Work In Progress

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This isn't exactly a teapot.

Which is what i started out to create.

However, a jug was born of its own desire.

11 inches tall and still in the greenware state. In fact, not even off the bat yet.

Silly to create something too tall to fit into the kiln. But since the Paragon kiln has such difficulty working properly, guess i figured: oh what the heck . . . . let's create and then . . . .

Hope and pray a large working kiln comes my way!

God willing and the criks don't rise

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Chae

Bisqued

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Not entirely idle. Have gotten some pieces bisqued.

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Chae

Artist's Statement

There was a little wood cozied up to the ramshackle building we euphemistically called our five-stall garage. It was a native wood, dweller of old-world trees, it's residency established long before that of our old Victorian house which perched on the edge of its ancient maples, oaks, walnut and beech. The hardwood trunks were knarled, knobbed with bulges and hollows, hugely round and supported massively upraised arms, branching towards the sky above our three-story home. A narrow path wound its way through the wood to our neighbor's house a half mile away.
In the serenity of this small forest, there were enclaves of dappled sunlight, small skylights, filtering through the cloaking green leaves above; there were small lavender gems of woodland violets and there were clumps of white lily of the valley hidden in silken repose.
This then was the dreamland of my youth where I often sat in the nirvana which is nature and built the fairytales of my future.

Art is the woodland forest.

Reveries are the bounty of the quiescent soul, yet best sometimes to be left behind, not to be abandoned entirely, but placed gently aside in lieu of companionship, song and laughter. In such few words do I describe my Mother. Her songs were sweet music to the universe, her laughter the angelus bells ringing in the morning sunrise and the magic of her Irish stories touched each piece of antique furniture, each piece of porcelain plateware, each everyday fabric and matter with such personality that all of our material items pulsated with life, emotion and a spirit all their own.

Art is the song to the Universe, the laughter of the angelus bells, the Irish story giving it an impish personality.

My pottery is designed to bring you the discovery of woodland violets, cause you to see the little elves hidden under their lily of the valley bonnets, share the dappled but shaded sunlight of a summer afternoon, fill you with laughter and the sweet harmonic song of the universe, touch your emotions and trigger your passion for the beauty of life.

But more than creating, art is sharing the skills and techniques involved in producing pottery. As Hemmingway would tell us, man is not an island unto himself. And for all the talents, skills and just plain diligent work it has taken to find the balance between the potter's wheel and the clay to form a harmonious vessel, then blend the metallic oxides in a proportion which will obtain a kaleidoscope of colorful glazes, and learn to eye the kilnfire's licking flames which will vitrify both clay and glaze into a vessel as from the womb to maturity, so must this knowledge be shared. Taught as it were, to students who will give future generations the inheritance of elegance, strength, utility, traditional art laced with innovation, the familiarity of cups, plates, serving bowls combined with the creative interface of artistic intuition, and themes of color, texture and form drawn from visual observation of our world which flow into creative compositions of new art milieus. These are the future potters who will breathe such distinctive character into their work that it transcends the medium, responding, interacting and enabling a spiritual bond between the holder of the pottery piece and art itself.

This, then, is my artist's statement.
To create.
To share the passion of art.
To teach the necessary skills to those who will craft the canvas of life with spirit by means of pottery. A matrix morphing ever more ethereal and aspiring to Olympian heights in the evolution of creativity.

