Jay Owens Ceramics

Patience

2009-02-04T19:25:00.000-08:00

Well a new year brings new challenges. It never fails when you attempt to rush something just so you can get it in the kiln. Oh well the drawings were fun to do. Ah a New Year. Thanks to everyone who came out and enjoyed my work and took some home with them. I appreciate your support and hope you enjoy them.

I actually took some time away from the studio in December and I guess January too. I would like to say that some of my off time was productive; getting another dog, building raised beds in the garden, Christmas (in all it's commercial glory), drawing, and finishing up some books I have been reading for too long. And wasted time; buying a wii, couch surfing and watching tv.

For the work I have been thinking about the drawings and the forms. I've taken a look back at some older work. I had a dear professor say one time that we don't take enough time to think about our work and he was right. I am always looking for a new way to use the drawings and well we will see in entries to come if I'm getting anywhere.

Glazing away

2008-10-22T05:20:00.000-07:00

Open Studios 2008

2008-10-21T18:42:00.000-07:00

It's been great to have some time over the past year to get the studio built and get reacquainted to working. I know many of you may wonder what happened to me. I hope to see many of you this year if you're in the Greenville,SC area at Open Studios 2008. Over 106 artists in the Greenville area are participating this year. For more information on these artists and myself go here and check out the link to Open Studios. I promise you won't be disappointed. Please stop by at some point over the weekend of Nov 1ST and 2ND between 10-6pm and 12-6pm, respectively. For directions plug the location into your local mapping source. If you aren't able to make it, keep checking back here for my new etsy spot soon. Put your eyes back here often. I welcome the feedback.

Surprises

2008-10-20T04:29:00.000-07:00

The experimenting has paid off. The new work is beginning to reflect more of a relationship with my drawings. The sculpture is a continuation of the layered glazing techniques using glossy surfaces, matte, and sometimes dry surfaces saturated with stains.

The pots are first thrown on the wheel, then dipped in white slip. I want the slip to maintain the drips and finger marks so that when I brush on/rub out the black glaze it picks up not only the sgraffito lines but also those nice random marks of the process. The firings usually take about 12 hours. I'm firing in an electric kiln to a temperature of 1944 degrees Fahrenheit. I installed a kiln vent on the kiln a month ago. I notice a difference in the richness of the colors and the finished clear glaze. It hasn't looked this good in a few years. I have always heard that ventilation can make a difference when firing oxidation in an electric but I have never seen it done.

COLORIFIC!

2008-10-17T05:07:00.000-07:00

How I make my work is very influenced by how I want to experiment with color. The difficult thing with clay that many artists find is that color and the process of firing don't seem go well together. I have found, after much utter frustration, that to not be true. About 4 years ago I began to tinker, and I mean that, with glaze and glazing technique. I had a lot of small batches of texture glazes. From these I just began to throw a few in every kiln. I tried not to think about it too much, but I did take notes. How did the glaze brush on? What color I was putting into the glaze base? Was I mixing glazes together? Do I mix them wet or do I layer them on the surface and let the firing mix them? All these questions were answered with good notes!! After the firing whether I liked the small test pieces or not I kept them. I stared at them. I put them beside the bed. I slept with them under my pillow, my wife didn't know, I guess she will now. Fast forward. I have a box with all of these little tiles that I still pilfer. They have followed me when I wanted to chuck them out. I like to look at them while I am glazing, not to know what the color and surface are going to look like but to set up the surface to something I would like to see. I rely on the law of potentiality not certainty, alla Bowie. Glazing for me makes the firing exciting even though it is in an electric kiln. After having repaired my kiln, I have fell in love with the way it fires all over again. The glazes and surface just look so rich!! I have found that other kilns don't do as well as this one. The manipulation of wet clay along with the playful use of color and fire are really what excite me.

In a pickle

2008-10-17T04:45:00.000-07:00

A freshly made summer veggie bowl. The new pots are coming out of the kiln in batches usually every weekend. I am really digging the new way to paint the work up. The forms begin loosely thrown. I am throwing things thicker than usual not for the function but for the feel and look. In other words weight is not the issue. As I am trimming I use the thickness to my advantage by fine tuning the forms with a quick trim. Then everything is dipped in a white slip and set to dry until leather hard. Then I carve and draw inside, outside and sometimes underneath the pieces.

