All posts tagged: artist

Glaze Making

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One of my duties at the studio is to measure and combine the dry ingredients for glazes before hydrating them. The unfired glazes are almost never the same color as the finished product, but some of the ingredients are truly beautiful! Almost all the ingredients are a shade of white other than the colorants, although the textures vary widely- from powdered sugar(ferro frit) to sparkling white sand(spodumene)! The bright green and pink seen here are copper and cobalt carbonate, being mixed to make the color Variegated Blue. Isn’t chemistry cool!?

DC Realists Exhibition in Bethesda!

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A few days ago I replied to a call for entries to the DC Realists exhibition, and I was accepted!! Two of my pieces, including the one pictured above, will be on display April 10th-30th at the Artworks Gallery in Bethesda. I’m so excited!! This will be my first chance to display my 2D work since college, and the exposure could be really helpful towards selling my drawings and paintings in Frederick! The opening reception will be April 10th at 6pm, at 7740 Old Georgetown Rd, Bethesda, Maryland 20814. I can’t wait!!!

WIP of the Week: Fish Paintings!

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IT IS STILL SNOWING. This winter needs to end already. Since I was stuck inside for about the millionth time this winter, I decided to do some painting today! During college I did a couple paintings based on black moor goldfish, and they are still some of my favorite works! They’re different from my usual style, but something about them just really appeals to me. My first and most favorite is the one below, in rainbow! I have in hanging in my front entryway. I’ve also done one with ghostly white fish, which is much smaller and in my bathroom. I’ve been asked multiple times to sell the larger one but I just can’t part with it! So today, I’m working on a new version. A diptych! I think this one will turn out really really great. This is just the underpainting, I haven’t decided yet what color I want these fish to be- it could be another rainbow, or possibly black fish, or even a few black and a few orange! I also have a silver metallic …

Spring Goals

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There is currently at least 14 inches of snow on the table outside my window. Its like winter just totally kills my productivity! All I want to do is stay inside where its warm, and it really limits the activities you can do in general. In addition, spring is the start of the sale season for my pottery, and this will be the first year that I’m ready to sell my work all summer long! Usually this time right before spring would be the perfect time to really produce a lot of work- but the snow has stopped me from getting to, or staying at, the studio multiple times this month! I’ve been spending my days off thinking about what I’d like to accomplish in this first full year of my career, but before I go over my goals for the future, I wanted to recount my progress from last year. Last year I started working at the studio in April, and had my very first sales experience in early June at the studio Seconds Sale. Seconds are pieces …

Whoops…

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This week I had a tragedy. I had 2 full boxes (nearly 30 pieces) from the past couple weeks glazed, finished, priced, and ready to go into the shop. I parked in the parking lot of the shop and pulled the bigger box out of the car….and the handle of the cardboard box ripped off, crashing the whole thing to the ground. I saved only 2 pieces from this entire box. Even though it was heartbreaking, this is a good lesson to learn- theres absolutely nothing I can do about it now other than never use an unstable box ever again! My other box of work carried in a plastic bin survived just fine and is ready to be sold in the pottery shop. I’ll just have to remake the pieces I lost, and hopefully they’ll be even better the second time. Life goes on!

WIP of the week: Lids!

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This week I started playing around with lids. I’ve made lids in the past, but they’re never quite the right size- in trying to make sure they’re not too big I almost always make them too small! So I’m going to be spending a lot of time this month practicing lids. These vessels aren’t for any specific purpose other than to make a lidded jar, so some of them have kind of weird shapes. I like to test out new shapes and ideas whenever I’m not making something for a specific purpose because, who knows, it could become a favorite! I want to eventually be ready to make lidded casseroles, honey pots, and tea pots. These two pots actually switched lids! The bigger lid ended up fitting on the smaller piece and the smaller lid is too small for the one its on. Once they’re fired I may switch them back to their original pairs but in this picture, the piece on the right has a perfectly fitting lid and that was pretty cool! I also made a …

My Life

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My life is pretty amazing right now honestly. That’s one of the reasons I decided to start writing this blog- I feel like my life is going in a really good direction and I’m probably the happiest I’ve ever been. I think it’s a good idea for everyone to keep track of the things that make them happy and of their accomplishments, and even to remember their setbacks. So… Work My life as a potter is going amazingly. In april of last year I started renting a space at my studio and began to get back into pottery after over a year away since graduating college. My first pieces were not great at all and I was nervous, but it felt like I was really doing the right thing. I continued to work part time as a barista, going to the studio after work and on my days off, until september- when I decided it was time to take the plunge and quit my day job. I had been thinking about quitting almost since april, but was scared- …

Movin’ On Up!

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Today I stopped by the pottery shop where I display and sell my work and was happily surprised to see that I’ve been relocated to the second floor! I had previously been on the first floor, which is divided into a few smaller rooms, and I had a half-wall shelving area to show my work. Not a bad space by any means! The second floor however is where all the “serious” artists are located… artists who have a steady career off of their work and sell all across the country! I now have a wider, ceiling-height shelf all to myself, and a place card with my information on it. I am ecstatic!!