Ceramic Studio Tour '12, final artists

In my previous posts, I shared the ceramic art of several artists. In this final wrap-up I'll talk about the last 2 artists on the tour.

Susan Risi used slab construction to make unusual mugs and sculptures.

In her demo, you can see how she stamped a variety of textures on the slab before wrapping it into her cylinder shape.

Her pot handle was a curved cone shape, supported temporarily by a chunk of clay until the handle dried sufficiently.

Her totem was a real eye-catcher!

You can see more of her pots here.

Esmeralda Delaney specializes in mosaics. She was working on this piece the day of the tour...

Here are some small versions of her technique.

I thought this small plate was interesting...

but the best part were the 'feet' on the bottom!

you can see more of her work here.

Hope you've enjoyed seeing all the wonderful works on the '12 Tour. Since I only stopped at 3 studios, I know there is much more to see at next year's! I'll have to set aside the entire weekend to have any hope of seeing most of it...

Ceramic Studio Tour '12, last stop: Part 1

One of my favorite artists on the tour was Deborah Hodder (her day job is a full-time elementary art teacher here in Phoenix). Perhaps because I could easily transfer her ceramic creations into classroom projects for my K-5 students. Of course they couldn't compete with hers but her work showed some basic construction techniques that could be reproduced simply.

These mugs were LOVELY featuring simple slab work with fabulous pattern and texture.

The hearts were hollow and again featured her unique pattern and texture details.

Her potrait pots were amazing and started with a simple coil construction. Coils were about 1" thick as was the base.

Once she has the height she desires, the coils (inside and outside) are smoothed/joined with a rib tool.

Then she begins to push and pull out the thick walls of the pot to form her facial portraits...

The finished pots are AMAZING!

See more of her pots here.

There were also portraits that she created out of paper pulp...

I bet some of you jr high and high school art teachers could have some fun with this!

Ceramic Studio Tour '12, First stop

Our first stop of the tour was at the studio of Patricia Sannit here in Phoenix. I wanted to see her demonstration of hand building and incising scheduled for 11 am. on Sunday.

Patricia creates her ceramic forms by reconstituting varieties of reclaimed clay from high schools & community college art classrooms as well as the studios of fellow ceramic artists.

The clay is poured into forms

or layered into slabs and left to dry in our hot desert sun. When leather-hard, she applies a white slip to the exposed edge(s) and removes the layer of slip to expose the clay beneath. She has no formal plan, just lets her creativity take her wherever it may lead...

I could see my students creating some of these small bowls or cylinders in my classroom...

The lovely hand in my pix belongs to my cohort in crime that day - stop by her blog to see more pix and read more about her take on the artist...

This idea of a functional planter could be accomplished by older students with ease...

Lovely, lovely work...

Thank you so much for the inspiration, Patricia!

Ceramic Studio Tour '12

Today I attended the 11th Annual self-guided Ceramic Studio Tour here in the greater Phoenix area with my buddy, the Artologist. Although we were out and about for 4+ hours, we only made it to 3 studios but saw the work of 2 - 3 artists at each stop.

The 2nd stop was at Hjalmarson Pottery Studio located in the beautiful historic Willow district of downtown.

Halldor Hajalmarson specializes in press molds, sprigging and decorated vessels.

There were stacks of his many labeled molds,

an example of his sprigging set out to dry,

shelves full of potential glazes,

a bisqueware platter set out to dry,

hand made clay stamps,

and a finished platter tucked into plants at the base of his backyard tree.

While there, I purchased a copy of his book, Old Dog, New Tricks that details his processes. It's available for purchase through his website.

In future posts, I'll share some of the other work seen today...