Seein' what it can do.

2008-09-01T20:51:00.000-07:00

Working Ways

2008-08-27T04:54:00.000-07:00

This a image of a loaf of bread I finished up this weekend. As some point this will be a part of something larger, but that's not to say they are interesting objects of themselves. I find that making these pieces and then painting them with slips and engobes really allows me work the surface; pushing and pulling areas with color, layering surface textures using glaze and the expressive use of color is what I really enjoy about making.

As with this slice of pie again it will be apart of something larger. I am calling this trash pile construction. A few years ago I became inspired in a weird way by some images I saw in the NY Times of images of post-Katrina New Orleans. Despite the awful devastation I noticed that the piles of trash were kind of beautiful. One image was of mold on a plaster wall. So from this I am experimenting with constructing sculpture out of parts of other molded images; cherries, pie, donuts, cupcakes, as well as the clay scraps that proliferate as I work.

Where I find myself

2008-08-20T06:26:00.000-07:00

As summer winds on I am getting some things done around the studio. One of which is getting to my stack of magazines, newspaper clippings, and drawing. As many know me, my work is the result of lots of time drawing and looking together with my love for mark making. As I am working I like to see the pot as it turns on the wheel as a drawing; something I began to think more about after a workshop with Nick Joerling at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine during the summer of 2000. As I began to work like this on the wheel I began to throw slower. I changed how I threw pots by pounding, squeezing,and pushing the clay rather than using water and depending on the wheel to do the work of friction.

I came to clay in college at Winthrop University from a painting and drawing emphasis. As I learned over the next few years about form, techniques and glazes I began to revisit my interest in surface treatment in clay. After I transfered to Utah State in 2000 I began to see how some of the graduate students there were working through some the same issues with surface, drawing and the image in clay. Two of those students whose work I have always admired are Julie Johnson and Karin Solberg. After really finding my way through the heap of glaze recipes and after hours of mixing and firing test glazes I finally developed a palette of glazes and colors that I began to use on functional work. But how do I use them? As I worked I became unhappy with the limits of just painting images on functional pots. So this brings me to where I am today- exploring the image as sculpture.

So from all of those tests, 6 years, 3 moves, starting and dissolving a business, getting married, buying a house, getting a full-time job-which I love, and building a studio, I feel ready to sit and make objects again.

Many of my former students and contacts thought I dropped off the map, well I did. I can't help it, it was kind of self destructive, but I am back again a little older and a little wiser.
I hope that you explore my blog, make comments, and help spread the word.

Summer Roll

2008-08-12T09:52:00.000-07:00

Molly cheesing for the camera while I was wrapping up after a day of working.

I have been working on some pots that I'm excited about of late. I'm incorporating abstract imagery, mark making along with the imagery of the past few years, ie. pies, hotdogs, houses, muffins etc. I do enjoy working on these little sketches. I think the thing I like most is drawing in the wet clay making marks and using the whole surface as a play ground. In the most recent past my work kind of went away from the imagery. During that time off I began working more in sculpture, as I did at the end of my time at Utah State. Now I am coming back to the americana imagery, even though I don't like labeling it as such. So in the coming weeks and months you're going to see the work develop from the construction to the surface finishing with glaze, paint (where applicable for sculpture), etc.

I am finally getting around to getting my kiln fixed now that I don't have anymore surfaces to put anything on in my studio. I awaiting its arrival back home after it's summer vacation/ rehabilitation to Michigan. I hope to be back up and working by this weekend.

More Pics

2008-05-07T06:31:00.001-07:00

A shot from the other side. This is my work space in the back where I work on sculpture.

My cool cart I use to store my glazes and colors on as I work. Anything with wheels is a plus.

New Studio

2008-05-07T06:11:00.000-07:00

My new studio was finished in November of 2007 to much relief to me. It took 5 months to get it finished. From the foundation to reframing the walls to installing windows and insulation it was an interesting experience.

These shots were just taken in the last week as I get ready to apply for Open Studios and get to making things.