Featured Projects

Title: The Three Amigos
2023 Winner Faculty Choice

This was my second hand-thrown set. The biggest change I made was I wanted to throw larger. I used a new glaze combination, incorporating iron oxide, and slip. I knew that if I applied iron oxide to a piece and gently wiped it off I could highlight cracks or markings, so I splattered slip onto my piece then once the bisque fired I painted the vases with iron oxide and swiftly wiped it off with a damp sponge. After I finished the piece by putting a layer of clear glaze on top, I did this because I wanted the pieces to have a shine to them. These pieces were selected first place for OES submission to Oregon Potters Association annual student gallery.

Untitled Trio

These little vases were the start of many smaller-scale forms. I found in these pieces how detailed and intentional you could make smaller pieces. I wanted them to stand out and scratch the viewer's eye, so I chose a bright marigold yellow.

Unknown/hand-built 1

Hight: 12 in

Width: 44 in

This was my first large-scale hand built piece. I tried to experiment with a lot of different ideas, leaving the end result to be a jumble of techniques creating a unique vase. The first technique I experimented with was using coils to build a large form. At first I struggled because I was unsure how to get the sphere shape I was picturing. Then I found two large metal colander bowls that were identical in size. I used them as molds for the clay, then connected the identical halves to make the sphere shape that you see. For the glazing of this piece I also was looking to experiment. This is why there are three very separate and different arrays of glaze. I made the background weight using latte. I made one section green to highlight the fact that the cracks on my piece looked like branches of a tree. The next section of the vase were the colored lines. The oranges, red and pinks were all underglaze which I then covered in a coat of clear to make them shine. The last section I used tape to create equally sized and shaped boxes, for the boxes I used iron oxide which is why it dripped.

Blasting Barnacles

Hight: 16in

Width: 44in

I was greatly inspired by how my first large hand built piece turned out, so I used the same technique with the two large bowls to create the base form. However for this piece, I added another physical element that the first piece was missing: A neck and a rim. So after I had my cylinder I simply built up using coils. This ended with a vase form that I really liked. I still felt like I was missing something so I played around with how I could give my vase some more interesting texture. Something that made the viewer want to look closer. After some experimentation I found that If I rolled little balls of clay up and then took the butt of my paint brush and pushed the clayballs onto the outside wall, it created a very interesting texture. In the beginning, the texture seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place it. The more I looked at the piece and worked with it, the more I began to realize that the texture I created looked like sea barnacles, which eventually became the theme. My mom (who used to be a pre-K teacher) had a student once who would yell the phrase, “blasting Barnacles.” I decided what better name to use than that!

Gift

Hight: 22in

Width: 35in

Date: Spring 2023

This is my first large piece of my senior year, and was created as a gift for someone close to me who inspired it. I built the base of this vase using the same two bowl method I had used in the past, however this time I built up from one of the halves with a coil before connecting it to its top half making the piece even larger than my previous ones. For the neck I decided to use a new technique to keep it small and neat as well as squared. Similarly the lace like mandala that is all over the vase was made from an entirely new technique that I had never tried before. I found a thin lacy plastic stencil that was in the shape of this beautiful pattern.

Unnknown

Hight: 19in

Width: 44in

Date: Spring 2023

This piece was my last large hand built vase that I made before my senior year. The process was the exact same as the other vases except this time around I used slip to make sure there were no cracks, I also let it dry for the proper amount of time. Both of these distances allowed for no cracking. While making this peace I also decided to try to trim it, which is something I had not attempted before on a piece of that scale. While on the wheel it fell off which is the cause of its misshapen ess. But as I often find in ceramics my mistake gave way to something I would have never been able to do. The shape of the vase is extremely unique, it's definitely my favorite aspect of the piece. That is why I chose to make the vase all white to allow for nothing to take away from the shape.

