Even If I've Experienced It Before...

Yes...happened this week.  A "fractured" piece of work.  What you see with this post is actually a piece I made _from_ pieces left.  But this time, only a few unrecognizable pieces and lots of dust at the bottom of the kiln.  And yes, my wonderful dragonfly piece.  Now, I absolutely must learn to use my digital...the only camera I had before it went into bisque was a "throwaway" deal, and haven't gone to Walgreen's yet...  If I can share the original later, I will.

Wishing always that I knew the magic key that keeps a piece from cracking, or blowing up.  Dry time, clay used, air bubbles ... so many things.  When I opened the kiln top and saw a piece of a wing, I knew.  And of course, my heart sank.  Yet, as I've said above -- even if I've seen the shards before, there will always be that little gasp.  But not the expletives I surely used a decade ago when I first began my journey with clay.

I've started my new series -- "Artist as Muse."  A long time coming and now I'm excited about the process.  I will definitely do some "pin pricks" throughout re Glenda to hopefully avoid bubbles...  So much to learn about this translation of a photograph into bas relief.  Because I never took courses in the drawing aspects ...ie, foreshortening etc... I have to constantly look, readjust, and redo.  Now, out comes the mirror.  That means, holding the piece up to the mirror to see if the form rings true.  Jonnie taught me this tip so many years ago and I shall surely need it now.

Interesting to be creating pieces of me ... yet that's the magic of this endeavor.  I created all the poses, had photographs taken, and after enlargement, utilize the photo as a kind of template to start.  I realized this week what an eerie feeling to be staring at myself in the photo day after day ... and trying to create the image in clay.  I made a major decision not to have any faces ... because the emphasis is on the pose, on the line, the truth to the photo...  More on all of this as the piecees unfold.

And the other decision that came with this first of the series -- to wax out the background, dip the piece if possible, and attach to a canvas frame -- not framing this set as in earlier works.

Did have one piece ... a tree .. that did make it through the bisque.  I shall glaze it tomorrow ... it is VERY thin and fragile, but am hoping it will truly make it to the finished product.  Writing critical for me, and I've too long been away from this blog.

Staying on task

For days now I've been taking off the double-layered plastic bags and putting them back on, inserting the dampened towel...all to keep it dry as I do the work.  I look at the dragonfly piece...each time thinking "ok, I'll finish up today."  Yet, always some new glitch, such as how to prop upthe wings for a more dimentional effect.  Or, looking at my original texturing created ay a metal belt (actually belonged to my mother -- the motto:  SAVE FIRST, USE LATER).  Or, realizing the background..a complex spider-web grid still not cleaned up to show an even, yet soft pattern.  So...another day to tending to detail.

Part of producing this piece demanded I had to call upon the encyclopedia of the Internet -- looking for close-ups of dragonfly wings, for some possibilities of how I could translate the fantastic patterns in nature to a strip of clay.

Even now, I wish I could have incorporated some multi-media presentation with transparency and exactness of the designs in thenatural world.  But I'll leave this pondering for another piece.

The terrors of the kiln await.  I'm testing the limits of clay in this work -- of course, worrying about air bubbles, too thick, too thin, totality of dryness of clay.  I will have 2 pieces to bisque soon:  the fluid movement of a tree; and the dragonfly on a a bed of dandelions.

As I complete these pieces, I'm already thinking about the next step -- decorating, glazing, considering this time to utilize waxing so some areas just the color of the clay body.  And then experimenting with glazing multiple colors.  Oh...and think I will call Gail to see how to use melted glass in part of the flowers?

Upon completion of these two pieces, I shall begin the work on the next show "Artist as Muse."  For this show, I must hunker in and get to the task at hand -- creating a series of nude bas relief pieces based on photographs of me ... photos already taken.  At 65, I want to remain true to every bit of flab, sag, and cellulite ... though always the temptation to fix just this and that...