Alexis Christina Crowley

the following is a comprehensive list of everything that happened in handbuilding this semester:
-Mahlon introduced himself and said some things about the class
-Wayne came back from china
-we mixed clay
-we made 40 1/2lb? sculptures based off of words (such as bundle, which showed up twice)
-we made a 2 lb sculpture within the confines of the class time in which we were supposed to use all methods of clay manipulation (I made something very ugly because I was trying to coil, pinch, roll and all that, later I found out the goal was to pay attention to detail, which I did not do in the least)
-we were told about the blog and asked to make a descriptive entry once a day (again, the goal was learning to pay attention to detail) one time I wrote about wanting a prickly pear, which i still want. this assignment eventually faded away.
-we made 4 drawings of the small word sculptures
-we made 4 4x4 solid clay blocks
-we cut up some of those drawings based on contours, so we could do this bilateral symmetry thing with the blocks, which would become models for a blown up version of themselves (blown up 4 times of course) - these were built using the coil method.
-we were given black and white slip to 'clothe' the strange blown up things
-at some point we watched a video of isamu naguchi, and maya lin, and also louise nevelson but i wasn't there for louise and I wish I was (how do you eat a pear, darling?)
-at some point we also saw slide presentations of both mahlon and wayne's work
-somewhere in there the kiln guy talked to us about firing kilns
-we were given awesome slab making machines and canvas and told to make a shelfing unit to contextualize our word sculptures
-at some point we were asked to read a lecture wayne gave and then go to the gallery and view his piece, then, based off those experiences, ask him a question about it on the blog.
-we also had to post a question about our weird blown up 4 times piece
-using the same slab making machine we were told to make a perfect box based off of body measurements
-later we were asked to make a pedestal for the perfect box that made it appear either heavy or light, also based off of body measurements
-We were asked to find 2 objects- 1 natural, 1 man-made- to fuse together to make a new object (ray gun) that had another size restriction related to the body. Once we made the solid clay prototype, we made a plaster mold of it. Once we made the plaster press mold, we cast 8 of them. Once we cast 8 of them we glazed or covered each of them differently.
- Now we have to make this blog post that is a list of everything in the world that happened this semester, and an answering of two questions.
- our last assignment will be the breaking and remaking EXTRAVAGANZA with a possibility of flocking or rubber to cover everything in the world that we made this semester.
crits:
-we looked at the word sculptures
-we crited the drawings
-we crited the blown up 4 times weird things with slip on them, over tea
-we crited the boxes and pedestals over tea
-we crited the mold made objects and the contextualizing shelving units today, without tea.
events:
-kiln loadings and unloadings and loadings and unloadings
-Raku firing! awesome (and personally painful as I had a migraine)


Worst Moment?:
pshew, i dont know. waiting for clay to dry. Waiting is my least favorite thing, and it gets in the way of working.
Or building that first blown up 4 times weird thing. I hated that, I was trying not to hate it, but I did. I felt like I didn't know what I was doing, which is how I always feel when it comes to making something that isn't anything. I can't care about it.
Or getting the glazed pieces back. I really hated that. they were ugly and dry, and I can't see why glazes should ever be ugly when there are so many better options out there. plus glazing is one of my favorite things about ceramics and there is nothing more dissapointing than fugly glazes.
I learned that I still hate clay a little bit, but for reasons that are avoidable outside of the classroom setting. (I almost decided against ever handbuilding again in my life).

Best Moment?:
uuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmm............ making the mattresses for the boat (contextualized shelving unit thing). I like making things that are things, I understand that some other people don't... well, I don't really understand it but I know that it happens. Being able to make a thing with a reason for existing, that I wouldn't have been able to make with another material, except maybe wax, brought me back to liking handbuilding. I'm not sure that I learned anything from that because I already knew that I'm stubbourn and I only like making things that are things.

My other best moment would have been the raku firing but i wasn't in tip top shape, so seeing the resulting ray guns was my other best moment.
I learned that I'm gonna try and do a raku firing this summer.

actually, in the end my best moment will probably be breaking everything and covering up the ugly glazes with flocking and rubber. I will learn of the wonders of powdered fabric and liquid rubber.