Brown violin

Ceramic of course! I was delighted with this one. Click on it to see the music.

Ceramic violins

These are the first of my series of ceramic violins. They are about 15 x 30 cm. They both had brown (iron oxide) slip highlights under the glaze but it disappeared during firing making the result a bit bland.

Ah Xian

The ceramic artist Ah Xian gave a talk at the art school last week. His amazing decorated porcelain busts are held in many prestigious collections but despite his success Ah Xian remains disarmingly humble. A delightful fellow.

Eucalypt ceramic

Greta told me that if she was making ceramics she would probably use motives of Australian native plants. Next morning as I walked to school through a rather dreary part of Kings Cross I found a fresh and lovely eucalyptus twig on the footpath, with no apparent tree in sight.
'This has to be a sign', I thought and picked it up to use.

Iron, moss green honey and chun

The pot below looks as if it has just been dug up. The brown is an iron oxide slip. The wiped back glaze is moss green by Simone Frazer.If you apply honey glaze then a chun#2 glaze to the rim and fire at 1300C, this is what you get. It looks a bit faded to me but a classmate liked it best of all my pots. Just as well we all have different tastes.

Violin pot

The first lot of work fired in the reduction kiln (no oxygen) at 1300C has just come through. It is all experimental work at this stage, but I was delighted with my violin pot. It had iron oxide slip applied, then rubbed back honey glaze. I took it home immediately so I could admire it and mull over how to use this glaze in future work.

Art school sketches

It has taken me a while to get my web management software working again after the laptop got fixed but finally I have put some new work up on artsmitten: sketches done at art school.

The Paprika

Homework: paint a paprika white ... and draw it.... then again....

Learn English (German) with Otto

Laurie Anderson lights the opera house.

I saw the wonderful Laurie Anderson's light show at the opera house last night. People sat the steps of the opera house forecourt watching.


The images were slow and meditative and watching them soar into the heavens was special. The show is on for several days and in case you are reading this before 20 June, check out this live link:
http://vividlive.sydneyoperahouse.com/LightingTheSails.aspx

Terracotta with blue

This plate was a surprise. It was painted with slip with large music notes, but the slip was too thin and disappeared during firing. (The large music notes are just visible.)
The turquoise smaller notes though were rather accidental - and after firing it is they that are really inspiring. Sometimes accidents deliver nice results.

In the close-up of the blue notes below, the turquoise is a bit less blue than in reality.


This plate was fired at 1080C.

Art, music, love

Terracotta bowl with slip edge. It was fired at 1120C and the terracotta colour is not quite as rich as the clay bowl with music which was fired at 1080C.

Music plate with crackled edge

This plate (about 30cm diameter, from the same mould as the plate below) had two firings. The first firing was at 1080C with an alkaline glaze. Then I added the slip edge and some turquoise glaze before re-firing at the same temperature.

Guitar plate

This plate, terracotta clay with a white slip, was made on a self made mold. The guitar pattern was made by scratching a pattern through the slip. The trick is to put enough slip on the plate. If you paint the slip on you need at least three coats. Of all the plates I made in the 'Plate Project', the terracotta plates with white slip interested me most. Perhaps that is because they provide a good canvas for drawing.

Learning about Matisse

Our art theory class is held in an old sandstone building, part of the convict prison. They have installed heaters now so it is not uncomfortable, but it must have beeen once.

Kiln products

A terracotta bowl with black music (Tristan and Isolde!)
This flat plate is made of white stoneware clay. The face is made of slip, which is the sloppy mess you have when you mix clay with water.

Zipper plate

This zipper plate was made by making a mould with a zipper pressed into it. The name on the zipper, Luigi, is intelligible through the glaze.

NAS

The National Art School is housed on an old prison, a very old prison right in the center of Sydney. It is peaceful despite the location as the thick walls are great insulation.
The ceramics workshop is a congenial place to work.

The lawnmower

Art and Music

This is a painting by Rupprecht Geiger called 402/64. Geiger was one of Germany's foremost abstract artists and painted mainly in red. (His obituary in 1996 was titled 'A life for the colour red.')

I am writing an essay about 'meaningful and compelling' relationships between art and music. The painting I have chosen is 402/64. The music is Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and my essay is turning out to be much more interesting than expected .... as essays should be of course.