Pottery, Photography, Design - Brandon "Fuzzy" Schwartz
West Noble Primary is slowly becoming a community of clay artists.
Okay, maybe not, but we have finished our first Clay Camp! I came up with the idea a few months ago to offer an introductory clay class for interested staff members. There was plenty of interest so I started to put together a schedule, type out a “curriculum” and gather materials.
I’m down to the last three weeks of my Crystalline Texture and Decal class at the Goshen Clay Artists Guild. It has gone pretty quick but I’ve learned a lot. I missed the class on Monday because I was in Chicago (more on that to come). I didn’t really miss any important information but it would have been nice to have the extra time to work. I still have half a bag of clay left!
green crystalline
So, to the right you can see the crown jewel of my first three crystalline pieces. It is just a tiny vase but the crystals are extraordinary to my beginning-crystalline eyes. Of course, I can’t really take much of the credit. Eric was the one to mix the glaze and fire the kiln, the two most important part of the crystalline process. I just made the pot and brushed the glaze onto it.
But I still love the variety of darker turquoise crystals and the fantastic little green crystals in the background. I hope we can duplicate this on some other pieces.
I just finished the third week of class at the Goshen Clay Guild. It has been great so far. I’ve met a lot of cool people and learned a few things. We have had one class with each of the three teachers so far.
texture notes
First, Eric Kaufmann (I confess, I spelled his name wrong twice before looking it up) gave us an introduction to the class and talked about crystalline glazes. Then Cindy Cooper subbed for Bob Smoker and gave us a lot of demonstrations and ideas for texture. Last night Justin Rothshank talked about decals. In between demos and instruction, and during lab nights on Thursdays, we get a lot of time to throw on the wheel or work on whatever we like.
pottery shelf so far
I’ve been working with the B-Mix that Eric uses and trying to get used to it. I’ve made little test pieces and catch basins for the crystalline glazes. I can’t wait to learn more about the glazing and firing. I’ve already looked up some ^6 crystalline recipes. The B-Mix has taken some getting used to. It is a lot smoother than the stoneware I’m used to but I get nervous to push it too far.
decal notes
The decals we are going to be using are printed with black and white toner from an HP laser printer. The iron in the print turns a sepia/brown when it is fired. There are also color decals that you can order but they are a lot more expensive to get custom images made. Apparently a little site called ebay is a pretty good resource for finding them though. Maybe I’ll have to take a look and see what’s available. My notes are to the left. Good luck reading them… I’m not even sure I can read them! I was scribbling like mad. So furiously that I broke out into a sweat. For a moment I thought I might have to sit down, but then a girl passed out (!) and we took a break and got some fans. Don’t worry, she was okay after waking up and drinking some water. And I was okay too…
cups with decals
Here are a few cups with decals. The third one from the left was a crystalline piece by Eric. Justin applied some plant decals and refired it to see if it would work without ruining the crystals. Looks good to me! Second from the left is a color decal. The other two are black and white decals. Justin printed out a page of decals for us if we had images ready. I just used some of the images that I used to order my rubber stamps for some of my other projects.
Check back in a few weeks and I should have another update. Happy 4th of July!
I’m officially on summer break, looking forward to a summer full of mixing glazes, making pots and spending time with my girls.
And since I finally have a summer where I’m not taking reading classes or painting murals, I can take a class that I’m actually excited about:
Goshen Clay Guild – Summer Class
That’s right, I’m signed up for this fantastic class at the Goshen Clay Artists Guild. Instructors include Bob Smoker, Eric Kaufmann and Justin RothShank. It should be good!