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Restoration of Milwaukee Bungalow

4/16/2020

 

Lower Unit of Duplex is Done!

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I have been working on more projects than just pottery these last few months! 

My husband and I have been renovating this 1917 Milwaukee Bungalow, Duplex, and the lower unit is now complete. It has been a labor of love with just a few of the projects including a massive paint overhaul, refinishing floors, and so much more. Oh how I want this unit for myself as it has so many built-ins that would be amazing to display pottery.

Today, my husband and I had our last cup of coffee in the lower unit of the duplex. Here are more pictures of unit below.

Dining and Living Room

Kitchen

Bathroom

2 Bedrooms

Check out more behind the scenes parts of my life and art.
Read more behind the scenes stories

How to Celebrate a B-day During COVID-19

4/8/2020

 

Happy Pottery B-day

Cheers to my fellow March and April b-days as we learn how to celebrate a Birthday in the midst of quarantine and the COVID-19 crisis. Listed below are some of my approaches to still making my B-day special in the midst of isolation as we quarantine.

1. A Feast of Food at Home

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Good food is a must for any celebration!
My husband made us an amazing breakfast before we each started our work day on my Bday. This included a healthy spread of fruit salad, sweet potatoes, avocado, healthy but yummy banana bread, and not feature in the picture was the scrambled eggs. This was perfect for me as breakfast is my favorite meal, and really enjoy savoring slow breakfasts on special days like my B-day.
In contrast to my healthy breakfast was tea time ice cream and cake. Aldi sold this fabulous Godiva lava cake mix which all I had to do was add butter and eggs, and it backed really quickly as well. I loved these mini sized lava cakes and gooey hot center.

2. Great Coffee and Flowers

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When it comes to good coffee I have to give a shout out to Stone Creek Coffee's Cream City roast. I'm not an affiliate for them they just make my absolute favorite coffee! I got a 5lbs bag of cream city roasted coffee for my B-day. And you should know that they are offering free shipping right now! 
Ps. a mug made by me and beans from stone creek coffee would make the best b-day/thinking of you gift.
​Plus my beautiful bouquet of aldi flowers in a Lisa York Arts vase.

3. Takeout and Nature

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Finally, a double win with takeout food was getting to support a local restaurant and not having to cook. I ordered pho from Vientiane Noodle Shop. This was a the perfect meal for our picnic at Lake Michigan because it was a little cold to have a picnic. It's good to remember that we are still able to enjoy nature at our local parks we just need to make an effort to keep the appropriate social distance of 6ft.
Haha...so I guess you know my favorite things now: pottery, food, and nature. Well I had a fabulous pottery b-day, and I hope you, my fellow quarantined B-day buds, make an effort to have a special, celebrated Birthday during COVID-19 quarantine as well.

And hey we can always celebrate our Birthday again with travel and/or people post the quarantine. In the mean while, we can day dream of being able to explore and travel again this summer.
Tease yourself with places to travel

Bud Vases

4/3/2020

 

An assignment in creativity.

Change up the monotony of your pottery making!
If you are feeling stuck you can change up the creativity in your pottery by trying out one or all of the ideas listed below! 

1. Three Basic Profiles

1. Straight Profile,    2. Concave Profile,    3. Convex Profile
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2. Non-Round Shapes

Get away from the round wheel thrown shape. You can alter your pots to triangular, square, rectangular, pentagonal. 
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Rectangular and triangular shaped pots.

3. Vary the Rim and Foot Statements

I have three different rim statements below. 
1. Triangular & Beveled In,   2. Rectangular and Undulating,   3. Rectangular and Cut Angular
I have three different foot statements listed below.
1. Beveled Up,   2. Beveled Up and Indented,   3. Flared and Indented
These are just 3 basic ideas you can incorporated into diversify the designs of your pottery. With each idea of changing up the profile, overall shape, and rim/foot statements the design possibilities are endless. I would love to see some before and afters of your pottery as you try out some of these idea.
Tag/DM me with your ideas on instagram!

How to make a handle for a lidded jar.

3/28/2020

 

Rainbow Shaped Handle

Calling all teacher!
I so empathize with your challenge of teaching your ceramic classes online right now. I taught at University of North Dakota for 3 years as a graduate students, and then I taught 4 years at Hood College as an adjunct professor. I do not envy your transition to online teaching.
If there is a way I can help with creating a mini workshop like this one, or maybe a zoom call into your class for your students to hear from a professional artists please reach out.

​Keep up the hard work! 
And lets connect!

Clay Buddies Workshop

3/25/2020

 

​How to make a bud vase and get creative with the design.

Teaching this bud vase workshop live on Clay Buddies Facebook page failed due technical difficulties... but I went ahead and filmed the workshop. Feel free to reach out questions you may have asked if this were a live workshop.
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​
Behind the scenes funny story...

