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.