Journal Postings: Jonathan B. Grainger
| (10/04/09): Archie Bray Workshop |  Here are few more pictures from the workshop on mining local ceramic materials. |
| (10/04/09): Archie Bray Workshop |  making test bars |
| (10/04/09): Archie Bray Workshop |  crushing rock to make glaze..... the glamorous side of ceramics |
| (10/04/09): Archie Bray Workshop |  some of the glazes formulated over the weekend |
| (10/04/09): Archie Bray Workshop |  the glazes and the rocks that made them |
| (10/04/09): Archie Bray Workshop |  the glazes and the rocks that made them |
| (10/04/09): Archie Bray Workshop |  the glazes and the rocks that made them |
| (10/04/09): Archie Bray Workshop |  the glazes and the rocks that made them |
| (10/04/09): Archie Bray Workshop |  more tests |
| (10/04/09): Archie Bray Workshop |  firing the tests all night Saturday |
| (10/04/09): Archie Bray Workshop |  On Sunday we took a trip out and up into the surrounding landscape to hunt down some clay. We had to hike the end of the road up to a county reservoir due to snow still on the ground. We found a nice vein of clay and attacked it like a bunch of clay eating addicts. It felt great to dig it straight out of the ground, a return to the early child hood joy of "playing in the dirt". |
| (10/04/09): Archie Bray Workshop |  The aforementioned snowy road. |
| (10/04/09): Archie Bray Workshop |  pay dirt! |
| (08/22/09): GEOPHAGY |  Over the next 14 months my desire is to investigate the phenomena of "geophagy" or earth-eating as it is practiced in my state of residence, Georgia. I wish to use "clay-eating" as a lens with which to examine humanity's relationship to the natural world, touching upon issues such as: sense of place, consumption, environmental degradation, traditional foodways, and industrial agriculture. I desire to utilize the ceramic arts' long historical relationship with the home, food and foodways as the vocabulary to draw upon to express my findings. In addition, I hope to use this inquiry to delve into my own relationship to the materials I use as a ceramic artist. The origin of, the uses of(industrial, commercial, personal) and the methods of retrieval and processing that bring these materials into my hands are areas I wish to understand more deeply. Lastly, I hope this investigation will anchor my life as a ceramic artist and the work I create more substantially within my own local environment, strengthening my connection to and deepening my sense of... place.
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| (08/22/09): LOCAL CERAMIC WORKSHOP @ THE ARCHIE BRAY FOUNDATION |  At the end of May I attended a workshop at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, MT on sourcing and processing your own ceramic materials from your local environment. Although it was only three days it was packed with lots of information and populated with wonderful people. I have a bunch of photos and I'm sharing but a few. The course was taught by David Peters and Tim Stepp. We fired two wood kilns worth of tests both of clay bodies and glazes made from simply crushing (not so simply actually) several different types of rock. The results were pretty incredible as you will see. A spectacular weekend in one of the more stunning landscapes I've had the privilege to witness. |
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