Feral

My two stop-motion videos which are played in the two centre logs in the Degree show.

Feral (Daughter) from Emily Robards on Vimeo.

Feral (mother) from Emily Robards on Vimeo.

Buisness Woman

My lovely new buisiness cards. My mum found this great wood knot that the cards fit perfectly into, very snazzy. Many thanks to my aunt and uncle at Snap Milton who printed them for me!

Last Minute Touches

The last bits and bobs leading up to the degree show, all the taking down, cutting and putting up. It offically opens on Saturday the 31st of May. Hope to see you there.

My desk stripped down to the last bits of paper and unused ceramic.

I cant tell you how many desks, easels and partitions we moved to clear my space and I wish I took a photo before hand. Unfortunetly we could do nothing about the floor but alot os filler, sanding and three coats of paint did the trick for the wall.

Using the drimmel to fine down the edges and touch up the decals.

Attaching the wood to hang the ceramics.

Our technician Pam sorting the electrics for me.

Trying to organize the order to hang the ceramics.

So the wood needed to be drilled into even more! Poor Des was covered in sawdust, as was everything else! I needed the plugs to be hidden so they had to placed inside the bottom of the wood.

Getting ready for assesment

Cutting the Wood Piece

My tutor Des has very kindly spent two of his evenings this week cutting my wood. I managed to borrow two small screens from a friend. These will be placed in the wood so I may play my stop motion videos. We saved most of the bark so I can build up the wood to hide the tv frame and to also hide the track were the wires will run down the front and then out the back of the trunk.

The little TV monitors

Cutting the outline and removing the top lair of the bark. 

Doesn't this look like fun? I wouldn't have minded having a go cutting with that yoke!

The wood was quit hard so it took some time to get through, the other stump is a beach and was much softer so didn't take as long.

All cut and ready for the screens.

Fiddly Decals

So if you found the last post confusing maybe this will shed some light on what I was talking about. As you can see it is a fiddly process. I tried to match up each photo to the most suitably glazed slab. Unfortunately one or two of the photos were a bit small, so I tried to patch it up the best I could with the excess bits that overlapped the other edges. What the eye doesn't see won't hurt it….

They are not perfect but I have learned that imperfections are what makes my process.

Lets get started..

The 'Artist Selfie,' 

Take that you weird selfie hipster people.

Organising the slabs for the decal firing, they were all stacked up like a cake tier. 

Glazing the Slabs

I glazed the slabs the other day. First they had to be smoothed down with sand paper.

 I did not want the glaze to show for fear of the slab looking to industrial but I really liked the surface of the unglazed slab. 

I am transferring my photos using decals onto the slab. The safest option for the decal and the most reliable is if it is fired on the glaze. So to get a safe finish (hopefully) and to also have some of the unglazed surface showing I made an informed decision to pour the glaze onto the slabs creating a puddle of glaze. When I place the decal on the slab I will cut the decal around the glaze, cutting out some of the picture. It sounds confusing but I think the effect will be interesting and a bit different.

Smoothing down the slabs.

Pouring the glaze

The glazed slabs ready for the kiln

These three images are failed tests done at various temperatures and surfaces. The image on the bottom left is on a glazed tile and has the most successful surface.

Finished Cones

Here are the final cones. There are nine in all. I thought It would be easier to group them all together in three individual photos rather than cramming the blog with loads of individual photos. There is the front shot then a shot of the back and/or various detail except for the first two cones in the last photo as there is only a drawing on the front side of the cone, the rest is blank. 

The shape of the cones are based around the idea of the witches hat, and the idea of the cones is loosely based on the Japanese Kodama, a nature spirit that lives in a tree.

On The Hill….

“It was lonely on the hill, and cold. And all you could do was keep going. You could scream, cry, and stamp your feet, but apart from making you feel warmer, it wouldn’t do any good. You could say it was unfair, and that was true, but the universe didn’t care because it didn’t know what “fair” meant. That was the big problem about being a witch. It was up to you. It was always up to you.” 

-Terry Pratchett, Wintersmith

Double exposure using analogue camera.

Wood Plinths

I wasn't very happy with just the two bits of wood, so I decided as a precaution to dive through the wood shed and find the steadiest bits of wood to be used as singular plinths for the ceramic cones. Hopefully this will balance the space out a bit better. Some of them had to be cut a bit straighter and the cobwebs needed to be washed off. The most common advice I have been giving is to have to much so you can take away which is better than having not enough.

One of the larger trunks is still growing I hope it keeps it up for the degree show. I am starting to feel a bit sorry and sentimental for it. I keep sprinkling the shoots with water, I just hope it doesn't go into shock when I have to cut into it. If it lasts I  will have to find it a place in the garden.

An Afternoon of Ceramics

With the help of my tutor, at his charming studio we transferred the decals onto my ceramic cones were they will fire away over the weekend. I can't wait to see the results! I also poured a few more slabs with liquid slip as the last ones were not successful. These will be used for my photographs. Its nice to be able to see everything come slowly together. I really love the idea of using decals and printmaking on clay, I think this will open new doors for me and I look forward to doing more with it in the future.

Putting on the decal, a slow and fiddly process, but quit enjoyable.

Decals on and ready to go.

In the Kiln they go.

Firing times for my cones.

Slabs being levelled and the liquid slip poured over.

A day isn't complete without chickens!