Look at these beauties

These little ceramic bas reliefs are responsible for the majority of the work of our sculpture class this semester. We are collaborating with Ferris' Card-Riley Wildlife Center to create touchable displays for the museum. It has been quite a journey and a huge learning experience for all of us. It's a good thing we had excellent help  and advice along the way. Below are a few of them up close, right before they were bisque fired. The students are currently working on the glazes. Stay tuned for the color versions.

 

Practice

My students have been working on a ceramics bas relief from imagery they took from Ferris' natural history museum, the Card-Riley Center. The pieces will be displayed along with their original source animal/plant/fish, as touchable art. I've done some work with ceramic clay before, but it has been a longgg time. As a refresher, I made this little  piece loosely based on an image I took under a pier in San Diego. Or it could have been La Jolla. I'm surprised at the level of detail you can get with this type of clay.

    The student's work looks great, and the next step for us, after the bisque firing, is to paint on the glazes. I wish I had a little more time and patience to fuss with this one, but I reckon it will do as a place to experiment with the glazes.

 

Dickens and the Sealed Off Heart

My friend Olive always reads Dickens during Christmas time, and so, I searched through my Kindle and there was a little set of stories by him that I didn't know I had! And even though his stories have a sad side, they usually cheer me up in the end. So, I started making my way through "The Seven  Poor Travellers" and got stopped by the sentence, "His heart was in the right place, but it was sealed off." This condition could apply to many people I know. 

    At the same time, I've been thinking about easy ways to cast molds, and came across some ideas about using paper as a casting material. I did it 100 years ago, and guess what? They still look good! 

    This is my first idea for combining the two: Dickens' excellent observation and a sketch for a paper bas relief of a sealed off heart. It is probably too direct, but maybe it will lead to more sophisticated ideas :)

 

My first sculpture in years and years

I really thought I'd be printmaking this semester. But, things change. 

My sculpture students are doing bas reliefs of gargoyles, and since I have to demo on something, I started this based on an old drawing.

I have to admit, with all the troubles right now, it is lovely to use my old tools again and lose myself in this face.