© 2009 Chaeli Sullivan

BIO

I am a hybrid formed from living in many parts of our country.
In youth, winters were spent as a southern belle in Florida; summers were enjoyed as a Yankee in Massachusetts. My husband was an Iowa farmboy, thus the midwest became my home for many years. After he died, i followed Horace Greeley's advice: go west, young man/woman, go west. Our four children and i moved out to the Pacific Northwest and homesteaded ten acres in the northern panhandle of Idaho. Then, with the advent of the "empty nest" syndrome, my winters were spent in Arizona, summers in Idaho.
Each area left its imprint on my soul.
Florida sands, beaches, the ocean's salty moods, its waves gently lapping the shore one moment and the next roiling in tempest as they heralded in a hurricaine.
Massachusetts summers were spent in Williamstown, a unique village reminiscent of a European cultural center, it was choc full of bookstores, each with an art section to die for. The Clark Art Museum is located there and by age thirteen i had memorized every artist's style. Williams College is also found in Williamstown. Similarly, by age sixteen, i'd read all the world classics including Kafka, Dostoevski, Voltaire, Sophocles, Aristotle, Ibsen, Tolstoy .........
In Iowa, i could hear the corn grow. Literally. Soft breezes swept through the cornfields. Farmer's love of the rich, loamy soil, cows lowing their mournful throaty calls as they grazed the grasslands and the absolute silence just before a tornado struck, all had tenure as they impacted my personality.
Arizona's vast desert sporting roadrunners, cactus, and Desert Quail marching in families across the sunwarmed hot sand -- all added a unique quality to my character. I experienced my first earthquake in Arizona.
Idaho. Home to the pristine Teton mountains, the sparkling Coeur d'Alene lakes, the primal forests and winter blizzards. Each has a niche in my heart.

In college, i majored in Mass Communications, and my early career was spent in journalism first as a cub reporter, then, as an editor to four different newspapers.
Yet later in life, a profound change occurred when i studied silversmithing under the world famous silversmith, Robert Koepler. While still pursuing silversmithing, i learned to lampwork glass. These art skills led me to pottery. While writing well is an art, to create three-dimensional art is the joy of life!

Working with shapes, exploring textures, using the elements of design (such as line, form, volume, value), using themes of color, constructing glazes, creating a piece that, while the medium is static, has great movement and depth, throwing and sculpting, -- all keep me enthralled with the myriad facets of pottery. It is an area of artistic endeavor like no other. Always challenging. Always satisfying.

And in the final analysis, there has never been such a feeling of anticipation in any other area of art as magical as that moment when opening the kiln after the final glaze firing to see the fruition of a piece born from the ashes into maturity.
Chae

Is This Pot "Thrown"?

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Couldn't resist adding a comment to a recent discusson about "real" throwing techniques vs lathe methods.

Often, when those who do pottery are really critical of another's methods, i check out the source. Not to form an opinion on the validity of another's method, but just to see what all the fuss is about.

And too, when there are those who are so critical of someone else's creative techniques, i figure the "perpetrator" is an extremely inventive person, often engaged in lateral thinking, who is developing new and unique methods full of originality. If that's the case, i want to learn what they have to offer.

Check out the Ceramic Arts Daily article featuring Ayumi Horie's dry throwing method, and see for yourself what all the hoopla's about:

http://www.ceramicartsdaily.org/feature/featuredetail/2009-05/videoayumihorie.aspx

Then, let me know what you think . . . .

Chae

Raku Workshop and Kiln Dilemma

Guess i should start with the raku workshop. Two Saturdays in a row. While there were only 4 of us the first Saturday, the group energy was terrific. Fun. Thanks Tim.

The local arts council pottery dept is well supplied with equipment: wheels aplenty, a slab roller, an extruder, a couple of Skutts kilns and a new raku kiln.

Tim Rein X X hosted the workshop, brought his raku glaze recipes and his expertise. We threw a few pots, slab-constructed a few pieces, fired the new raku kiln for the first time with several of Tim's pieces which he'd brought for demo purposes.

The next Saturday, we all glazed and fired the pieces created the Saturday before.

Now, i want to brag on Olympic kilns. They are really nice people to work with; solution oriented folks. When we spoke the last time, approx. 2 weeks ago, we thought the firing problem might be the oriface size. So they put larger orifaces in the mail right away. Received them the first Saturday of the workshop. Put them in the kiln the following Monday.

However, didn't try to fire the kiln until today.

