OVER THE MOON

MOONSTONE MOUNTED SCULPTURES

CERAMICS II

clay, sawdust firing, metallic rubbing compounds, wood & paint

I so enjoy sharing these every year.

The kids work so hard on them,

and besides working in clay they acquire wood working skills as well.

Let's see who made what. 

This first one is the creation of senior Klyne Madayag.

This assignment began as a Pinch Pot review 1st Quarter,

 and ended with the kids mounting them for their Final.

Pretty amazing,

right??

I love so many things about this piece.

That Klyne thought ahead to add holes so she could string beads at a later date,

the visual flow between mount and sculpture,

and the limited color palette.

This next one was made by senior Sitara Puliyanda.

Again,

 great visual flow between sculpture and base thru color choices.

And I really like the smooth quality she was able to achieve with the gold metallic.

Senior Sandhya Raghvan is the artist of this next piece.

Love the colors she was able to get with the metallic rubbing compounds.

And how fun are all those dots on her base.

What patience!

Speaking of fun,

look at this tricky base made by senior Efrain Quintero.

Gonna try to get a side view for you,

even trickier from that side.

And senior Celeste Zambrano really jazzed hers up thru her mount. 

Wow!!

And we end with senior Eryn Burnett's sweet moonflower.

Looks like someone plucked one of it's petals.

Ahhhh :(

She has also created a lovely mount.

Moonstones over Maimi

MOONSTONE MOUNTED SCULPTURES

CERAMICS II

clay, metallic rubbing compounds, wood, india ink, acrylic paint, hardware findings, wire, metal rods

This was actually the first clay assignment of the year for my Cermaics II kids.

I had them pinch then paddle two clay bowls into a moon shape then sculpt a face on one of the sides.

The pieces were then bisqued and sawdust fired.

Afterwards the students could elect to rub their their sawdusted moons with metallic compounds.

Then came the mounting which they did at the end of 1st quarter.

They learned to use a drill, saw, and sand.

Of course they couldn't leave the wood raw so there was much finishing and embellishing going on with paints, ink, wire and other goodies. 

Here are seniors Cindy and Ju Eun learning to drill.

The results were spectacular as you can see here.

This very complex work was done by senior Cindy Rhoo.

She worked so hard to pull this all together, 

often coming in at lunch and after school.

Her attention to detail was amazing!

In this next one by senior Yasmeen Pardo,

a highly creative soul,

she has indented her face for more expressive impact,

and then wired up the whole nine yards.

I've shown you two slightly different views so you can get the whole effect.

Another student who outdid himself was senior Nicholas Tudor.

Love the ripple effect with the dowels and the movement they created.

More rhythm was brought in by altering his colors.

Of course off-centering the piece brings even more energy to the work. 

And then the finish he was able to achieve on his moonstone was so much like our real moon.

And are those glass shards he's glued down as well?

Nope,

 he made these delicate little shards from clay.

Very nice Nic!

These next two sculptures have such a calming effect on the viewer thru their facial expressions.

The top one was done by senior Erin Hsao, 

 I like that she thought to build two rather then just the one.  

Is that an extra credit opportunity?

You bet!

And the one below was created by senior Sameera Ahmad 

Notice how Sameera has brought in seed bead embellishments,

 textured her wood block 

and sponge/stained it with multiple layers of paint.

Again, 

these kids put in a remarkable amount of effort for me.

This last one was made by senior Ju Eun Lee.

When we were finishing these up it was after the Halloween holiday,

with no fake spiders to be found anywhere,

so Ju Eun sent away via mail order for the plastic spiders that she knew she wanted to embellish with.

She has also taken raw wool sheep roving,

stretched it out and attached it to her stone,

for a very cool wind/blowing effect.

These all can be seen right now on display in our Principals office if you are interested.

Moonstone Mounted Sculptures - Student Work

I have the 6 most amazing children this year in Ceramics II and it is a pleasure to show you their work.  They are all seniors and have been working so hard to impress and delight me, which they have.  :)

This was a review assignment on the pinch/paddle technique.  It was also a review of realistic, expressive faces.  We sawdust fired the moonstones, and then used a bit of metallic rubbing compound to make them even more special.

These first two above were made by Tahnee Thantrong and Shamara Mustafa.

The  two above were created by Aditi Ramesh and Carol Oh.  Don't they have so much attitude and personality??

After the pieces were fired I asked the students to make a wood mount to compliment their pieces.  I feel that each one of them did a remarkable job with this from scrap pieces of wood.

These last two belong to James Cho and Aman Patel.

Just look at how both boys came up with such a creative way to mount their works.

A Special Note to My Favorite Student :)

To senior Eddie Ponce, one of my hardest working students, :), an apology for not doing more to showcase your moonstone sculpture below.  I know you felt sad because I only posted one pix of yours compared to the 3 each I posted for Stella and Rita a couple days ago.  It was not intentional,  just the way it worked out.  I love your work, you know that.  So please accept my deepest, most heartfelt apology for not doing your piece justice. 

We both know it was an exceptional piece, and that you went above and beyond to make it that way.  

Love you!  Don't be mad.   

