Copper Mesh Saggar Raku Pottery

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I was most excited about trying this technique out at this recent raku workshop, as I’d only learned of it recently and I couldn’t find many photos online of it! I purchased two different brands of copper mesh scouring pads and then unraveled the pads and wrapped the copper mesh “socks” around ferric-chloride-dipped ceramics. I then bundled it all up in aluminum foil and saggar fired them (also known as the “baked potato” method).

Some tips:

  • If the ferric chloride is still wet, it will melt the copper mesh, so ideally apply it after the ferric chloride has dried. However, that means you can’t also use sugar for additional carbonization as it gets knocked off. If you’re feeling risky, you can daub some more ferric cloride atop the piece and sprinkle with sugar but it’ll then eat away all the copper in those areas.

  • The tighter the mesh atop the ceramic, the clearer the results. Really hug the vessel tightly for the most overall effect.

  • The resulting finish when taken right out of the foil looks like a hot mess due to all the ash produced - but after you rinse the ceramics off, their true appearance is revealed!

I’ve since learned that you can just buy rolls of copper mesh (so you don’t have to go the cutting-and-unraveling-scouring-pads approach unless you already have some on hand); I may play around with that moving forward! I really like the results I got from this process. In different areas, the copper mesh carbonization marks look like fish scales (or maybe dragon scales!), chainmail, webbing, fishnet stockings, or unraveling yarn. When the mesh only is in discrete spots, its marks also contribute to a layered, graffiti-like aesthetic.

Here’s the most mesh-marked piece of the batch, a small oblong vase:

Next, a small orb:

A weird little vessel I’m calling an oddgon:

And finally a larger, sideways orb:

Honey Rakuware

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I first tried honey raku in October 2023; I didn’t really like my own results at the time, but I learned two main takeaways in the process:

  • you very much want thin strands of honey rather than thick, so that it pulls into beads rather than leaving thick streaks

  • the honey works best on convex rather than concave forms, due to its propensity to run off vs. pool inside

With those in mind, I decided to give the honey raku finish another try atop two orbs, and I brought some honey drizzler sticks and a glass along for better stream control rather than using my earlier, clumsier technique of dispensing the honey via the squeeze bottle. Rotating these while they were insanely hot was asking a lot, so I really appreciated that Wanda was up for the challenge as she did that for me while I applied the honey.

Here’s the smaller sphere:

And the larger sphere:

The resulting pieces’ exteriors were smokier than the interiors since barely any honey made it inside, and the white shining out from the insides was distracting. I carefully stained the interior of the larger orb with India ink, and then watered it down a bit before staining the interior of the smaller orb as well. I love how they turned out; the bead trails of the honey almost look like planetary maps, comet/asteroid tracking paths, or constellations… a little bit like audio visualizations.

I also decided to experiment with a blue copper glaze in combination with the honey raku on a small bowl, even though the concave interior would be a challenge. What you can’t see in the below images is twofold: first, the blue lip is complemented by a blue base line, only visible when you lift the bowl up or get really down low. Second, this piece unfortunately lost the thermal shock lottery and has a number of minute cracks which make it less structurally sound. However, since it’s a decorative, low-fired piece anyway (as opposed to being food-safe or water-tight), the cracks are a permanent asterisk - but they won’t stop me from displaying or using it!

Upcoming: Artist Talk at the University of South Dakota

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I’ve been invited to give an artist talk at the University of South Dakota (USD) in Vermillion, South Dakota on Monday, November 18th at 2pm in the Warren M. Lee Center for Fine Arts! This event is open to the public - if you’re interested in attending, here is the Facebook event page for it.

Both beforehand and afterwards, I will hold studio visits with individual students, and later in the semester will guest curate USD's Fall 2024 Student Art Exhibition, which will have its reception on Thursday, December 12th from 6-8pm at Cee Cee's Gallery in Vermillion, South Dakota.

