New Work: Sculptural

Micaceous Clay

They call it, "the plumbing issue under the President's Dining Room."

I call it micaceous clay!

Mica is pretty much what happens when you put clay - a fellow alumina silicate - under a lot of pressure for a long time, taking it part-way between clay and stone. Mica forms flat, plate-like crystals which cleave into glittery, smooth flakes. This mica is probably the light muscovite form, and has formed an aggregate with a bright orange clay to make a lovely micaceous clay. 

Many Native Americans tribes in New Mexico, especially the Pueblo tribes and Apaches, have traditionally placed a high value on micaceous clay deposits. They value it for both its glittery surface and the mica's superior ability to transfer heat, which allows clay pots to be used directly on heat without cracking.

Micaceous clay is rare and highly guarded in the Southwest, but here in the state of Virginia, it is everywhere, including behind the dumpster.

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I am ignoring the Metro traffic by living near a Metro train station, and a single bus away from college. The traffic pretty much makes bus and car travel take about the same amount of time – maybe 15 minutes longer by bus. Also, riding the bus is fun, except for the sometimes unfortunate levels of humidity.

I read a few books in September and October, and then I started drawing on the bus. Here's my first drawing (on the back page of Garth Clark's American Ceramics – sorry!):

Then I moved on to a lined notebook, just illustrating ideas that come up when I think about making pots. I have no idea if these will affect my work in clay.

Drawing on a cross-town bus? I put my bag on my lap, balance my sketchbook (or whatever) on top, and try to keep my hand and my page riding the same wave.

Though I seem to be becoming a bus-spotter, don't worry. I've always been that way.

Virginia in Virginia

I'm unloading my pots, and my favorite Fox McGrew cup is already full of tea.

In August, we moved to Virginia for me to teach Ceramics and Drawing at Northern Virginia Community College. So far, so good! Here's a snapshot of our developing studio scene:

Our resident Mermaiden constructs a magical device.

And with it, we cut a Perfect Circle.

Throwing bowls.

Trimming bowls.

And glazing!

This is not a mirror, just a mirror image pair of Bailey electric kilns. 

Here are some brightly-colored, student, cone 6 tests from our first firing. Represented are Fake (Faux) Ash, Bill Schran's Blue Crystal, Marilee's Lava, Will Levi Marshall's Chartreuse, and Panama Red (in oxidation). The nicest surprise is that the crystal is working well in a regular firing, with no hold and controlled cooling to 1500 degrees.

Unfired Pots

I have been up to my elbows in clay for the past few weeks, but now that the exhibition is open, I can take a break and have a look back at how the work has developed and progressed.

My work follows the fairly typical cycle of creation, then reflection, then growth. Creation is an obsessive time of action for me, plunging ahead until I run out of space or clay:

My wheel.

 

 

 

 

White stoneware with inclusions of rotted, Oracle granite, collected and sorted by harvester ants.

Black clay with the same, rotted granite.

What I do with my leftover clay.

Making test bowls off the hump. This is Haji porcelain with toilet paper.

I'm running out of room. Time to start glazing.

Unpacking Dirt

For the past five years, I have been collecting interesting dirt in the Southwestern United States. This summer I plan to use it all up!

 

I've started by sieving and washing the various materials, and anything sticky I try to form into a little tile for the kiln. Here is some clay from a vein running from the Dragoon Mountains into the San Pedro River below Benson, Arizona.

 

This tile has subsequently been through a cone 06 bisque firing, and it feels pretty vitrified already. It will probably melt at cone 6, so it could be either a nice, low-fire, terracotta body, or a mid to high fire glaze. Or, if I bisque little, crumbled bits of it, I could use it as a nice, mutating inclusion in the higher firing clay bodies.

And here is our trusty jeep, Amanda, at the collection site south of Benson with the Dragoons in the background. 

I believe the geologic term for this, and someone please correct me if I am wrong, is the lovely 'autochthonous residue'.

Our preferred way to travel when rock and dirt hunting is to stay in little, old hotels. We weren't disappointed in Benson! We stayed at the Sahara Motel, just outside of Benson on Highway 80 to Tombstone. I highly recommend it, if this is your thing. Here I am collecting gravel from harvester ant mounds in the parking lot.

 

Photographed by my most trusty assistant, of course.