I recently had the privilege of being apart of a 6 artist team pulled together by Nicole Slater, (a fine artist friend). We were asked to show our work at a winery concert held in Ripon, CA. Lucca Winery hosts a Summer Concert Series featuring music, food and wine tasting once a month and we were to bring our art!
Throughout the month of May, I really enjoyed working in a strictly “artistic” sense, where my mind wasn’t bouncing back and forth (as it usually does) from “functional to artistic”. I took video snippets along the way and was surprised by how much footage I accumulated. Here is the edited down version of my adventure preparing for this event!
Needless to say that from start to finish it was an enjoyable experience, even with the two pieces cracking! I learned valuable lessons from it so here is what I got!
The Cracked “Wine Glass Wall Hanging” :
This was my first real attempt working with a flat slab of this size and hoping it would remain FLAT! It’s a little more tricky than it seemed. It started warping during the initial drying phase, so I’m researching the different ways to adjust drying so I can achieve this in the future. It somewhat fixed itself during the bisque and the clay sagged, but I made a huge error during the final cone 6 firing stage! My goal was to prop it from underneath in three places where it might try to sag (top, middle and bottom.) This should have compensated for the other parts that NEEDED to sag so it would again look flat. The challenge? I got busy and accidentally left out a prop! So in the firing is sagged so much in that unsupported spot it cracked.
The Big Red Bowl!
This bowl was made by using a form and then pounded pounding random thicknesses of coils to create the shape and interior texture. The outside texture was made from a rock my husband brought back from one of his business trips to Jordan (so I call this big boy the “Red Jordan”!) The crack, I feel, may have happened due to uneven drying. The weather here in Modesto, CA went from cool to 100 degrees in the matter of two days, I left it uncovered on the day and think it just dried too quickly.
Chalkboard Wine Charms
You know when you have a great idea it just triggers another and then another? Here’s how it went as I talked to myself:
“I sure love my chalkboard walls, it would be great to make something in ceramic with that kind of surface.”
“I know…black underglaze and a liquid chalk pen”
“Hmm, complimentary wine glasses, lots of wine, losing glasses…let’s put their name on them!”
These “Chalkboard Wine Glass Charms” were really a big hit at the event! After drinking enough wine, I figured some people may not remember where they down their glasses! A color, a shape or their name…any one of these could be remembered and connect someone up with their wayward wine glass (lol)!
A special thank you to Lucca Winery & John Griswold, Jesse Christian Hendricks (Spanish Guitar Musician) and East Bay Soul – (Greg Adam’s – Tower of Power).
Loved the interaction with “wine tasting music enthusiasts…who also appreciated art!” …I could do another venue like this…it was really fun! ~ Tammy Jo
