March 2018

TEXTILES/WEAVING

I've finally completed weaving the "water" and now on to the beach/sand area. I enlarged the portion of the artwork so I could better follow the colours.

To make it easier to find the wool (colours) we wanted I spent an hour or so attaching a short piece of wool to each box and then organised all the boxes into their colour groups. It saved time when looking for a particular wool colour!

Textiles (weaving) 12 hours

Ordering and organising wool 2 hours

PLANNING/ORGANISING

I'm a bit ashamed as I only got around to filling out one of these weekly planners over March. I was preparing for my daughter's wedding in Tauranga on the 10 March, then after the wedding and returning home I was then focusing on getting  for my trip to Wellington. Excuses I know, but I am trying to discipline myself in writing done my goals and tasks for each day/week.

Planning/Organising 1 hour

  

TEACHING/ENCOURAGING OTHERS

Ricky and I worked on the rest of the crosses we'd started before Christmas. 

We also started another wooden assemblage for his Mum. Ricky's measuring, cutting, and screwing skills continue to improve with each project.

Mosaic work - 5 hours

3D Design/wooden assemblage - 5 hours

PRINTING IMAGES ON FABRIC USING INKJET PRINTER

I offered to make printed calico bags for a lady at work whose husband makes kauri puzzles. Along time ago I bought freezer paper with the intentions of printing on fabric with my printer so once I'd located that I cut out an A4 piece and ironed it on the back of a piece of calico. Care needs to be taken with cutting as any frayed edging can get caught in the printers' rollers.  Hans had a hand-drawn image which I scanned onto my laptop and edited it ready for printing. Unfortunately, despite my efforts to ensure clean cut edges, the fabric still jammed. I'm yet to retry printing it...

Textile printing 1 hour

3D DESIGN/SCULPTURE: WHALE TAIL

I've been itching for some time to do some carving and decided to sculpt a whale tail out of the piece of hebel. I find the process calming and soothing.

3D Sculpture 3 hours

PHOTOGRAPHY: 

I drove to Tauranga with my parents, who are 89 (Dad) and 80 (Mum)  for my daughter's wedding on the 10th of March. We stopped off at my Dad's sister's place for a cuppa and I snapped a few photos before we left as it may be the last time they see each. 

We stopped at Karangahake Gorge for lunch and I used the opportunity to capture some of the beautiful scenery on camera.

The day before the wedding we took a drive to Mt.Maunganui which is not far from Tauranga. We enjoyed a stroll along the beach-front which was only a stones-throw from the shops, cafes and apartments and the surf was spectacular and imposing! Here's a few of my photographs.

The morning of my daughter's wedding...

...it was a beautiful morning. While the bridal party was getting the hair an hair and makeup done, I snapped a few more photos.

The flowers...

...and the venue where the wedding and reception was being held was lovely!

Painting 4 hours

MORE PHOTOGRAPHY

 

 

 

Photography/editing 14 hours
Blogging 10 hours

CERAMICS

I continued to make soap dishes as they have been selling well. I also spent a couple of evenings glazing and looking on the internet for a boot pattern that I could use to make herb planters. I'm really keen to try pit firing now the weather has cooled down and have a stack of wood that I could use (hopefully before my Diploma concludes in May)

Ceramics: hand-building soap dishes 3 hours

hand-glazing bisque-fired pottery 3 hours

Internet research (design) 1 hour

I can't remember if it was a TLC student or someone else on Facebook but I came across the  YouTube video (below)  and I wanted to post it here on my blog so I could remember it for the future. Onta ware, Japan also spelled Onda, refers to a type of Japanese pottery produced in and around the village of Onta in Ōita Prefecture, Japan.  If I ever go Japan, I would definitely visit "Onta" 

The earth for the pottery is found in Onta in the mountains. It normally comes in the form of rocks and needs to be ground to a pulver. This is done by the usage of traditional water scoops or mills called kara-usu, which rely purely on the flow of the river. The wooden mills grind the earth into a powder, which is then washed and filtered multiple times to purify the material. It is then dried, sometimes over a large oven. 

The village is a tightly-knit community, with families of potters going back generations. The work such as the purification of the earth is done by women, while men are responsible for actually creating the wares. Pieces are never signed by an individual but only with the sign of the Onta village. This is to signify that the production of a single vessel was the combined work of the community, not just one person. 

Onta ware traditionally consists of utility vessels such as bowls, plates, and tea cups. The style is most often slipware.

l love the way they purify the mud (all by hand!) and the respect they have of the environment for generations to come. Amazing work, the connectivity and sustainability by not commercializing into industrial product which inspires me to view my soapmaking and papermaking in the same way.

