Debra Sloan blog

The Last Week

October 6, 2010 1:05 am

The ICS will be holding its third International Triennial of the Silicate Arts in August 2011. The deadline for applications is March 31st, 2011...go to www.icshu.org to find out more.

I have just written an article on the ICS and it is being published in the October 2010 edition #31 of Technical Magazine [Ceramic, Arts and Perception]. The article describes the facility, the history of the ICS, and the city of Kecskemet. Note; In the article the DEADLINE for the Triennial is incorrect, it has been changed to March 31, 2011.

In March 2011 Elaine O. Henry will also be writing and publishing an extensive article on the ICS Collection in Technical Magazine. Check out www.ceramicsart.com.au

It is time to close this blog. Heartfelt thanks go to Mary Daniel, [see her blog www.marydaniel.ca/blog ] . She enriched my experience through her wonderful companionship and many discussions about ceramics. We look forward to returning.

For contacts and names of other residents go the the previous page, “Some of the people and events at the ICS.”

: Terry Yip [Tbones] arrived for my last week. We are at train station heading to Kecskemet. I am pleased he has come and shall be glad of his camera-eye.

: Our rooms were all cleaned up. We have put together an exhibition for everyone at the ICS – The Trunk Show.

: Mary’s room all lit up and ready for the Show.

: My part of the studio, with food and wine for the opening.

: Everyone came to our show, and we were pleased that even though they had seen this work in process they spent time to look at everything in a ‘gallery’ setting.

: Last visit to the Loft Gallery

: Heading down into the cellars where the ICS Collection is housed. The cellars are deep and very cool…great in the summer and hard sledging in the winter.

: Fabulous dog by Susan Halls, guarding the door. Bibo and Jona spend a lot of time down here.

: My dog from the 2008 Triennial Exhibition, lounging in the cellars. Next Triennial…August 2011!!

: Packing up. We were not ready to go!

: My calender is all filled up….no choice…..time to go.

: Betul and Margaret wave goodby – a few tears. We dragged our suitcases to the railway station…mine lost its damm wheels…so drag is the operative term.

Thanks to Mia for helping with this blog.http://www.kitsilanowebsites.com/blog/

No Comments

Some of the people and events at the ICS

October 5, 2010 10:46 pm

: Margaret Hayden, Batul Aytepe, Gamze Cetinkaya, and Kazu Kukita in the central courtyard. Photographed by Izzet Coplan.

: Kazu had a routine of pouring dozens of cubes a day, working towards a large installation at the Budapest Muesion Gallery in July.

: Margaret’s beautifully organized technique for feeding many people.

: Our third dinner, and Kazu gave his presentation.

: Gamze and Balazc In the daisies, looking at Batul’s porcelain balls of yarn.

: Ildiko Takacs, the gracious office manager.

: The Lesc, a special outdoor soup made by the students of Sopron University…delicious !

: Izzet Colpan’s final presentation. Every foriegn student has to make a presentation, both written and a display, to Janos, staff, and artists at the ICS.

: Margaret using her new cast fish for this last piece.

: Roswitha, Mary and Margaret admiring Batul’s metallic porcelain, from her smoke drenched raku firing.

: Mary and Jona Gudvardardottir chatting.

: Imre and Rothwita did a final raku firing after their salt kiln.

: Janos chatting with residents, just before the goulash feast!

: Bibo, the Best cook in Hungary. Janos asked Bibo, who is also cataloguing the huge ICS Collection, to make her famous Goulash for the foreign students, guest artists, and staff. We had a wonderful feast.

: The Queen of soups. A few days after our Goulash party/feast, Gamze, Tamar, and Izzet, the foreign students, all left for their homes.

: Our last evening, a pot luck supper, finnishing with the terra-misou from Cezar’s. Mary,Terry, and I were joined by Roswitha Geyer, Imre Schrammel, Margaret, Batul, and Kazu.

Our time at the ICS is drawing to a close and Mary and I are very grateful for being able to study and work at this remarkable facility. As wonderful as the facility is , it is the people who make it really work. The exemplary Staff have done everything they can to assist us with our work, and we have become good friends. the same is true of our fellow artists. we all shared information and experiences, and assisted each other when ever possible and will remain in contact.

Betul Aytepe has just moved to Cappodokia to teach at the new Ceramics Department at the University. She seems to love it and I saw on her facebook that she has just won an award.

Margaret Kenway Haydon is the Head of the Ceramics Department at the Wyoming University, and hopes to travel to Russia to continue her studies on her beloved, but endangered sturgen fish

Kazu Kukita has started a ceramic residency in Denmark, and will continue to search for a perfect place to build a studio.

Ed Bentley of Cumbria UK, continues to run his successful mould design business, see www.bentleystoll.com.

