Alfred University Summer Ceramics, Monday July 17th
I arrived at the studio early around 7 AM to begin preparing five plates for glazing. This involves adding a “wax resist” to the bottoms of the plates to prevent glaze from adhering. The balance of the day and into the late hours of the night were spent glazing — four more plates, two bowls, and five mugs.
Shoko Teruyama presented the morning demo. Shoko uses a labor intensive method to create functional forms beginning with a thick clay slab molded and dried to leather-hard using a bisque mold. The thick form is then sculpted and shaped into lovely cups, saucers, and pots.
Shoko’s husband, functional potter and assistant professor Matt Kelleher, presented the afternoon lecture. He contemplates paintings often to do with landscape, skyscape, and atmosphere, like a Chinese mountain image, depicting the most massive presence on earth — told in one stroke of watery color, running down the paper. He seeks to tell a similar narrative in clay, using form, slip effects, and texture to evoke dark and powerful landscapes.
The soda kiln was cool enough to begin removing bricks and later the pottery. I had four bowls and a plate. One plate was hit directly by the soda. The glaze boiled, leaving a dark, uneven texture, but it also left the most colorful blue hole in the glaze. The glaze got so hot it dripped down over the wadding, fusing the wadding to the plate. Fortunately I was able to remove the wadding using a diamond blade circular saw. One bowls, was “the Nishapur bowl” I made for our pick-a-random-object game. I was pleased with the results!
I had the all-important wood kiln shift from 3-6 in the afternoon. I methodically fed the kiln with wood, while monitoring the kiln temperature gauges. With kiln duty there is no time to relax, and it is very hot work. Even the most cold-natured person will end up dripping with perspiration. As I continued to stoke the raging furnace, I thought of the incredible biblical story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and avoided standing too close to the kiln!
In-chin Lee concluded his work on the two houses. I put up a YouTube video, which is an excerpt of a full-length film describing his installation at the Zien Art Space in Korea. I believe you’ll enjoy watching this!
tgholt.net 