Oh – must thank Klaus Osterwald for the boxes that will make my last week at .ekwc easier. These have been featured in my glaze test altar as well.

Klaus – I think of you often each time I notice a sound of life. Thank you for heightening my awareness of the gift of sound in our lives!

Off to my last day of working wet clay, mixing flax into a new sample batch of bone china (this may work better than the paper to strengthen the wet clay, without stiffening it’s memory) doing a trial mix of glaze into the bone china clay in an attempt to glaze only one side of the panels – and setting up for kiln firings tomorrow. ( maybe two kilns – one with glaze one with sand as a slump for bone china objects that deflect in the firing process if left unsupported. Could be a long day here in .ekwc. Glad Tanya is cooking tonight.

Then I was off to Rotterdam. Arriving in the train station was a bit like a mini NYC subway experience after Delft. Still surrounded by the familiar Dutch mass transit vernacular – somehow people’s movement and everything said – Metropolitan”

I was happy to escape to NAI – Netherlands Architectural Institute. A fifteen-minute walk along a symbolic canal glazed by a thin sheet of ice. I spent five hours reading in the library there. Perched on the second floor looking out over future museum park, books piled up around me. Incredible resource. I explore the boundary between public private _ mind and body; construction of skins, philosophy of urban design, Droog, etc. One could stay for weeks. At the opening of Architecture of the Night, that night, someone asked if I’d accessed the archives? Not yet. I was given a pass for one year of free entry. What a host country!

Delft Factor lent some hints for our project. I studies the gentleman spraying glaze (he rotates the object and moves the spay gun left to right gently locating it close to his head for distance) the plates are mass produced using a press – see the air hose on the metal band that contains the plaster mold) The self guided tour also featured a rich history of terracotta tile works, a simple demonstration of the hand painting ( is the cobalt mixed with India ink to give it a more visible viscosity for the “water” color sort of look)

Delft is a city of bicycles. On my walk over to the Royal Delft Factor, I came across a sign for bikes. Wow, Rotterdam, my next destination was listed. How small is Holland?

Deft as an escape from working at .ekwc, was rich in experiences. Galerie Terra Delft, www.terra-delft.nl founded by Joke Doedens and Simone Haak is a haven for ceramics. Joke ( be sure to hear this with the Dutch phonetic alphabet) Michael Cleff , the featured artist, showed intimate architectural domains, Marta Nagy a Hungarian artist par excellence, Beatrijs van Rheeden, www.craftscouncil.org.uk/collect (an international art fair for contemporary objects in London) multiple others and a related story of Hein Severijns’ fifty year quest for perfection _ moral: “I may have found it but not been able to see it in the moment.”

Week Three of the Blog _ Life has a small routine. Small as intuition and a fickle creative muse guide my rhythm … try it. A robust imagination manifests reality far beyond how actual objects appear but there is lies the challenge and impetus to continue.

Any way, what a gift to have life’s details represented by a few simple objects; keys (we are in essence locked in at .ekwc making keys essential for moving from my single room to the work center or even out into the community) Glasses, since I am an “older” women (one side benefit is waking up in the middle of the night, l see captivating shadows cast on walls/ceilings _ a visual element I attempt to capture via these translucent panels) and of course – Hand Cream (clay sucks the water from your hands and daily showers can take it’s toll as well)

Antra and Rick Borofsy - On Intimacy

Giving and Receiving

Giving:

Gathering: having something to give that is available and precious truth of one's present experience
Offering: something of one's feeling, need authenticity with integrity and attention
Aiming: focused attention on where the giving is going - direction and intention
Releasing: to be complete - one must release what is given - doing it creates a surge of energy, excitement, joy, freedom and ease

Receiving:

Reaching: reach out to find, select and take from what is available - evokes a desire and longing
Reading: opening one's self to receive - evokes feelings of hope and anticipation
Accepting: accept what is given - expanding one's self - creates experience of love or compassion
Assimilating: to feel nourished, we need to digest what has been given, taken in making what is received one's own when assimilation happens, feelings of gratitude and satisfaction arise

Re-Entry to .ekwc was smooth. I woke up Saturday morning; made oatmeal focused on a working day. Instead, I rode off for a 5 Rhythm’s Dance with instruction in Dutch. Mostly I understood via body language and the similar sounds of things like hand, elbow and shoulders.

A remarkable meeting with a gentle man Syven, who’d dreamed of meeting a women with dark hair, and blue grey eyes a month earlier.