I’m very excited to connect with the USD art students, faculty, and community in each of these ways! Many thanks to USD’s Associate Professor of Art Amber Hansen for these invitations.

Slip Resist Naked Raku - Take Two!

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I also tried a two-stage slip resist naked raku again; I dipped burnished bisqueware with waxed bottoms into slip, let it dry until it began to crack, and then dipped it in clear glaze before firing. I first tried one- and two-step slip resist naked raku out in April 2024, with mostly very low-contrast results. This time, I had higher contrast results, but also let some the slip dry too long before doing the clear glaze dip, as some of it actually touched the clay surface in a number of areas on the larger oval bowl and a couple on the smaller bowl (both below). Though it wasn’t intended, if it’s widespread like it is on the oval bowl, I actually am visually into the result (much like I am into crazing/crawling, which are also considered glaze defects).

Here’s the little dish, which has the highest contrast I’ve produced in slip resist naked raku:

And here’s the larger oval bowl:

Copper Glaze Rakuware

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Here are the pieces of pottery I made with copper glazes (mostly) at the October 2024 raku ceramic workshop!

First, we have a textured orb:

Next, a hexagonal textured tray:

A rectangular tray:

And finally, an experimental landscape vessel which uses the new-to-me “yellow crackle” glaze in combination with two other copper glazes:

Another Raku Workshop!

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My ceramics colleague Paul and I attended another Dakota Potters Supply raku ceramics workshop this past weekend! I was fortunate enough to receive partial funding from the Morningside Fall 2024 Faculty Conference Travel Fund, which allowed me to really experiment with new techniques.

We were hoping to bring three students along as well, but trimming disasters and a rescheduled athletic event took two out in advance and illness struck the third on the morning of the workshop. Fortunately, there were a bunch of other artists in attendance and Paul and I had brought quite a few pieces to finish, so we still had a lot of opportunities to learn and grow. I tried a new-to-me technique out, significantly improved in my honey raku technique, and picked up supplies to test out a method in our upcoming workshop in April that I saw another artist successfully using! I also demonstrated some techniques other artists in attendance hadn’t yet been exposed to, so there was a productive exchange of information all around.

Here are a few photos from the day itself, and once I’ve had time to photograph the pieces I made, I’ll do a series of posts on the artwork.

Arts Itoya Painting Progress Pics!

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I often get asked about my studio practice and processes, so I like to share some photos of how my artwork develops! Here are progress images from my Arts Itoya residency in Japan. Note that I do not take the time to precisely color adjust progress photos, and they are often taken in poor lighting conditions (late at night) and sometimes at angles. I also can forget to pause to take pictures when I’m in a rush!

First, here’s Duality:

Next, Pursuit (Ichi-go Ichi-e):

Then we have Lifelong Renter:

Shingling:

Messenger:

And finally, Fleeting:

Upcoming: Cultural Corner Art Guild & Gallery Exhibition

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I have ten ceramic pieces in the upcoming Cultural Corner Art Guild & Gallery’s Pottery, Glass & Jewels Exhibition in Chillicothe, Missouri! My good friend Susan Nelson will also have work on display, so you should really check this show out if you have the opportunity.

The show will run from October 5 - November 15, 2024 with a closing reception on Friday, November 15th from 5-7pm. Here is their website, and their address is 424 Locust St, Chillicothe, MO 64601.

Arts Itoya Painting 6: Fleeting

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I had mostly finished this painting in time to exhibit it at Arts Itoya, but I knew I wanted to work back into it before declaring it actually complete. Once I returned home from Japan, got past the jet lag, and had a bit of time remaining before the school year started, I tweaked a number of areas until I was truly happy with the resulting piece.

This is Fleeting, acrylic on decorative Japanese stationery, 10.7x10.7”, 2024. It depicts a male crimson marsh glider (Trithemis aurora), also called a crimson dropwing, in flight above water.

Shelby Prindaville's acrylic painting of a male crimson marsh glider.

Shelby Prindaville's acrylic painting of a male crimson marsh glider.

