A PLACE OF HONOR

It was a bittersweet pill for me to swallow,

 this last school year,

 when I learned that one of Whitney High's all-time favorite and most respected teachers,

Rod Ziolkowski,

was going to retire.

I was crushed because he has always been my touchstone here at Whitney,

a mentor,

a colleague to run things by,

a friend who supported my art students and myself thru thick and thin,

one of the most gifted and brightest shining stars I have ever met in this educational field.

He could teach any subject,

play numerous instruments.

He is also an actor

who runs our multi-million dollar theater.

An artist, a photographer and savvy on the computer,

and so, so much more.

A honest to God Renaissance man.

I honestly have never met anyone as dedicated to his students, this school and his family.

He has definitely been a father figure to me even though I am probably older than him.

And I thank you Rod for your patience with me,

for not judging me when I'd do stupid stuff

(we both knew I'm capable of that),

and for congratulating me on a job well done.

You are one hell of a human being!!

Rod and Nancy's wedding photo atop a Sam Maloof table in their home.

And my ceramic piece.

So as a parting gift I wanted to give him something I had made.

But I hadn't much time to start from scratch so I went back into my archives

and found this Slab Footed Bowl I had made as a demo. piece in the 1990's

or early 2000's

which I had never glazed.

It was in it's Bisqued state,

handbuilt rather then wheel thrown,

stamped while plastic,

pierced along the format edge,

& draped over a newspaper mold with added feet.

I had also inlaid Porcelain balls and stamped those as well.

And even though I had never glazed it,

I had always pulled it out to teach with because I was very fond of it.

So for Rod, 

I decided to finish it,

a big deal for me as many of you know by now.

(I rarely finish anything, but I love to start many things).

So here is the glazed, finished work.

The camera didn't quite show the true color of the glaze.

It is a bit more celedon/turquoise in person.

You can see that better in the first photo of it on the table.

And before I put the glaze on it,

 I stained it with Red Iron Oxide to showcase the leaf stamp 

that alumni art student Eleanor Wada made and left behind during the 1980's.

It's been a go to stamp for me since she graduated.

I especially like it curved into the feet below.

You can also see  little pops of the Porcelain on the backside coming thru the inlaid holes.

So anyways,

a long story short,

I gave it to Rod at his retirement party,

hoping he would like it.

To my great delight,

he did!!!

Yesterday his wife Nancy,

who teaches junior high science at our school as well,

showed me the top most picture in this post.

She said Rod wanted me to see where they had placed my piece,

 a place of honor atop their priceless Sam Maloof table.

I was bowled over!

OMG, they own a Maloof table!!!!

Needless to say,

I was THRILLED!!

And humbled to my core that they displayed it sitting on his table.

I studied Mr. Maloof when I was in college.

He was a master woodworker and furniture maker,

one of the top in his field in post war America and the world.

Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan both owned rocking chairs he made for them.

I just recently drove by an exit in Alta Loma, Ca. off the 210 Fwy.

showing signage to his home/workshop/ gardens and Foundation.'

A must see in my future.

I had no idea it was so close by.

So thank you Rod and Nancy for allowing me to be a special part of your home,

where love lives.

This school will never be the same without your energy and enthusiasm Rod.

You are sorely missed already.

Our first dept. meeting yesterday was not the same without you. 

Much love, good health and happiness in your retirement.

ONE MORE...

SLAB FOOTED BOWL

CERAMICS I

clay, glaze, oxides

I want to make sure this remarkable piece created by junior Sarah Oh 

joins the other Slab Footed Bowls on this blog.

Sarah choose to reglaze this piece and therefore it was photographed 

at a different time and sequence then the others.

So sorry Sarah I didn't catch this earlier.

I worked with Sarah 4 years ago in the 7th Grade Art Wheel class.

And this is the first time since then that she has been able to fit an art class in her schedule.

This smart young woman, 

who wants to be an Art Major,

 has managed to fit 2 art classes in this year.

