Friday, January 19, 2018

ANOTHER GUINEA PIG

CLAY & FIBER VASE
INTERMEDIATE 3-D ART
clay, sawdust kiln, twigs/spokes & plant fibers, wire

Great sport senior Helen Kim let me try out an idea for a new assignment on her
that I felt was appropriate for her 2nd year 3-D level.
On Pinterest I had found the remarkable clay /fiber pieces of Marc Jenesel and Karen Pierce 
at Willow Bend Studios and showed them to Helen.
She found them as spectacular as I did,
so putting our critical thinking skills together we can up with a rubric for the assignment,
and Helen proceeded to execute out our plan.
I started one too,
but of course I never finished it.
Typical.
Anyways, 
I was super pleased with what Helen came up with 
having been inspired by Marc & Karen.
Check it out!

Here are views from both sides above & below.

Helen began by handbuilding her clay base.
She had to pre-plan where her spokes would attach to the pot
and pierced several holes to lash them on at a later time.
Believe it or not,
this piece only measures about 3 1/2" to 4" high.
Just thought I'd stick that in so you can get the feel for how tiny it is.
Anyways,
as she was waiting for her clay pot to dry, be bisqued then sawdust fired,
 she began another assignment which I will post tomorrow.
When the pot came back to her she found a few twigs
and lashed then onto the pot with waxed linen.
I have a plethora of weavers in my storage room that Helen chose from to be her weft.
She selected some of my favorites,
the dried out date palm stalks where the fruit grows from.
But what I love that she also incorporated 
was the copper wire as a finishing touch around the lip and base. 
A fabulous piece Helen!

6 comments:

  1. how wonderful! so creative, will have to try this, by the way I have quite a few UFO's

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  2. Very interesting ... I did go to the Willow Bend website to look at the gallery and the pieces are beautiful. That in turn made me appreciate the size and proportions of Helen's piece. While the copper wire is an eye-catcher (and I'm sure it wasn't easy to make those loops), what I appreciated was how the weaving grew up so organically from the base. As a retired teacher, I also love that you two collaborated on the rubric ... too cool

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    1. I often collaborate with my 2nd and 3rd year returning students to try to custom fit assignments to their level & interests. They frequently will offer up new ideas as well which makes teaching the assignments new and fun for me.

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  3. I really liked your blog, I read some entries and it's good to continue educating through these media about the arts. We must continue to project artistic education in the new generations, so I have the cordial pleasure of inviting you this April 5 to the auction to be held at the Prado Museum in Madrid for the benefit of education in arts of children of the Prado Museum , artists such as Gabino Amaya Cacho, Eduardo Naranjo, Lita Cabellut and other more than 60 artists will offer their works to the visiting public.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for that wonderful offer, sounds fabulous!

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