Bleeding for my Ice Cream

Summer session has finally come to an end here in Tallahassee, and for me it has been a very short yet fulfilling semester. This would be my second semester taking a course with Pamela Theis, and like the last I have gained so many new skills in clay under her guidance.

Since I came to school with prior experience with wheel throwing it is a process I'm much more comfortable with. It's faster and I don't find it as intimidating as hand-building with clay. Production work is something I have grown every fond of in all areas of my work so I was definitely enthusiastic to approach the wheel on a more "serious" level.

Some new forms I have fallen in love with are the enclosed form and double-walled bowl. These seem to go against one of the very first lessons that is learned about wheel throwing: DO NOT TRAP AIR (because all your hard work will explode in the kiln). My interest in exploring these new structures served as a jumping off point for driving my concepts in the class.

Inside view of kiln after glaze fire.
The red bowls are mine, with some of my classmates' work as well.

In progress look at a banana split made out of closed forms.

I will cover these two projects in the next couple of weeks with their own posts with some photos of their final states and all the in-progress shots one could hope for. The past two weeks of this month have been particularly exhausting, and some times resulted in many long nights in the shop alone with my blaring music and clay friends. Now that it's all over I actually feel motivated to keep on truckin', instead of becoming a couch boob until the next semester starts. Although I am happy with the work I came out with this time around, I do plan on continuing this body of work and possibly remaking them without time constraints looming over my head.

Clay friends ended up getting their faces smushed in to become bowls.