little succulent planters in the making.
tune in later this week for the finished planters!
planters.
Category Archives: art
summer time in the studio.
our a.i.r. studios are burning up about now. st. pete clay is housed in a big red brick train station from the 1920’s. up front where the member studios, retail galleries and highwater clay are housed is air conditioned but walking back through the building, once you hit the kiln room, it’s nothing but toasty. i spent most of the day at the studio today but after an hour or so i had to run out for beverages. using my sweet rolling sculpture stands i moved everything up front. when sabo left to go back to alaska his space transitioned into a small work area for classes or overheated a.i.r.s so that’s where i set up. went and got some vitamin water and um, regular water and got back to work.
it was great to spend the whole day working in the studio. right now is kind of a transitional time. during this residency i have worked really hard to “be around” as much as possible and not take this time or space for granted. i had a really good job situation, working part time with benefits at my main job and part time at creative clay but recently, due to the crazy economy, i had to go full time to keep my benifits. not that i’m complaining. i am definitely thankful that there was a position for me to transition into. now i have the task ahead of me to continue to be around and continue learning with less time. i know this summer will be tough, and i’ll struggle to keep my nose to the grindstone. so far though, being at work more has made me feel more motivated to get into the studio in the time i do have.
i’m preparing for my end of residency show. it’s not officially scheduled yet but will be in early fall, september or so. hard to believe i’ve been at this 9 monthes. i have learned so much, made a lot of work and done a few shows. by the time i put that solo show up, fill up a whole gallery with shit i made, i think i will be pretty satisfied with my experience.
i’m also putting together some little guys for the annual flower and garden sale next next weekend. my parents are obsessed with gardening so they separated out some baby succulent plants for me to make some pots for. i’m not much of a vessel maker but hopefully they’ll be sweet.
drawing for new sculptures
first one
succulent planters-before:
stay tuned for the after….
from the palm beach post.
microcosmic exploration
Caption: A miniature hotel room inside a larger room creates the illusion of Nicole Gugliotti and Sue Steven’s “Microcosmic Exploration” Saturday afternoon at Hotel Biba during the Showtel art exhibition. (Brandon Kruse/ The Post)
blog wish list
things i wish i had some spare minutes for/coming up on pickled eggplant:
post pics of the egg plate i made my mom for her birthday/easter.
post about salting the kiln the egg plate was in.
make the “opportunistic bacteria” plates for a third time and have them work.
post pics of the soda fired microbes.
post official pics of the showtel 7 “microcosmic exploration” installation by sue stevens and me.
showtel 7
here are some photos from the show.
through the front window
bird's eye view
me and collaborator sue stevens. www.suestevensart.com
in the tunnel
after dealing with some mechanical issues on the drive down, i finally made it to west palm thursday morning with my little microbes in tow. sue had our miniature biba room under way. a came up to hang and helped us out quite a bit. she was our contract seamstress. everything seemed to come together at the end and we were happy with the finished product. thnaks to kara walker tome, our amazing curator, a for seamstress help, everyone who came out and made this showtel 7 the most successful ever and oh, yeah, a little shout out to the rogue room. more pics soon.
www.pickledeggplant.etsy.com
my etsy shop is finally up! visit at www.pickledeggplant.etsy.com. these lovely wall pieces are for sale.
packet wall hanging
bundle
stratum
clump
cluster
new work
i have been absent from this blog, but still working on stuff in the studio. learning about the soda kiln and preparing for a show in west palm beach. i have the opportunity to work with curator kara walker tome and to participate once again in the showtel installation show. this year i’m collaborating with a good friend of mine sue stevens (www.suestevensart.com).
here are some images of the “fanciful microbes” i’m creating for our installation. we’ll be working on a miniture scale for this peice.
monster!
ufo type monster
belly of monster
made of highwater p10 porcelain. haven’t decided yet if i will soda fire or gas fire these montsers. tpictures of it’s friends to follow.
opportunistic bacteria plates
below is an image of the bacteria plates i was working on for a doctor i work with. i had scavenged some underglazes that were getting trashed at the studio to use for the color. i covered them with underglaze while leather hard and sgraffito’ed the image. i once fired them, putting clear glaze on top of the underglaze while everything was still bone dry. unfortunately when they came out of the kiln chunks of underglaze were flaking off. i thought it might be because i had once fired them?? so i remade them, but this time bisqued the underglaze on, THEN clear glazed and glaze fired. same problem. any idea what the problem could be? i’m stumped. i decided to get rid of these underglazes and go with something new. news to follow.