Handbuild #3

This large hand built vase was constructed the exact same way as my “Blasting Barnacles” vase, to the exception of the rim. The rim I played with made it larger and more uneven. However the aspect I most wanted to do was inspired by my last large vase. Incorporating a 3D, interactive element to my pece. And so for this vase I choose to attempt to create some sort of texture using chunks and bits of clay. I also incorporated a lot of slip into this piece as an attempt to give it a more uneven and rough texture. I tried to give this piece an earthy sort of feel, I wanted it to be rough and imperfect while also highlighting the beauty in the flowers.

Gator skin

This trio is my favorite hand thrown trio to date. Everything about these pieces was an experiment, the forms, the techniques used, and even the glazing. Wheel throwing the first vase I realized that I could fold the neck and the lip of the vase out on itself creating this really interesting elevated lip for the vase. I also knew that I wanted to try a new technique for making these, so with some inspiration from a friend I decided I wanted to use sodium silicate. To use sodium silicate you first must throw a cylinder then you apply the sodium silicate on the outside of the cylinder. For the sodium silicate to work you must then dry the cylinders out side.once dry I then had to open my form without touching the sodium silicate. This was a bit of a challenge but it worked exactly how I wanted it to. What sodium silicate does if done correctly is drys and cracks the clay ware you applied it creating this really cool textured look. Once the pieces were bisqued I took some of my favorite glaze, gold rain and applying it on the areas of of sodium silicate, I then wiped it away with a sponge and water. This allowed for the glaze to highlight the cracks that the sodium silicate created. When the pieces came out of the glaze firing the first thought that came to my mind was how much they reminded me of a reptile's skin, hence the name.

Unknown

Inspired by my other hand thrown sets of three, these pieces were small vase forms varying in height. The glaze job on these is one of my favorites, the fast range of colors that came though is singular to these pieces. I wanted these pieces to stand out from the others but also to clearly be a set. That's why I made the forms so different yet the glaze the same. I discovered that applying a bottom layer of buckwheat allowed for the glaze to run and change color. I found this fascinating so I dipped all three in buckwheat and then applied some of my favorite glazes on with a brush.

Title: Face

Face was constructed using the exact same method as the other large hand built vases. With this piece I used a combination of porcelain clay coils and my normal clay coils. I did this to see if there would be any difference once the glaze was put on to the clay. Unfortunately there was no difference. The emotions I found easiest to convey were fear and disgust. I found this out through playing with the form of a face. I found that most people found discomfort looking at something that resembles a human face yet still lacked the emotions that we lay ourselves with. After this discovery I decided to incorporate this face-like form into my it. I did this by taking thin flat slabs of porcelain and laying them over a mask mold. I recreated this process and stuck the faces onto my pot. Because I used two different types of clay, the piece dried strangely, most likely because the clay had different drying rates.

Title: Texture Monster

This piece was a mess and as such, I have a very love-hate relationship with it. The main goal was to create a hand built piece that would be touched by the viewer. I wanted this piece to just be an endless combination of textures and glazes, leaving the viewer with the urge to want to go and touch and feel the piece. I wanted each aspect of the piece to be vastly different from one another while still adding up to be a functional large vase. I tried incorporating aspects from previous pieces as well, like the flower mondall pattern you see all around the vase. I feel that while constructing this piece I was too hasty because I was trying to add too much at once, and as a result It did not turn out how I had imagined. For example the flower mandala is very clearly there on some parts of the piece and almost completely gone on others, this was because I used iron oxide slip and did not let it dry properly because I moved off from it too quickly after applying it, which caused it to crack off on some spots. By the time the piece was ready to fire, I could tell that it was going to be a mess, so I just decided to go with it. When the piece was out of the glaze kiln, I looked at it and realized that I didn't make what I was nearly picturing. I named this piece Texture monster because it was created like how many monsters are, unintentionally

Small Cups and Pinch Pots

In the Spring of 2024, I had the opportunity to go and participate in a clay intensive at the East Creek studio in Willamina OR. Over several days I dug for clay, worked with the wood fired kiln, and continued to experiment with smaller forms and glazes, here are just some samples that came out of my time there