Contacts for the Danish recycling artists can be found on the “Danish Invasion” page.

‘Reminder to check out Mary’s blog at www.marydaniel.ca/blog.

No Comments

Technologies learned at the ICS

August 23, 2010 5:26 pm

: Steve showed us a screen within a screen method for making a flat and tight surface for the photosensitive emulsion.

: All the images I am using are from architectural photos I took in Canada – Vancouver and Halifax, Hungary, and Germany. The screen material is soft, and I can wrap it around the shape of a piece, and still get a fairly sharp image.

: Example of Mary’s screens on her cast boxes, or pillows, as she calls them.

: I wanted to learn how to use the architectural images to make decals to transfer after bisque.

: Ed Bentley is a plaster designer, www.bentleystoll.com from the UK. Here he is demonstrating sledging. He is altering the shape of the wet plaster with an edged shape-making tool that he designed and made for this shape.

: Metka wanted to make a tea tray. The metal shape reflects the side profile of the tray and had to be grafted, traced, cut, and then fixed in place by making a plaster handle.

: A clutch of shape makers made by the members of the class for their individual moulds.

: It became apparent that many of the processes of plaster mould design and making, were still done by hand. Success depends on excellent hand skills and a good eye. Ed is carving a foot ring on a form. This carving must be done while the plaster is still malleable.

: Ed is demonstrating how to separate 2 sides of a mould, while it is still soft, using a string instead of shims.

: How to graft square bowls. This diagram also helps design the shape-making tool that forms the side profile.

: This is the first part of the mould made for casting Mary’s square bowls. There is a base piece as well, and the casting slip will be poured through the smaller opening.

: Mary’s porcelain stackable cast bowls on the left, the fired result of a non circular shape mould – first grafting, making a shaping tool, sledging, then casting.

: The giant stone table was a great asset.

: A first cast of Margaret’s beloved sturgen fish.

: Margaret attaching her new casts -sturgens !

: When too much plaster is made, it is usually thrown out…I made shapes with it, to see how much playing around can be done in a short time!

: Kazu’s Cubes – a day’s work, drying. These were initially planned to be an installation.

: After building a structure of his cast cubes, and while they were still damp and soft, Kazu opened up the shape with his arm. A wonderful demonstration of how a piece constructed of rigid and predictable forms can be altered to an organic and dynamic affect.

: An example of the deep raku oil reduction – ICS style… deeply reduced porcelain from Betul’s raku kiln.

: Balazc and instructor from the Sobron University experimented with hot glass being pushed into a press mould. There were other glass kilns that were used for slumping.

No Comments

The Baby Metaphor – main bodies of work.

July 14, 2010 5:11 pm

: I slipped this little piece, made in 2009, into my pocket – just before heading out to the airport….strange how these things transpire.

: The baby was pivotal for my residency. This is the first mold, that Klari helped me to make. I made 3 more, one for press molds, and 2 more for casting.

: Here is a small group of press molded and embellished babies, still green.

: The babies from the press molds had a different affect than the cast babies. They became individual pieces as opposed to being an image for a metaphor, as the cast babies became.

: These are very thin porcelain casts of the baby – absolutely translucent. Must find a way to set them up against the light.

: In this photograph the value of the baby, as object, has changed. It is now an image, and belongs to the 2 dimensional realm. Now the image could be used for a silkscreen or as a decal to be placed on an object

: This was my first large piece made at the ICS , and because of the small original baby, I decided to make a large baby instead of a female form. After this I concentrated on the baby as the foundation image for the residency. This picture ws taken while the piece was still green with layers of terra sigalattas drying on its surface.

: The Big Pink Baby became The Golden Boy – one of those surprises. During the wood/salt firing it was showered with much ash and not overly reduced, so the sigalattas shone through. I had thought they would be paler. Though the result is a beautiful surface – intent overcome by the fring? – lucky or unlucky ?

: The narrative reflects some discontent regarding dog behaviour in my absence.

: The terra sigalattas kept their colours in the wood fired salt kiln and this piece does have a rich surface result.

: A larger version of the original baby, balanced to stand, which it does very well. In this picture it is still green with layers of terra sigalattas. It was fired in the gas kiln and came out brown, like a ‘brown’ pot.

: Another attempt to incorporate baby and dog image. The intention is to have a seamless flow between the two . This photos was taken within the first 2 or 3 days of starting the piece. It is still soft and being worked on.

: I made five large pieces – one of a kinds – quite separate from the molds and multiples. Working large is another way to become aquainted with the clay ad its properties. There is also the sheer pleasure of making a freestanding, single-minded piece. The surface has terra sigalattas from the Creaton clays used at the iCS, with a reversal of white in the creases, gas fired. This piece was chosen by Imre Schrammel and Janos Probstner for the ICS Collection.