Sarah is getting known in both the clay and drawing class as having a signature style. 

In each of her pieces she somehow manages to bring in some kind of living creature,

I've seen two dragons, a cat, fish, lizard, and the list continues to grow.

So now the pressure is on Sarah,

we all wait with baited breathe to see what is coming next.

hee hee

xoxooxoxo

ADDING ONE MORE

SLAB FOOTED BOWLS

CERAMICS I

clay, glaze, oxides

I was going thru my pictures this weekend 

and found one more Slab Footed Bowl that I really want to share.

It was made by junior Ylia Madayag and it's gorgeous.

Everything that Ylia makes is incredible

 but

sadly a piece chipped off the rim of this before it made it into the kiln for the Bisque firing,

and couldn't be repaired.

So I suggested to Ylia to chip off more pieces all the way around. 

It was scary but she did it and balanced the top rim out.

But it was the way she glazed it that really made it come alive.

Ylia stained it with Cobalt Carbonate,

wiped off the stain from the top surface so that the oxide remained in her crevices,

then dipped it into the Transparent glaze.

Then she went back over top the glaze with a brush dipped into Cobalt

 and put even more oxide into her incised areas to achieve a remarkable look.

You should have heard the oohs and ahhs when it came out of the kiln.

:) 

GLAZE BREAKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS

 SLAB FOOTED BOWLS

CERAMICS I

clay, glazes & oxides

Another prelude to building with slabs are these Slab Footed Bowls.

The slabs were used to try out their newly created Bisqued Stamps & Cylinder Rolls.

They were also used to learn the technique of using a rounded mold to form a bowl with.

There were many molds to chose from

 or they could have make their own out of crunched up newspaper and masking tape.

The underside of pre-existing bowls work well too turned upside down.

Senior Eunice Kim leads the way here with her striking bowl.

Loving the way our Turquoise glaze is breaking over top all the textural qualities

 she has stamped, rolled or thumped and dragged into her slab.

Learning and understanding glazing is challenging when you are high firing.

It's takes a good half year for the kids to "get it".

Breaking glaze means how it's going to behave when it melts and hits an obstacle

like a lump, crack, crevice, carved out or a stamped pattern area.

Look closely at the inside and outside of Eunice's bowl and you can see what I'm talking about.

Light areas, 

dark areas,

it's all cool and can be a bit uncontrollable.

Sometimes you just don't know what you are going to get,

which makes unloading a kiln a delightful surprise.

In this next piece by senior Vinaini Jayasinghe,

she has painted the entire piece with the oxide colorant called Cobalt Carbonate.

Then she has taken a wet sponge and wiped off the clay's surface 

so that the Cobalt says in the low areas.

You really notice it on the backside of her bowl below.

Because she has used a Transparent glaze

 we don't have to worry about how the glaze will break.

In senior Sahil Doshi's bowl you can really see the breaking.

It's so beautiful how our Cobalt Blue Gloss glaze goes black in the crevices and lightens slightly along the edges of the cervices.

LET'S ROLL

SLAB FOOTED BOWLS

CERAMICS I

clay, glazes & oxides

We are seeing my beginning clay students first experience at rolling out the perfect slab.

Not so easy without a slab rolling machine like they have at the big schools in the sky,

just a plain old baking rolling pin.

It's hard to get them perfectly even.

The kids have a tendency to get one area too thick and the other too thin.

There is a trick,

 with pieces of wood on either side of the rolling pin that I haven't shown them yet,

 because I want to teach them to use their eyes to check slab thickness.

I don't like teaching my beginners to take the easy way out.

A bit of struggle is a good thing,

right?

Builds character  LOL

Like in the good old days!!

So I don't usually let my kids copy characters 

but this one was so well crafted by senior Tarun Desai,

that I didn't have the heart to tell him to start over.

This is more what I want the students to strive for,

there own designs like senior Casey Yoon & junior Gary Liu.

But it was junior Nathan Lam who really impressed me with his sculptural piece.

