These are some of the nests I made for two different installations. I will have photos of the completed instillation to show tomorrow during the critique. The birds nest were really fun, but difficult to make. I had to make a lot of them for my dining room, and I think they turned out great. The two normal bird nests in the photo were woven by hand and there are many more made by hand. They were woven just as a bird would do. But I have the benefit of having hands. It was a really interesting process and I appreciate the skill that birds have so much now. I had never thought of it before.

So I know these are blurry, but they were taken with my cell phone. On Friday I put up The AP Art Poster at Jamba Juice and I also put up an empty bowls poster there. I put an empty bowls poster up at Flying Pie Pizza, The Lake Salon, and Wizers also. People were more than happy to let me put them up, which was great!

This week I made a large bowl with a lid. I still have to finish making the lid. I did this for my breadth section in case I want to swap it for anything. This weekend I will being doing my instillations! I am really excited. The first one is going to be a birds nest instillation. My dining room will be covered in nest! I'll also be doing an instillation made from clay around my front door. It's definitely going to be interesting to see what my neighbors think.

This is a type of bird that weaves its nest like this. Each piece of grass is put in separately and woven in and out like cloth. This is what some of the nests in the instillation look like. I'm cheating on making them though, but they look just as interesting I hope. I watched a video of a bird like this making one of those nests and it was incredible!

So I have changed my concentration several times now, but I have finally settled on one that I am really excited about. My concentration would be installations centered around the theme of human absence. Instalations are more or less taking a space and transforming it in some way. They're site specific pieces of art that exist specifically for the space they were created in. By "human absence" I mean what our world as it currently exists (with buildings, homes, etc.) would be like if humans were not here. I will focus specifically on my home and create installations that show nature overtaking the home, with animal nests, plants, and other natural forces invading the space. Each project or instalation will be a different thing that has taken over a space in my home. For example, one will be a room that has been turned into a bee hive. Another will be one in which a spider has made a giant nest. One will be the roots of a tree coming through the walls. Below are some pics of different things that I will do installations on.

Right now I am still working on my human sculptures. (Not the one in the picture). I am pretty sure that I want to do human sculptures for my concentration though. I want to do another human sculpture when I am done with the one I am working on right now. In the next one though I thing I am going to focus on a section of the body to focus on really getting muscle shapes and finer details in the sculptures. I need to get Amy's book and study the bones and muscles in bodies so I can more accurately make the sculptures. I want them to be realistic. I am really interested in acurately creating a human body in clay. I chose this picture because I think it is a good example of really showing all the bones, muscles, and anatomy correctly. If I understand those aspects better, then I will be able to shape the bodies quicker and more accurately. I won't need to rely on pictures like I did for my current project, but instead I'll be able to follow the bone and muscle makeup of humans to make the sculptures. So I really need to get to know the human body, its shape, proportion, muscles, bones, and the way they all interact.

I know that the family projects are already due, but I am still working on mine. I really like making human forms, but it comes with a lot of challenges. For example, trying to make the heads is really difficult, because all of the features are very small. Right now I have the basic forms and I need to start making more details. The idea behind this project is placing a human family in the position of a family in nature, like a family of wolves or bears. Animals have such basic, necessary family units, without the stress that society puts on human families. This project is trying to show the natural simplicity that human families should have.
While I am finishing that project I will also be working on throwing some forms. I want to start by throwing some bowls and vases to freshen up my skills, and then make some pieces that I have been drawing in my sketchbook.

So for this post I am just trying to give a better idea of the types of things I will be doing for my human forms. Some of my forms will convey emotions and others will convey ideas. I want to do some forms based off of these pictures. A form based off of the little girl running will show the idea of being a child. The other pictures show solitude, and a form based off the bottom picture would show relief/joy.

I have been doing some random projects in the studio since school started, but I wanted to post about what has really been on my mind. I've been thinking about my concentration a lot lately. I am pretty certain that my concentration will be non abstract human statues. The goal of the statues will be to convey an emotion or idea about humans/humanity/the human spirit. I have been debating whether or not I want to use any color on my statues. My idea is to make them out of porcelain and maybe do a clear glaze, but other than that not have any glaze effects. Let me know what you think!

This is my current project that I will be bringing in to get fired tomorrow. It is unlike all the other pieces, but it is the carry out of my graveyard illuminated object. I wanted to do something that resembled the peaceful aspects of a graveyard, and so I found an angel statue online that is in a graveyard and used as my inspiration. Originally it was going to be an angel, but it developed into its own and I decided not to make it an angel. It will have writing in Italian on it when it is done that the light shines through.

