Making Lousy Art

It isn't often you hear someone say one sentence that changes your life.  It's only happened to me a handful of times.  One of those remarkable moments happened, of all places, in a pottery class.

Like many ceramic bead makers, I started out with clay as a potter.  I'd looked at the pottery in the display cases at my high school, envious and curious.  I talked with the instructor about the likelihood of my being able to be successful in her pottery class.  I worried that a low grade, should I get one, would wreck my GPA.  In the end, I did nothing.  

Fast forward about 15 years, and I still wanted to give it a try.  So I enrolled in a low-cost course through the city Arts and Recreation Department.  And I did OK.  Sometime later, I 'graduated' to a more expensive course at the Wichita Art Association, now called the Wichita Center for the Arts, and soon I was spending nearly every spare minute in the studio.

One evening, our instructor told us Chris Staley was giving a talk in another part of the building, and we could attend if we wanted to.  We all jumped up and headed toward the room where Staley would be speaking.  

At that time, Chris Staley might have been included in a magazine article titled "Young Artists to Watch."  Locally, the art world was definitely watching.  He made some really good stuff, and it was clear he wouldn't be teaching at Wichita State University very much longer.  He showed slides of his work, then addressed questions from the audience. And then it happened -- that life-changing moment. I don't remember what the question was, but I do remember the answer.

And that, my friends, is all you need to know about making art.  Or doing life.  Or doing anything else.

In other words...

If you don't risk being bad at something, you'll never become good at it.  

You'd be surprised how many times I've heard those words ringing in my ears when I've thought about undertaking a new venture.

So did I take risks?  Yes, I did.

Did I make lousy pots?  Yes, I did.

1.  Ugly.  2.  Awkward to drink from.  3. Embarrassingly ugly.

What was I thinking????  Oh, yes, I remember:  These little scrapings from the wheel are SO artistic.

Did I make any good ones?  A few.  Anyway, I think so.

That was the late 1980's.  Chris Staley is still making pots. He's doing a lot of other things, too, like TED talks. He has become well-known and well-respected in the art world and beyond. He spoke again, in the same room, about a year or two ago, and of course I went to see what's happened in 35 or so years..  He's gone from an energetic young buck on the verge of conquering the world, to an extremely thoughtful, introspective, highly accomplished artist.  This time, he didn't say anything that knocked me off my feet.  But his work did.

Here's a link to his website:

http://www.chrisstaleyartist.com/

And a link to a You Tube video that's not to be missed!

Liking Mistakes

And a link to his work:

Portfolio

Now go take some risks!!!

Where beads begin

When I decided I wanted to try making beads, I enrolled in a pottery class at the Wichita Center for the Arts.  It was familiar territory - I'd thrown pots there in the late 80's and early 90's.  Arthritis started taking over, though, and eventually I could no longer lean over a wheel for a couple of hours at a time - my back was just not having that kind of thing anymore.

Sadly, I put my toolbox in the garage, hoping there'd be an opportunity to use my tools again.  Then I became interested in jewelry, and before long, I started thinking about making ceramic beads.

I first started working with a rough brown clay called Death Valley.  It has a high iron content, and under certain kiln conditions, the iron moves to the surface and brings a nice color to the clay - anywhere from a toasty, rusty brown to a gorgeous purplish brown.  The beads are formed, and then allowed to dry to a stage potters call "bone dry" - when all the water that's going to leave the clay by evaporation at room temperature, has gone, and the piece is extremely brittle.  At that point, I load my beads and pendants into my Ugly Little Bead Bowls (ULBB's) - shallow pinch pots that I made in a hurry and didn't bother to do a thing to make them anything beyond functional.  The ULBB's are used again and again, but somehow I never seem to have enough of them.

Bone-dry pendants waiting in ULBB's for their first firing

The first firing is called a bisque - or biscuit - firing, depending on who's doing the talking.  It removes all of the molecular water, leaves a porous surface, and stiffens the piece enough that it can be handled gently without breaking.  This firing, in the WCFTA studio and in my kilns at home, is around 1900 degrees or so.  And in both studios, this first firing is done in electric kilns.