As part of the instruction we chose a partner and then danced for each other. I was one of the last to chose a partner, as I did not understand the Dutch instruction and Syven indicated English was not a natural means for communication. Yet, our exchange was deeper than many one has in a lifetime. Via simple body language, he saw an ancient being offering a universal essence of life. A heartening gift to receive.

Christine Jetten, a participant for the brick project, an adminstrator for the local Den Bosch Design University and kindred soul setting with Lydia the kiln # 7 up to fire. This electric kiln has a catalytic converter to burn completely anything odd sort of thing we devise to put into it. Rumor has it that someone put a moped into it – other just toxic foams.

Christine and I found out we both share a passion for De Bono, lateral thinking and creativity when I was out doing “errands” ( an English word new to her) and mentioned an email I received from a great friend, Kimberly Wiefling (who is substitute teaching a class at CCA for me on Leadership, while I finish up my last week of my first stint here at .ekwc) about wearing multiple hats.

See Six Hats of De Bono

http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_bono_six_thinking_hats.html

01.25.07

Today I am off for a two day R & R break after 21 days here. I will go to Delft (trains leave every 3o minutes, 10 minutes past the hour) Then onto Rotterdam and the NAI where I will read and attend an opening lecture for the exhibition, Night Architecture.

Mostly we work it seems. I have taken a walk or gone on errands into town for essentials, like tooth paste because indeed the tube (this one was only a 2 inch $1 sample) could only be squeezed for three days running after it was “gone”.

So easy to become distracted!
.ekwc participants – projects and resources! This glaze has silcon carbide in it – at 4% - and iron pretty cool effect, but alas not translucency, my goal.


> QUOTE OF THE MONTH_> "In this world there is only one YOU. Don't you dare_> change just because you are outnumbered!" - Charles_> Swindoll

Today’s discussion about the pieces that came from the bisque focused on effects we could see from the kiln.

Yes – continue even with the “failures” as we will learn something from the completion of the cycle of clay process.

If you fire Frit 3221 combined with bone china clay up to 1260 C – at a 50/50 ratio that is meant to mature at 1000 C - you can create a real mess – or maybe it could be art. The one on the right looks a bit like an anthropomorphic female/male. Guess this maybe one reason I am currently single.

Become more mindful of the subtle elements of making:
• Try rolling out the slab in several stages – rotate and flip the slab between
• cut the slabs width wise – since the stresses are in the length of the slab
more streach this direction
• using a less shape knife leaves a nicer edge to the tile
may reduce the need for sanding the bisque
• try using glaze on the leather hard pieces –
move them to a kiln shelf after they are bone dry using a board
• 1 mm slabs dry in one day
how fast can we fire them beyond quartz conversion
does reduction change the translucency
what is the influence of time – between 1100 – 1260 C
• try using sand to fire instead of a shrinking slab brushed with alumina
• thixitropic properties of slip – activate this using a massage probe – or concrete probe – result seems to be a very smooth surface – no need to glaze it then
Experiment with timing for slabs
Record it all – then evaluate best practice
Run experiments where hole are filled
Soft clay – mix clay w/glaze to fill holes – brass tube size for now
C 75 / G-25 _ C 50/G-50 _ C 25/G-75
Leather hard – Dry –Bisque
Same w/Terra Sigilatta
Try putting Talc on the mold – before making an impression -
May put just enough residue of talc on piece to achieve brightening effect

Find out where to place rings in the kiln to measure the exact temperatures achieved

T – testing for clay shrinkage and strength

Try a sandwich with lace inside of two slip slabs
If, one uses a wet knife to cut the slab or slip – it may not tear as much

Try .... to sketch these out clearly so you can remember where to being again in June - the next time or maybe on Saturday morning when you return from Delft/Rotterdam - Yes - they could dry before the last kiln on Wednesday!

Andrea and Marianne came into my studio this morning and we began to review our work so far. Twenty-one days into my stay. My hands and mind have learned and started to practice new skills. Thin 1 mm bone china slabs a little larger than half sheet of A 4, roll out quickly and can be manipulated. I explore how best to tear the edge, do I want the texture of interface .ekwc has provided, can I shake the slab to gain a supple soft draping?

Each day my hands become more familiar and confident. Tonight , Wednesday, I danced with the five rhythms dancing group in Den Bosch. My body moved with the music, fluid like the wind in grasses. Can the clay reflect this kinesthetic knowing expressed so easily? Would this be a thing of beauty to add to the translucency we seek in the panels? Can something so still as a building reflect the influence of rhythm and wind?

