I pulled the petri dish pieces out of the cone 6 glaze kiln and they are bright with color now! I am happy with how they turned out. I'm excited to get resin on them with maybe fiber too! I think these will be a wall piece. I'm hoping to have time to have a print with it. 

I tried mixing a new red glaze this week. It is a copper red. It turned out exactly as I was hoping! So I am really excited about it. I am planning on doing copper as one of my corners in a new triaxial test. I also talked with Lalana about copper reds this week and she directed me to a post from the Ceramic Materials Workshop. So I think I am going to attempt a line blend of this copper glaze but with different amounts of silica, and maybe a different one with different amounts of kaolin. I have a lot more testing to do, but I am really excited about glaze now!
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You can find the recipe here.

This week I worked on some of the petri dishes I got from responses to my survey! I posted on Instagram and asked people with disabilities to anonymously share surgeries and procedures where medical teams had to take away a part of their bodies. I got tons of responses and these are just the small clay pieces I made so far. Pretty much all of them will have both fiber and resin with them. I also imagine these displayed all together on a wall in a big installation. 

This week I painted a yellowish green slip on my cell form, and I am planning on doing my purple-ish red chrome/tin glaze over it. I am excited to get it in the kiln. I need to make stilts for it. 

I also mixed up a darker red glaze which has a slightly different base but still tin/chrome ratio. I did a line blend of 1% - 8% Tin. 5% Tin is the original recipe as I found it. I am excited to pull them out of the glaze kiln. 

I also made a post to my Instagram for a new project I am doing. I am collecting different procedures disabled people have experienced (probably mostly friends). I will then do research of the cells and tissue from the different body parts or kidney stones or something they had procedure on (keeping them anonymous) and place them all on display like my past petri dish pieces. I hope I can get feedback from people! It's exciting that it involves experiences besides just mine. 

I am excited about this finished form! I have been obsessing over my glazes so I am ready to get some color on it. I am thinking of doing a base slip of a yellowish green, and then doing some version of the pink glaze on top of it.

The Triaxial blend was interesting. I realized later that I accidentally did too much chrome. I did increments of 1 gram instead of increments of 0.1 grams, which obviously is a huge difference, especially with how strong chrome is. I'm not mad about the results! Maybe a version of the green I will be able to use at some point. But I am thinking of redoing this triaxial. I also was looking at my past line blends and thinking that doing tin instead and keeping the chrome consistent would have been better because of the way tin makes the glaze flow.

This week I glazed my muscle tissue piece with my tin and chrome pink glaze I did for my line test. It came out a little more purple than I was wanting, however, I wasn't upset with how it turned out because I put underglaze red and pink underneath. I am playing with the same glaze for my triaxial blend!

I also attended the Southern Crossings Pottery Festival this past weekend, and I was really excited with all of my knew glaze knowledge. I got a cup from Justin Paik Reese that has a BEAUTIFUL red striping glaze. He fires his work in soda kilns. I am honestly interested in this glaze, and trying to see if I could get something similar to it on my own... I also am curious how it would interact with my bumpy textures. It seems to me like it would add another really interesting layer. I am wondering if I would have to fire it in a soda or if I can achieve something similar to the lines in an electric.

I am excited where my new ceramic form is going. I have been thinking about tendons, cells, and the stretchy hypermobility that my body has within it's connective tissue. I wanted to convey that fluidity in this hanging installation piece. I am finishing the top of the form where there will be a hold to loop wire through to hang. I also will be cutting holes throughout the form, similar to the petri dish piece I featured below. I am excited to get this done and start glazing and creating the fiber additions for my pieces!

This is the new form I am working with. I am thinking about creating a form that seems viscous and hypermobile in nature. I am including cells in this mass. I am going to continue making it longer and adding cells on the top. I am thinking of also including a hole in the top where a hook or bar can go for installation. I am still working out the details for how it will work and look.

It was hard to properly photograph my new glaze tests, but I am really happy with how they turned out. Some interesting colors, effects, and textures. I'm really excited to get them on the full form, I just have to pick which variations I want for each piece!

This week, I created bitmaps for the new trigger point complex diagram that will go along with my muscley textured piece. Each of these layers is a different color. I have four colors in all to add depth to the diagram. Where there is black in the image, is where color will be deposited through the screen.

I also started testing glazes to get a base line for what they look like and things I should consider to change in the glaze. And right away it was not ANYTHING like the glaze I was wanting. I am thinking there was just a tough too much chrome since I made a small batch. I think the tin/chrome ratio must be off somehow. I was supposed to get the glaze from the second image and the tile from bottom left corner. I linked the glaze I got from Glazy.org in the sentence above for future reference. In my test, the transparency and flow of the glaze seems right, it's just the color that is different.

This week I finished building my blob sculpture! So, now I am in the drying phase for this ceramic piece. I've been wondering if I should make a few more in various forms.  I am also wondering if I should have more holes in the piece that I can string yarn through for installation purposes. I also started editing photos for printmaking. I am wondering if I like this photo for the work though. It is something I am thinking about a lot as I have been building the ceramic form, however, I think maybe a diagram of muscle trigger points (knots) might be better.