The Two-Week Plan

Today I went to the school studio and wedged some clay and threw a couple of pieces for the first time since July, and I was, to put it mildly, rusty. So I think that once I am exited from WISE class I am going to spend that new morning free period, at least for the next two weeks, in the studio practicing, because I won't fire anything in the pit that isn't as close to perfect as I can make it. I especially need to work on getting the walls of my pieces to be an even thickness--that's partly aesthetic but mostly so they don't break in the kiln--and on compressing the rims so they, too, are even. (I need to get hold of some chamois for that as well; I had some, but it keeps disappearing. *Note to the uninitiated, chamois is goat skin, and it is a magical thing in the ceramic world.)

The other thing I am going to do over the next two weeks has to do with what I did this past weekend, which is go to Washington, D.C. with most of my family, including several screaming toddler cousins, but that does not relate to ceramics. This does: In an effort to escape the aforementioned loud small fry, I went to the National Mall and found, behind the Smithsonian, a building which houses two galleries of Asian art. The Freer gallery, on the top floor, comprises many beautiful jades, painted scrolls, and bronze vessels which were pleasing to the eye; here is my favorite vessel from that collection:

This is a ritual wine container from the Shang Dynasty in China...that's 1300-1200 B.C. 

I love the pattern. Here's some more of the pattern because I love it so much:

The above is gorgeous of course, but the real jackpot turned out to be the Sackler gallery in the basement, where I found this...

....an entire collection/exhibition built by elves for the express purpose of use in my WISE project. Yes.

I took a lot of pictures. A lot. The above is not even a representative sample. I also took pictures of most of the captions of pieces which particularly intrigued me, and the captions are very in-depth and interesting. So the other half of my two-week plan is to study the photographs I took in the Freer and Sackler galleries, begin sketching forms I like enough to replicate, and oh yes, read the book I purchased (50% off!) in the Sackler gift shop. It's called Asian Traditions in Clay and it talks a great deal about the firing methods used by ancient peoples in Asia, including the Middle East, so as I'm practicing the forms I can also begin planning the actual kiln I'll be building, and how it will or won't be influenced by ancient kiln designs.

Lastly, I don't have a time for this yet, but I'd like to visit Professor Jeremiah Donovan at SUNY Cortland, the excellent gentleman whom I interviewed for my portfolio. He teaches ceramics and informally invited me to come and see the studio where he works; Cortland also has a ceramics exhibition up this month which I'd like to see. 

I think that is enough to be getting on with.