Loaded kiln # 3 – 60x60 interior shelves with three supports laid in parallel to shelf fluting. Much easier to stack the kiln on the floor outside, then Peter lifted the stack with a manual fork lift into the fully computerized gas kiln built by Gerald Blaauw – set on program 40.; 1060 degree C – 24 hour cycle.
Features high velocity burners for optimal energy consumption, etc.

Lunch Factoid: Did you know male lions sleep for 22 hours per day? Females do all the hunting and that mating is a winter sport?

Learned about the potential to “squat houses” here in Holland. If a house is empty for more than one year, you can legally occupy it. We are a diverse group, sharing dinner each evening. Christine is a full time artist who’s made a lifestyle of residencies. Eva, is from Sweden, Akiko is a Japanese ceramic artists choosing not to join the Japanese traditional journey for becoming a ceramic artist, Tanya is from Germany working to fuse in casting process ceramics to metal, Bruce a mature sculpture taking a three month sabbatical from University and Bas, an aspiring Dutch designer, who is knocking off known Dutch Designers. He has an incredible memory for names. Each one rolls off his tongue, and speeds past mine at light speed. It would be hopeless for me to follow his path.

However, I did indeed find inspiration in his process; he is purchasing molds on E-Bay, from hobby ceramic outlets and is casting these as freaks, combining fish with frogs or some such combination.

Me, I logged onto the scrap pile at .ekwc and selected castaway plaster molds {beats E-Bay pricing} and started series of luminous rosette reflectors.

Day of playing with materials! Tomorrow – first full size kiln firing. I guess we’ll drive the forklift, carefully past the computer that is running the test for the 1500-degree industrial samples.

Beatrije Van Rheeden’s porcelain piece is the first piece in the opening that strikes me as incredible. It is in the front room of the Leigo Kunst Gallery. Beatrije is at the show and we exchange conversation about living in France, porcelain, children, and Dutch culture. Her work is inspirational. There are five or six ceramic artists featured. They gather each month to talk about PR and their individual vision as artists. Near the middle of the opening time, we all gather to listen while their visions are read. I am captivated by sunlight in one of Beatrije’s pieces and the individuals since “Andy Goldsworthy" is the only word I translate.

Modern Architecture? Well, maybe considering the Gallery is a grand house built in pre-central heating, so this element is Modern.

I’ve started a fin detail sculpture as placeholder for a vertical membrane wall. A series begun several years ago, using a French pastry cutter. Guess we could stamp it by the thousands then press it to give 5 random “hand” distortions, connect it with a rod and volia – mass manufactured art.

Learned about the potential to “squat houses” here in Holland. If a house is empty for more than one year, you can legally occupy it. We are a diverse group, sharing dinner each evening. Christine is a full time artist who’s made a lifestyle of residencies. Eva, is from Sweden, Akiko is a Japanese ceramic artists choosing not to join the Japanese traditional journey for becoming a ceramic artist, Tanya is from Germany working to fuse in casting process ceramics to metal, Bruce a mature sculpture taking a three month sabbatical from University and Bas, an aspiring Dutch designer, who is knocking off known Dutch Designers. He has an incredible memory for names. Each one rolls off his tongue, and speeds past mine at light speed. It would be hopeless for me to follow his path.

However, I did indeed find inspiration in his process; he is purchasing molds on E-Bay, from hobby ceramic outlets and is casting these as freaks, combining fish with frogs or some such combination.

Me, I logged onto the scrap pile at .ekwc and selected castaway plaster molds {beats E-Bay pricing} and started series of luminous rosette reflectors.

Day of playing with materials! Tomorrow – first full size kiln firing. I guess we’ll drive the forklift, carefully past the computer that is running the test for the 1500-degree industrial samples.

The kiln builder came to .ekwc today, Sunday. He is running a test for a US based company for thin wall, very special ceramic filters in the kiln; up to 1500 degrees C.

Spoke of industry, design, kilns, teaching at Design Academy {Eindhoven as well as CCA, and Academy of Art} and a local Dutch company who are making thin wall extrusion. Mostly these are used as filter. Since we only want to filter light, should be easier, or perhaps possible.

Wonder if industrial ceramics needs new outlets for their products?

"You can know things without touching them, without handling them, even without being there. You can feel things with your eyes. Observation is much closer to thought than words are."

James Turrell _ De Pont Museum, Tilburg
Wedgeworks III, 1969
Blue Fluorscent Light Installation

Visited SM,s Stedelijk Museum, today as a rest. In order to leave the .ekwc, one needs a key. I’ve been working 12 - 14 hour days with powders, clay and reading art books. So, a design museum seemed like a good destination. When I arrived after a half hour walk from .ekwc, fatigue wash over me.

