Raku Kiln at Pitt Community College

I have been hired to be a visiting artist at Pitt Community College to lecture and demonstrate the Raku Firing Process. I really fell in love with the Raku process over the last summer at Interlochen Center for the Arts, where I am the Studio Manager. While there, I got my hands dirty by repairing their Raku kiln and firing some very successful sculptures and pottery. 

While at Interlochen, I would send pictures and talk on the phone with my PittCC buddies back home in Greenville about Raku. I was excited about this new process for me.  Jeremy Fineman and Charity Valentine were somewhat inspired by my Raku experiences and decided that it was something that PittCC could do as well. 

Here are some pictures of today's Test Fire #2. The first firing did not go so well as we were rushed and did not get the kiln hot enough to melt the glazes. This time Jeremy brought along his pyrometer and we were better able to adjust the gas, flue, and intake to get to the proper temperature.

Snapchat photo

My terra-cotta sculpture to be Raku'ed.

Jeremy adjusts the flue, wearing his official ceramicist shirt. ;)

Preheating some pieces, you can see skull piece down in there.

Iron-pouring gear is pretty handy for Raku.

Up and over!

2000 degree art.

I'm about to grab that 2000 degree ceramic sculpture!

The newspaper will protect my gloves but will also aid in the Oxidation Reduction Process.

That newspaper ignited immediately.

Into a trashcan full of newpaper!

Don't litter flaming newspaper.

Nice truck, bro.

We used a white raku glaze, but it came out very silver. I think this might be from the oils on the Daily Reflector ink that covered the sculpture in the reduction chamber.

After it cooled down, I used a brass brush and scrubbed some of the silver off to reveal a very creepy white color. The piece is half white and half silver and very alluring. I want to do more Raku firing. I feel very similar to the feeling of when I first saw an iron pour. This is why I make art, for this feeling. 

Thank you Jeremy Fineman and Charity Valentine and Matt Amante and BJ Revel (photos of me).

New Facemugs and Planterheads Holiday Sale

Saturday, November 22nd 10AM - 4PM at Jaycee Park. 

I've been fooling around in ceramics these days. Come by and check it out. These are gonna get snatched up quick, so if ya want one don't wait around. 

Bearded Stine, Smily Friend, and Greenman Mug.

Spooky-Eyed Planter and FunkyFace Bowl.

Scarification Planter.

A Catalytic Process

This summer at Interlochen I challenged myself to create a sculpture at camp for the Faculty/Staff Exhibition. Since the exhibition is about 2 weeks from when I arrive at camp it is recommended that faculty bring work to exhibit and I usually do. This summer, however, I had to fly from North Carolina to Michigan and decided I'd use that inconvenience to push myself into creating a new piece.  

I decided to combine my two interests in clay and metal. I also wanted to make something funny and lighthearted and wacky. Inspiration for this sculpture was of a friend and his love of taking pictures of his cats. I didn't use a photo of the dude, but used my mind's eye.

The clay was worked super quick and I managed to take some process shots with my LG G2. This smartphone utilizes Google + to automatically back up my photos on a cloud. This is super handy! For this blog post I was able to transfer these photos directly from the cloud, instead of downloading them to my computer and then back up into the internet. I hope to do more blog posts from now on, because of this.

Day 2

Day 3 or 4. Never sculpted a cat before.

Dude's face is mostly figured out, now working on the feline.

I started looking at cat photos online. 

Gave some texture to the whiskers...dude's and cat's.

On the back I added a mystical aura design. 

Now that the clay is drying I can work on a base. This is a Torchmate CNC plasma torch cutting out the mystical aura design into sheets of steel.

I kinda wish this was the piece, it is so funny with the cat freaking out about going into the kiln.

Kate Plows petting the kitty.

Skipped a few processes, due to being super busy. Each side was TIG welded together and painted with a Hammered Texture paint. Also this is a bit out of order because this was exhibited as greenware.

I know its not a studio photo. 

Not bad for a couple of weeks. I still might give the head a simple glaze, but since I left it at camp I'll cross that bridge next summer.

The Catalyst

Painted Steel and Greenware

6 ft x 2ft x 2ft