My Summer Building a Kiln…

This summer I’ve spent a lot of my time at Clemson building a new kiln.  It has been a great experience as I learn the skills I will need one day to build a kiln of my own.  The design is a catenary arch with a side firebox opening directly into the kiln, which will hopefully give us some fly ash on the pieces during the firings.  We’ve finally gotten to a point where it actually look like a kiln, so we’re pretty excited to get it all finished and fire it up.

Below are some of the pictures of the arch building process, with more to come soon as we complete it.  Enjoy…

Beginning stages of the main arch.

Back of the Kiln

Completed main arch (first layer)

Working on the firebox arch.

First Layer of Arches Complete

First Solo Show!–University of Alabama

Two Fridays ago I spent the day setting up my first solo exhibition at The Ferguson Center Art Gallery at the University of Alabama.  The show will be up until the 29th of this month, so if you are anywhere near Tuscaloosa on a weekday, please go check it out!  The works in the show are all from my first year at Clemson.  There are two separate bodies of work shown, but in each case the work is an exploration of the tactile qualities of the ceramic medium and how those qualities can be a valuable tool to express ideas about life and the world around us.

A big thanks goes out to Jason Doblin for giving me this opportunity and for spending long hours helping with the setup.  I’m beginning to suspect that he has some sort of superhuman ability of awesomeness.

Check out the pics…

the front of the space with the title in vinyl lettering

close up of front centerpieces

back section of the space

looking through the towers

towers

the back wall

detail of the figures

detail of figures