Final Days in Tokyo

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After my day trip to Yamanashi City, I spent my last few days in and around Tokyo. It was blazingly hot with heat advisories each day (around 100°F/38°C with 100% humidity), so I tried to mostly stay indoors during 12-4pm if possible. I visited teamLab Planets (an immersive museum experience) one morning, stopped by the Shibuya scramble crossing during the evening, attended another washi paper workshop at Ozu Washi, and tried to return a defective titanium panel to Pigment Tokyo… but they unprofessionally refused to repair or refund it (so now I recommend you stay away from Pigment Tokyo - go to Ozu Washi instead!).

On my last full day, I took a trip to Yokohama’s Zoorasia, one of Japan’s newest and largest zoos, to try one final time to see an adult tanuki (rather than ancient tanuki like Immako and Mirai). I arrived at Zoorasia before it even opened and proceeded towards the tanuki enclosure, but it was already around 95°F and they were snoozing when I got there. After hanging out for about two hours, though, I finally got to see a healthy adult tanuki and took a few nice photos! I also really enjoyed seeing Zoorasia’s proboscis monkey exhibit. I then visited the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in the afternoon.

Before I knew it, my time in Japan had come to a close and I packed up a final time to head back to Sioux City. Due to the day/night cycle and when my flights were scheduled, I was in for approximately 31 hours between when I woke up to when I’d reach my house. I’ve learned I start to hit a wall around hour 22-24; fortunately for me, around hour 24 I had arrived in Chicago, gotten through customs, and had a couple more hours of layover before departure. I found a flat bench and took a 30min nap followed by just resting for another 15min or so, which was such a help.

Once I did get back home and unpacked, only one porcelain souvenir (a soup bowl) broke in my luggage, which was an acceptable loss given how much porcelain I brought back! Weeks later, my residency friend Emily mailed me a very snazzy canvas tote bag silkscreened with her residency logo design.

Overall, this was a really fabulous residency and first visit to Japan. I plan to continue to make artwork inspired by these travels, so stay tuned!

Yamanashi City - Our Sister City!

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Returning to my summer travels - after I took the shinkansen from Kyoto to Tokyo, the next day Morningside University board member Mia Sudo and I took a day trip to Sioux City’s sister city in Japan: Yamanashi City! I had the honor of meeting the Yamanashi City delegation last fall during their visit to Morningside, and at that time I gave a short speech in Japanese welcoming them and then a slightly longer one in English describing the Morningside Art Department.

Mia was so kind - she put in work ahead of time arranging our transportation and schedule, and then she picked me up from my hotel and accompanied me throughout the visit and even translated for me when my Japanese was insufficient. I really appreciated her support of me and by extension Morningside University!

Yamanashi City welcomed me with open arms - literally and metaphorically! It was lovely to get to see the mayor and other delegation members again as well as meet additional city hall staff. Amongst several other very nice presents, I was gifted with a custom katakana stamp of my name, which was an extremely thoughtful, generous art gift which I will be definitely making use of! After exploring more of city hall, we where whisked away to tour more of Yamanashi City, including a sake brewery (and lunch!), a class visit with 5th grade students where I was allowed to join in on their lesson practicing Japanese calligraphy, a Mt. Fuji photo opportunity, a visit to a local museum and its gardens, and their zoo. Yamanashi City is warm and vibrant, and the people are so very kind!

The New Academic Year Has Begun

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While I haven’t finished posting about my summer adventures, time is still progressing and the new academic year has begun! Today is the first day of classes this fall at Morningside University. I am teaching Design and Graphic Design I as well as overseeing Graphic Design Internship and Advanced Studies in Graphic Design.

It’s fun to get to see familiar and new faces, and I’m looking forward to getting to see all the new artwork my students will be making!

Outta Pocket Exhibition - Voting for the People's Choice Award

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If you’d like, you can vote for my piece Symbolism in the Outta Pocket Exhibition’s People’s Choice Award by clicking here. It’s a simple one-page Google form.