virus plates
firing kilns
our new soda kiln
wednesday turned out to be my day of firing kilns.
last week on my day off i went over to the studio to help c.p. with some tasks re: the new soda kiln. v and i kiln-washed the inside, all the door brick, the bricks for the bagwell and the target bricks. c.p. turned on the burners so we could see the direction the flame would take upon hitting the target bricks. the anticipation was building to fire the brand new soda kiln. saturday i heard through the grapevine that c.p. would be ready to load tuesday. j and i would help and the kiln would be fired wednesday. perfect for me.
then, tuesday morning i saw r pulling kaowool off rudy’s burners. with surprise i asked, “did you fire?”. he said, “no, i’m about to load, didn’t you say wednesday was the best day for you to help out?”.
how awesome! day of multiple firings. i would have to leave to teach at creative clay and to stop at an appointment but would be present for the majority of firing. r and decided to meet at 4 am to start turning up the kilns.
ok, so the truth is, it’s all a bit of a blur. we started doing turn ups at 4 am, actually r came in at 2 to get a head start on rudy since he couldn’t sleep. around 5, i think, c joined us. we started with one burner on the soda and eventually turned on the second. it was all uncharted territory with the new soda, no old logs to reference. the pyrometer seemed to be in a strange place, catching a bit of flame so it didn’t match the cones. there were turn ups, logging, putting rudy into body reduction and taking him out. then i went to creative clay. my artlink partner m and i worked on books and decided to take our lunches to the clay co. i think the soda was ready for body reduction while were there so we went outside to help. i had her stand back, but with a good view of everything going on and she was able to peek in and see cone 012 falling. when we walked back inside she asked, “could i learn how to do that?” i told her that for sure she could do like i have been doing, observing when firings are happening and get to know the process better.
after i returned there was a bit of a lull, rudy was just about done. i checked out the settings ron had used for glaze reduction before we took it out. c and i shut rudy down. the soda kiln was still chugging along. we were waiting on cone 8 and 9 to get soft. it got dark while all this waiting was happening. c.p. and i got hungry and ordered pizza. he went to get it and when he got back it was totally time to soda. the baking soda, soda ash and water were all prepped in the sprayer and mixed with saw dust so we scarfed down a slice of pizza each and started making “chalupas” out of newspaper. shoving them in turned out to be pretty hysterical, and we had to improve our design or they would get stuck on the bricks and burst into flame. after that there was spraying, a whole lotta spraying and reduction and finally we were done. c.p. showed me how to shut down the kiln and we sat down to enjoy some more pizza before leaving.
what a good time! i learned a lot, got to see a lot and of course got to soda the kiln. friday i went over after work to see the work that was unloaded. i was super pleased with my peices (2 wall peices and the garlic wall hanging i made for benny). the were all highwater helios porcelain and were in the bottom of the kiln where cone 11 had started to fall. they had a nice sheen and one of the wall pieces had just a little gray speckling from reduction.
*presents* and sexually transmitted infections
matt long and his students were visiting in january and they tore down and rebuilt our soda kiln. today r, our lovely kiln tech was putting the finishing touches on the burners. he and b have been working hard on it and i’m hoping we’ll fire it up this week. i’d like to get the garlic in if possible. i think that it would look super in a soda fire.
recently i have been interested in jason briggs’ work. actually i fell in love with it when i saw it in the exhibition “biomimicry” at the 2004 NCECA. it was totally awe inspiring. it was one of the pieces which i looked at and saw in it so much visual language that i wish i could speak. if you know what i mean. it seemed perfect, more exquisite than is possible to make by hand.
recently i googled his website (why had this never occurred to me??) and was delighted with what i found. his site has lots of information and images as well as a image loop showing a piece from start to finish. in lieu of seeing briggs demo in person, i was pretty satisfied by viewing his site. it’s here.
seeing the progression of his work and reading about his process really gave me a different perspective on atmospheric firings. i guess i think of them in a rustic kind of way. though i see the amazing way they work out for other folks i hadn’t really thought they were right for my work. his chicken skin speckaly, bumpily blushes really turned that thinking around and has given me a fresh perspective on atmospheric firings. yeah!
this week i finished a set of slab plates with sgraffito. they are for a doctor at work and they feature a stylized pneumocystis pneumoniea (sp??) carving. i had a mishap with one and had set it aside and today i went at it with the carving tool and fashioned a “syphilis” plate, the first in what promises to be an exciting series. next up, chlamydia, gonnorhea and trichamonis. note, i am only featuring curable infections. non-curable infections are way too much of a bummer.