Owlware

                                Owlware

  In addition to making sculptures I enjoy making pots on a wheel.  Lately I have made a series of cups, bowls, and vases with owls depicted on them in underglaze.  The pots are made from clay bodies that fire at cone 6 and cone 10.   At Alki Beach where I teach classes, we use clay and glazes that fire at cone 6, because we only have an electric kiln.  I make pots from a porcelain body called ckk6, another yellow stoneware called Vashon White, a Vashon Brown, and a Kalama Red.  Some are also hybrids from various bodies mixed together.   At Kirkland Arts Center we use cone 10 bodies.  These are generally more hard, and have more color due to reduction firing and heavy iron in the clay.  We use Laguna B Mix as a white stoneware.  In some ways it takes on a porcelain consistency.  I also occasionally throw Columbia White, Dakota Red,  and Rod's Bod--  a gritty iron heavy clay.

Cone 6 porcelain teacup

cone 6 porcelain, bronze glaze, underglazes, clear gloss glaze

Cone 10 stoneware, Bryan's Matte white glaze with black stain on eyes and talons

              
Some owl ware is carved.  I like to add texture and carving is a way to add detail. I carve the pieces when they are leather -hard.  I like to use repetition to create pattern. Numbers play a role.  Sometimes I like to count as I carve, other times I'll look for mathematical meaning within the work, as crazy as it sounds.

Owl Vase 6" tall x 6 1/4" diameter

Coffee Cups

Porcelain with black glaze, under glazes, and a clear gloss glaze

Earthenware extruded owl with majolica glaze and stains

coil built owls L to R:  eartheware with majolica and stains,   earthenware with clear gloss glaze,  Mid-range stoneware with various glazes

Owl Jar Coil Built with glazes and stains

This owl's head fits well as a lid to the jar.

Stoneware Owl Vases
7" tall X 6-8" Dia.

8 1/2" tall x 6 " dia

more coffee cups

textured brown cups

Brown Owl Vases

Pinch pot owls with stain and underglaze applications

sculpture supplies from the sky....

This was the last large owl I did. I used wax carving tools for detailed lines
My front yard looks like a sculpture garden....and so does the back.
I used found objects to accent the eyes and beaks.
This is a nest.....I rolled snowballs in a spiral to get this effect.
This is my self portrait. On the opposite shoulder sits a small owl. My portrait uses river stones as eyes. I made these sculptures in my yard in South Seattle. Snow is such a direct sculpture medium, you don't even have to fire it!! Of course it is only temporary, but everything is......in time.

Beer 40: Art Show and Birthday

Well I'm turning 40 and am celebrating with an art show at Schooner Exact Brewery. The show is all about beer. I made over 100 beer cans with unique titles, beer bottles with and without labels, a bottle cap collection, beer mugs, paintings of beer bottles, and painted beer can cards and post cards. The cans are each unique and are grouped according to the method I used to fire them. Some have ceramic decals, china paint, gold and white gold lusters. Others are gas fired, raku, or are fired in an electric kiln. I am displaying them on top of old cardboard beer boxes. I already sold one can-- "Lil Tug " and am looking forward to this coming Friday when I have my opening/birthday celebration.

Also, since we closed Nancy, I've just been readjusting to a new schedule. Fortunately the closure has allowed me to start an Etsy shop www.aaronmurray.etsy.com and to spend more time on making art. In addition to the Beer themed stuff I have also been painting a series called "Urban Decay" which is mostly paintings of grungy old buildings, graffiti, and warehouses. I have also launched a line of owl pendants with sparkling gold lusters (sold at Fancy). I am also making sculpture of "concert kids", a series of figurines depicting people in rock concert t-shirts and similar attire. I hope to make a crowd of these and have them in front of a cramic rock band on stage. They are the rock'n roll version of my cowboys....