New studio assistant.

by Carole Epp | Jul 20, 2007 | Uncategorized

Okay, I realize that this is now 2 pictures of my cat on the blog and I promise not to turn into someone who talks about and shows constant pics of their pets and children, I swear there is no photo of my cat in my wallet! But this was just too cute. It’s a late friday night in the studio and she’s been patiently keeping me company. Takes up more than her share of the bench though!

Well time for a break, the weekend is going to be ridiculously hot so I’m taking a bit of a breather. I’ve got a few things i’m putting together for next week, hopefully a few artist profiles so keep an eye out.

Have a great weekend where ever you are!

New direction with brown pots.

by Carole Epp | Jul 16, 2007 | Uncategorized

When I was working on my masters I was introduced to Southern Ice Porcelain which was unlike anything I had ever worked with before. I quickly fell in love with the ease of achieving translucency and the stark white of the fired clay. For the past four years now I have been working almost exclusively with the clay for my functional work. However last fall during my semester as artist in residence at the Red Deer College I began slowly to experiment with other clay bodies again. I began looking for a clay that I could use in contrast to the white porcelain. At first I thought of working with glazes and making some darker, matte black pieces, but that juxtaposition seemed to obvious and overdone. So I thought of my reasoning for loving the Southern Ice so much and it was because of the inherent properties of the clay, and thus I set out to find a clay body that I would appreciate for it’s material properties and then figure out the glazing later. I ended up working with Plainsmen H440 and 443 which is an iron rich clay that fires to a darker brown in reduction and interestingly somewhat mimics a traditional stoneware look in highfire oxidation (which I have yet to really explore and experiment with). I found that the speckling of the iron and and richness of the color were an interesting mix for the porcelain. I’m still at the beginning stages of this investigation with the claybody, partially as I have limited access to gas kilns right now, but so far I’m intrigued by the path it’s taking. I think there’s still lots left to be refined and exploited with this new material, but I thought I’d post a few pics in the meantime.

I’ve also started working on new but complimentary forms as well, I didn’t want to simply mirror the porcelain work in a new material, so the new forms have slight alterations or are a different form altogether. But hopefully, and I find, they still work well together in sets of porcelain and stoneware. I’ll post more pics in the next month or so as new work goes through the kiln, I’ve been working on large covered jars, platters and altered pieces with this clay ~ another perk in that it is far more responsive to certain forms than the porcelain which is far more likely to warp and crack when I push it too far!

Too hot to work.

by Carole Epp | Jul 16, 2007 | Uncategorized

It’s late Sunday afternoon, and I think I’ve now resigned myself to the idea that it’s just too hot to work today. The heat has made me procrastinate all afternoon and now, well I’m just not in the mood. I did take a few pics today of some new floor vases. I love testing out new pieces and the sun was just too nice to not take advantage of. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

“handled with care” call for submission

by Carole Epp | Jul 13, 2007 | Uncategorized

Here’s another posting for you.

From the Design Boom Website:

“‘handled with care’
contemporary ceramic works

‘designersblock, shoreditch high street, east london
september 19 – 23, 2007
as part of the london design festival designboom will
curate an exhibition of contemporary ceramic wares
from established and upcoming international designers.

since their origin ceramic works have expanded the
functional dimension and contemporary production
engenders ornamentation, sculpture and installation.
the exhibition will feature a selection of ceramic objects,
which express subjects and details of everyday life,
their departure from tradition, the current conflict of
ecology and consumerism.
we are currently selecting ceramic pieces for the show,
which should be, either created by the designers
themselves, or under their direct supervision.

if you would like to show your work as part of this
exhibition please send us images of your prototypes
or fully realized design
(we will not accept drawings, renderings or concepts).

please send your application to < [email protected] >
subject line : handled with care application
(emails should be no heavier than 1 MB).”

Sadly another one bites the dust…

by Carole Epp | Jul 12, 2007 | Uncategorized

I just heard a rumor that the Ontario College of Art and Design is planning to terminate their Ceramics as a degree-granting program at the college. From the sounds of it they will still offer ceramics classes to interdisciplinary students.

Were have all the ceramicists gone?? Departments are closing down everywhere. And is there an alternative than to simply stand by and watch while this happens?