Alumni

Alum Carolyn Watkins, one of our first students, keeping it real. She just finished her MFA at IU.

prototyping

Nikki's prototype, hand carved from a block of plaster, this is post molding so it has seen a little wear and tear, but it started all polished up.

burst

Printing underglazes, marbling colored slip, casting, cutting and construction... I wonder what will happen when Megan puts it all together.

Littlefield Flight

We had the opportunity to design cups for the Littlefield, a classy bourbon bar here in Cincinnati. Specificity is a nice perimeter to work around, here we are dealing with portion and service.

arches

I think Taylor is beginning to find something here with a balance of texture, form, and color

not really pickles

Francis made the " fleshy sacks" really convincing with the use of acrylics.

case study

A few pieces in our Hallway Gallery showing the diversity of whats happening in ceramics. with Victoria, Nikki, and Harmony from the moldmaking class.

complicating things

Nikki hit it hard with the combinations.

simple and complex

We talked about joining and combining our forms to discover new shape and also how simple gestures can be equally effective. with Megan and Olivia

lithophanes

The lithophanes can be a funny surprise in the bottoms of cups, Taylor was this making stuff with a sense of humor. No one got my reference to the Dead Milkmen song " bleach boys" when I brought it up, guess it was just coincidence,  oh well.

marble

experimenting with colored slips and marbling

glaze

Jenna is working on controlling glaze drip.

colored casting slip hits the studio

Blender

Ian made some great contributions to the class including writing tutorials for some digital work. Here he is getting ready to pour plaster on a figure he modeled in Blender. The part was sent to DAAP's Rapid Prototyping Center to be 3-D printed then brought to ceramics to be transformed into porcelain.

old and new

We take care of business in all manners here in the ceramics area, whether its by machine or by hand. Everyone still loves to carve plaster.

flask

Ben cnc milled the master molds of the flask he designed in Solidworks so he could then cast the molds and increase his scale of production. At one point there was a holster that he was wearing around the studio for this thing.

Jackie - make and destroy

The idea was to take a mold and drop it - and then glue it back together and see what happens.

One of the projects this Spring quarter in the moldmaking class was to design a cup that housed a lithophane in the bottom so as you tilt your drink an image magically reveals itself as light penetrates through the translucent porcelain. The students used 3-d modeling software and 3-d printing, handforming and mold making produce these really great vessels.

Masqurade

Casey's tiger masked self portrait

I hoped for weird and Ethan gave it. What a an interesting surprise when you make it to the bottom of your liquid refreshment.

Old time Ball Jar lid

Ben used Solidworks to design these mugs that a normal Ball Jar lid could screw on two. We calculated the shrinkage precisely and the master molds were cnc milled from high density foam. With these molds he was able to cast multiple production molds. He cast and crafted these mugs so well that even the very first one was glazed worked.

Erika is transfixed  with the man, myth , legend, Carl Sagan, and has paid homage to him here in these translucent porcelain light boxes.  With this permanent optical tribute we will never forget the possibility and expansiveness of the universe.

Fluid and Amorpheous

  

Emily responded immediately to the wheel and carving plaster, her own profile above and her hedgehog lithophane  cup below.

awareness of self, a glass in a glass

Chrissy's approach to the lithophane cup project is a birds eye view of an empty glass in the bottom the tumbler.

Escher

Sarah paid tribute to MC Escher for the bottom of her lithophane cup which creates an interesting dialogue between his mathematics, the digital processing used in this piece, and the illusion of illusion.

Wrapping up the last quarter at the University of Cincinnati, as we are transitioning to semesters. Coming up are some images of the Spring moldmaking class. Wheel turned profiles with carved plaster bases was the theme for the first half, and Caitlin began with making these great,  approx 18 in, chess pawns.

AU 2011 Raphael the Automotive Designer

Raphael designs cars and has worked all over the world contributing to high speed propulsion and style, but this was his first shot at molding and casting with porcelain. His intricate tendencies paid off as every piece made it, considering the loss rate typically associated with the material andthe complexity of some of his forms.

Origami

Informed by folded paper, the model for this form was hand carved from a block of plaster, molded and cast in porcelain

Los Muertos

better

 

We acquired a large collection of hobby molds, as a donation to UC. I dont want the students to think that they can get away with just working with them as is, so I am having them carve, chisel, sand blast, break, and even pour plaster into them to change the interior shape of the mold.

altered hobby molds

I think this vessel is a really great example of an altered hobby mold. Originally a zodiac planter, Pisces to be specific.

Hobby Mold project

Shown above is a much improved version of a "happy onion face sugar jar".

SP 2010

SP 2010

SP 2010

SP 2010

SP 2010

Sp 2010

SP 2010

Spring 2010

A couple of carved plaster models before the students began to bury them in plaster.

Meagan

Meagan took a very rigorous approach to carving, creating a hexagon tower of sorts. She combined the pieces together to make one large hive structure on the wall, using gold leaf to fill in the cracks, mimicking honey.

Lauren

Lauren is creating complex pieces with two simple forms - a small ball and a plastic diamond.

Kari

Kari's salt and pepper shakers - cast in black and white slip with braille lettering on top.

Jessie

Jessie's army of plague/animal/bacterial forms. She was able to cast so many, and made an arrangement based on tonal differences. White china paint was added to the surface in tribal-esqe patterns. So nice.

Laura

Laura's form references the original cube it was carved from, while managing to be very fluid and viscous.

Christiana's factory

Christiana made her mold from a pre-exsisting mug and then added her professor Dean's face to the outside with oil clay. The cups turned out amazing, and I feel lucky to have one. The detail and transitions are perfect, with typical Dean quotes on the inside.

end of quarter excitement

We rented a cargo van, drove into the wilderness, and filled it up with vintage molds. Look out...