Tile, Mosaic+Clay in Schools

Math, Geometry and Islamic Art

2012-01-23T20:34:00.005-05:00

Hi all,

I had a query recently about the source of an image of a tessellated mosaic panel from the Alhambra that appeared in a recent post of this blog. (Thirty-Sixth Post: Mosaics of the Islamic World) The query came from an architect and teacher from Buenos Aires and I had to pause to think where this image originally came from.


Tessellated Mosaic Panel in Moroccan Style

I pasted the URL of the photo into Google Image Search and while checking the results I discovered an extraordinary web resource of images of patterns in Islamic Art. The website is aptly titled Pattern in Islamic Art. It contains over four thousand images and includes many of the tessellated mosaic panels that are so dear to artists, architects and art teaches. Looking at these images I recalled a recent visit to the the Metropolitan Museum of Art's New Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia. A long title for some very beautiful galleries that opened, after extensive renovation, on November 1, 2011. The renovations included work by Moroccan Craftsmen. I had an opportunity to visit these galleries shortly after they opened and here is a small sample of photos that I took of the gorgeous art on

display there.

In the Moroccan Tessellated Mosaic Style

Earthenware Plate Influenced by Chinese Porcelain

Patterns R Us, so to speak. The tessellated mosaic patterns come from North Africa. The beautiful ceramic tiles and pottery were often made in the Turkish city of Iznik (the Byzantine city of Nicea, of the Nicene Creed fame).

I hope you take the time to explore the images on Pattern in Islamic Art and if the opportunity presents itself, visit the new Islamic Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

George Woideck

George Woideck is a ceramic artist specializing in tile and mosaic. View his work as artist-in-residence at tileandclayart.com . See his recent projects on the Behance Network. Call George at 216 225 0368. Email him at gwoideck@tileandclayart.com.

Three Exciting Professional Development Programs Combining Art, Math and Science

2011-11-28T21:06:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Several years ago I was invited to take part in an nationwide initiative to create professional development workshops that would have relevance for both teachers of the arts and teachers off other academic subjects. The initiative was sponsored by the Kennedy Center of Washington DC and the training was rigorous. In Ohio thirty-two teaching artists from all disciplines were chosen to participate in a two year process. Our goal was to fashion professional development workshops where the arts are co-equal partners with other subjects in the learning process--a far cry from when the arts sought justification in the curriculum through subordination to math, science, history, social studies, etc.

The first PD workshop I created through the Kennedy Center process was "Deepening the Understanding of Symmetry with Mosaics". Perfect for me, a ceramic artist who uses math in his work. This PD workshop highlights how the concept of symmetry is shared by visual art and geometry as well as science and nature. Workshop participants first view a PowerPoint that covers the four types of Symmetry, the history of mosaics, and examples of symmetry from nature, art, math and science. Teachers then plan and assemble a glass tile mosaic using symmetry as a design theme. They also experience hands-on mosaic installation techniques. Teachers then reflect on their learning and review the possible use of other materials for the project. Participants take home their finished mosaic project, a PowePoint and a teacher's guide with glossary, applicable math curriculum standards, bibliography and resource list. I've presented this workshop a dozen times to teachers of all disciplines. The following pictures were from workshops in Dayton, Wadsworth and Beavercreek Ohio.

The next PD workshop I created using the Kennedy Center model was "From Geometry to Escher: Teaching Tessellations in Math and Art". This professional development workshop explores the intersection of geometric tessellations with the work and design techniques of popular graphic artist M. C. Escher. For math teachers it shows how to add a new, exciting application to the geometry their students are learning; for art teachers it explores the geometric basis upon which Escher created his perception challenging tessellations. Teachers from the Wayne County Ohio area made the following tessellations.

My newest professional development workshop moves away from combining art and math and into that branch of physics called aerodynamics: the science of flight. What better way to teach principles of motion and lift than to use the creation, decoration and flying of kites. Kites soar thanks to the same principles as aircraft fly and they offer wonderful surfaces for bold decoration. All of this and more is contained in the workshop "Up, Up and Away! The Art, Science and Geometry of Making and Flying Kites". Teachers working in the Akron Public Schools made the following Kites

One of the joys of presenting professional development workshops to teachers is knowing that they take the concepts and techniques learned back to the classrooms to reinvigorate their instruction. I also enjoy the challenge of combining art with at least one other academic subject in a meaningful way to show the relationship between different parts of the curriculum. Of course I also present professional development programs on purely art subjects like my popular "Sounds From The Earth" workshop in which we create three musical instruments from clay (this of course could be seen as combining the arts with at least one science, that of acoustics-- the physics of sound).

Call me at 216 225 0368 to discuss presenting a professional development workshop in your district . Email me at gwoideck@tileandclayart.com.

George Woideck

George Woideck is a ceramic artist specializing in tile and mosaic. View his work as artist-in-residence at tileandclayart.com . See his recent public art projects on the Behance Network.

