Tyra Forker

Armory Art Center Artists in Residence Exhibition : showcasing the work of 2009-2010 Armory Artists In Residence including Doug Crocco, Tyra Forker, Bethany Krull, Jill Oberman, and Stepahnie Stuefer

April 22 – May 14, 2010 @ The Armory Art Center 1700 Parker Ave, West Palm Beach, Florida 33401

Gallery Hours: Monday – Friday 10am-4pm, Saturday 10am-2pm

left to right: Doug Crocco, Bethany Krull, & Stephanie Stuefer

Jill Oberman’s soda fired wall pieces in the upper left, Bethany Krull’s “Homeless Hermits” and “Starter Pet Adaptations” and my “Family of Dishes”

… a detail of one soda fired dish from the family

left to right  …”Storage Jars (Landscape Series)”, “Striped Charger”, “Family of Dishes”, and “Sauce Boat”

“Striped Charger”  …soda fired stoneware + glaze, 19″ across

…yes, I love those lil’ irregularities

“Sauce Boat” …salt fired porcelain + glaze

A view of the gallery with work by Stephanie Stuefer, Jill Oberman, and Bethany Krull…

… Stephanie’s teapots, pitchers, and cups & saucers.

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…a lil’ of what’s been happening in my corner office.

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A series of porcelain cups…… all similar, but different.

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Sketches of jars…

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Two 20″ plates in the process of being glazed for soda firing…

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A series of new planters in a black stoneware clay body, most likely destined for the soda kiln… and then my patio!

… one of my favorites so far, upside down & still only greenware.

More greenware… cups, jars, and bowls.

I think I’ve lost count of the number of soda kiln firings now, but this one filled with work from the students at the the Armory was as beautiful as many of the recent past.  And the top cone pack let out this drip of  a m a z i n g all the way down the brick it was perched on.

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I was just re-reading a section on “Feet” for bowls by Clay Illian in A Potter’s Workbook:

Page no. 54: “Choosing the right tools and catching the clay at the perfect degree of wetness allows the metal tool to speak with its own voice, with its own gesture.  Treat even the insides of foot rings with respect.  When bowls are turned over they should reveal pleasing shapes fashioned with bold strokes of the turning tool.  The difference between the thrown surface and the turned surface is subtle but enhancing.  Sometimes glazes react differently to the two surfaces, and this can be a wonderful thing.  Polishing the surface after you have turned it so that it resembles the thrown surface is usually counterproductive.”

She puts it so well.  I think it was just maybe the unexpected reminder I needed before heading to the studio to trim some porcelain bowls…

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Just before Christmas we loaded the soda kiln at the Armory for the last firing of the year!  The stack was a little loose but Kara (Armory ceramics instructor, photographer, and ray of sunshine) had plenty of pots to help fill the space (above, right).  The photo above, left shows the addition of a skinny stack of 5″ x 24″ shelves in front of the two deep 12″ x 24″ shelves.  The skinny stack helps maximize stacking space in the kiln and leaves about three inches for circulation between the front and back kiln walls and the shelves.  There weren’t too many small pots for this kiln, but it will be a fun space to fill with mugs, tumblers, and cups for future firings.

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Above: The top cone pack and some of Kara’s pots (still too hot to unload) in the kiln.  Her raw stoneware surfaces turned out beautiful with the soda!

Ta-da!  Kara and the almost unloaded kiln …with some pots still too hot to unload.

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These two bricks were part of the bag-wall of the soda kiln at the Armory.  The kiln’s north bag-wall had started to shift and lean toward the wall of the kiln through recent firings, and during firing no. 7 they had finally moved enough to fall into the firebox during the firing.  (I was trying to wait a few more firings and for the Holiday break to work on it, but… and it wasn’t major at all and was very easily repaired!)

The bricks became fused together in the direct path of the flame and the soda solution spray…  add the heat and accumulation of soda from many previous firings (as part of the kiln’s interior) and the form, texture, color, and surface changes into something rather amazing.

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(soda kiln stack no. 2)

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(pots loaded and waiting in the kiln… and starting to unbrick the firing with Ms. Bethany Krull)

(No.2 stack, post firing)

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(a drawing found in the youth area at the Armory.)

