Sunday, June 18, 2017

Joys in Small Successes

Sorry guys, I've been blog-sinning lately. It has been almost three months since I last posted on here, so the neglect is real. I'm sorry. Anyway, so much has happened in the last few months.

It's spring semester here at BYU-Idaho, which means the weather is finally good enough to do something. With this, I have gone to a couple of bonfires at the dunes, a few socials in the park, and loads of other good stuff. And...I'm starting to see the grand beginnings of a hardly there watch tan! Seriously, that is a dream for someone with my complexion. If only I could tan more easily! But, God knew what he was doing when we were all created, so I guess it wasn't meant to be.




Anyway, my art classes are up and running again. I am taking mostly lecture classes, but I still have one studio class. I'm taking art history, art and propaganda, art 101 (easiest class ever when you've been an art major for a while), art seminar, and ceramics (my one studio class). It has been a great semester so far! I know its already towards the end, but hey, I can give you all an overview of how it has gone so far, right?

So, all the lecture classes are just lectures. Plain and simple. Studio classes are the fun part anyway. Before I go into my work from my ceramics class, I'll cap off what I did in printmaking last semester.

I did one last print since my last post, and it was really fun. I cut my plate into a circle, and did an aquatint of fireworks on it with chin collé to color the fireworks. It was such a hassle working with the chin collé! It's a technique where thin paper (think tissue paper) is glued to the print, usually "below" the ink to add color. I had two pieces that fit together quite like a puzzle and took up the whole background of the piece. Needless to say, it was hard to get them in the right place on the plate while they had glue on them and not have them fold over onto each other and get glued together. In the end, I think it was well worth it though. All the tedious headache paid off in the end.


Sorry I don't have a more full on picture of the piece. So, it's hard to tell in this, but there's yellow fireworks and blue/green fireworks. It was a hard process to do, but 20 prints later, I was happy with the results. This print took a lot of trial and error to figure out how to glue down the color without messing it all up. It was to temperamental, but I loved it in the end, and so did my classmates.

Since then, I have been doing ceramic work in my studios. It has been such a challenge for me to be patient with the clay when I'm throwing on the wheel, but I know that I have already improved a ton. Here's the first bowl I ever threw. It wasn't the best, so I warped it to hide that. It ended up being an interesting piece, but I've made better since then.




As you can see, I probably had the most fun glazing it. Those weird colors on the sides and bottom of bowl were really fun to do, but would have been way cooler if the bowl itself was better. I do have another one though that I'm waiting to glaze right now, but I'll post my most recent picture of it. I still have a long ways to go, but it is a huge improvement.





It's already tons better than the first one, and I'm super excited to see it all finished. It has been through a bisque firing since these pictures, and now I'm kind of just waiting for someone to finally mix up the glaze I want, like I asked them to do two weeks ago, and no one has done it yet. I have also done a few mugs, but the first one is super bad, and I don't have pictures of the other ones. There are a few more random projects I have done, but they aren't really noteworthy. I'll post more when they are done.

Other news before I finish? Um...I am almost ready to launch my etsy shop (yay!) and it's going to be really fun. I will be selling a few prints I've made on there, and it should be great. I'll post more about that once its up. Um...well, the semester has been great, and I'm seriously so grateful to be where I am. I couldn't have asked for better--being here at BYU-I surrounded by amazing people has been such a blessing, and I am growing in more aspects of my life than just academics. I has been such a joy, and I'm sad that in a year and a half, my time here will be over. Here's to hoping that the next chapter of my life will be just as glorious.

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