Developing Ideas

These are some of the sculptures I've been working on recently. They are coil built, but as with much of my work, they could easily be slipcast and I think I'm headed that way. I am working on the solid forms now, so that the shape itself works, and then when I get them out of the mold I can play with the shapes of the openings. The one on the left came from another pot/sculpture I made years ago and have not finished (couldn't decide on glazing), so I decided to make another piece with an eel spine so that I could test glazing. The shark shape and the mouth seemed to fit, and then my sister observed that it would be interesting, while simpler, without the eel at all. For the slipcast forms I also plan to try out a technique I've been dying to use: water erosion. More on that when it happens.

New Experiments

This week I have begun my terra sig tests-- a 4-gallon bucket of deflocculated slip is currently settling and will be waiting for me to siphon off the top part tomorrow. I also will mix and fire some of my glaze tests in my quest to develop a good satin matte cone 06 glaze. I hate mixing and testing, but it is a necessary evil as I have a bunch of sculptures waiting for me to finish them and have yet to develop a suitable palette for my current work.

A big deadline in September is looming: my first art fair. So far stress has not kicked in because I had given myself plenty of time and planned out a good schedule for completing work (including my glaze and surface finish experimentation). However, my husband has just been given an opportunity to go on a business trip to Taiwan, and we decided to make a longer trip of it, explore Taiwan, and visit Japan at the same time. The bottom line for me is: three less weeks to finish my work for my show! Not that I'm complaining :] but I am beginning to panic!

Money Talk

They say never to mix friends with business, and I understand why. Money is a touchy subject and just the feeling that someone is taking advantage of you can destroy any good feeling between two people. However, going into business with a friend makes the "job" seem like fun-- the "job" being the business side of art: the marketing, the contracts, the purchasing, the organization and planning.

I am lucky enough to have a friend to do business with, who I actually met in my first graduate class at Hood College and who I did my Certificate show with last year. Our partnership seems to work well because she is great at social things and organization (delivering press packets, calling about information, remembering deadlines, etc) and I am good at creating posters, postcards, banners, etc.

Still, we have only recently begun talking frankly about money and the need to write out some rules about who contributes what. Both of us would rather have a friend than a business partner when it comes down to what's most important, so we are committed to keeping a good line of communication going about money and anything else that one of us might feel slighted over.

My question for any readers is: have you ever gone into business with a friend or group of friends (for a show, art fair, studio space, gallery, long term or short term), and how did it work out?

The Never-Ending Glaze Dilemma

I cast several pieces this week and took some time to look through ceramic art books (500 Bowls, 500 Animals in Clay, etc.) to tackle, once again, a question I have a hard time answering: how do I want to glaze my work?

Looking through the books, I came back to a conclusion I have reached before: I love satin finishes. Glossy glazes rub me the wrong way with their constant reflections of light, and rocky glazes don't suit my style, although I should probably look that way in the future. However, the perfect satin finish has often eluded me. I worked in cone 6 sculpture last year, and eventually developed a satin barium white glaze that satisfied me, but it has a couple of failings.

One: It's for stoneware, which I've decided to avoid for the time being (the prevailing reason is that I am now exploring non-functional work in an electric kiln and have no need for the extra strength or possible food-safety qualities of stoneware).

Two: Colors were limited to what I could achieve with oxides, and few of the non-white colors measured up to my hopes. Underglazes and mason stains mostly burned out, which was expected but disappointing.

Three (and by far the most important): I am not overly conscientious about safety when it comes to mixing and using glazes, and I've decided that if I'm going to continue this way (and I am), I can't be using hazardous glazes. Hence no barium glazes.

At any rate, since I am using earthenware, a whole new realm opens up to me: terra sigillata. I have experimented with it before, but somehow in my readings I failed to notice an integral quality of terra sig: it does not work above cone 02. The tiny clay particles begin to crinkle above that range, ruining its lovely satiny sheen. I was using it on cone 6 ware and becoming bitterly disappointed with its rough stony quality. I finally re-read my terra sig information and took note of the crucial temperature limit, and was forced to discard it for my stoneware work. An absolutely wonderful article on terra sig can be found here.

But I'm working with earthenware now! Therefore I plan to revisit terra sig for my new work, especially since I have gotten sticker shock while testing commercial satin glazes. Yikes! I will be developing a good satin white glaze (that can be colored with oxides and stains), and also some terra sig. Hopefully one of these routes will pan out.