My very talented friend Mica Habarad of Habarad Creative Photo took some photos of my current clay classes in my home studio. Students have been making some truly outstanding work this summer! Thank you Mica for capturing the creativity on camera!
Monday, August 22, 2016
Summer Creative Drawing Class Projects
Figuring out shapes: Students practiced breaking down objects into shapes and created value charts to use for shading reference. |
Picasso's "Boy with a Pipe" gender flipped by Josie |
Van Gogh's "Portrait of a Woman" modernized by hoodie, By Kassia |
Van Gogh's "Old Man with Top Hat" and charcoal by Jaxon |
Frida Kahlo photograph and pencil By Ruby |
Caravaggio's "Boy with a Basket of fruit"also gender flipped by Lexi |
"Bucky Barnes" By Lily |
The summer highlight was a field trip to Heartland Humane Society where students drew cats, dogs, rabbits and birds! They did not want to leave ;)
Saturday, August 20, 2016
Summer Fun in Clay! Garden Art!
Sunday, May 15, 2016
Pit Firing Project
Students burnishing pottery to be pit fired |
Pottery was bisqued and students brought a variety of combustibles to wrap around their artwork including: Sawdust/ wood chips, twine, seaweed, potato chips, pork rind chips, moss and leaves, copper and steel mesh dish scrubbers, copper wire, newspaper, leaves/ twigs, etc. Each artwork was wrapped in various combustibles and placed into the pit that had been layered with additional materials.
Pottery wrapped in various materials |
Here is the basic process of a pit fire: To prepare the pit fire, a shallow pit is dug and layered with combustible materials ( I just used my fire pit out back). Pots are placed above the base layer of combustibles and then covered with more combustibles ( saw dust, newspaper, wood chips, manure, etc.). A fire is built on top and let burn until it dies down, then is smothered ( I poured wood chips over it) and allowed to smolder undisturbed until cool. *This is the smoky part (Students were not present during this stage of the process). The smoke swirls around the pots, penetrating into the clay and coloring the surface. Different elements in the combustibles leave different colors on the pots ( carbon= black, copper= pink, salt= yellow).
This was such a cool project because students were able to participate in much of the process and experiment with different materials to see what colors they produce when burned. The project also gave students a glimpse of traditional pottery techniques and presented them with new challenges. Students will polish their pieces tomorrow with wax to enhance the colors and I will post more photos of the finished pieces then. I am excited to see how they come out!
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Creative Drawing Class "Figuring out the Figure"
My Creative Drawing Class designed their own characters as part of our "figuring out the figure". I first had them sketch out a catalogue of features and then they fleshed out their figures. As always their drawings are wonderful and creative and I had to share.
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
March Mosaic Madness!
I am enjoying a break in between classes and having some much needed studio time! My first project is a mosaic for our kitchen. I made my own butterfly and leaf tiles and much of the river and sky pieces on which I melted marbles and used crystal glazes for some of the effects. I also used flat rocks, river stones, commercial tile pieces, dragons tears, and more. This was my first experience with a real mosaic and not just hand made tiles that all fit together, so it was fun to break up the pieces and arrange them ( and also a little maddening). I used thin set mortar to adhere the tiles onto 1/4" cement backing board that was then fixed to the wall with more thin set and screws. I got grout from Mid Valley Tile in Corvallis. A very fun project for me and I even included some tiles made by my favorite young artists. **Special thanks to my dear friend Avie Meadows for inspiring me with her beautiful mosaic and letting me use some of her tile scraps!
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