I took a coffee in the restaurant, done in lime green and purple. Not too restful an environment, but bold. The exhibit of emerging designers, was not too stimulating, but there was a research library. Browsing there in magazines, I found Chris Wright, who is doing amazing work with Bone China. Check out his web site – www.cone8.co.uk. Inspirational and challenging all at once.

I returned to .ekwc mind racing with possibilities. Yet, when I came back to the studio, to my 3 liters of bone china slip, a completely unfamiliar material, I began to walk more slowly; my procrastination style. Slow movement, mechanical measuring of colorants, tea breaks, anything to avoid failure in achieving imagined possibilites.

After one hour, of working the plaster surface, adjusting the water floating inside the plaster bat (make sure there is an ample set of bubbles rising from the surface before pouring slip) changing the air pressure (4psi) , timing for releasing the slipped slab ( be sure that it the surface water is gone, then wait one or two minutes – “later” seems to work better than too soon) the thickness (1mm or 1.5 mm seems to work – need to set up some sort of measuring method to release the proper portion)– and learning to lift one edge of the slab ( could one design a thin steel edge inset into the plaster surface or a longer thin metal strip) I lifted my first full slab! (only a 5 – 6” circle) ( oh, maybe the circle is a better shape than a square?) Persistence and constant fine tuning of motor skills and curiousty to understand what influences failure or success?

So, more glaze tests tomorrow morning. Marianna and I meet this morning to discuss the test so far and help me to make decisions. My mantra – KISS. She and I laughed at the end, as how I do not think it should be so easy. Just need to work out if I want to glaze the bone china. Going after a soft semi – matt transparent. I know that sounds like an oxymoron. But, clay does reflect the nuance of the maker. Ah, back to the start of this blog – Be nice to yourself, when tacking the unknown.

When I went to the office to seek out a glue stick, Agate mentioned it was a good evening for the pub. I countered with, “good night to dance.”

Alas, she mentioned there is a local chapter of 5 Rhythms dancing. I’d asked almost everyone else if there was a place to dance) So, several hours later, I am submersed in Dutch world, dancing to European music in a room of twenty women and one lone man. Two hours, just like in SF, Portland, and Northhampton. I guess movement is universal. I know if puts an amazing smile into my soul.

A sever storm was brewing, forcing me to stay in the studio. I had finished filling the kiln shelves for Monday’s bisque firing, so I turned to Dutch news headlines as collage materials.

Been working hard since 01.15.07 on slabs in both porcelain and bone china. Finally can make an incredible slab from 1 mm thick – up to 4mm. One set, of slabs - 01.18.30 are a rolled as a club sandwiched. One piece of the least expensive muslin, thinnest interface then the bone china clay – with a leading wedge laid closet to the roller – a sheet of interface and then muslin, all on a piece of MDF. Sort of a stone soup formula. Then I remove the fabric on the top surfaces – flip it onto a kiln shelf – remove the other layers of fabric – for a naked clay slab as a canvas for ideas.

My muscles started to cry out on the 18th. Lifting kiln shelves above my head to store in the drying rack maybe the cause, but maybe it was the two hours of dancing done the night before!

Be nice to yourself when tackling the unknown.

only one gear is required - unless the wind is strong. then one would need the gear shifter on the frame

best designed water system... we hose down the heated concrete floor and squeegy the water into the trough. the sink with three sections to filter off water, flows into the floor drain, too.

Began my day thinking of DETAIL> So I took shots early of daily sights.

Bruce Gernand, a sculpture from England gave a presentation last Friday on CAD tools. One concept was focused on the fable the tortise and the hare titled "festina lente" {make haste slowly).

Marvelous paradox.

ID professors from University of Delft came this morning for the 10 AM coffee hour. Their presentation was of a new tool to stimulate colors and patterns on the surface of white objects. They had made a table, Skin 2.0 with a projector mounted below- an Apple video camera, and two paddles from an old gaming machine - to dial the scale of a pattern from either the project or the video camera that was shown on the white object.

Eva's sculptures were a part of the demonstration for how to simulate finishes.

.ekwc suggests I work directly on the kiln shelves, (60cm x 60cm) to gain the best results. I test the boundaries of “working” directly on the shelves. In order to work a bone china slab at approximately 1mm thickness, I place a MDF board on the slab roller. Using a thin scrim cloth sandwich, I can transfer it to my studio. Then slice it to size using a plywood pattern, and before too long – onto the kiln shelf. There I incise, pierce, stamp, etc. Looking for transparency and the boundaries of manipulation. How dry, when will it warp, or will it crack?

