Color Testing The Easy Way
Some people might not know this, but I do all of my own glaze formulation. Every color I have, and every glaze I use is the result of countless hours mixing, testing, altering, and retesting any of a number of components.
Turning Pots into Jpegs, Part One: The Setup
In this age, the ability to make strong digital images of your work is second only to the ability to make strong work. You could make the best pots on earth, but if you don’t know how to photograph them, few people will ever know it. At the very least, a photograph should accurately represent your view of your work. Every artist sees their work through the eyes of a creator, a much more critical and intimate perception of the object than the general public is likely to have. Shooting your own work is an opportunity to show the viewer what you see as the most important qualities of your art. To this end, I am constantly working on refining my photo setup. Today, I will be sharing the process and equipment that I currently use to show how my physical objects are translated to digital imagery.
The Making Of: A Flowerhead Vase
A lot of people have been asking how I make my pots. Today, I finally got the camera into the studio, and did my best to document the making of one of my Flower Head Vases, like the one pictured to the right.
The Campana Kitchen: Vegan Ceviche
Ok, I love my vegetarian friends. They are great. They do, however, tend to cramp my style at potlucks and parties. Gone are the days where I can bring my Bacon and Leek Stuffed Mushrooms, or Bacon Wrapped Fried Dates. No bacon anywhere! How am I supposed to make something delicious with absolutely no bacon involved? Instead, I go to potlucks and see that 8 other people brought hummus as well, then I’ll try to get creative and bring Tabouleh, and put it over with the other five of those. Well, over winter break, whilst cooking my family a meal, I stumbled upon this dish, when I was trying to just make an interesting salsa. It wasn’t even a vegetarian affair, we had Maple Candy Coated Bacon with Butter Pecan Ice Cream for dessert! This one is sure to impress at any party, in perfect little hand-ready, munchable packages.
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Score! The Ultimate Joining Slip
So my work is quite dependent on scoring and slipping, the method of joining two parts of leather hard clay together. In a workshop I did recently at U of L for the Louisville Clay group, I mentioned how I make the slip that I use to attach the parts. I was surprised how many people had no idea what I was talking about. I am writing this to spread the word about the ultimate, best slip to use for joining.
I basically start with my throwing scraps, the large chunks from my splash pan.
New Artist Statement
Here is my new and improved artist statement. Even though you can just link to it, I thought I would put it out here front and center. Feel free to comment on it!
Artist Statement
I draw lines by dissecting and then immediately reassembling each pot. The result is a surface decoration with structural implications. Lines seen on the exterior coincide with lines found inside, as each line is in fact a seam, a scar where it was once severed. There is a dichotomy of strength and fragility. The fault lines that decorate the surface threaten to, but do not actually undermine the vessel’s ability to contain, display or deliver.
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Tweaking a Clay Body: Part One
We are going to just jump right in here. No back story, no preface. This will be part one of x number of clay tweaks I will ultimately document here. I was mixing clay today, and when I do that, I think about how I can improve my clay in some aspect. That, to me, is the whole point of doing the clay formulation in the first place. My clay is great, don’t get me wrong. It fits my glaze, allows me to do all kinds of crazy things to it, like cut it apart and stick it back together, and looks fantastic (pure white in electric firings). It is dense and vitreous at Cone 7, which is my target temperature. The one thing I would change is to make it more plastic, and usable right away, straight out of the mixer. My current clay is great, assuming it has aged for a couple months. This is the recipe starting point.
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The Campana Kitchen: Pork Posole Verde
As I’m trying to get myself acquainted with the new site, I’m eating some leftover Posole (a soup of green chilies, pork and hominy) and thought, why not share? Here’s the recipe:
Campana Pork Posole Verde
Serves 8-10
3 small cans green enchilada sauce
1 small can red enchilada sauce.
2 cans white hominy
2 cans yellow hominy
1.5-2 pounds pork (dark meat is best, cheaper the better)
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