This week at Osage has been frustrating and productive. I am still casting with the new molds I made from last week and getting about three bones a day from each new mold in plaster. I’m also getting one wax a day from four older molds. I will have four new sculptures to cast in bronze or aluminum when I get back to Cincinnati. I am also working on a sculpture proposal for a sculpture here at Osage. If all goes well with this proposal I will be working on a six foot metal sculpture to install in Osages sculpture garden. But that’s in the future and who know what’s going to happen there. My studio here at Osage is going well in the casting department and getting work done. I am also getting ready to collect another cow skeleton. It’s about seven years old but I am very excited. I Think I’m going to do a print series from this skeleton but that’s just ideas for now. I will be very busy when I get back to Cincinnati. I’m also about ready to pull up the Installations here at Osage and do two more Installations on October fifteenth. So I am really looking forward to that as well in the upcoming weeks here at Osage.
Now onto my frustration for this week. My friends at Coreclay sent me some clay to start getting ready for my residency with them. I was so excited but little did I know what I was in store for me. Here at Osage there is a manual potter’s wheel and I thought that without know anything about clay I would be able to sit down and create a five pound pot from scratch. Well first I realized I needed water to work with the clay and then I realized I needed to center the clay on the wheel. By the time I got it centered it was already too late. The clay was already to wet and it took my almost six hours of stabbing blindly at something I know nothing about and having no one to answer question or show me what needs to be done. So I came home frustrated and defeated but still determined. I watched three hours of ceramics videos on youtube to help me in what I was about to attempt again tomorrow. Mind you none of the video had a manual wheel all electric. So round two starts and I now have a better feel for clay and I am now able to cone and center my clay on the wheel. I can also make the clay rise and lower on the wheel as well. I actually made about three pots on the manual wheel but I worked each one to much and they would collapse in on themselves. Plus the clay was still to wet from yesterday but I felt a little better about clay and working with it. Now we are on to day three and I was determined to make something out of clay. So I rolled out slabs thinking I should be able to make something out of a familiar form. I did make a small rectangle open top and it seemed it was pretty well together so I put it out in the sun to dry. I came back the next day and it had fallen apart as if it had been pealed apart. I shook my head and laughed out loud! I now know I am in for one hell of a residency with Coreclay when I get back. I hope they can help me with clay because I am not doing so well by myself out here at Osage. So that is my frustration for this week. We will see if I tackle clay again next week. I needed to take a breather so I wouldn’t break and of my bone castings from my frustrations with clay. As always thank you for your ongoing support. Until next week love ya!
Now onto my frustration for this week. My friends at Coreclay sent me some clay to start getting ready for my residency with them. I was so excited but little did I know what I was in store for me. Here at Osage there is a manual potter’s wheel and I thought that without know anything about clay I would be able to sit down and create a five pound pot from scratch. Well first I realized I needed water to work with the clay and then I realized I needed to center the clay on the wheel. By the time I got it centered it was already too late. The clay was already to wet and it took my almost six hours of stabbing blindly at something I know nothing about and having no one to answer question or show me what needs to be done. So I came home frustrated and defeated but still determined. I watched three hours of ceramics videos on youtube to help me in what I was about to attempt again tomorrow. Mind you none of the video had a manual wheel all electric. So round two starts and I now have a better feel for clay and I am now able to cone and center my clay on the wheel. I can also make the clay rise and lower on the wheel as well. I actually made about three pots on the manual wheel but I worked each one to much and they would collapse in on themselves. Plus the clay was still to wet from yesterday but I felt a little better about clay and working with it. Now we are on to day three and I was determined to make something out of clay. So I rolled out slabs thinking I should be able to make something out of a familiar form. I did make a small rectangle open top and it seemed it was pretty well together so I put it out in the sun to dry. I came back the next day and it had fallen apart as if it had been pealed apart. I shook my head and laughed out loud! I now know I am in for one hell of a residency with Coreclay when I get back. I hope they can help me with clay because I am not doing so well by myself out here at Osage. So that is my frustration for this week. We will see if I tackle clay again next week. I needed to take a breather so I wouldn’t break and of my bone castings from my frustrations with clay. As always thank you for your ongoing support. Until next week love ya!
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