Project B : Tradeshow 09

A few days ago a selection of 12 third year Vis arts students participated in the USQ Artsworx Tradeshow, and had our Project B Exhibition. All the work looked just fantastic, and the little artist talks (an assessment piece) went really well too.

It was unfortunate that there werent as many people there as we were hoping, and also that they took the wine away very quickly, but on a great note, the amazing Mel Robson was able to come along and check out all our work! She was so lovely, it was just fantasitc to meet a practicing artist who actually manages to develop and maintain her arts practice in this crazy world, and also that she took time out of her busy life to come and meet us and to see our work. Thanks Mel, so glad you came!

my work - Stitchware (cups and saucers) - 2009

ReFlex - GraduArt 2009

our Graduart exhibition is opening soon!!! It is on at Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery and the USQ Arts Gallery Foyer. Official opening is at our USQ venue, at 6pm on Friday the 13th of November :)

so close...

Yesterday brought me and the rest of the third years exhibiting in out graduart exhibition one step closer to the end. All artwork has now been delivered to Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery for 'ReFlex - GraduArt 2009', and most of us are going back sometime today to assist the gallery staff to install our work (secretly we dont trust them to do it right haha). Evan, who is co-ordinating our show is very helpful, friendly and knowledgeable, and i fully believe that our show will be overall amazing!

On a not so great note, when i had a huge glazing day, and put on a big firing in teh afternoon...i accidrntly missed a pile of my plain saucers. When i unpacked the kiln on Sunday i thought i didnt quite have as many smaller ones as i had originally imagined...hopefully i will be able to fit them into a kiln somewhere before TRADESHOW! My great friend Daniel Qualischefski will also be in TRADESHOW with me, along with 10 of our uni buddies :).

Photos coming sooooooooon!

g.g.g.g.g.g.g.g.glazing!

well as i spent last week at home, today was a day full of glazing. i finally got the kiln packed and set and off it went...just in time to unpack for progressive assessment on wednesday! will take plenty of pretty pics of my many cups and saucers :)

the tight squeeze

well ive been working hard lately and had to work even harder this morning to fit all my goodies into a bisque firing! i told dnaiel id squeeze a few of his in, and luckily they are small and fit between my cups :). All these, plus more, will be getting glazed and fired the first day back at uni, as im off home for work and a break for all of next week. They will be out in perfect time for my Project progressive assessment on the wednesday!

ill definatley be putting up some pics...

enjoy the rest of your weekend! x

saucier and saucier!

well since my progressive assessment a week or so ago ive been working on making some saucers to go with my plethora of cups. i made some complicated 2- piece moulds but they turned out to be too fidley to be practical and just werent working for me, and thankfully after some testing it turns out that a dodgy one-piece mould of the reflection of the inside of the cup is the best thing for the job!

even though we are on 'holidays' my little studio buddy Daniel and i have still been hard at it, Daniel creates some amazing forms, you can check him out here...

semi-newbies

these cups ventured out of the kiln a little while ago but i only got around to photographing them today. the markings are 'scribbles' applied with thickened and/or coloured slip to either the outside of the cast while still damp, or the inside of the mould before casting. i was hoping the black was a little blacker but i think black black wouldnt look quite right against the cream of the body. admittedly i used black underglaze powder as a colourant (just for a test) in these instead of black body stain or multi-purpose stain. this gave it a funny blueish hue. i think next ill try a lighter grey, probably with body stain.

should have an unpacked glaze firing by the end of the weekend, so will keep you posted!

Renee's rings...

The fabulous local Australian jewellery designer Renee Blackwell recently had an offer on her 'stackable rings'. Both my best friend and i recieved one each, and they are absolutely divine! You can wear as many as you can stack on your finger! www.reneeblackwelldesgn.com/www.adornmentsofthesoul.blogspot.com/.

Check her out!

cups cups cups

this semester ive reverted back to my experimental ways. to cut it all short i made some plaster moulds of contemporary mass produced cups, and ive been making lots of these incorporating teh lace work from last semester as well as new playful and experimental techniques of surfacew decoration. new ones with charcoal cloloured slip are bisquing as we speak so ill let you know how they go!

'Primary Colours' - W.H.S.S arts show/festival

Over the weekend i participated in an Arts fundraiser run by one of the local primary schools in Brisbane. It was a great night with a Visual Arts exhibition + craft arts stalls, international foods and live music and much more. I ran my own stall through the night, and did quite well, even taking into consideration the 25% commission by the school. It was great to see the work of local artists in a supportive fundraising environment, and to see the local community get into it so much! Well done to all!

The Max project Exhibition - USQ

This exhibition was a collection of 'max project's' from second and third year ceramic students in the BVA/BCA. The concept of the maz project is to use minimal clay to fill maximum amount of [wall] space. All but one of the students used slip to accomplish this, either my slip casting, slip-trailing, painting slip directly onto the wall etc etc.

I presented my slip-trailed lacy beakers also with solid form to create a contradiction or paradox. These were presented on three thick shelves (to avoid brackets) protruding out from the wall (short edge to wall). These shelves were quite high, with the far right shelf sitting lower than the other two. On each shelf i presented a row of solid forms alongside a row of slip-trailed forms. The two higher shelves were occupied by the larger beaker size, and the other was filled with the smaller size.