Note the subtle texture under the bowl area,

& the tiki men as feet?

Super cool piece Nathan!

TWO MORE BOWLS

SLAB FOOTED BOWLS

CERAMICS I

clay & glaze

These two beauties were left out of a post from earlier in the year.

They had to be re-fired in the glaze kiln.

Sometimes that happens when a glaze doesn't adhere properly to the clay's surface, 

or perhaps if the child has not applied a glaze correctly.

What we do is heat up the piece with a blow dryer (so that the glaze will stick to a glass surface)

then re-apply the glaze. 

Not an easy thing to do, 

and sometimes doesn't work.

but we always give it a try.

This top piece with the very elegant foot is the work of junior Christina Hur,

 and below I like the organic lip that senior Elijah Ramos has put around the top of his bowl.

Notice that both have great patterning going on their surfaces. 

These were stamped into the clay before they shaped their bowls with the Bisqued Stamps and Cylinders they made at the beginning of the school year.

Slab Bowls

SLAB FOOTED BOWL/PLATES

CERAMICS I

clay, glazes, oxides, & nail polish

Loving my new beginning ceramics students.

They are hard workers and so focused on good design and craftsmanship.

This was their first slab experience,

and they got to bring in surface design with their bisqued stamps and cylinders they made.

They are also getting the hang of applying the glazes and oxides.

So let's see who we have here.

Senior Ankita Batra is doing outstanding work for me.

She has an innate sense of design and lovely craftsmanship to go with it.

And the clay loves 11th grader Juliene Porciuncula.

I'm so hoping she will be back next year for the second level clay class.

And senior Nikita Govind is knocking all her assignments out of the park.

Here she is experimenting with applying nail polish over top the glazed areas to get certain colors that we can't achieve thru our glazes.

Senior  Poonam Bhaktra has created this delicate leaf form 

and then done a bit of splattering with the oxides over top the glaze.

And lastly senior Laarnie Barcelon has designed her plate as an envelop to her love

complete with clay postage and her signature bow that we are able to find on most of her pieces.

Great job young ones!

Learning to Roll Out Slabs - Student Work

SLAB FOOTED BOWLS

CERAMICS I

First the beginners learned how to manipulate the clay by stretching and bending, next we covered the pinch pot and now I move them into slab work.  but before we build and actual box, I have them start with something much simpler, a slab footed bowl.  In this assignment they also learn to use a mold to form their slab over to get a concave shape.  We make the molds from crunched up newspaper wrapped with masking tape.  And once again I have them practice scoring and slipping to connect their foot.

This very elegant first work is the creation of junior Nicholas Tudor.  This is my first time to work with Nick and I find his design solutions unique and really well thought out in terms of construction.  A deep critical thinker, I love that!

This bold and striking piece was done by senior Priya Sheth.  I really like how she glazed it by painting on our yellow and turquoise glaze over top the black to highlight her designs.

And once again, it's senior Anne Allan with her creative interpretation.  Love the height she has brought to her foot.

This next one by senior Jocelyn Kim is cool with it's pierced openings.

And senior Minette Tsang has done a bit of inlay work with the tiny clay balls, one of my favorite design solutions on both the front and backside of her bowl.  To glaze, she has stained it with cobalt carbonate, then dipped it into transparent glaze, for a really good look.

Love this next one by senior Saarika Bhakta, her glazing is so wonderful.   First a dip into out transparent glaze, then over painting with cobalt and red iron oxides and finally a flicker of blue matte glaze sprinkled on top. 

Our last one here was made by junior Cindy Ryoo.  It really shows off her stamped textures by using our semi-transparent bluegreen glaze.  And check out that textural foot edge, love it!

Oops...

as I forgot to include junior Justyn Li's highly creative, outside the box, slab footed bowl last week in my posts.  Sorry Justyn!  Justyn is a very complex thinker and turned her bowl into a sculpure.  Notice the bit of pink color in the center?  She sprinkled bits of glass shards there since we don't have a pink glaze.  Clever girl.