Scrap slabs become vases if I wrap them around a simple pipe or I am also using plumbers insulation pipes left over from PierLuigi’s packing crates. If I then pour bone china slip into the “sleeve vase” – it makes a bottom in one simple movement. et - volia. Something else to experiment with and find out in a couple of weeks if my hand/mind and materials have some alignement to achieving the image in my minds eye.

Stacked a test kiln this morning. It is fully computerized and there is a standard glaze program to begin one’s experiments. I’ve programmed 6 or was it 7 steps. They use pyrometric rings for each kiln to measure the actual temperature achieved.

I am testing for materials {cross between a glaze and clay} that will fill holes, a material {testing fluxes} that will give color to the porcelain/bone china without glazes or stains/oxides. I know that bone ash {i.e.: calcium phosphate} on Babu in SF, gives a very warm vapor fume, sort of like golden marshmallows. Would like to keep the panels closer to original clay sense than a glazed tile look.

Also – I apply terra stiglatta or “vapor fume” chemicals on dry clay. I am testing out hypothesis from last summers wood firing and Marc Lancet’s book on wood firing. Color development on cooling. Also soaking the kiln longer this time. Understand that bone china will give more translucencies if held for long periods of time at high temperatures. Of course, the equation of time over temperature does lead to warpage, etc.

Today, worked on making panels. Found out that the porcelain, VM 545 from Germany that is tinted pink – shrinks at a different rate than the bone china clay – BM 900. So, some panels will probably crack.

Yesterday Eva, who is in the studio adjacent to mine, comes in carrying her Apple notebook computer. She is asking about English phasing in an artist statement she is composing in an email. We talk a bit. I read the first sentence – with the concepts of foundation and communication joined in the first sentence. I recognize she and I share a similar affinity to clay. Her forms are sensuous beyond mine – yet she describes tension and strain as the foundation.

{She is from Sweden, the mother of three children and is here for the second time. Must have an incredibly supportive husband. Four weeks away to work on her art.}

Good participant to share the small moments of conversation and exchanges of working habits. Follow one’s own path. So many others around on another journey

Embrace the Wobble:

My work arises, from daily engagement, search for connection and movement toward synchronicity reflecting and announcing visible connections. Flowing forth, in a continuous abstract non-linear stream of intuition.

An iterative dialogue combining material, intelligence and transformation by fire. My pieces bear witness to passage of time. A vesper dedicated to touch. Solid metaphors, revealing my experiences; spiritual in nature, art poised as expression of my feminine spirit.

Sunday 01.14.07

Connecting Threads_Trust in Creativity:

In a sense it’s obvious that in terms of the physical world scientists make the more fundamental statements, but artists and philosophers don’t have a less important job. They humanize, they find out what the significance of science is for human beings. At the point at which Einstein said there’s no such thing as matter he didn’t talk about the particles of things, he talked about things being a chain of events. …. I think you have to make images of objects, which are like thinking models to help you get through the world.
Tony Cragg – Sculpture _ Archimedes Screw – s’Hertogenbosch


Daily Experiences Living in Holland:
The sun is out today for the first time in twelve days. I ride the participants’ bike out twice between working sessions. It is my first day working with Bone China Slip. It is a strange clay body. Very lean hydrotropic clay. If I shake the thin scrim cloth I use to support the 1 mm thick slab – the edges soften. I hope to capture the fluid nature of clay. I am exploring the edges of material properties to gain a better understanding of the craft within the boundaries of slabs; both slipped ones and rolled slabs.

The process requires drying and firing to completely understand the boundaries. Ceramics embraces a paradox of time over temperature. Results interlink these two factors as a constant. The photo of a thermometer, apostrophe, and clock taken from the balcony ringing the kiln room, captures the process in a single image.

Technical References:
Used a vacuum pump to make slip slabs the last three days. It makes a good deal of noise so I’d prefer to work with out it. But am experimenting to understand it’s value in making thin slabs. We made a slab of plaster with an imbedded air hose within the slab. This allows us to suck water from the slip, and then send air through the slab to release the slab. One can make 1mm thick slabs. Who know if these are strong enough – but for sure they will be transparent.

I plan to experiment with these extreme thin slabs but sandwiching them over thicker slabs that have perforations or indents. Can we capture the spirit of light within? Or is it just a form of mental torture?

Photos of the studio and town are include for fun. Hard to capture life here, while living and working.