Clays

When I took my first ceramics class, the instructor provided the clay. At that time, and for a long time afterward, it never occurred to me that there were different kinds of clay available. This ceramics class clay that I worked with was simply called, "Sculpture Mix". It sounded like the right stuff and I was able to work with it fairly well, as far as I knew. Later on I found out that it has a higher percentage of "grog" in its composition and you can see in the first photo below a rough surface results once you bisque fire a piece. Glaze goes on well, but detail is not as subtle if you're using underglazing. The fired color is very pale and cool. I don't remember not enjoying working with this clay, but I do remember it was difficult to get more delicate detail when working small. I attribute this to the high grog content. This wobble cat pictured below (based a little on the old Weeble toys) is made with Sculpture Mix:

Later on, I discovered there are many different clays available so I decided to experiment with a couple. So far I've tried a clay called Sandstone, and another called Stout. The wobble cats below are examples of each respectively.

Stout is a bit warmer than Sculpture Mix and its composition is much smoother, although it still fires very pale. The clay seems much more sensitive and alive when worked with wet. Also when carving into it, the level of detail possible is much greater and more delicate than Sculpture Mix. It's also very receptive to glaze and absorbs underglazes really well, allowing for greater watercolor effects. This cat is done with Stout:

This last cat is done with Sandstone. Prior to bisque firing, the clay is yellow and silky smooth. The best part about this clay is how waxy it seems. I found that if you wait until a piece is at the leather hard stage, carving into it can be very precise and rewarding. The color after firing is a warm pink tone.

And in case you're wondering, this is what the bottom of the Wobble Cats generally looks like:

after a long hiatus, artaed is back!

In full disclosure, artaed is back because I'm restarting the artaed etsy and if anyone from etsy would like to know what "artaed" is up to, this is the place to find that content. And, since I love to write, I get to fill up pages with all kinds of ceramics related stuff, stuff I don't get to write about anywhere else. So, without further adieu, here goes.

As you can see from the posts way, way below, I have been hitherto known to paint. I got my BA from UC Davis in the last millenium. Fast forward a decade or two when I took a ceramics class and began to make little totems for my beloved cat, Stinky. These early cats started in ceramic, but after the class was over, I didn't have access to a kiln, so started making air-dried clay figures. This is an example of a very early air dried clay cat:

This one is called "Cat of Five Poses" because it literally can be "posed" five ways. You can see another one of its possible poses below:

Ridiculous, right? They made me happy and other people seemed to like them, too. People liked them so much, I opened an etsy store and sold a few very quickly. One thing led to another and the cats began to evolve, into sirens, birds and a handful of other objects. Before I knew it, I had found a small kiln of my own. With that independence, I couldn't help but experiment with the clay, the glazes and because I am a painter at heart, the objects began to lean in that direction, too. Below is an example of a very early siren:

Things started to get busy for me, and I had to take a break from etsy and the blog. In the meantime, a friend had helped me to get my work into a local gallery and then later into the Crocker Art Museum's store. It was all very exciting for someone like me who had been working for years on art but not showing very much. Here are a few examples of the work I had in the gallery and the museum store. It's so interesting for me to see how much my work has changed from the earlier stuff above to this:

It seemed to happen without my even being aware of it. And, truth be told, those items are from last year. I have lots more up my sleeve even as I write this post. So if you are interested in reading more about the way I work and watching the evolution of artaed, stay tuned. I plan to post the new things I am working on and also test out new ideas here before I decide whether or not to put them on etsy. If you have any questions about my work, please send an email to: artaed*at*gmail*dot*com