About "Steampunk in Clay"

Wow, would you look at that!  This is my first blog post ever!

Just imagine I'm giving my 'thumbs up' in this picture.  So excited.

Hooray!

Now that I'm done giving myself a congratulatory pat on the back, I should probably explain why I decided to start this blog in the first place.  But first, you need to go through a bit of a back-story to understand.

My name is Kelly, and I'm an art education student.  I basically learn how to teach other people art.  What art is, what different kinds of art there are in the world, what techniques can be used to create art, art in history, and all those exciting, creative, beautiful, thought-provoking, chaotic, meaningful, moving elements involved with it.

So basically, I'm an art education rookie.

And I probably always will be a rookie.  You know how those artist types are, anyhow.  Too picky, perfectionists, nothing's ever, well, DONE.  And you know what?  I'm proud of that.  If someone creates something, and they say it's perfect, well that only means that there's nothing left to accomplish.  Sure, pieces can be finished, but a person can always do better.  And this isn't a bad thing.  This is our drive.  Our drive to do something great, to go beyond our limits and try something new.  I may know a thing or two, for example, about clay, but I'm not saying I'm a guru or anything.

And considering I'm still an undergraduate, I'm definitely still learning!

A 'hippo' that was supposed to be a dragon

Last semester I made my choice to declare my focus in ceramics.  There are many practical reasons an art educator may declare their focus in ceramics.  More people might want to hire you if you know how to run a kiln.  You might be able to double as a sculpture teacher at a high school.  And your body of work may just prove you know a thing or two about 2-D and 3-D design.  And... well, the list goes on and on.  However, these practical reasons are not the only reasons I have decided to make it my focus.  I tried ceramics my first year as a transfer student in my four year college (I had attended a two year community college and graduated the previous semester with an Associate's degree in Fine Art) and I wasn't all that great at it.  I wasn't bad, certainly not, but my pieces were off-center, heavy, too small, and messy.  After that I skipped a semester and decided I wanted to try something new.  With the professor's strict demands for more work in less time, I was overwhelmed.

The best bowl I have ever made

However, I missed being there.  I missed throwing clay on the wheel.  I missed creating 3-D sculptures, and I missed having the possibility of them being a functional item.  But... the things I did still weren't, well, ME.  I took Ceramics 2 the following semester but had a lot of new ideas that I couldn't create because we were still learning techniques.  But I found the time, and got better - MUCH better - at creating functional pieces.  Now, I'm actually pretty good at throwing on the wheel, hand-building items, and glazing.

Now we incorporate the "Steampunk" in our blog about "Steampunk in Clay."

I'm in the Ceramics 3 class, and at this time, everyone in the class is supposed to be experimenting with what it is that they might want to do.  I was inspired to go into the direction that no one that I've ever heard of has gone before (it's pretty much impossible to search and find this kind of stuff online yet!) - Steampunk Ceramics.

It's no secret (anymore) that I love the steampunk genre.  The fashion, the creativity, the science fiction - the geekiness!  The people in the steampunk community are absolutely wonderful and accepting, with lots of open minds about what the word 'steampunk' means to everyone.  I was first inspired by them when I attended my first convention with my boyfriend - Connecticon, in 2010.  The aesthetic appeal was overwhelming for me, and I immediately adored it.  I tried my hand at making a costume and attended the Steampunk World's Faire the next year.

Erm, private joke... *ahem hem* we've found the TARDIS.  Here's to hoping we find the Doctor this year!

Move along the timeline (very slowly, in the right order) back to present day, where I, a student in the Ceramics 3 course, choose my destiny in clay.  It's what I've been getting into lately... so I figured, why not?  People have reinvented types of clothing, music, and time itself (if you know what steampunk is you'll figure out how THAT works!), so why not reinvent working with clay into something that's steampunk?

The closest that I could come to whatever it is I was searching for was what my own professor had been doing.  (If I'm lucky I might convince him it's a good idea to let me put his work on my blog.)  He worked with clay and metals (steel, copper, etc.) simultaneously.  And the work that he produces is absolutely breathtaking!  This semester was the first time I got a chance to go to one of his gallery openings in the capital city of our state.  He makes these giant pieces out of either clay (throwing vessels on the wheel) or metal (still vessels though!) so elegant-looking that he sells even his smallest pieces for more than a hundred dollars!  Everything we saw at that show was truly inspiring.

But I need my own style.  I need my own focus in clay.  This blog is about sharing my ideas and documenting my progress as I journey through self-discovery to find out what it is that can be done to transform clay into a steampunk medium.  Combining two passions together is my goal, and this rookie is going to find out what is possible.

This semester, it's about starting small, then growing.