Antoni Gaudi, Barcelona and the Modern Mosaic

2011-10-03T19:33:00.004-04:00

Gaudi shakes up the world of architecture and mosaic

Spain not only brought us the mosaics of the Alhambra in the South of the country; it also gave us the the modern mosaics of Barcelona in the North. They were created for buildings and parks by Catalan architects Lluis Domenech I Montaner, Antoni Gaudi and Josep Maria Jujol in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. The most famous of these three is certainly Gaudi whose magnum opus, the church of La Sagrada Família is yet to be completed after more than one hundred years of construction. The most significant quality of these architects' work is the seamless integration of architecture, sculpture, stained glass, ironwork and of course mosaics. This created a joyous artistic style known in Catalan as Modernisme. Their radical approach to mosaics was to mix traditional, square cut tesserae with irregularly shaped pieces selected from broken ceramic tile--a technique appropriately called broken tile mosaics. These mosaics have a great deal more surface interest than traditional mosaics do.

Let's take a look at one of the early examples of this this style of architecture and mosaic creation, the Palau de la Musica Catalana by Montaner. It's a concert hall designed for the Catalan Choral Society and it certainly would be a visual as well as an aural treat to attend a concert there.

Interior of the Palau with muses behind stage

Mosaic on the exterior facade-left side

Mosaic on the exterior facade-right side

Vent surround

Columns

The muses-upper sections

The muses-lower sections

The epitome of the Modernisme style in architecture is Gaudi's basilica La Sagrada Familia (Holy Family). It has a surreal quality that is best described in photos rather than words.

It's been in construction for a century now and on first viewing seems to be more of a fanciful sculpture that a house of worship. The mosaic detail on the spires define the power as well as whimsy that broken tile mosaics can impart to architecture.

Another of Gaudi's great works is the Park Guell, a horizontal creation as opposed to the verticality of the the cathedral.

The Park Guell's famous lizard

Benches in the Park Guell

The Barcelona style of broken tile mosaic, usually identified with Antoni Gaudi remains popular to this day. In our next post we'll profile some contemporary examples of this popular technique.
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George Woideck

Thirty-Seventh Post: The Teacher Resource Center at the Cleveland Museum of Art Returns with "Meet The Mesopotamians"

2011-09-18T14:12:00.001-04:00

Hi all,

The long lamented Teacher Resource Center of the Cleveland Museum of Art is back in action with new programs for educators. The Center is now directed by Dale Hilton, known for her work in developing distance learning programs for the Museum. The next program is "Meet the Mesopotamians", an opportunity to experience the ancient Middle Eastern story of Gilgamesh with scholar Dr. Jay Lemanski while experiencing cuneiform writing in soft clay (classroom examples to be taken home by participants) with Dr. Lemanski and ceramic artist George Woideck. Below is the official press release for the program.

Free Events for Teachers: Meet the Mesopotamians. Two Wednesdays, October 5 and 12, 4:30—6:40 PM

To kick off the Teacher Resource Center’s collaboration with Tri-C’s Gilgamesh project—a 2 year long exploration and reinterpretation of the Gilgamesh Epic, we are offering a 2 part series. The first evening lecture and gallery tour by Dr. Jay Lemanski will provide an historical and cultural background of the Gilgamesh story through the history of the Sumerians and beyond. The second evening will explore the origins of cuneiform, one of the earliest forms of writing, and how it has impacted our own written culture. Participants will have the opportunity to practice cuneiform writing in soft clay as well as make permanent cuneiform tablets with Dr. Lemanski working with ceramic artist George Woideck. Please register by September 28 by emailing trc@clevelandart.org or calling 216-707-6880. Limited to 25 participants.

I'm looking forward to this exciting event as well as future programs of the Teacher Resource Center at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

George Woideck

George Woideck is an artist-in-residence in the schools that specializes in clay, tile, mosaic and professional development. See his work at tileandclayart.com. Contact him at 216 225 0368. Email him at gwoideck@tileandclayart.com.

Thirty-Sixth Post: The Alhambra, Geometry and M.C. Escher

2011-04-09T14:04:00.001-04:00

It sounds a bit like a joke at an art convention: What do the Alhambra, Geometry and M.C. Escher have in common? Plenty it turns out. There's a direct line between the three beginning with the fact that Islamic mosaic makers, in the Middle Ages were using a complex form of Geometry in their installations. And it was a form of Geometry that Western Mathematics didn't understand until centuries later. This is all documented in the article "Tiles of Infinity" by Sebastian J. Prange in the September/October 2009 issue of Saudi Aramco World.

The mathematics of the tessellations used in these mosaics are clearly described in the article but the photos make the point just as forcefully for visually oriented folks. (Saudi Aramco World is a beautiful and informative magazine about Islamic history, art and culture that is published six times a year. You can read it on the web or subscribe by mail for free--a real bargain).

The Mosaics described in Pranges's article are from central Asia but the Alhambra Palace in Andalusian Spain contains many similar mosaics.