Moonstone Mounted Sculptures - Student Work

Okay Ceramics II,  I've  finally gotten around to posting one of your first assignments of the year, Moonstones.   So sorry it's taken soooo long.  Here we go!

I want to start with one of the sweetest hearts I know, senior Stella Park.  This is Stella's 3rd class with me and she is such a superstar.  A fantastic designer and craftswoman, Stella always comes thru.

Take a look at that expressive face and how beautifully the sawdust firing enhances it.  I especially like how she chose to mount her moonstone.  She dug thru my wood bin and found several pieces that she glued together, stained and drizzled paint down.  Gorgeous work Stella.

I liked it so much that I had to show you both sides.

And here is superstar #2, senior Eddie Ponce.  I adore this young man who takes such delight and pleasure as he creates his pieces.  He says he doesn't but I know differently  :)  Eddie very cleverly turned his moonstone into a fish and double mounted it; first with a clay coral reef  and then with his painted wood base embellished with sand and real coral.  Wonderful job Eddie!

And last but never least is superstar #3, senior Rita Labib.  Yes, you recognize her name because this is her 5th class with me, and I have showcased her work for the past 3 years.  Rita has given us a very expressive face, complete with tear drops.  I like how she has enhanced her sawdust finish with a bit of rubbed on metallic compound.

And I especially love how she dealt with her wood by cutting and sanding a curved base with bits of glass chards and paint stain which highlights the wood's knot.  Then to off-center her piece, brilliant!

Moonbaby - Junior Rita Labib

I don't remember if I posted Moonbabies this year, and if I did, I must have left this very special one out, maybe because it just recently got mounted (actually not so recently if you look at the date time stamped on the pix, that's how behind I am on my posts  LOL).  Anyways, this very expressive piece was done by junior Rita Labib.  It was her first clay assignment of the year and of course Rita being Rita, she had to do a little something extra to make her piece stand out of the crowd.  So she mounted it on wood with a few glass shards and nails.  Very effective and a real eye catcher.  Keep yup the great work ethic Rita!

Sagger Fired Mounted Clay Sculptures

These wonderful pieces belong to my 2nd year clay kids.  It was their first time to build with porcelain clay and they loved it.  Afterwards we sagger fired them in a trash can and then some of the kids choose to rub metallic compounds over top their surface.  Above senior David Hyun sculpted a moonstone with a cityscape on top.  Then after it came out of the sagger fire he used an ink pen to draw images and text along the side panels.  What a cool piece David.

The students were also required to mount the sculptures on a wooden base that would flow visually with the sculpture.  I love that  David built another cityscape on the wood.  Very clever boy!

Check out this expressive piece above by senior Tiffany Liu.  Love the metallics she rubbed on the body and the sand and shells she embellished with on the wood block.  All the kids were required to sculpt an expressive face into their sculpture.  I definitely think Tiffany's was the most expressive and playful.  Below senior Hanna Woo really stepped out of the single wood block mount by combining several pieces of wood on which to mount her apple.  Hanna actually made the blocks interactive by drilling larger holes thru all the blocks so they could swivel and be re-positioned.  Brilliant idea!!  And because she used various woods, when she rubbed them with finishing oil, they looked fabulous.  Her final move was drizzling paint down the wood to bring in some black for visual flow with sagger colored apple.

Wow you guys, Great Work!!

Moonstone Mounted Sculpture - Student Work

This year I only have one second year Ceramics student, senior Chareena Benavidez, mixed in with 32 beginners. I love when I get to work with the clay kids a second year because there are so many more surface design problems you can tackle on the clay's surface. Plus I get to teach them to throw on the potter's wheel, which is way too much fun for me LOL, and they get to work to a larger scale on many of their projects. This was Chareena's first piece of the year, a pinch/paddled enclosed form with a face sculpted onto the surface. We sawdust fired it for an earthy look and then she mounted the piece on a wood base that she sanded, drilled and decorated to compliment the piece. Really wonderful work Chareena! You will be seeing more of her work because she is in the process of finishing many of her pieces from earlier in the year.

Moonstone Mounted Sculptures - Student Art

When I first started this project with my 2nd year clay students they were all sculpting some type of moon as subject matter, thus the title 'Moonstones". But over the years it has evolved into any form so long as it has an expressive face attached and lots of surface design. In the second half of the assignment, after their pieces are bisqued fired, we sawdust fire them and then rub them with pigments. And lastly, they mount them for display. So sawing, sanding, staining, drilling and wood burning come into play in the finished mounted works.


The expressive piece above belongs to senior Steven Ebalobor and is a bit of a self-portrait. He's showing how's he's feeling about missing his girlfriend who went away to college. I think he has done a wonderful job expressing his sadness and pain. The bead/tear drops raining down from the cloud are a clever design element. The piece below belongs to senior Ekta Doshi, and I love all the colored pigments she has combined in the staining of the clays surface.



The piece above and below belongs to senior Wayne Chen and his subject is an hour glass which he very cleverly mounted using two posts instead of the one.

And this last shot is a close up of the wood burning that Steven did on his wood. All 3 kids did an exceptional job in a very short amount of time!