happily included my work. view here
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=60551
and NYCrochet’s page.
Category Archives: people
all the fireworks in the air must of put the good stuff in.
this little guy was refired.
refire!
i had some cracks come up along the coil lines. don’t know why since they aren’t going all the way through and i smoosh on both sides of my coils. i don’t mind because they only come out after an atmospheric firing and i feel they are in line with the anphibian like skin. the stress of the enviroment causing crackles and ruptures. and they aren’t structural, i don’t think. i’m going to experiment with bisquing a little higher and see if that helps. one of the chicken butts had a long crack across it. again it didn’t go through, but i didn’t like how wide it got. too distracting. the same peice had a big ol’ dry spot on the whole back side, so i refired it this week, again getting lots of juicy soda and carbon trapping and filling in that crack a little so it looks like a healing froggy scar.
it’s so fun firing this kiln up. we’ve gotten the results we were after but it’s all a total learning experience and experiment to an extent. were we firing this for the members we would have to back way off on the carbon trapping and the body reduction and also do a proper glaze reduction. and though i was happy with the results from this load i found areas of the kiln i particularly loved so i’m going to have to work on refining the technique we’ve been using.
again, chistmas mentality took over (and the fact that j- is heading out in a few weeks) and we started scheming how we could fire it again before she leaves. having someone to share the kiln with is good, make a little work, fire, fire, fire. once she leaves i’ll have to put my nose to the grindstone to fill it.
j- is moving up to bowling green, ohio for grad school, which is were s- just got her bfa from, so in early august the three of us are going to head out on a short roadtrip to move j- up. i have no connection to the area, just an extreme urge to TRAVEL. we’re going to stop in on my friend k- in atlanta and mudfire. from there we’ll stop in asheville, nc in hopes of checking out the highwater factory, odyssy center and maybe some local artists.
soda firing with fireworks.
friday. my day was made complex by the fact that the minivan had a minor melt down on thursday. conking out on 22nd st. literally in front of a automotive shop which burned down about three months ago was funny, having n- from the clay co behind me at the light was lucky. she was kind enough to lend me her aaa service and found a car shop. s- came by and helped us move the car out of traffic. we had some fun mosquito infested converstaion while we waited by the burned out auto shop for the tow truck to arrive. i had to commute the next day to sarasota so my parents came and got me and i so i could drive their car to work the next day. my luck seemed to continue because the problem was minimal, fixed on friday and i was able to get out of work early to go and pick it up. definitely best case scenario. with a little help from friends and family what could have been a real mess was made bearable.
friday night loading with j- ended up taking a little longer than originally planned. when we finished up at 2:30 am we decided NOT to start at 6 am. first turn up was at 9 am. s- and r-sensei were firing rudy inside. they had started at 6. we had taken good notes during the last firing and this time everything seemed to stay on a similiar schedule. around 6 pm s- and r- headed out. it started to get dark. i knew that we were looking at an estimated soda time of 1 am and though i was looking forward to the fireworks we would see after the sun went down i was starting to feel a little clausterphobic. i’ve never been a big fan of dusk. day is great, night is awesome. dusk is clasuterphobic. but once the sun fell i started to get my second wind.
once the fireworks started going we climbed out a second story window to the roof where i could see fireworks going off for 360 degrees. the best show in my line of sight was coming from down town st. petersburg. seeing fireworks definitely makes me nostalgic for tokyo. there’s no fourth there of course, fireworks are a summer long thing with different areas hosting shows. most are free, some you can pay a fee for good seating (ash and debris falling on your head good) and some you have to brave psychotic crowds to see. in the event listings each event has a number next to it, so and so thousand for example. knowing that the sumida river event was the biggest of the year i incorrectly thought that the number was the amount of folks in attendence. i felt very silly when i finally realized the number was the amount of fireworks being fired off. sumida river, the last time i went boasted 20,000 fireworks. crazy. regardless of the numbers thoug there is something about all that sparkly light in the night sky. it’s breath taking. j- said she’d considered becoming a pyrotechnician. that would have been awesome. just like judy chicago.
around 12:30 am we got everything ready to soda. shot in some soda/sawdust chalupas, sprayed and then added some wood for good measure, let it burn and then shut her down. i finally made it home around 2.
just as the exhaustion threatens to settle in, it’s time to soda and just as you think you’re going to drop from the heat, and dehydration you’re done and it’s time to start wondering what’s going to come out.
christmas or halloween??
