paper clay Archives - Ceramicscapes

This is going to be a short post today because I have been working very hard to make work for the next two sales I am participating in this weekend and next weekend. In today’s post, I’ll be sharing a 100 Days of Patterns Update.

100 Days of Patterns Update

Today is the perfect day to share some of my daily sketches for the 100 Days Project. I am breaking the project into 20 day blocks. For the first 20 days, I concentrated on circles and dots. Currently, I am exploring line work for the second 20 day block.

Cindy Guajardo LINES 100 Days of Pattern 21-34

Ultimately, this project is an exploration in mark making. By keeping the color palette limited, the project is more cohesive and also takes out a lot of guess work for me.

After my two shows are history, I plan to start making paper clay tiles using my clay scraps and recycled paper scraps that I’ve been collecting. Then, I’ll begin the process of translating my 100 Days of Pattern sketches to the tiles. I’m pretty excited about this project. It feels ambitious, but at the same time doable since I’m breaking up the project into modules. My next 20 day block will include geometrics.

Here are a few of my favorites in the line work block:

True confession though…I worked ahead this week on my sketches because I can not see a way for me to draw the daily sketches during the Colorado Potters Guild show. I volunteered to be the show chair this spring and I have to keep too many balls in the air, so to speak. The days are long. While I love meeting all of our customers and catching up with guild members, it’s also exhausting. I’m not sure if this is considered cheating, but it sure makes my life a bit easier.

Events:

You will find me at the Colorado Potters Guild Spring Sale May 4-6, 2017.

First Plymouth Congregational Church
3501 South Colorado Boulevard
Englewood, CO 80113
(Hampden + Colorado Blvd)

May 4 – 4:00 – 8:00 PM (Opening reception)
May 5 – 9:00 AM – 8:00 PM
May 6 – 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

On May 13, 2017, I’ll be sharing a booth at the Horseshoe Market in Denver with Sarah Christensen Ceramics.

Olinger Moore Chapel
4345 West 46th Ave
Denver, CO 80212

9:00 AM – 4:00 PM

I missed last Feature Friday’s blog post. Unfortunately, my guest has a very busy show schedule too and was unable to participate due to time constraints. I hope that I’ll be able to share her work in the near future because I’m such a fan.

In the mean time, despite my busy schedule, I’ll be sharing the work of Noelle Horsfield on May 5, 2017 for Feature Fridays. My post is already formatted – all I need to do is hit publish. I can’t wait to share her work and interview with you.

Ceramicscapes Pinterest Seeds and Pods Board — Ceramicscapes’ Pinterest Seeds and Pods Board

Nature is pretty darn interesting and makes beautiful artifacts. I’ve been collecting images of plant seeds and seed pods for visual reference to use in my ceramic work. This direction is a new one for me, but one near and dear to my heart as a former landscape designer and Colorado Master Gardener. I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to translate these to clay, but decided to use the winter months to experiment and the following ceramic seed pod wall art trio is the first incarnation.

Making

Ceramicscapes - Ceramic Seed Pod Wall Art before under construction — Ceramicscapes – Ceramic Seed Pod Wall Art before under construction

Originally, I started this exploration with the intent of making ceramic garden stakes for use outdoors. Each one has a hole in the back in which I planned to attach a 3 foot long rod that could be planted in the dirt of a garden bed.

Being a bit of a pack rat, I had saved a dried lotus flower seed head that came in a flower arrangement I had received last year for future use. I think the form is interesting and provided a jumping off point to begin sculpting.

Making the ceramic seed pods was slow going for me. I’m a novice sculptor and translating the likeness of a seed pod is tricky.

In fact, I asked myself why I would even want to try? It’s not to improve upon an already interesting form, but I want to translate the essence of nature’s artifacts at a larger scale for permanence and decoration.

Decorating and Glazing

Ceramicscapes - Ceramic Seed Pod Wall Art before being bisque fired — Ceramicscapes – Ceramic Seed Pod Wall Art before being bisque fired

When I was sculpting these, I learned some (new to me) techniques that abstracted the forms in clay.

Throughout the process, I continually reminded myself that these were destined for the soda kiln at the Colorado Potters Guild. I thought about how to glaze the forms and how the soda ash would affect the surface of the ceramic seed pods.

Final Finished Ceramic Seed Pods

Ceramicscapes - Ceramic Seed Pod Wall Art Trio Glazed — Ceramicscapes – Ceramic Seed Pod Wall Art Trio Glazed

When we unloaded the kiln about a week and a half ago, my firing partners remarked that these would be really interesting as wall art. While I originally designed these as garden stakes, I have to agree. I make a lot of ceramic wall installations and would like to expand this direction and think that this is a good start.

On a technical note, the two enclosed forms on the right hand side of the photo above are rather heavy. I have some technical issues to resolve and think that working with paper clay would help lighten the sculptures.

Paperclay: Art and Practice by Rosette Gault

With that in mind, I picked up a new book on paper clay by Rosette Gault to learn a bit more about the medium. I haven’t been able to dive in, but am really excited about the possibilities!