Overall a great versatile and intresting exhibition, although it was somewhat let down by one or two non-responsive/lazy participants who were very late with installing work etc etc. We had an official closing of the show, as opposed to opening, which was last Wednesday, and it was great. Unfortunately i have no pics of this exhibition or event, but ill see what i can do.

ba-bye!

almost over!

this semesters work is almost at its end...had my prac assessment yesterday, it went alright, not as good as i was hoping, but still ok - ill get my marks back this afternoon :). now only an essay, a quiz and an assignment left. woohoo!

here are some pics of my assessment...

shelves & presentation

well im counting down the hours till my assessment now :) 25 hours and 57 minutes... haha.

ive been making my own shelving for this semester...all was going smoothly till i had some issues with the brackets... i was tired and in a hurry when i screwed the brackets on the shelf..and in doing so i put them ALL on the wrong way around...with the long side on the shelf... then when i re-attached them...i put some too far back...so had to again re-do them too!

played around with my stacks too..so now i have everything finalised..as in the stacks, where the shelves are going in teh space and what/how everything is going on each shelf. woohoo. one less thing to stress about!

almost there...

funny how being stressed makes you work more effeciently...kind of. ive tied up a few things today so far...just a few more things to do befor emy assessment on monday at 11:25 am - leaves plently of time to make sure the set up is just right :)

will put up pics!

ive been playing around with my stacking this afternoon...

one of each


the little ones


the big ones

golden at last

finally...after copious amounts of trouble...little yellow cups have emerged from this kiln just this morning :) im so glad! although because of the small amount of colour to start with, they are quite thin in comparicon to the other colours, and also therefore warped a little in the kiln, but they will be ok :)

this yellow...let me tell you...was hard work. the original yellow was not 'golden' enough so i had to add little amounts of manganese dioxide...etc etc...then it was too speckly so had to be ball milled... then, for certian reasons out of my control, they were not fired to the right temperature (so the colour did not intensify enough)...but on their third go they are wonderful, im so glad i finally have them! :)

workshop

this semester for the combined workshop of ceramics/spatial construction ive been working with ideas of the other side of the domestic experience...ie the female crafts side ie crochet/sewing/knitting, and have combined aspects of this into ceramics. these vessles, which clearly cannot hold an aspect of functionality, began through experiments, and mimic the art of crochet/knitting through visual aspects as well as the physical process of making the forms :)

reminiscent

yay picies!

this body of work is about the domestic experience, more exactly mine ad my families, investigates this through the use of the Johnson Brothers main four colours. The yellow is on its way...firing as we speak actually :)

the invention of gravity

hey guys,
dont forget to check out the exhibition of selected third years from USQ, on at Attic Art Space, today is teh last day to see it...probably shoudl have given you more notice hahaha...



will post photos of my work later today...pinky swear!

the 'Domestic Experience'

so i told you that id fill you in, and that is what im doing. hehehe.

last semesters work was about nothing really, just an investigation ijto matierals, processes, form and groupings. this semster my project work has a much greater conceptual grounding. I have been looking at many things this semster, but the amin one is, my and my families personal experience in relation to the domestic. Its a long story but basically i made some experiments last semester which related to the Tableware products of the manufacturer Jonson Brothers. It turned out that we had much of this kind of stuff at home...and that id been using it constantly for many many years without realising. So this semesters work is an investigation into these ideas...about Johnson Brothers, domesticity, and the idea of how these items become invisible as objects and my 'cycle of meaning and importance': where an item is purchased and loved, and then looses this importance and any meaning that it gained, and is then (too easily) discarded, to be discovered by another who loves and will cherish the item...etc etc.

i am making a wholoe heap of small vessels, in two sizes, all in the four 'johnson colours' ie the pink, blue, green and yellow, all in differing strengths of colour, including white. These will then be displayed in all sorts of varying stacks, on descreet white shelving.

i feel that this work is much more visually and cnceptuall stronger than last semesters. even so, and taking into consideration, the step up from second year to third year, my marsk arent reflecting this, which sucks a little. i really want to be on teh top rung of the ladder, but im not quite there yet. i need to increase my knowledge an interest of my ideas and concern in a broarder contemporary art perspective.

blah blah blah.

i mean, yes, they say that my work and my work ethic etc it realely great, im just still annoyed that it isnt quite to the level that i want it, and i find that i become very frustrated, becuase i know how to get it there, i just hold myself back, with my attitude and stubborness.

that is all.

will put up pics of what ive got so far soon

xoxo
cass

im baaaaccckk!!!

as i evidently took a break from the whole blog thing...i think i did because it wasnt going where i wanted it to go. well now im back with a vengance, and full of arty goodness. i finished last semester on a good note, a good fantastic note.... and this semester has kicked of pretty well so far in terms of my arts practice. ive been making, and on the track to making some sweet works. ok so this was a re-intro to this world of blogs. when i have time ill give you the goss on my creations!

much love
cass