Sale 11/02/09

Today we are having a studio sale.  I like selling and giving away work, it is cool to see what pieces others like compared to what I like.  So far a lot of work has been sold by everyone, which is cool to see.

More Little 11/01/09

This evening I was invited to teach an kids english class to children between the ages of  5-12, it was so fun and so funny.  We played a bunch of games and I had the kids help me with my Chinese.  If I learned anything, it would be that Chinese kids are no different than English kids - energetic

The Last 11/30/09

The last kiln has been loaded, one last day of home made presents.  We had a local kiln master come today and give us a few gems of knowledge about firing kilns.  This has been an amazing time here, I can hardly believe that it is coming to a close.   I have been thinking lately about how adaptable humans are.  Three months ago I did not know any of these people, and now we are all good pals.  Here is a photo of a sculpture I have been slowly working on, it is a cartoon version of the great, and a bit serious Buddha made not so serious.

Little Groms 11/29/09

I met a women at the lecture who asked me if I would hang out with some of her english students and talk to them.  I hung out with three 7 year olds for almost the whole day, it was hilarious because they spoke amazingly good english and their mothers, who followed us around the whole time spoke little, or none.  While I was talking with them in English they were able to help me with my Chinese, which we all enjoyed.

The last big vase 11/28/09

More big vases, I could hardly believe it myself.  This factory was cool because they had big vases, but they also made slip ware, and did a lot of slab, and vessel painting.  Plus I got to meet the biggest Mao yet.

Franz Factory 11/27/09

The Franz company makes extremely decorative, detailed ceramic ware and sculptures.  Today we went to the factory, it reminded me of a cake with too much icing, but the craftsmanship can not be denied.  The factory is huge.  The extremely skilled workers live, eat and work at the factory, which is really clean, technologically advanced, and huge to boot.

Lecture 11/26/09

I have been taking my work to the "Sculpture Factory" to have it fired lately.  I have been doing this because we have not been firing much here at our studio.  The work can be taken to the kiln man to be fired to cone 10 by noon, and it is picked up the next day at 9 am, it is a great way to get work results extremely quickly and cheaply.  Plus I like the idea of visiting the larger community in regards to creating work, it adds more to the story.  When you pick up your work there are others picking up their work also, everyone is looking and grabbing. This evening out visiting artist Melissa gave the lecture at the Pottery Workshop.  Her work is very edgy in that she shows a lot of images of medical abnormalities, and talks about different medical tools.  There were four little kids sitting in front of me during the lecturing giggling the whole time as she spoke about rectal spectrums and vaginal...somethings.