there would be no beauty if there was no imperfection.

My roommate found a Robin that had fallen out of it's nest before even growing feathers. She called me at the studio and asked if I wanted it. Drew found a baby snake in the driveway and left it on my table. On a regular basis I receive gifts of exotic-looking bugs and animals such as these. I think these are really thoughtful gifts.

I have casted the Robin and the snake. The plaster positives are nowhere close to perfect, and I prefer them that way.

Death has taken on a whole new meaning out here. It has become less nostalgic, and more a part of the cycle of life. I was tempted to bury this deer, then realized the turkey vultures need to eat.


Casting a dead baby deer may seem unethical to some, to others-it immortalizes it. To me, I couldn't help but create a piece of porcelain that captures its elegant form.


A drawing of Roxy looking through a brightly lit doorway.


A hummingbird came in, attracted to the flickering fluorescent lights. He burned himself and died a while later. The colors on his neck were some I'd never seen on an animal, in person. They changed drastically, depending on your perspective.


After casting a deer leg, I began throwing the slab to flatten and reuse it...it began to look like an archeological dig.


A black snake sunning himself in the middle of the road. I thought the line he was creating was lovely.


Simon was our French resident. He came and left in a month. He was refreshingly goofy.


2 cows silhouettes looked like one long, many legged animal when I first came over the hill. Neither of these photos created the result I wanted, but the blurriness and bug guts on the windshield may be better.



Our second tomatoe from our garden!

So much time gone by… lots of adjusting and working.
I had no idea how intense and exhausting a wood firing can be. We did 8-17 hour shifts each. A shift includes listening, watching the kiln so you know when it needs to be “fed”, (yes, like a child). Once it hits around 18-1900 degrees, this feeding happens every 5-10 minutes. Imagine that. 8 hours solid feeding 7 pieces of wood, 4 of pine, 3 of oak every 5 minutes, but the end you are one with a 2400 degree kiln. I opted for the fireman’s jacket. Being the only girl, I have no testosterone I have to prove of.


Out of the wood firing:
Tops-Again, wanting, making hundreds of spinning tops. Want a machine that will spin them within a large room-thinking like bowling pin dropping machines, or as dad suggested a spiral machine that spits them out, then they fall into a slight spiral within the floor, and then the come back around to the machine, so as to keep spinning. Love the constant spinning, however, want the sound of hundreds. The audio seems just as important to me as the visual. Wish to put a video on here for you to see them spinning. Anyone know who can fabricate a machine for me?


A salt-fired piece covered with a “skin”, then fired again in the wood kiln. I’m liking this effect and am doing more as you read.


When I was in Italy I bruised myself on a constant basis. Hammering my thumb, while chiseling stone seemed to be my favorite. I photographed these injuries. Here, burning myself seems to take priority to bruising. On heat guns, hot oil, no kilns yet. These 4 spots (2 a little hard to see) are from hot oil. The injury to the body and healing process are fascinating to me. I think photographing the healing process daily is next. Making a flipbook to watch the skin injury, then heal, scar, and heal more?

Body jewelry, in a way. It does not sit on you, as a bracelet or a ring, but is made directly from your own form. My fingers creating a negative space that is formed with porcelain. My teeth creating their own form. I have begun taking some of the boy’s forms, like Drew’s nice little cleft chin. Jewelry, because where the body does not touch the porcelain it is decorated with porcelain “spikes”? “dots”?-what is a good word for these small blobs with sexy little additions?




Have begun taking molds not only of wild animal body parts, but also human body parts. I’m amazed by the incredible detail (notice on the knee), and have figured out a way to keep these porcelain casts super thin.


Roxy has become one of my subjects. I cannot seem to get my camera to focus on these drawings successfully, but these give you some idea. The paper is not black, but rubbed with graphite, except for the halo of the dog. The found dead dog is a subject also. However, as of now, he will stay on white paper. The composition will stay the same, a small figure at the base of the page. But unlike the atmospheric, “hopeful” black, the lifeless dog will be on a somewhat glowing, lifeless page.

A porcelain "skin" over a large gas tank that heats our studio.

NCECA (The national ceramics conference) was held in Louisville, Kentucky this year. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed in the lack of ceramic sculpture. However, I latched on to Chris Gustin's work immediately. His creases and dimples made me crave more.


Along with rebuilding the house, John is "rebuilding" the pond. This past week it was drained to remove the many feet of sludge that has built up over the years. He plans to make it swim-able and grow lily pads.


Since the draining, on our daily walks, Roxy's favorite activity is getting in the sludge, sinking down to her belly, and slopping through it until exhaustion. Her tail wags the entire time.

Then she rolls in the grass....cleaning herself?

Half of our studio sink has a raised drain, so clay won't fill the pipes. Because of this, a mixture of clays and lost tools sit in the sink. Once settled, it begins to look like "bacteria matt"- the kind found out west. This spiky organism looking thing, are bristles of a brush I lost about a month ago.

Pedro

As some of you know I have aquired a very loving lab since I've been here in Appomattox, VA. However, I unfortunately need to give him up because of an agreement the landlord and my roomate made before I came.
I adore this dog.
His name is Pedro and it breaks my heart to think I cannot have him in my life. But he needs to be an outside dog, which he is not right now.
If you know of anyone who is interested in a most gentle, loving, submissive, around 4 year old, NEEDS to be outside in a big open space (GREW UP on a farm, fine with no fence, as long as cars are not prevalent) dog..........then PLEASE email me. (erinintrevado@gmail.com)

We fired the salt kiln. It's a large gas kiln where once it gets to a certain temperature, a piece of angle iron is filled with salt and poured to either side, front and back of the kiln. This is Jeremy squinting at the fumes given off by the salt.

Drew's face, with the kiln reflecting off of it.

MY TOPS! Most of them spin beautifully with glaze.

I have never been so happy with a firing. Each of my "animal's" surfaces turned out deeper and more complex than I expected. My favorite part of this glaze ("Ben's E), is the lovely blue vein it left down the center.


This is also "Ben's E", because it was in the very front of the kiln and completely exposed to the salt, the glaze bleached to show more blue. The part I have not been able to capture with my camera are the TONS of crystals that formed on the back of the piece.


I consider this piece to be the most successful of the firing. The glaze sat in all the cracks, and that glaze that was left on the surface pooled around what's known as the "orange peel" effect that comes from the salt in a salt firing.