Slab Footed Bowls - Student Work

I posted about this assignment yesterday showing you my demo pieces.  Today I want to show the student results from my Ceramics I class, so here they are.

I'm starting off with senior Lilith Huang's owl.  Lilith always gives me some of the best work in the class.  Her designs and craftsmanship are tight, and she spends a lot of time figuring out how to glaze and finish her pieces.  I like how she related her foot design spirals to the spirals on the owl wings.  I call that great visual flow.

In this next work below by senior Hylie Jeffries, he has come up with a very clever design idea, plus I like that he has incorporated some text into his piece.  Also notice the great job he did with his foot.  More solid visual flow.  This is a very difficult form to pull off for a beginner.  So way to go Hylie!

This very organic and wonderful pot was made by senior Kristen Palma.  We have seen her work before, because the clay loves her, and she loves the clay.  The same thing happened to me when I was 17 at Sunny Hills High School (shout out to my mentor Sally Foster Wilde, you changed my life).  I really like how Kristen has shown off her stamped designs by lightly brushing a bit of rutile oxide over top her tan glaze.

In this piece by junior Aditi Ramesh, I really appreciate her softly ripped edges from the thumping and dragging she has done with the clay.  The pedestal base gives the bowl an elegant feel.  And the black glaze she chose really accents her embossed designs.  

Senior Helen Baek has made a really lovely leaf that's wonderfully glazed in turquoise with a touch of chrome carbonate oxide to highlight her vine.  And I really like how she curved her feet inwards.  It gives the piece a very aerodynamic feel.

Below, junior Tim Creasy has rolled out his slab, stamped it with his own stamps he made and trimmed an echo pattern around the outside.  He repeated the triangular stamp shape on his feet forms.  Again, these kids are understanding how to tie their work together.

Sophia Lu, senior, has also gone for a leaf shape above

Martin Yang, senior, went for a very complex form.  He built his own mold rather then using an existing one. So 3 newspaper balls taped together was the structure that he molded his rolled slab over.  He's embedded fantastic textures into his clay with an interesting scalloped edge.  What was a happy accident was that he applied his glaze too thickly and it did a bit of pulling away from his clay body, but it just adds to the great textures and pulls it all together.

Senor Sandra Osuji was another going with a leaf form.  What makes hers very special is the movement she has brought into her form and then the strong way she has finished it off with her oxide rub and thin layer of transparent glaze over top. 

Kevin Luong, a senior, knocked this assignment out of the park by using Salvador Dali as his inspiration.  

Fantastic job all of you, it was a pleasure to share your work! 

Slab Footed Bowls - My Work

A really fun and easy assignment for my beginning clay kids is this Slab Footed Bowl that they make in the 1st Quarter.  Yeah, I know I'm behind schedule here  LOL.  Anyways, they can either roll or thump and drag a slab of clay and decorate it with at least 2 of the 6 surface design techniques I teach them.  In my piece here, I rolled my cylinder stamps over top the slab then scored and appliqued a clay heart towards the center area.  I also started by thumping and dragging my clay so that I was able to have very organic, torn and ripped edges.  We laid these decorated slabs over top a rolled and tapped newspaper ball so they would hold a concave shape while we attached a foot that flowed visually with the bowl.

To finish this piece after the bisque firing, I rubbed it with all 4 of my oxides, then wiped them off with a wet sponge (this is like staining wood).  My husband really liked how this piece tuned out and claimed it as soon as I brought it home.   Now that's true love  :)

This is the piece I demoed with last school year.  I really liked it until I glazed it with our Chili glaze.  I accidentally put the glaze on too thickly on the inside of the bowl so that it covered up my beautiful surface design I had going on.  For some reason the glaze didn't go on as thick on the backside, and that still looks decent.  One of my seniors last year, Jaimee Chirico, loved it so I gave it to her as a gift.   

Tomorrow I will post the beginner's Slab Footed Bowls.