And while this firing was not a success, i'm extremely optimistic that the next one will be !!!

When today's firing only produced temps to 2050°F with a lot of bushy yellow flames, i called Olympic again. Spoke with Bob Hogan this time and he asked the magic question: "That's a 3-ring kiln, isn't it? Are you using all 3 rings?"

"Ummm . . . no. Just 2 of them."

Bob replied: "I believe that's your problem. The 1827G will only reach full temp when using all 3 rings."

So!

Tomorrow, i'll add the other ring, raise the hood higher towards the ceiling and refire on Friday.

Betcha it works like a charm . . . .

Chae

Red Glaze Experiments

The very first thing i want to do here is give a special word of THANKS to John Post. He's an awesome fellow. In my book, he stands 120 feet tall !!!

Gotta mention that for 3-4 years, i've been trying to achieve reds. Have mixed this chemical and that; followed this recipe and that. Testing one procedure after another.

Without success.

The fact, that neither of my kilns operate "right" hasn't helped my pursuit a'tall.

ok. All that said, let's get on with the story.

Found John's site: http://johnpost.us/ and perused his ceramic creations along with his detailed glaze information.

Decided to try out one of his glazes:

Petes's Tomato Red #13 (+ more bone ash) +++

10.8 % -- Frit 3134

23.1 % -- Nepheline syenite

10 % -- Bone ash

6.2 % -- Magnesium carb

7.7 % -- Whiting

21 % -- EPK

21.2 % -- Flint

John says to add:

2 % Bentonite

10 % Red iron oxide

However, i skipped the bentonite and only added the RIO.

Please see his detailed notes at the link above.

Ought-a explain here that it's in my nature to tinker with things. And i'd read that talc helps enable reds. And too, cause i haven't yet gotten either of my kilns to fire past ^5, i wanted to bring the glaze temp down a wee bit. So i reduced the 23.1% Neph. syenite to 22 %; reduced the EPK to 15 % and added: Wollastonite at 10 % and Talc at a generous 6 % plus Rutile at 1 %.

Now if you follow along his site you'll find that on one of his bowls, he puts a glaze called MYB over the top of the tomato red. I noticed that the flint, EPK, Neph, Whiting were all basically in similar amounts as the tomato red; the only additive which differed greatly was the zinc oxide.

And, being lazy that day, decided to use the tomato red base and add 12 % zinc oxide instead of the former additives.

Applied one thick coat of the PTR#13 with one thick coat of the MYB adoptation over the top quarter of the inside. John had said the MYB was runny and yes. even the adoptation was runny.

Now to stir this stew with absolute confusion: remember i mentioned that my kilns don't exactly work well ???

That being so, here's the scoop on firing: fired the gas kiln in oxidation, then at ^012 started body reduction. At ^05 -- returned to oxidation and continued firing. Even with extreme coaxing and trying every thing i knew, couldn't get the kiln to fire hotter than 2012 degrees F.

Had started firing by 5:30am and it was after midnight. Whether or not the pots had glazed, my eyes had glazed over with exhaustion !!! So. Put it back in reduction for approx. 20 minutes and shut it down.

The next day found that the glazes had not vitrified and there was absolutely no indications of a red color.

A couple of days later, had a new theory on how to get my electric kiln to fire to 2167 degrees F. In searching for a pot that i didn't mind losing if the theory failed, my eyes lit upon the pot described above. Put it in the electric kiln for a totally oxidized firing . . . .

And below, you can see the results:

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Now on this next photo, i changed the procedure of the glaze a wee bit. Had some dabs of a Rhodes #18 glaze. So applied this to the outside, and splashed the PTR#13 with zinc in a small area. Intriguingly, believe that if the whole had been glazed with the Rhodes and the PTR#13 would have achieved a most interesting red-surfaced pot exterior !

Ok. For anyone who is mixing their own glazes and seeking a red -- this is the best i can currently offer.

Good luck

And good glazing

Chae