I imagine voting closes on August 23rd as awards are announced that evening, so try to vote by August 22nd!

Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka

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After leaving Takeo, I took a train to Fukuoka and then a shinkansen (a bullet train) to Kyoto. When I arrived, it was about 3:30pm, which was good timing as I could head directly to my ryokan guest house as check-in started at 3pm. As I was walking there, I saw a street market mostly en route. I asked a passerby if it was a regular event or just today, and she said it was just for today. I decided to walk through it, and it was a local crafts market so I was happy to get to check it out! As I was doing so, people began to start packing up for the day, but I saw probably 70% of the vendors. Then I checked into the ryokan. This was the only ryokan I had booked, as I wanted to try staying in traditional tatami mat and futon set-up. It was great to sleep in, but I did miss having surfaces to put belongings on other than the floor or super low table; I discovered that, overall, I prefer a Western-style room. After I got situated, I went back out and walked around the neighborhood and found a vegan restaurant for dinner!

The Fushimi Inari bamboo forest.

My first full day in Kyoto started off rainy. I had breakfast at a different vegan cafe (where many of the waitresses were artists and we bonded over our shared love!) and then headed to Fushimi Inari Taisha, a famous Shinto shrine. The entrance and early part of the shrine complex were full of tourists, but I managed to set out on a small forested trail which no one else was brave or foolish enough to attempt. In the beginning, it was pretty cool to get away from the crowds, but towards the middle I started to wonder if I was making poor life choices as the trail got pretty steep (and it was very wet); going up it wasn’t too bad but I was already not fancying going back down. Towards the back half, there was a beautiful bamboo forest and I met the tiniest frog I’ve ever seen! The trail abruptly ran into a blockade, and the only option in a forward-ish direction was a small offshoot of a path atop pressed down leaves. Since I didn’t particularly want to turn around and do the slippery downhill trek, I tried my luck and eventually this leaf corridor connected with a real pathway (with inlaid steps). After a little while longer, I ran into my first person for a while! As I looped my way back towards the front I ran into more and more folks and the famous rows of torii gates.

The tiniest frog, with a blade of grass and a forming water droplet for scale.

After Fushimi Inari Taisha, I had lunch and then headed to the Raku Museum. As you may already know, I have really enjoyed learning raku processes and wanted to see the works in this institution. I learned that Raku is a family name, and the Raku family gained renown for their style of ceramics such that their name became the name for the set of processes. What a legacy!

The Raku Museum is small, so I finished and still had some time in the day. It had also stopped raining! I decided to head to the famous (and sometimes infamous) Gion district known for geishas, which is right next to a well-known street full of restaurants. I walked around Gion, visited a small contemporary art museum there, and finished the evening with some vegan ramen.

The next day again started off rainy. I took a train to Nara to visit the famous Nara Park, which has thousands of wild sika deer, sacred in the Shinto religion, which have acclimated to living on the grounds and enjoy eating “crackers” that vendors sell to tourists to feed to the deer. I walked around Nara Park for a few hours, and then had lunch and took a train into Osaka. I stopped at a summer festival, Aizen, which was smaller than I imagined but was nevertheless interesting to attend. Then I headed to the Osaka Aquarium, as I heard it was world-class. I really enjoyed a number of the exhibits; I can’t recall having seen a flounder swim before, and I also was delighted and alarmed by the gurnards or sea robins (Triglidae) which have “walking rays” aka legs. They also had a kawaii or “cute” wing, where I very much enjoyed watching the spotted garden eels!

This is the Google Translate image of a sign outside Mirai’s enclosure.