February 2018

Tapestry/Weaving

I continued to work on the community tapestry, weaving the "water" and talking to visitors who came into The Bach Artisans Gallery. We have lots of people who remember the first community tapestry and return to check on progress only to find it's finished, displayed elsewhere and a new one is on the go. I explain we completed the "Whangarei - Our Place" Tapestry in June 2016 and the current tapestry is the first of four, 2 metre wide panels that will show the changes to the Town Basin (which includes the shopping complex) over the past 200 years. This first panels represents and depicts Maori life in the early 1800's prior to the European settlement - so they are getting local history along with an explanation of the textile art process. 

(Above: showing the weaving around the whales)

I often stay after closing the shop to work on the tapestry, some evenings weaving until it's dark outside! That is the only way I can really concentrate on what I'm doing with no interruptions.

 I ended up undoing the area to the right of the whales tale as I realised I'd accidentally used the wrong blue. I'm learning that my mistakes are not failures, rather they are opportunities to acquire knowledge and understanding. I feel proud of myself that I can now say/believe this. Prior to TLC I would not have even understood the concept!

 Close up photo showing detail of my weaving changes.

Pottery

My latest venture has been a slab work ceramic boot. This is my test piece which ended up very squat as the printable pattern (from the internet) was for an infants bootie, Still, the principles would be the same and I learned the importance of drying the clay a little when doing slab-work (so it doesn't collapse) but not over-drying otherwise the clay cracks (which I did!) 

[Image Source: the internet]

Of course then I found myself on google and pinterest looking up boot/shoe making and trying to downaod photos on my cell phone camera to my computer.

Pit-Firing Weekend Worksohp - 24/25th Feb

The Firebirds (who are a group of locals who enjoy working/playing with the process of pottery and meet weekly on Wednesdays and/or Thursdays) held a pit-firing workshop last weekend Unfortunately, I got lost trying to find where the hosts, Rod and Wendy live so I missed seeing the loading of the pottery and I couldn't make it on Sunday to see the unveiling of the fired wares but learnt about the process all the same and would like to experiment with my own pit firing some stage in the future. 

Pit firing is the original method for “baking” clay.  It dates backover 3,000 years ago.  This process is done typically in a hole in the ground, or a pit, pots are placed in the pit and burned.  Pit firing is an atmospheric process all of the colors and patterns are derived from the process and what is consume in the fire.  Items that are burned will turn to vapor and will swirl around the pieces in the pit.  If the pieces are hot enough to have their pores open the colored vapor will enter the pore and stay there, if not pot will not have color besides black, gray, or white. 

Art Inspiration

Sketches of my idea for a pottery number series (Hundertwasser-inspired). Following on from my previous exploration of artist inspiration of Hundertwasser and Klimt's style of work I did more research and reading.  I found some images on the internet of Klimts' paintings close-up.

I want to use his style as a springboard to pursue my own 

THANK YOU GIFT

I received a Thank you card from the PACIFICA Whangarei Branch. They said my soap was very well received and liked. Also in the bag was a piece of hand-stamped fabric and a cheque for payment.

August - Ceramic numbers

3 August 2017

 Trying a different way of making the little "foot" for my soap dishes

 Some of my "nature" numbers have cracked!

 I tried to fix them by adding a slurry of clay and vinegar

 but in the end decided not to take the risk of them recracking during firing

The zero recracked during firing.
I made a decision to rework the cracked 6, 7 and 8...

  so broke them up to resoften the clay and remake them. 

 Working on some numbers with imprinted butterflies.

 I hope they don't end up cracking as well!
3 hours

10th August 2017
A customer came into work during the week and asked if we had ceramic numbers for sale. I told her I was in the process of making some and could send her some photos of my nature numbers. She said she was looking for something around 3 inches high and brightly coloured so that spurred me on to make a second series that I'm calling "Colour Me Happy" numbers. (I plan on glazing them with bright colours in line with the "Colour Our City" Hundertwasser Art Centre development
 happening here in Whangarei

 First I hand-drew the numbers 0 to 9 on a sheet of paper and cut them out.

Then I traced around them onto builders paper.

..and cut them out. 

After that, I rolled out some white clay to 5mm thick, pressed a textured print over the surface and cut out the shapes using the  number templates.
3 hours

24 August 2017

 The rewetted clay after the broken pieces have been sitting in water. The water is decanted off 

and is now ready to rework into nature numbers again.

 which I did at the pottery studio on the 24th

 along with a full set of the smaller number series

They are a bit rough but I enjoy sanding them once they've been bisque fired.
3 hours