Then the piece is glazed -- usually -- and submitted for a second firing at over 2300 degrees.  In that firing, some particles in the clay fuse, or vitrify; the clay loses its porosity and becomes very strong.  The glaze, which is essentially liquid colored glass, melts and if things go as planned, becomes a lovely color that doesn't run off the pot and glue the piece to the kiln shelf.  

Glazed wavy discs and unglazed pendants waiting for their second firing

When firing beads, they have to be suspended on wires so that the glaze on them touches nothing, because they'll become permanently fused to anything they come into contact with while the glaze is melted.  In this picture, you see some wavy discs on wires, and some unglazed pendants flat on their backs. (More about those, another time.)

The kiln at WCFTA is a large kiln that uses natural gas for fuel.  It's about 6 feet tall and sits under a large ventillation system that pulls heat away from the kiln, and also sends any gasses from the melting glaze, into the air outside where they can dissipate in the abundant and unrelenting Kansas wind.

Empty kiln with door open

Firing!

The entire firing process for this kiln is about a couple of days, because it has to cool very slowly.  One blast of cool air on an extremely hot piece, and it will almost certainly crack!

This firing process is only one of two processes I do.  I have two kilns at home, which fire to a lower temperature.  More about that next time!

This is what it's all about!

Why handmade?

Those of us of a certain age - like me - have had handmade items all of our lives.  When I was growing up, "store bought" signified high quality.  Handmade was something anybody could have.   

It's amazing to me how everything has changed  Going out to eat used to be a big deal, and was exciting because I could eat things like chicken chow mein that we didn't know how to make at home.  Eating at home was, well, boring.

Today, a homemade meal is a treat for me, especially now that I have knee and back problems and cooking takes a lot of planning so that I don't have to stand for long lengths of time.  And now I have an Etsy shop, so cooking also takes away from bead-making, which has become a nearly consuming passion.

The handmade items in m life are my favorite posessions.  Some of the manufactured items are dear to me, but the handmade items also have memories of the person who made them, or if I acquired them myself, the spark of delight I felt when I first saw them.

When it came time to clean out my parents' home after their deaths, most of the items I kept were handmade, including an afghan my mother crocheted and quilts made by my grandmothers.  But there was also  Amy, a handmade doll purchased with my own money from my babysitter when I was around 11, complete with a tag on her bottom bearing the name of the woman who made her.  

Also very dear to me is a small chest made for my mother by her uncle and given to her when she was a little girl.  When she finally decided I was old enough to use it, it held some Barbie clothes and my rock collection.   Today, I don't keep much in it; I prefer to be able to open one of the drawers and read the inscription Mom's uncle wrote to her. 

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My father made ornamental chests for me, my mother, my sister, and other relatives and friends, that are deeply cherished.   And of course, there was the "Sunbonnet Sue" quilt made by my grandmother that served as a bedspread for quite a few years.

Handmade items today, are unique and usually of better quality than similar items you can buy.  But they are also things that are most often passed down from generation to generation because they embody the souls of the makers and the love they had for those who were to receive them.  No amount of money will buy that.

Today Amy sits in my studio, along with the little chest, as my muse and my anchor, reminding me of who I am, where I came from, and why I do what I do.

I hope my beads will be used in jewelry that will eventually be passed down from mother to daughter. Nothing would make me happier than if, 100 years from now, someone picks up such a piece and wonders "who made this?"  My name won't be known, of course, but I hope they can see the care and the love that went into it.

Hello!

I finally did it.  I started a blog!

I resisted the idea for a long time, until someone pointed out that it would allow me to make a personal connection with my customers.  Immediately, I realized that's exactly what I wanted to do.  Several of you have become friends, and I hope several more of you will.

A little about me:  I live in Kansas, and have for most of my life.  After college, I called a couple of other states home for a few years, but it wasn't long before the call of the prairie lured me back.  My family was here; my friends were here.  And Kansas has glorious sunrises and sunsets, and the most incredible thunderstorms.  I think I might be addicted to them. I know I'm addicted to sunsets; sunrises... I don't see too often!

What you'll see here will be mainly related to my ceramic bead business.  I love making ceramic beads, and all of the related activities.  I will be showing you a little about my processes, my creations, and undoubtedly my cat.

Oh, and beads.  Definitely beads!

I hope you'll enjoy what you see here, and I'd love to hear from you!

Jenny

Watch this space!!!

Soon... very soon... you'll find something worth reading!