The following morning I checked out of the ryokan, but I had them store my luggage as I wanted to explore more of Kyoto (and I couldn’t check in to my Tokyo hotel until 3pm). I then went to the Kyoto City Zoo for attempt number two at seeing tanuki that I could paint. Unfortunately they also only had one tanuki, and she was Immako’s twin Mirai. She, too, has already outlived the normal tanuki lifespan and has grave medical issues but is soldiering on. I did get to see a Japanese giant salamander, though, which was very cool! The zoo was right next door to Kyoto’s KYOCERA Museum of Art, so I went there afterwards and took in a Takashi Murakami exhibition as well as a local Japanese arts and crafts exhibition. I was really pleased with how much Murakami was using metal leaf in this exhibited artwork and with his written reflections on the material’s connection to Japan, since I intentionally chose to work with it quite a bit during this artist residency. On the way back to the ryokan, I passed a small photography museum so I checked that out as well!

Then I picked up my small suitcase and took a train and then a shinkansen to Toyko! I purposefully reserved a seat on this one so I could sit on the window side with Mt. Fuji, and then kept checking my map so I could look out the window when it was time! Fujisan was pretty cool; it had its own little cloud hat.

Upcoming: Outta Pocket Exhibition at Manhattan Arts Center

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I was juried into the national ceramics exhibition Outta Pocket by juror Nicholas Geankoplis who serves as the ceramics program director at Kansas State University. This exhibition “highlights creative work using clay or ceramics in an atypical, non-traditional, eclectic or eccentric way.” My included piece is Symbolism, which is an acrylic painting on five partially deglazed 19th century ceramic tiles and tile fragments.

Outta Pocket is on exhibit from July 29 - August 23, 2024 at the Manhattan Arts Center, Philip & Jeune Kirmser Gallery, 1520 Poyntz Ave., Manhattan, KS 66502. There will be three show awards announced at the closing reception on August 23.

Advance to Gogh Show is Up - With My Scra-baa Junior Piece!

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KTIV chose to use footage of me looking at artwork to illustrate their article about the Advance to Gogh event.

Just a reminder that I’m participating in a large group exhibition of over 40 Siouxland artists: Advance to Gogh. The opening artwalk receptions for this event (held at the Sioux City Art Center, Gallery 103, Three Rivers Gallery, Art SUX, and Vangarde Arts) was on Thursday, July 11th. I’m unclear on exactly when each of the participating venues will take down the show, but I believe it’s up at least through mid-August.

To the right, you can see an image of me looking at some of the exhibited artworks which was published by KTIV, and if you check the article and video out there’s more footage of me at the reception as well as their own event description and interviews.

In case you can’t make it, though, I’d like to share with you some images of what I did! In the random lottery, I drew the gameboard Scrabble Junior.

The original Scrabble Junior game board.

I decided to keep the illustration and prompt for “sheep” and then painted over all the rest of the illustrations and prompts, color matching with paint to “restore” the rest of the board to a clean, new appearance. Next, I painted a lamb at the base, added the words “& Shelby” to the wordmark, and carefully redrew the grid lines with marker.

Shelby Prindaville's repainted and drawn-over game board.

Finally, I added words for sheep in many languages to illustrate how one plays Scra-baa Junior!

This is Scra-baa Junior (“A ewe-nique edition!”), mixed media including acrylic, marker, varnish, and glue on Scrabble Junior game board with game tiles, 2024.

Shelby Prindaville's finished "Scra-baa Junior" artwork.

Week 4 of the Arts Itoya Residency

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In my last week, our shows and artist talks were scheduled to take place on Wednesday, June 26th from 2-6pm. I was completely studio-focused in the days leading up to the reception, and I managed to get six paintings up for display; however, the sixth one wasn’t quite finished yet so I planned to continue to work on it at home. I’m pretty pleased with this amount of production in a four-week residency, though I definitely bolstered it by coming a week in advance to get over my jet lag while purchasing art materials and gathering reference experiences and imagery!

We had already packed up everything in the studio aside from the displayed artwork in order to host the reception on the 26th. I was departing on the morning of the 29th for Kyoto, and needed to ship my luggage to Tokyo before that. It seemed silly to me to revive my studio practice given all those details, so after the show ended, I deinstalled my artwork and took it and all my studio materials back to the house.

