is available at Handwork in Ithaca and Cappy's in Elmira.

Still trying to launch a web page so I can show more of my work. How is it that I can sit for hours in the studio tediously painting layers of colors but get anxious and overwhelmed the moment I sit in front of the computer.