Well… for all my whining this morning about everything in yesterdays kiln load of work conspiring to challenge my preconceived expectations, there were a good number of pieces I did really did enjoy pulling out of the kiln.
These works still play the edge of what I need to come out of the kiln verses what I personally think is fun to hold and explore. Unfortunately, these are more often than not, 2 totally differing ideals. This point is actually becoming a point of personal internal philosophical contention, (but that is definately another post).
Well I had written a nicely thought out blog post last night about the ups and downs of risk taking by the kiln load… but the file seems to have gone PooF!
It was good, but it was probably too long winded anyway.
The shorter version is to admit that I love taking unnecessary and avoidable risks. Now-a-days, this risk is spelled with a small “r†not a big “Râ€. I don’t know about you, but do you ever hear the little voice of reason saying “Just glaze it up! It’ll look great!â€?
You also know how we are supposed to test a new glaze before glazing nearly a whole kiln load in it? Well… most of the load didn’t come out the way I had pictured in my head.
Sometimes that can be a good thing…. but sometimes it just sucks.
Anyone like orange?
It’s been pointed out repeatedly that I should get around to this posting. The personal Bio.
I’ve never been too thrilled to toot this particular horn, but hey… So while I’m waiting for parts for the kiln to finally to show up, and the rain to stop…here we go.
My name is Zygote. I’m a semi-retired technical foundry artisan, a jeweler, a ceramicist, and a gentleman’s gardener. I turned 40 this year!
I was born in late sixties in Cedar Rapids Iowa, a beautiful, agrarian city nestled along a river and among farm fields and old oak forests.
It’s a community that traditionally thought with its hands. It’s a community that values and takes great pride in its laborers, thinkers, craftsmen, and artists and it still raises its’ children with the belief that much of life’s wisdom is found through the handle of a shovel and through encouraging a curious exploration of the natural world.
As a 16 year old, I was encouraged to begin formal art training and left home to attend Memphis Academy of Arts to study drawing, sculpture, and silversmithing. By the age of 20, I had established the beginnings of a private silversmithing studio for ongoing personal nighttime studies and had accepted my first position as a technical foundry artisan in an arts foundry in Arizona. The next decade was spent working with groups of artisans providing technical assistance to professional artists in producing bronze works for private collections, museums, and large public art works for display throughout the southwest, west coast, and pacific rim countries.
In 2000 my wife and I moved our growing family to Stockton, California. I really needed a few years to relax and begin a new creative path in ceramics and gardening while we began raising 2 young children.
Over the past 3 years, most of my personal studio activities has been focused on creating personal silver and ceramic work for the FetishGhost collection and serving my local community through my new studio, RedGate Ceramics. 
Through RedGate I create a distinctive high quality body of domestic ceramic wear that speaks specifically to my local markets, and is beginning to cater to a handful of regional galleries. I really enjoy my new path in ceramics and my work keeps improving as I push forward. The best part is having a artistic vehicle that allows me to interact closely with my community.
But… it’s my affair with FetishGhost that’s drawn the most attention though. For over the past 20 years, I’ve generally been known for my unique approach to handcrafted sterling macabre. The silversmithing studio is firmly anchored in the past. I use a mix of traditional preindustrial
silversmithing and jewelers skills to create my Gothic SteamPunk designs, eschewing any premade or mass produced parts or findings. I’ve been dancing with this muse since 1988
and I love making subtle and noodlely detailed work done in a heavy & stylized motifs of the North American Southwest Macabre (now part of a developing Southwest Goth aesthetic). Lately I’ve started to enjoy realizing more of my rather “operatic†designs. These are designs, that while
they are made to be sensuously experienced by the wearer, their obvious intent is to project the wearers chosen personality.
As always, I’m really excited about the next group of pieces. I’m hooked on the thrill of discovery and
something new is always bound to happen. Now that the children are getting older, things could get really strange.
I can’t wait!
