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Claythings

September 28, 2013
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This is part of the chess-piece-based series done in the early 2000s. The surface is a faux finish obtained at Ace Hardware. The original was a fountain, including a birdbathy bowl with the same surface treatment, and a small pump, also obtained at Ace. The bowl started to get mineral-deposit funky, and the fountain effect (out of the top of the head) didn’t really add to the piece, so the bowl and the pump were ditched. Amazing, the similarity in facial features to Denise’s, though this was done years and years before we met.

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A few years after the chess series came the tower series. This skyscraperish tower seemed incomplete. I was doing birds at the same time, so I made one to append, with a fond tip of the hat to the classic 30s film KING KONG. The title is “Kingfisher Kong” though the avianesque wallhanger bears little resemblance to any of the Kingfisher clan. If I ever do a remake, the species resemblance will be more true to life.

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Here’s a close-up of “Pterence Dactyl,” making his second appearance in these blog posts.

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Here’s some miscellany standing guard in the garage. A couple of things using the plaster cast of my life mask; some functional pottery; a Status of Liberty and an Eiffel Tower from Jan Peterson’s “Draw from the Hat” qucik-sculpt assignments; another from the Tower series, and two survivors of the “Some Assembly Required” series, wherein I made vases, sliced them up with a fettling knife, and slipped and scored and reassembled them in non-functional arrays.

Fettling knife–slipping and scoring–roulettes, batts, banding wheels, double-bellied, slab roller, extruder, pug mill–I love the language of Ceramics!

 

Fractionalizing Functional Pottery

April 6, 2013
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P1010184This little piggie is glazed with Coleman Red-Orange.

P1010181This little piggie stays home: I’m not going to display it for sale at the Village Gallery, where my stuff hangs out. It’s got Cobalt Turquoise and White Liner going for it, and I can’t wait to put some Cottonwood flowers in it after Denise and I move there.

P1010185This little piggie went wrong, or not: Coleman Red-Orange again, and Cobalt Turquoise, but the Red-Orange morphed to a sort of red iron oxide just below the rim. But the ribbing was consequently better defined with that thinness. Still, I wish I’d kept the vessel inverted/immersed longer in the glaze.

Bowers_G_Black Satinbird_3D_ceramic_12X6x9_1This little piggie DID go to market; after being rejected by the Yavapai College Juried Art Show, I gave it shelf space at the Village Gallery, and a $35.00 price tag. Within 24 hours it was purchased by the spouse of one of my fellow artists–and there was a thank-you note in the cash envelope! Moral: Rejection need not be Forever.

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And this little piggie is going Wee Wee Wee all the way to the Valley of the Sun. It was commissioned by, and made especially for, stellar Valley poet Bill Campana. I’ve upended it to reveal the signature/date format I use. Feb 6 on top, 2013 on bottom, and my signature in the middle, with the O of Bowers coinciding with the center. Atypically, since this is a commissioned work, I’ve added “Made exclusively” (below Feb 6) and “for bill campana” (above 2013. Bill texts almost entirely in lowercase, including his name) to the foot inscription. (The bottom of a functional ceramic vessel is called the Foot. Other body parts, like Lip and Belly, come into play as well when a vessel is described.)

It has been too long since my “One with Clay” featured clay. Feels good!