(No.3 loaded and ready to go…)

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(above: pots loaded and ready to fire, below: spraying in a solution of soda ash & borax)

(No.3, the fired stack)

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See more pots from the last two firings in “portfolio” or click here…

I recently discovered that PBS posts full length episodes of some of my favorite series! @ (http://video.pbs.org/). (Discovered after having the desire to watch some television and not receiving a useful signal with the inept digital converter box!)

I just watched a great episode from the NOVA series on the Last Extinction the other night.  Besides having great video, there are lots of extras on the site about related subjects…. like these Clovis stone tools and artifacts.

Hooray!

p.s. (they have Julia Child too!)

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(pun intended!  During my last work session at PTP I am focusing on pots with handles or pots that pour, or both!  Hooray for handles! …mugs, pitchers, ewers, teapots, etc…  This should keep me busy while Glick is off vacationing in Hungary at the ICS. ha!)

(We hit up Arizona, before NCECA, to make a road trip from Phoenix to the Grand Canyon.  It was an amazing journey and a whirlwind trip… I left Detroit in a spring slush/snow storm and arrived in sunny and hot Phoenix; we hit the road as soon as we hopped off the plane and made it to the Grand Canyon just in time for the sunset!  We stopped along the way for a visit to a white buffalo ranch, they let us in to see the beasts even though they were packing up to move to Oregon.

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(Little did I know that this atlas would later double as a blanket when it was actually too cold to be sleeping in the car at the Grand Canyon! Talk about multipurpose packing for an adventure.)

(Grand Canyon!)

(Grand Canyon!  We made it in time for the sunset!)

(Red Rocks outside Sedona, AZ.  The drive from the Grand Canyon back to Phoenix was unbelievably beautiful!)

Well, I didn’t take any pictures in Phoenix at NCECA… not one single photograph.  It was great to see everyone, catch up with friends, and make new connections.  As always, I’m looking forward to next year.  Can’t wait to run up the stairs like Rocky in 2010.  ha!

(the amazing weather forced ice carrots up through the snow pile!)

(this big iron baby kept us warm and mesmerized by the glowing coals)

(bone dry pots: plates, an altered jar, and some constructed vases wait to be bisque fired)

(leather hard mugs, recently finished)

(a bunch of BS! also known as “bisque scraping” …to remove any unpleasant burrs and grit.)

(the front of the stack of glazed ware waiting to be soda/salt fired)

(the stack post firing: amazing!)

(luscious bag-wall pots, yum!)

We’re planning a special event at Plum Tree Pottery for the holidays titled “Eat, drink…” Starting the three days after Thanksgiving (Nov. 28th-30th) and running through the month of December.  There will be lots of luscious pots for happy holiday eating… Stop by for a visit, share some holiday cheer and be merry!

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In the middle of a sweaty July night I rolled out of Kansas City behind the wheel of my loaded station-wagon. Leaving Kansas City, my home for the last four years, to return to the great mitten shaped state for new adventures.  For the last three months I have had very strange dreams, including (but not limited to), dust palaces, mexican restaurants, armed robberies, beautiful cantenary arch salt kilns, late night dips in the Ingelnook pool, QuikTrip late night dining, blue koi, big fountains, majestic bicycles, spandex, rooftop sunsets, and wonderful friends (who I miss dearly!!).

Lets go to Panchos: I want a succulent bean, cheese, rice & guacamole burrito with a medium mountain dew, then we’ll split a piece of tres leches.

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Featuring the works of ceramics department seniors:

Tyra Forker, Bryan Morris, Steven Nichols, Sara Ream and Casey Whittier.

I’ll post photos of the space soon!

Last Saturday, September 29th, we made the trek down to Pittsburg, Kansas (2 1/2 hours south of Kansas City) for a celebration of Jun Kaneko’s kiln openings and completion of a project at Mission Clay Products. The picture below is of the first space we walked into upon arriving, about half of the dangos in the room are visible in this shot.

The landscape of the factory, with its beehive kilns and piles and piles of ceramic pipes were beautiful in the afternoon light.

Ceramic dust monkeys perched on the top of one of the kilns to enjoy dinner and refreshments…

Thomas and I visited with this large piece. The kiln was still warm!!

It was refreshing to visit southern Kansas for an afternoon/evening. The landscape and drive were beautiful. It was great to see the kilns in which Kaneko’s large pieces were fired. The Kansas sunset was amazing. We even stopped on the drive home to look at a sky filled with more stars than I had ever seen before.