I was brainstorming a way to prop up my phone for the video while still having my phone plugged into my phone charger. After trying a few different ways of propping up my phone I had a "aha" moment of toilet paper. 
Toilet paper to the rescue! It worked really well to have my phone cord run up through the whole.

Enjoy the video! And check out other behind the scenes stories.

Read More Behind the Scenes Stories

Oblong Bud Vases

3/23/2020

 

Clay Buddies Workshop Week:

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Calling all ceramic teachers,  did you hear that Clay Buddies is putting on an entire week of free live clay workshops! This is a great opportunity for you to create a assignment based off of these free live workshops. Clay buddies is a group created on facebook for clay artists to share their ideas and work.
Bonus, they will be re-sharing the workshops on the Clay Buddies Youtube Channel if you are unable to see the workshops live on Facebook. The topics being covered by these workshops are diverse ranging from throwing skills, surface decorations, handles and lids, glaze work, and so much more.

See me, Lisa York, live on the Clay Buddies facebook page Tuesday, March 23rd 9pm to 10pm (CDT).
Clay Buddies Workshops

Thrown Oblong/Squashed Vases

A great ceramic assignment: throw a specific form in increments of 1/4 or 1/2 pounds. This helps you hone in on what clay weight is ideal for a form you have in mind. I am sharing an example of oblong vases.

Weights of pieces below: 0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.5, 1.75, 2, 2.5, 2.75, and 3 pounds balls of clay. 

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Wedge Clay Balls
PictureThrown Oblong Vases

It's important to make observations of what the shape looked like pre-squishing if you would like to create that shape again. Look at a few of the examples provided below.
Note: that sizes vary based on amount of clay used, how wide the base is, and how narrow the top is. I personally like having the variety of the shapes. If you wanted to see how the size changed just by the weight you could standardize how wide the top and bottoms were with a pair of calipers.
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Ps. I have some of these finished vases for sale in my Etsy store.
Check out the bud vases

Amaco Celadon Glazes

2/26/2020

 

Combinations of layering celadon glazes with wax resist designs on pottery.

All glazes listed below are from Amaco's Celadon cone 6 glaze series, and an exemption of satin matte white. 
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This white mug is definitely my favorite piece coming out of this batch of electric fired pieces. I love how at first the mug first appears to be just white and when you look at it closely their is a lot happening with the surface of the mug!  Notice the intricacy of surface on the detail photo.
Base glaze Snow, wax resist pattern, and top glaze Ice.
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  • Top left Mug: Base glaze Ice, wax resist pattern, and top glaze Smoke. 
  • Top Right Bowl: Base glaze Matt White, wax resist pattern, and top glaze Smoke.
  • Bottom Left Bowl: Base glaze Snow, wax resist pattern, and top glaze Smoke.
  • Bottom Right Mug: Base glaze Snow, wax resist pattern, and top glaze Smoke.
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  • Top left Cup: Base glaze Charcoal, wax resist pattern, and top glaze Poppy. 
  • Top Right Mug: Base glaze Deep See, wax resist pattern, and top glaze Poppy.
  • Bottom Left Cup: Base glaze Poppy, wax resist pattern, and top glaze Smoke.
  • Bottom Right Mug: Base glaze Tangelo, wax resist pattern, and top glaze Smoke.
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  • Top left Vase: Base glaze Snow, wax resist pattern, and top glaze Poppy. 
  • Top Right Mug: Base glaze Charcoal, wax resist pattern, and top glaze Glacier.
  • Bottom Left Mug: Base glaze Marigold, wax resist pattern, and top glaze Smoke.
  • Bottom Right Mug: Base glaze Matt Yellow, wax resist pattern, and top glaze Smoke.
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  • Top left: Base glaze Glacier, wax resist pattern, and top glaze Snow. 
  • Top Right: Base glaze Matt Deep See, wax resist pattern, and top glaze Snow.
  • Bottom Left: Base glaze Poppy, wax resist pattern, and top glaze Snow.
  • Bottom Right: Base glaze Marigold, wax resist pattern, and top glaze Snow.
Interested in seeing more results from amaco glaze testing?
Click button below.
SEE THE OTHER AMACO GLAZE Tests

Scale + Proportion Phase

2/18/2020

 

Organic Wood Carving​​
Step 2:

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Front View
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Side View
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Top View
I always play with the proportion and scale of the wooden piece on paper. I guess I could have taken another picture as my pencil lines were all over the place testing out different sizes.
The benefit of paper is that it is quick tool to experiment with the look of different sizes of the wooden piece and it's cheap. I also start to try to imagine how I want the wooden lines to glue up. I usually build up a wooden sculpture by gluing up a lot of smaller wooden pieces.

In addition, I try to draw out the different views I would have of the three-dimensional wood piece: front, side, and top perspectives. I will share more about why this is useful in the next lesson.
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​Tools:
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•Scissors
•Paper
•Pencil
•Sharpie 

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