I, Curtis

Category: Ceramics

  • Gaining Height





    I have attained my tallest height yet in ceramic work, this piece stands at 34″ in height.

  • UNCC Ceramics Work Has Arrived

    All of my UNCC ceramics work, plus a set of 27 bowls I made at home, have now been posted to my ceramics website at http://www.claymentality.net/index.php?pagekey=work&RecordDate=2006-12-17
    There are 148 pieces from UNCC this semester.

  • Why use one shelf when you can have three?

    In the ceramic studio glaze room I have somehow managed to go from being assigned one shelf, to now using three shelves. I have always had the shelf I was assigned, but a few days ago I claimed another shelf that wasn’t used (a top shelf) for my tall stuff and then today I find that someone who unloaded a bisque kiln has managed to expand me on to the unoccupied area of shelf space beside mine. In the studio itself I’m almost as bad, I have my two original shelves, and then I have claimed another one off to the side for holding all of my tall things. I am starting to feel really bad because of the amount of space I take up in the two rooms. Everyone is supposed to be on 3 shelves total (1 glaze + 2 green), and I have 6 (3 of each). I can’t find a good way to reduce the amount of space that I am using, so I really don’t know what to do about being a shelf hog.

  • A New Blog

    On June 7, 2006 I opened a new blog on my ceramics website. I failed to originally mention it here, consider this your announcement.
    The blog is of a more technical nature and is located at http://www.claymentality.net/blog.
    The new blog will contain the more technical aspects of my ceramic work, but I intend to still post my more generally relavant posts to this blog and practice the rule of “when in doubt, cross-post”.

  • A New Accomplishment

    Last night I completed a variety of throws, including two of an unusual height. The pieces were at 9.5 and 10.5 inches when they were removed from the wheel. After trimming one was at 10 inches and the other was just below 9 inches. These are my first throws to be above 8 inches in my home studio.
    It was a lot of fun doing these throws, there is no feeling like having your arm down in a spinning ceramic work that reaches up to above your elbow. The final pulls were a bit scary because of the height and the perception of a very fragile accomplishment.

    9″ Vase

  • First Earthenware Glaze Tests Complete

    On Tuesday evening my new electronic balance (Ohaus CS2000) arrived, the final piece of the puzzle for making glazes. I began with 5 simple recipies, of which I used 4 and then made my own 6th.

  • Test Glaze #1 (not used) – converted from a lead-based recipe, but not attempted in this batch.
  • Test Glaze #2 (blue/creamy purple) – made from a modified “programable earthenware glaze recipie”, using base glaze #2 and a few other components I decided to use on my own.
  • Test Glaze #3 (red?) – made as a direct interpretation of a “programable earthenware glaze recipie”, using base glaze #2, with no modifications
  • Test Glaze #4 (icky) – same as #3, but with added bone ash.
  • Test Glaze #5 (kinda dark green) – Base Glaze #2 with some copper and chrome thrown in.
  • Test Glaze #6 (Dark Blueish Grey) – Base Glaze #2 with cobalt, iron oxide, whiting and Zircopax.

  • Announcing: Clay Mentality

    It brings me great joy to announce the completion of my new ceramics website, Clay Mentality. This is my formal return to having a web presence. Several years ago as I slowly let more things out of my life, I gave up on having a personal website. A personal website without passion is nothing more than a dynamic autobiography. In the art of ceramics, I have found my passion, and my desire to open my world to the eyes of everyone.
    During the past few weeks I have been working on and off with this project, in order to give me some distance from it as I allowed it to evolve around my habbits. For the first time ever I have managed to keep a secret. Only one person has been privilleged to see this site before its launch; Chris has given me much input on the site’s design as well as provided me with some technical tips for some elements of the site. On the topic of the secret, I have never seen anyone more interested in seeing a website I have created as my friends seem to have been when I told them that they would have to wait. I would like to thank everyone for their paitience and support during the development of the site.
    And without further rambleing, I am proud to introduce, Clay Mentality:
    Clay Mentality – http://www.claymentality.org
    In addition to the website I am also announcing the new gallery for my blog. I have selected a new software, which allows for flexibility, as well as added functionality. For all features to be availible to you, you will need to register with the gallery software. Once registered you will have access to any special galleries I may have decided to post privately, and you will have the ability to comment on images/galleries. Registering is important if you wish to interact with the gallery.
    New Gallery – http://www.disturbingthoughts.net/gallery2

  • Happy Easter

    Image of ceramic eggs made for Easter 2006, by me. Image by Chris

  • The Reason Glazing is an Experiment

    I just opened the lid of the kiln from my most recent glazing. It was a load of 4 pieces, 2 of which glazed well, and 2 of which didn’t do so great. One of the not-so-good pieces is a bowl that I really had high hopes for. I really like the design that i did on that bowl, so I think I am going to try doing it again on a new bowl, but I might refine certain elements of it a bit, as well as use a heavier dose of glaze to make the colors not fade as they did on this first attempt. Images of the pieces (even the bad ones) will come soon.

  • A Preview

    During the past few days I have been playing with glazes, and now there are a few pieces that are complete that I am ready to share images of. Here they are http://www.disturbingthoughts.net/gallery/index.php?folder=/Ceramics/20060329/
    I have typically only enjoyed the wheel side of ceramics, but I am starting to really find creativity in the glaze proccess. I have a few more pieces that are almost ready to be fired that I have spent more time putting thought and energy into. I have a few shelves full of bisqueware that is waiting for some type of finalizing treatment that I want to experiment with.