: Press-molds, embellished with decals, and wire inserted into hundreds of holes for little his and her wigs. These were selected by Janos Probstner for the ICS Collection!

: This was where I was headed, and I simply ran out of time. This is an image of one arrangement where different casts and back-drops with architectural featuires – silk-screened or as decals, were put together in a scene or a narrative. The ICS provided the facilities to learn about mold making, silk-screening, and decal making. I want to use these processes to integrate figurative and architectural elements. This was the idea behind the Grant that I received from the BC Arts Council.

: In this diorama I used a press molded background as a very direct way to imply a building. The silk-screen and decal processes required much more exploratory time than I had left. But being at the ICS opened up the door, and these ideas will be explored in greater depth when I return to my studio.

No Comments

The Salt firing

May 12, 2010 12:30 am

: Margaret is in with the fish, to her relief!

: The students from Sopron fire through the night till 6am, for us. they were supposed to get the temp up to 1000c by 6am when Jakab arrived to check…they tried…

: added lots of wood…..but we found out later, it is a matter of timing with allowing the wood to produce the heat by burning thoroughly, rather than just pileing on.

: and then considers her options….more wood…now or more wood later….

: The big smoke

: First salt at 1200c….about 10k was used over the last 3 hours of the firing.

: The kiln could have gone hotter and the results is that the ash remains unburned inside some of the pots…Mary lost a few.

: Because my figures were standing, and were at the top of the kiln, the ash melted beautifully on the terra siggalattas

: but she also got a few spectacualr results, showing her deft hand with colour and line.

No Comments

Kilns, Kilns, and more kilns, and hot spots

April 26, 2010 3:31 pm

: The back is filled…just about killed me.

: Baby and me….the shelves didn’t topple…

: Mr. Schrammel and Roswitha loading the salt with Klari

: The salt kiln is like a huge salt pot

: Emese with her camera, always looking for events to photograph.

: Everyone comes to watch a kiln being loaded.

: Salt kiln all loaded and ready to go

: Opening the next day

: Sharing a bisque with Margaret in a mid sized electric kiln.

: Our first gas kiln at the ICS, my first since 1982

: Last kiln, the big blue gas kiln.

: Looks like disaster!

2 Comments

Weeks Four Five and Six

April 22, 2010 3:23 pm

: The ICS Raku ritual, Jakab with oil, Klari with funnel, and black smoke…

: Loading Julia Nema’s wood kiln. mainly with student porcelain pieces

: The fire box

: Very early in the morning…temperature rising

: Klari and Jakab checking on Julia’s wood – kiln

: Klari and Jakab make these plagues for Kecskemet City, as civic awards

: first silk screen

: box of screens

: Mary’s first screens on her pillow boxes

: Line of babies and dogs from casts.

: Trying out a scene

: Mary’s morning nest, coffee and blogging, pure bliss

1 Comment

Budapest 3

April 21, 2010 11:33 pm

: Old world at the Gellert

: Dining at the Gellert

: Hallway – the Shining comes to mind

: wedding on Vaci street

: wonderful gold cherubs

: the Paris, an inner shopping mall

: In the Applied Art Museum

: Inside Pest

: Old Budapest , From Gellert hill

: Golden glow from the State Opera House

No Comments

Work continues

March 30, 2010 3:17 pm

: Work continues , and time marches on. we cannot believe how quickly each day, each week, passes.

: A few grids: both images and glaze tests.

: Tests fired in Mara Geszler’s kiln at 1380 degrees centigrade, very hot…see how snowly white the Herend porcelain is.

: Mary mop woman, demonstrating style and technique.

: Press mold babies, have a different look and quality from slip cast babies, though both come from the same baby I made in 2009.

: the slip cast babies are beginning to pile up…..they seem to work well as multiples.

: There will be 2 howlers howling in this piece, for Izzy

: The howers are finished, with a combination of slips an terra Sigalattas, and ready for the Salt Kiln.

: Yet another howler…looking a bit like a dinosaur.

: Preparing for the salt kiln, the slip and sig area get chaotic.

: Showing off its shine.

: The terra sigalatta is at this moment at its most beautiful.

Four different sigalttas, layered and then blended with the Kecskemet sigalatta which has the best sheen. It is so beautiful at this stage. Slowly the sheen quietens down to a low lustre, and one can only wonder if it will hold out in the salt/wood fire. It doesn’t seem to matter……it seems to be more about this process of watching the clays break down, and separate, the finest finest grains floating to the top, and then endlessly painting layers and layers of these clays back onto the clay rebuilding a skin.

No Comments