Art by Fuzzy

Pottery, Photography, Design - Brandon "Fuzzy" Schwartz

Surface Class Update – 3 Weeks In

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

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

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

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

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!

School’s Out… Let’s Take a Class

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

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!

A Great Saturday in Goshen

Saturday turned into a really great day.  My wife and I got to see the open house for the Goshen Photographer’s Guild and the Painter’s Guild.  We got to see some great work at the Goshen Clay Artist’s Fall sale and purchased some sweet treats at the Farmer’s Market.  We had some great pizza from Chicago’s Downtown Eatery in Bristol and I got to see an intense triple OT football game.  To make it even better we got a call from the Goshen Photographer’s Guild because we won the door prize: an iPod touch!

I’ve got some finished pottery that I glaze fired last weekend.  I’ve also got some senior photos to work on and put up here.  So be on the lookout for some great posts in the near future.

HU Alumni Art Show A Success

HU Alumni Exhibit

HU Alumni Exhibit

On October 2nd, my wife and I traveled back to Huntington University to see some friends, take in some homecoming activities and attend the artist reception for the Alumni Art Show.

It was great to see Professor Coffman, Professor Hopper and a few other alumni artists.  There was a good variety of work and the reception was pretty well attended.

I submitted two ceramic works and a digital photo print.  If you missed the show here is a digital version of the work I submitted:

Under an Oak Tree

Under an Oak Tree

Under an Oak Tree

This is a digital photo that I took near Dublin, Michigan.  It was taken with a Canon 30D and a kit lens with a close-up attachment.

Brown and Blue Vase

Brown and Blue Vase

Brown and Blue Vase

This is wheel-thrown stoneware glaze fired to cone 6.

Brown Lidded Vessel

Brown Lidded Vessel

Brown Lidded Vessel

Wheel-thrown stoneware fired to cone 6 in an electric kiln.

Other Work I Considered

It was tough to decide what to send to the show.  I considered a number of different ceramic pieces and had a few photographs including some from Cancun.  If you would like to read a bit more, you can view my artist statement.  There will also be some photos on the Facebook Page.

Huntington University Alumni Art Exhibit

The Robert E. Wilson Gallery at Huntington University is showing work from graduates of the art program.  I submitted two ceramic pieces and a photograph for the show which will run from September 10th to October 7th.  There will also be an artist reception during Homecoming weekend on October 2nd from 1:3o to 3:00pm.

A few months ago I was contacted to see if I had any interest in an alumni show.  I thought it was a great idea, and so did some other alumni, so I went to work on selecting pieces, dusting off my resume, putting together an artist statement and getting some digital images ready.  The decision process was somewhat difficult because I had sold or given away many of my recent ceramic ware, especially my “favorites.”  But luckily I had most of the stuff from my latest glaze fire and even a few older pieces that I still like.  And I had just taken some close-up nature photos which I thought might look good on a gallery wall.  So I got everything packed up and shipped and I received word Friday that the package arrived safely.

So if you are in the Huntington area, go check out some art work by Huntington University alums.