Wednesday, June 10, 2009

The River and Granite Boulders


River Bowl by Linda Starr

The Tule River originates in the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains and eventually flows behind our house. In many places the Tule River drops hundreds of feet in a very short distance and over time has carved through hills leaving behind smooth granite boulders. Today I thought about making a couple of pieces in clay having been inspired by the nearby river.


I'm using up the last of my cone 10 Black Mountain clay and decided I would make a platter and bowl. I rolled out two slabs and then slumped them into forms. I started out with the platter (third photo) and thought I would do a repetitive pattern of blue lines and circles with a stylized reference to the river and boulders. With the platter I made the textures after I slumped the piece into the form. Then I applied stained slip to the textured portions and again ran a texture tool through the blue slip. Unfortunately the platter photo doesn't show the colors very well because I used the wrong flash setting on my camera. I've already closed up my studio and am back in the house and don't want to walk out there in the dark, so this photo will have to do. But I think you can imagine the true colors by looking at the bowl colors.


River Platter by Linda Starr

Next I started making the bowl (which is the first photo). With this piece I made the texture and then applied the slip to the river and boulders and then slumped the piece into the form. As I was slumping the slab into the bowl I saw the slab was much bigger than the bowl and I wished I had a much larger form. I kept saying, "I hate to cut it off, I just hate to cut it off". A good part of the river and boulders were cut off and I am still feeling bad about it because it looked so much better as a larger piece. I guess I'll have to make another one of these river bowls in a larger size. I better measure the inside of my kiln to see how large a piece I can actually fit in there. I always do this, I start making something with clay and I forget all about everything else except for what I am making.


Although the river is probably 200 feet from our house, we can't see it at all due to the dense tree cover. Most of the trees growing along the river are willow, oak, cottonwood, and sycamore. I took the photo above in our backyard a couple of years ago after an unusual summer storm when we had two rainbows form. You can just see the beginnings of the second rainbow forming in the upper left hand corner of the photo. The taller trees you see in the background are along the banks of the river. The mountain behind the trees is Snail Head Mountain and it is littered with giant granite boulders.


This last photo is from my garden with the chaste tree, Vitex agnus-castus, in bloom in the background and a California Quail on the granite boulder. Be sure to check back next time when I post about a creature in the night. Comments or questions are always welcome.

13 comments:

  1. I really like the bowl! I love how the "river" cuts through the piece on an angle. Really "fluid": great sense of motion.

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  2. Now your cooking with gas. Very existential Pocahontas!

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  3. You surprise me all the time. I love where you are going with your work.
    You also have your own paradise there so pretty.

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  4. The river pattern is very nice, good direction. Using the environment you live in is a wonderful way to influence your work, it comes from a place deep in the soul and it shows in the work. You live a beautiful place.

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  5. i really like the river bowl and am so envious of your paradise-like yard

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  6. Hi Miri (and Nick), thanks, the river actually goes up the sides of the bowl, but it is hard to see from the angle I have taken the photo. I went back and added some extra blue slip on this one and I might go back on the platter and do the same, on second thought maybe not.

    Hi Kitty, thanks, you amaze me with some of your statements and I must go back and refresh my memory on existentialism, but I am sure it fits me to a Tee. These are some of the pieces which I will do in another black Cone 4/5 clay (Cassius Basaltic) where I will want a matt glaze similiar to the one you are wanting to achieve. This clay turns speckled black with a non-iron blue celadon I use to make a transparent cover. I found using a transparent reacts with all the iron in this clay and turns an opaque grey and would cover the design. I hope this celadon experiment works again with these.

    Hi Meredith, thanks, sometimes I amaze myself and I'm feeling really free flowing right now (excuse the pun with the river) but I actually feel that way. For some reason I am feeling rather nostalgic about this area since we will be leaving one day.

    Hi Ron, thank you, I'm definitely lucky to have lived here for the last five years. I nurture the plants and they reward me with their fullness and maturity. The fullness is magnified by the borrowed landscape surrounding us: the river, the mountains, the views, and that big sky, wide open feeling.

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  7. Hi Jim, thanks so much, looking at the bowl this morning I have an idea for another river one. It's pretty here, but it is a lot of work, I won't deny it. So far this year the weather has stayed mild and helped me immensely.

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  8. Beautiful. Your work is really growing Linda! It is exciting to see how artists are influenced by their surroundings. I wish everyone would get closer to Nature, I think we would then be a kinder more gentle people...

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  9. LOVE the river/boulders imagery! Very inspiring...

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  10. Ditto, the river bowl with Granie boulders very cool indeed! Ok you WOWed me! Nice work!

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  11. Hi Cindy, thanks so much. That is so true about nature. It is amazing to me that some people don't even notice what surrounds them and I think like you and hope in many ways my work will influence people to appreciate nature more. That is actually one reason I established my gardens - in hopes that visitors would learn to appreciate nature more.

    Hi Cynthia, thank you so much. I hope the colors stay after firing.

    Hi Mary, thank you. I have lived here for five years and am just now getting around to showing the influence the river has on me in clay.

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  12. Linda - Love the way these pieces are "flowing" from you. I like the river-inspired pieces a lot. Great work.

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  13. Hi Patricia, thanks so much. All of a sudden I see there are many more directions I can go in with clay. I never know where these tangents will take me, but it sure is fun.

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I love suggestions, questions, critiques, thanks for your comment