Did Someone Say, “One-Thousand Pounds of Clay?”
Yes, we did it, we ordered 1000 pounds of clay. I think we’re ready for pretty much anything, including our first students!
Yup, that was us! 1,000 pounds of clay, delivered today, stacked against our wall and ready for our first students!
Did someone say, “first students?” Yup, that was us, too! Classes will be posted later this week, so keep watching this space!
Member wheels await unboxing :-)
Oh and, by the way, our last two wheels have arrived! These two join our line-up as dedicated member-area wheels alongside our nine student wheels and our kick wheel. Pics on the way as soon as we unpack!
Woohoo!
The Colors of Giotto and Springtime: Our Third Glaze Sneak Peek
The two glazes featured in our third sneak peek are inspired by the Tuscan countryside and the colors favored by Proto-Renaissance artist Giotto, architect of the Florence Cathedral’s famous bell tower. Come read more about it in our latest blog post!
When I was studying art history in Italy, it was clear to see how the colors of the Tuscan landscape were reflected in the art produced by the land’s native artists.
Before the Renaissance had quite begun, there was Giotto, famous for his frescoes that adorn the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi and many others, but also for his architecture. Most know him, if for nothing else, for his graceful bell tower, or Campanile, that stands next to Florence’s famous Cathedral, il Duomo di Firenze (seen here to the right of the cathedral’s façade).
The colored marble used to decorate the outside of the Campanile (and of so many other famous buildings of the time) is a green that reminds me very much of the hues of Tuscan olive groves and cypress trees, along with a warm pink, reminiscent of some seashells’ coloration.
(My little sister used to love combing the beach at Pisa for choice shells. I still have some of the ones that she collected for me).
So often do these particular shades of pink and green appear in this Proto-Renaissance artist’s frescoes and architecture that my first art history teacher used to call them “Giotto colors.”
It is a combination I have had a special fondness for ever since. When I see those two colors together, I can’t help but think of gentle Tuscan springtimes. How, then, could I resist pairing these two glazes for our Studio’s palette, when I saw that they were available?
So, here they are! Bellissimi! The glossy Mottled Green Transparent and matte Mottled Pink glazes, both mid-fire glazes from the Standard company out of Pennsylvania, like all the rest of our palette.
Standard 1225 Mottled Green Transparent and 1234 Mottled Pink mid-fire glazes against a backdrop of Tuscan countryside and the outline of Florence’s Cathedral, or Duomo, with its famous dome by Brunelleschi and its bell tower, or Campanile, by Giotto
Evviva! We can’t wait to try them out and, dare I say, breathe a little of that Renaissance spirit into our Studio.
Stay tuned for more news and for the last installment of our glaze sneak peek series, coming soon!
Glaze test tile making has begun!
We have finally started making test tiles! This post explains a bit about the magic that happens in the kiln and why glaze test tiles are so important for helping you choose the perfect glaze combinations for your creations!
With the slab roller assembled and our first of three worktables ready (other two still under construction and awaiting their canvas covers), we are finally ready to start making our glaze test tiles!
For those of you who don’t know your way around a pottery studio just yet, test tiles are an important tool for helping to decide the final look of your finished pieces. You can't do this just by looking at the glazes in their containers, because the color a glaze is before firing is generally completely different from the color it will be after exposure to temperatures over 2000 degrees Fahrenheit in the kiln.
Kiln magic at work!
Well, it’s actually science, not magic, and it’s really cool!
Same mugs!
Notice how what looks like an orangish-brown glaze is actually a cream color after firing, and the one that looked beige when first applied later turned a deep blue.
This is where test tiles come in. Using the same clays we’ll be using with our glazes, we’re creating tiles to test not only each glaze, but how the all of the glazes will look when paired. When all of the tiles are finished, we’ll hang them in grids over our glazing station, so that all of you can see which combinations are just right for your very own creations.
Our first batch of 20
These tiles are freshly cut from a leather-hard slab of clay and imprinted with texture, so that you’ll be able to see how each glaze and glaze combination looks on either a smooth or a textured surface.
If left unglazed, this particular clay will look pure white once fired.
Once we finish with this white clay, we’ll move on to making tiles to test glazes on our speckled brown clay.
To create tests for each glaze and combination of glazes we want to make available for use, we need to make about 125 tiles for each of our two colors of clay.
At this point, we’ve got over 200 left to make, but, as you can see, we are having a grand old time playing at the Clayground with all of our new toys!
Clayground’s owner and founder, Cary, and studio manager, Jennifer, hard at play!
Now that we’re really ramping up to launch, we’ll have more news for you very soon, about first classes, our Open House date and more!
Keep watching this space!