can you see the cones? rough, since it was taken with my cell phone.
staying cool in the studio
well my studio mates already poke fun at my apron of choice: an old towel wrapped around my waist and clipped in back with a mini clamp. luckily no one was in the studio tonight when i had to utilize yet another after shower towel trick. the head wrap. as previously mentioned our studios have no air con and in the thick of florida june that means sometimes swimming in sweat. i couldn’t take it anymore tonight, even with 2 fans pointing at me. finally i took one of my studio towels and wrapped my hair up in it. it really did the trick. but i don’t know if i can rock the head towel when i have company in the studio. haha.
anyway, it was a productive weekend. i have been working on some more wall peieces. j- and i were so excited about our firing that we decided to sign it out again asap and will fire again on the fourth of july. i thought i could bang out multiple wall hangings in preparation for the kiln but i am so into making these toes that i ended up spending 2 days on 4 wall peices. anyway, i am having a great time. and j- needs space in the kiln with an upcoming show so i am happy to build up a collection of bisque work. when j- leaves, i’ll have to fill the kiln up on my own won’t i? unless one of our new a.i.r.s works in soda fired raw porcelain too?
here’s a sneak peak at this weekends work:
and a new chicken butt in the works:
soda pop goodness.
friday night after a long week of work we loaded up the soda kiln. c- was having an opening for his show in the gallery, everyone was wearing cute opening clothes, c- was even wearing pants, not shorts, but we were all sweaty and disgusting, shuttling work, wadding, loading. we finished around 10, turned on the pilots and hung around the kiln pad for a few hours drinking and chatting with other a.i.r.s.
somehow i dragged myself out of bed at 6, getting to the clay company and doing my first turn up at 6:20 am. it was really interesting flying solo. for the first few turn ups i was a little insecure. is this enough sputter? too much? but eventually i got comfortable trusting my gut. r- taught me well, whenever i wasn’t sure i’d stop looking and listen to the fire. sputter-check.
even at 6:20 am, it was already hot. i spent the 28 minutes between turn ups sitting in one of the cushiony barber chairs yawning and sweating. oh and i heated up my leftover gyro in the peep. yum. when j- rolled up with iced coffee, it was a good thing.
almost everything in the kiln was porcelain with no glaze. we did a long, full on body reduction, adding wood to the ports in hopes of getting a good amount of carbon trapping. there weren’t any major stalls, the kiln was pretty even troughout. at the end of the day we had 11 flat on top and about halfway down on the bottom. sodaed using a mixture of soda ash and baking soda in “chalupas” and sprayed and then added a bit of wood at the end.
good times!
here are some pics of j-‘s sweet work!
firing tomorrow.
here is the latest in the series of chicken butts. i started another one today and 3 will go into the soda kiln tomorrow. j and i are loading tomorrow, firing saturday. should be fun!
last stop.
friday after work i went to visit s-. we walked around her neighborhood for awhile looking for apartments for me. after my lease is up here in st. pete i am thinking i’ll move to sarasota. i had entertained some sweet thoughts about screened in porches and tomato plants but i have recently decided that i am only looking for temporary sublets. i love my life here in st. pete/sarasota but i am ready for another adventure. in january of 2010 or so i am gonna roll on from these parts. my clay co. residency ends in september, my contract with creative clay in december. yeah, the economy is in a downward spiral, and i don’t know what that will mean in another 6 months or a year, but i know i have to keep moving forward. there are so many good reasons to stay in one place but one thing i learned in tokyo is that it’s even when it’s easy and comfortable to stay in one place it’s not always the right thing to do. i might have multiple jobs and a studio here, and in tokyo i had the ultimate good thing (l.o.v.e.) but there’s something bigger than all that.
getting on your train tracks and staying on them and taking them to the last stop.
work for sale at st. pete clay.
the garden and flower sale was a success. everything ran smoothly and i even sold some of my work. today was great as plenty of friendly faces came out to support the cause. it’s so awesome to see people buying handmade (and hand grown) products. with the economy continuing to tank i think it is our responsibility to keep buying handmade objects. walmart may be able to sell everything under the sun cheaper than a bag of clay, but when walmart tanks too, where will we be? let’s keep supporting each other, bartering and doing it ourselves!
planters with succulents (separated and rooted by my mom from her own collection of succulents) still available at st. pete clay for a limited time. anyone interested in some free plants or trees for their yard should plan a visit to the gugliotti’s house in sarasota county. my dad loves to share his plants.
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.