For the project I am currently working on, I am doing a bunch of candles inside bottles. From those I am going to make a chandelier type thing. It took a while before I found the right tool to drill through the glass (so that air gets into the bottle) but besides that the project is just pretty slow pace but coming along. I'm just putting a wick inside the bottles and then pouring in wax, so there's actually a homemade candle inside the bottle.

ok, so i just had another idea. I want to make a piece that shows like the emotion of a graveyard, like something that has the emotion of a candle set on a gravestone, but I don't want to just make a clay gravestone and put a candle on it, I want to make and "illuminated object'' that reflect that emotion....kinda confusing, but I really want to follow through with this

Next peice

So for my next piece, I'm thinking about doing something with jacks. I don't know what I'm really going to do yet, but I have some ideas. It's sort of a challenge to try to make an illuminated object out of jacks, but if I can pull it off it should be cool. I'm thinking I'll either take a bunch of real jacks and connect them with wire into a lantern shape of I'll make a jack out of clay or some other material and the four spheres of the jack with be hollow and hold the light.

For this project i did broken bottles inside of a wire structure. When lit up it looks like a fire. I love what the light does. My concern is that it is not very functional. I wonder if that's a problem though, because my concentration is "illuminated objects" and this piece is more a piece of art than a functional lantern as my past projects have mainly been. But my concentration doesn't really mean they need to be functional...

I am really stumped right now creatively and all. I've been trying to work on the wheel for the past two weeks and have not for my life been able to keep my pieces centered. Tomorrow I'm going to start on a project of like little light up huts to put in a tree or something and make it look like a village. i hope that works out. They'll be lanterns in that the light will be coming through the windows and door frame and stuff. Please let me know if you have any ideas because I could really use them.

For this project, I wanted to make a really large, heavy lantern, sort of old world looking. I used a gutter guard (that's the mesh) and then black wire. I think it turned out pretty well, but let me know if you can think of any improvements. I feel like it might be missing something, but I'm still pretty satisfied with how it turned out.

Tin Can Lanterns

Right now I am a little torn with my current piece. This project was a bunch of lanterns made out of tin cans. I was really going for that down to earth, almost hillbilly Huck Finn type look. I love how they all look when they are lit up. I was able to accomplish what I wanted them to do. The problem is that it isn't like any of the lanterns are very impressive in and of themselves, and I don't know if they would be considered art as much as a craft project. I really love the effect they have with the light though and the mood that they create. Again, the problem is that really anyone could make these and there is nothing super special, i guess, or unique about them. What do you think?

Wheel thrown lantern next

I really like the ornate detail to this lantern and think that for my next project I might attempt making my own on the wheel. I think that this lantern is pretty unique, so I'll make my own style and pull ideas from this one.

Ideas Please

Ok, so right now I am about to start on a new project, because I need to, I just don't know what to do. My concentration is illuminated objects, so if you have any ideas, just shoot. I think i'm going to take everybody's advice for the lantern made of plastic wrap. I need to find a new material to put on the outside instead of plastic wrap, so if you know of anything hat would be cool and more fire resistant, please do tell, thanks.

I am currently working on a project for my concentration, but I still need to do a second project to meet the deadline. My concentration is "illuminated objects" which is currently going in the lantern direction. I have had some ideas of making chandelier-like illuminated objects made out of old pop bottles or something, but I don't know how I would be able to get a candle into a glass pop bottle.

Lantern # 2

I finished the first lantern in a set of three for my concentration. There will be two more lantern like this with different sized jars and wire. I really like the simplicity of the lantern. It looks sorta rustic, but has a twist on it, using jars as the frame.

This is the net that I am making from the wire. Its in a diagonal shape and I'll use it to make the sides of my lantern. I need to find a material that I can put behind the wire though, like glass or something.

Lantern Ideas

As part of my concentration I have been working on lanterns and thinking up some designs for some other "illuminated objects." Right now I am working on a lantern made from wire(picture posted). Its a pretty basic lantern, but working with it's fun, because as simple as it is, it's pretty time consuming to make. I'm making a net out of wire that will be turned into the sides of the lantern. I also have some ideas for a hanging lantern. Basically I want to take a bunch of glass bottles and hang them together with candles inside of them. I need to find a way to cut holes in the bottles though. I've been thinking that I don't need to use candles for all my projects as the light source, but I love the light that comes from them, the way it flickers and has color.

This is the first "illuminated object" that I did for my concentration. I was worried that the heat from the candle would melt the wax on the lantern, but because the heat rises up the center, it wasn't a problem. The wax looks really shiny and as though its dripping and that's what I love about it.

Concentration

I started out with my concentration being about nature, but after a few projects i felt like it was too vague. I decided to switch my concentration to illuminated objects such as lanterns. I have a lot more ideas that I can use for this one. I made my first project for this concentration over break. It's made from wire that I spiraled and then melted wax over. i wanted to make a lantern that resembled a melting candle, because I love the way that dripping wax looks.