Then on the 27th, Emily and I visited Arita! Takeo-onsen, the town which hosts the Arts Itoya residency, is located in Saga prefecture in Kyushu (the southwestern Japanese main island). Saga prefecture has three particularly famous porcelain towns: Arita, Imari, and Karatsu, and I wanted to visit at least one of them! In terms of the porcelain produced, I like both Arita and Karatsu in terms of aesthetics (Imari porcelain is a little too ostentatious for my taste). Arita is much closer to Takeo than Karatsu, so it was the better choice for a day trip in terms of both time and cost. We first stopped at their ceramic museum, and then walked to a famous studio called Kouraku Kiln. After that, we walked to the major porcelain shop center Arita Sera and ate lunch. We then visited a LOT of porcelain stores (we probably visited about 50, but I think there might’ve been 100 there). I’ve never seen such a large, single-subject shopping district before and I am pretty confident it’s impossible to take in all at once; there’s too much to look at and our feet were also voicing complaints. There was so much to see that we barely bought anything due to the mental overload, the very real luggage size/weight limitations, difficulties in transporting fragile ceramics, and the fact that we’d already bought some ceramics from a store in Takeo; we stuck to small items only. I bought a gift and four pieces, and Emily bought two gifts and two pieces.

On the 28th, we visited Nagasaki. My former colleague Masa Watanabe had urged me to do so, and Hiro seconded the recommendation. We made our first stop at their prefectural art museum, and then went to lunch before checking out their very small Chinatown and then wrapping up at a Buddhist temple, Fukusaiji. That evening, Hiro helped me ship my two large pieces of luggage to my Tokyo hotel with Yamato Transport. And with that, my last week at the Arts Itoya residency came to a close!

Arts Itoya Painting 5: Messenger

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My fifth painting is of a sika deer (Cervus nippon), painted atop a decorative camellia metal leaf washi paper. I applied the paint atop the gilding in a thin, translucent layer so that the metal leaf is still visible. In areas where the paint colors are similar to that of the metal, it’s difficult to see much difference head-on - but in darker coloration spots, you can discern it. However, if you stand at an angle or due to the light environment when reflections are apparent, the gilded decoration is visible throughout the whole painting. Below are two photos of the same painting, visually demonstrating what I describe above!

I encountered wild sika deer in Yakushima (the subspecies C. nippon yakushimae) and in Nara as well as saw them in zoos in Fukuoka and Yamanashi City. They are famous in Nara, as more than 1,200 roam freely around Nara Park and the grounds of several temples and shrines due to the deer serving as sacred messengers to the gods in the Shinto religion.

This is Messenger, acrylic on gilded washi mulberry paper, 26x18”, 2024.

Shelby Prindaville's acrylic painting of a sika deer on gilded washi paper.

Shelby Prindaville's acrylic painting of a sika deer on gilded washi paper, with the metal leaf visible throughout.

Arts Itoya Painting 4: Shingling

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My fourth painting is of a shingling plant I documented in Yakushima, in this case Ficus pumila. Ficus pumila is a native species in Japan (and other East Asian countries). I’m always attracted to epiphytic shingling plants (plants that climb up trees or rocks vertically such that their leaves look like lush shingles atop their substrate). This was a very time-consuming painting in both the drawing and painting stages, but I think it was well worth the effort!

Yakushima Island was not as fertile for rice production as other areas of Japan, so during the Edo period, Yakushima paid for its shoganate taxes by logging sugi trees and producing wooden shingles rather than in the more customary rice. This deforestation had negative environmental impacts. Reforestation and conservation efforts including declaring the island a UNESCO World Heritage site have since tried to rebalance the important island forest ecosystem. This painting’s title references both the plant’s growth habit and common grouping name as well as Yakushima’s ecological history.

This is Shingling, acrylic on round wooden panel, 12x12x.875”, 2024.

Shelby Prindaville's "Shingling" acrylic painting of Ficus pumila on a round wooden panel.