Reflection

Get ready for a long one folks...

Some recent events made me want to take a step back and reflect on where my pottery came from and where it's headed. Since my two year Etsyversary is looming, I guess my first Etsy sale is a good place to start. This is the first piece that sold. It had contrasting color, a curvy egg-like shape, still very similar to the shape I throw today.

With my first wheel-thrown pieces my first goal as a student and a potter was to make the form symmetrical, centered as well as making the piece as light as possible. I have succeeded at this over the last two years as you can tell by cheaper shipping prices.

Then came the Eggs. The fool proof blue/brown color combination that satisfied my need for both contemporary and traditional styles. After the arrival of the Robin's Egg, my pottery took a turn for the more refined, feminine style that is very much reflected in my pottery today.

A short while later came my trip to Paris and my discovery of hand-carved and still very much color contrasting Poppy. Shortly after came the Sprout. I still have to be perfectly relaxed and in a great mood to successfully throw those little suckers. The sprout teapot is yet again a perfect example of the modern/contemporary in me.

So where am I headed? With a larger collection of flowers and now my own blend of glaze colors, will I let the curvy, vind-y win out and settle on with the press molds and the slip? Or will I continue to be all over the place with my pottery much like I am in life?
Today's trip to the Getty was no help. I was yet again torn between the 1600's decadent, French gold and robins egg vases on the interior of the Decorative Arts Section and the museum's overly modern, clean-lined architectural exterior. But if they can live together so beautifully, why can't I?

I fast forward to my last sold item. Ladybugs!

They are awesome, fun and now that I found a glaze that does not run, I can add them to everything.(Strongly considering it!)

With a kiln full ready to go for yet another bisque firing, only time will tell.

Featured

Thanks to Bekah at BekahQuilts who was nice enough to feature me on her blog!

Bekah's quilts are beautiful! and can be found on one of my favorite websites - Etsy.

Diversity in Clay Exhibition

I am proud to announce that this piece was accepted to the 2009 AMOCA/ ACS-DC Diversity in Clay Exhibition. The exhibition runs from August 8th until August 28th at the American Museum of Ceramic Art - 340 S. Garey Avenue, Pomona,CA 91766. There will be a reception on Saturday August 8th from 6-9pm where awards will be presented. This is a fundraiser and all work is for sale, so I encourage everyone to come! This is a very happy moment for Alina Hayes Ceramics.

Bust Update

I wanted to share an update on the bust. It showed

some minor cracks on the inside after it was bisque fired and I feared the worst. My teacher suggested I use paper clay to fill the cracks. Strangely, none of the cracks I patched opened, but there were some others that showed up in areas I did not expect. It survived Cone 11 reduction firing, and the head did not fall off. None were on the face and overall I was very lucky. The porcelain slip I used gave it a beautiful almost marble-like appearance that I am very happy with.

Hand Built vs. Wheel Thrown

When I first discovered pottery, all I wanted to do was throw. I had no interest in learning anything having to do with hand-building and was fully consumed by the spinning and lifting of the clay. I have continued to create wheel-thrown pottery until this spring when I had enrolled in a hand-building class and became in awe of what I was missing.

Being a bit of a perfectionist, I loved the perfectly centered form the wheel helped create (on a good day). At first my impression of hand-built pottery was that it was very wonky and misshapen. However, once I took a class with Biliana Popova and discovered that you can create very symmetrical, smooth forms much like the wheel with liberties that the wheel just does not allow. I realized that I was keeping myself from something so satisfying. Hand-built forms, even when perfect and smooth still have a textile quality that cannot be reproduced on the wheel making you want to feel it, allowing you to unmistakeably recognize that a piece is hand-built once you hold it. If you never held a piece of hand-built pottery, do it.

I am not sure I will fully convert to strictly hand-building from now on, but I have developed a respect for the quality it creates and look forward to adding those elements to my future works.

Unconditional Love

I can't help but feel a strong connection between clay and the human condition that we call life. It all started when I was attaching a spout on a teapot. It was surprising how it's personality changed each time I repositioned the spout. Then I accidentally nicked it, and immediately began to rub it to make it better. I imagine that love for pottery is very much like the unconditional love a parent might have for a child. When a woman gets pregnant, she may wish for a boy, but in turn get a girl. She might think her child will have blond hair with blue eyes, just to give birth to a green eyed red head due to some recessive gene no one knew she had from her great great grandmother. But the child is loved all the same. Each time a kiln is fired, I find something unexpected, even thought it is so different from what I was hoping for.
I have always wanted to sculpt a bust, but was always hesitant to take on such an endeavor. However, this semester I am taking a hand building class with Biliana Popova, and as part of the curriculum were asked to hand in one hand built piece of my choice for our final project. So I thought - Just Do it! - This is the piece I've been working on. Now anyone who knows anything about clay will tell you that it is still very early in it's stage to get excited. But I don't care! I have always enjoyed painting portraits, but this was so much more satisfying. To be able to run your fingers across the bridge of the nose or placing your palms on the shoulders is very different than staring at an image from a canvas - No matter how life like it looks. At the moment this piece has not been fired and is still its leatherhard stage. I wanted to photograph it just in case something bad happened during firing. I hope that the kiln Gods have mercy on this humble potter.

Attack of the Robins Egg

Spring is here, the birds are singing, the westeria has bloomed and I can't help but smile. My latest Robins Egg kiln load came out and the pieces are lovely! I feel like a proud mama of her babies and it feels good. We may not be certain of a lot of things, but one thing we can be certain of. Every year spring will come, the robin will return, and I will have speckled Robins eggs in my shop :) and I wouldn't have it any other way.