Ceramics

Yesterday the rest of my ceramics were ready to be taken out of the kiln. Here are the pictures! Most off center but definitely adorable. Made with a lot of love and plenty of frustration. Mostly love though.

It's Done!

Yep, it's official. I have an internship! I will be working with the City of Bowie at Belair Mansion, doing various things such as helping with curating and coming up with a booklet that showcases the many pieces of art inside the mansion/stables.

It's a relief to know I wont have to worry about the MNCPPC now. If they ever call me to tell me I've been accepted, well....it's too late. I'm close to home and will be working with people I already know.
I'm pretty happy right now :)

Here is a link to Belair Mansion

I will be starting next week on Tuesday at 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM.

Commissioned Paintings

Studio Ghilbli styled fanart paintings in acrylic paint. All scenes taken from specific shots in the movies.

Princess Mononoke (San)

Naussica of the Valley of the Wind (Naussica and Teto)

Howl's Moving Castle (Sophie and Calcifer)

Princess Mononoke (Ashitaka and Yakul)

More Wheel Throwing and Handbuilding Stuff!

Today I was able to take home two pieces that were fired last week. The little shot glass and cup were covered in a low-fire glaze, amber and purple, but unfortunately my other pieces that were not covered in the low-fire glaze were not ready to take home. Apparently the kiln with those pieces in it had been turned off, which really sucks. I was super excited to see how they came out but I'll have to wait until next week. At least these two are done!

The shot glass...thing...was an experimental piece I did when a cylinder I was throwing collapsed on itself. I decided to salvage what I could and make something tiny and cute.

I made sure to glaze the insides.

This is a bowl my friend Tamika made. It's super pretty!

Got to glaze my horse head today. I chose to use a black, low-fire glaze on the mane.

And then I used the amber low-fire glaze for the body. Can't wait to see how it looks next week.

This is a bowl that my professor made with another student, but she wanted me to glaze it for her.

I chose to use a blue (yes, the white glaze turns blue once it's fired).

Then, I put black glaze on top (again, yes, the red glaze you see here is going to turn black once it it done being fired).

Second Internship Opportunity

So instead of sitting on my butt waiting for the MNCPPC to call me back I reached out to a family friend who works at Belair Mansion, a local historic site here in Maryland. It's a mansion that was built in 1745, home to Samuel Ogle, and was known for race-horse breeding.

Next week I plan to meet with the supervisor and basically conduct yet another interview. She already has some projects in mind but I wont know what she wants me to do until I meet with her. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. Working in a museum has always been something I've wanted to do because of my liking for Art History and anything related to the 18th century.

Hopefully I'll enjoy my time working for the city!

Internship Possibility

As of right now I don't have an internship, but in the beginning of May I was interviewed for one by the MNCPPC Arts and Cultural Heritage Division. The interview went fairly well despite it being a little informal (which isn't bad, I just didn't feel like I was talking to a stuffy business person). I was asked about myself, what I enjoyed doing, where I see myself in the future, and what I would like to accomplish with an internship.

After we were done with the interview we chatted a bit about art and sharing art with communities. I brought up my love for Art History somewhere in the conversation and that was when I was told to go check out the Brentwood Arts Exchange. So I did. There, I met the director and had a second, very impromptu, interview. Here I learned to always carry hard copies of my resume with me...

And now, here I am, still waiting to hear back from the MNCPPC.
Fingers crossed!

Since this post is boring, here is a picture of a painting I did last year for my boyfriend.

Studio Ghibli styled screencap from Princess Mononoke in acrylic paint.

Wheel Throwing & Hand Building Projects

During my Spring 2015 semester I took a wheel throwing class for 8 weeks. I had taken the hand-building class during the previous semester and it was there I found out how much fun it was to work with clay. Wheel throwing wasn't on the same level of fun but it was an awesome experience.
First off, I am terrible at wheel throwing. Centering the clay is still beyond difficult for me. Centering is something that just takes practice, and lots of it. One day I'll get it right.
I'm more of a hand-builder anyway...

In the mean time, here is a short post about some of the pieces I threw (and some of the sculpture pieces I made for other classes).

This is one of the few cylinders I threw that was actually pretty close to being 100% centered. Right now it's about to be put into the kiln again (yesterday I was able to glaze it after it's first 50+ hours in the kiln).

Here are the other cylinders I made, and a horse from the hand-building class.

Obvious imperfections on the horse head but it's pretty cute. And it was my first time sculpting, along with the bust below (part of my Portrait and Figure Sculpting class).

It's special. 

Profile self-portrait.

This is a cat.