It has been awhile since my last blog and there is a lot to catch up on. On thursday my day began at 3:40 am when I got out of bed and drove in the pouring rain to my parent's forest in Timber Oregon to do a bird count. Since it was still pouring when the time came to bird we (meaning a few opinionated professionals) decided that there was no way we could get any good data in the rain, so we could still do the bird walk but not do a scientific count. It turns out that was just as well because I don't think I would have the patients to walk and then stand absolutely still for three minutes and do that about ten times. When we got back the two main birders listed off about thirty species they had heard, but the truth is I only heard about three different bird calls and have no idea what they are. After having a delicious post-birding breakfast in banks I continued to Pacific University to meet the ceramics professor. It is kind of a gamble to contact miscellaneous artists and go meet with them, but Terry O'day ended up being wonderful. We started with a tour of the studio and connecting kiln room. Although I learned a lot about the specifics of the ceramics program the most interesting thing was her general philosophy. Terry is very open to her student's individual interpretation of ceramics and looks at pottery as a way to learn more about yourself. After spending a few hours visiting with Terry I drove back to the Catlin studio where I trimmed bowls and mugs and also pulled and attached handles to the mugs. Here is a pictures of what the pulled handles look like before they are attached:

Although pulling and attaching handles is one of my least favorite things to do it would be a bit awkward to have ten handlesless mugs, so I started my day friday by pulling and attaching more handles. Eve also stopped by the studio to see what I was doing and show me a magazine that featured a woman who works with porcelain and light. After my past disasters with porcelain I decided that the artistic lamp-like shapes was a perfect way to incorporate the warping and collapsing that I knew were unavoidable. Below are pictures of some of the sculptures from the magazine:

In the early afternoon I drove down Skyline to visit Barb Jensen and Mick Marineau who are both professional potters. We started out touring their house which is full of both their work and work of other potters. Because they built their house it is full of tiles they made and the peak of the roof and chimney house are also made of clay. The part of their house that I liked the most is the bathroom. Barb makes a lot of tiles where she uses the technique of slip trailing where she uses a blue slip (a mixture of clay, water, and dye) to draw on tiles. The theme of the bathroom is sea life and the entire room is tiled with different sea plants and animals. Here is a sample of some slip trailed tiles. 

Their website is: http://www.jensenandmarineau.com/images/contact/contact_index.htm (try googling Barb Jensen and if you look at the first two links you will see why I got a bit confused about what kind of art Barb does...) and if you go to pottery, tour the house you can see pictures of the entire house including the beautifully tiled bathroom. After seeing the house we walked down to their studio which is in a building a few hundred feet away from the house. There I got to see a lot of the things they have made, visit the kilns (they have a high fire gas kiln and a salt kiln but primarily use the smaller electric kilns), and see how barb makes her tiles. I was interested to see how they make many large vases and lamps using molds. It is hard to write everything I saw and learned, but I really enjoyed getting to not only see the studio but also see Barb at work and also get a tour of all the pottery in their house. In the late afternoon I returned to Catlin where I threw three porcelain light sculptures, which with the help of Sigur Rós (listen below) and some artistic license turned out pretty well. I also loaded the bisque kiln, made glaze test tiles, and loaded the test tiles in the glaze kiln so that they will be glazed when I go back in on monday. My next big thing is going to be convincing Catlin to allow me to have a corner of the theater lobby for my art show, and glazing everything I have made. 

Audio/Video: 

02 Glosoli.mp3