Southern Spain is rich in this type of mosaic as well as Moorish influenced architecture. That region of Spain during the middle ages, with its culture of tolerance between Chrsitians, Jews and Muslims, is documented in the fascinating book "The Ornament of the World" by Maria Rosa Menocal. Thanks to Pieter Schaafsma from the American Society of Landscape Architects group on Linkedin for bringing this book to our attention.

So we've touched on the Alhambra and Geometry, but where does M.C. Escher come in? Of course he's famous for several kinds of graphic art. The first is his fanciful, architectural influenced prints that create a surreal world of arches, columns, staircases and towers that trick the visual senses.

The second type of work focuses on tessellations. And this is the work that was influenced by a visit that Escher and his wife made to the Alhambra in October 1922. But instead of the geometric shapes he found there, his revolutionary contribution to art was to use recognizable, often humorous shapes in his tessellations.

This style was parodied in a cover commentary in the New Yorker Magazine on the recent, tragic Gulf oil spill.

In some of his most wonderful later work, Escher combined the surreal with tessellations.

There's an excellent opportunity is see more of this work in a current exhibition at the Akron Art Museum titled "M.C. Escher: Impossible Realities". It runs through May 29, 2011 and contains the complete range Escher's graphic work. Looking at the prints in the exhibit, one is struck by his use of contrast and the depth of black that he attains. It's really quite thrilling see the real work instead of reproductions, web images and posters. The exhibit also contains several of the woodblocks that the prints were pulled from. And for more on the pivotal part Geometry plays in his work, look closely at the tessellations contained in his sketchbooks: under the pen and ink and watercolor you can see the lightly penciled tessellated grids of hexagons, diamonds or triangles that underlie each design.

George Woideck

George Woideck is an artist-in-residence in the schools that specializes in clay, tile, mosaic and professional development. See his work at tileandclayart.com. Contact him at 216 225 0368. Email him at gwoideck@tileandclayart.com.

Thirty-Fifth Post: Mosaics of the Islamic World

2011-03-14T09:40:00.000-04:00

The Islamic world, primarily of Asia and North Africa, took a radically different approach to mosaics than Europe did. Instead of using tesserae (the small, usually square tiles made from clay, stone of glass) to create a larger recognizable picture, Islamic artists used them to create complex patterns instead. Usually these mosaics formed tessellations--repeating geometric designs of polygons that have no overlaps of gaps. Contemporary mathematicians have marveled at the complex geometric patterns used in these mosaics. Usually, but not always, images of living creatures were not used for religious reasons. In Europe the place to see this type of tessellated mosaic is the Alhambra in the city of Granada in Andalusia in Southern Spain. During the middle ages Andalusia was ruled by Moorish Emirs. The mosaics in the Alhambra were heavily influenced by works being produced just across the Straits of Gibraltar in Morocco. Similar work was produced in the rest of North Africa and throughout Turkey and the Middle East.

Detail

If we travel across the Islamic world from West to East we arrive in the City of Samarkand in the Bukharan region of Uzbekistan in Central Asia. Although this area is thousands of miles from Morocco and the Andalusian region of Spain a similar geometric approach is often used.

Many of the patterns and designs used in these mosaics remind us of the Oriental rugs and the felted wall hangings produced in the the same region.

In the next post we'll look at the fascinating relationship between the Alhambra, Geometry and the work of graphic artist M.C. Escher.

George Woideck

George Woideck is a ceramic artist specializing in tile and mosaic. He works in the schools as an artist-in-residence and offers professional development workshops to teachers. To view his work visit tileandclayart.com. Contact George at 216 225 0368.

Thirty-fourth Post: The Christian Era in Mosaics

2011-03-01T20:04:00.000-05:00

Rome and Byzantium

Big changes occurred in the Roman Empire when Christianity was declared the official religion of the empire during the fourth century reign of Constantine and Helen. With mosaics, however, the subject matter changed but the techniques remained the same. At about this time the empire was divided with Rome being capital of the western part and Constantinople (named after you-know-who) the capital of the east. The Eastern (Byzantine) empire continued to thrive while the West declined because of invasions of barbarians and other factors.
The greatest of the Byzantine mosaics were created in the Italian city of Ravenna which was part of the eastern empire during the reign of Emperor Justinian and his wife, the notorious Empress Theodora. Many of these mosaics depict the court of Justinian and Theodora.

Justinian

Theodora

The Royal Court

The prominent use of gold is similar to icons produced for Eastern Orthodox Churches.

Unfortunately with the encroaching dark ages. mosaics began a long decline along with society in general. Attila the Hun and other invaders had a pronounced negative effect on art, crafts, and architecture as well as science and math. When the Renaissance finally arrived mosaics took a back seat to oil painting and frescoes. It wasn't until the the Art Nouveau period in the early 20th Century do we see a resurgence of mosaics as a vital form of architectural decoration in the west. Our next post will cover mosaics in the Islamic world.

George Woideck

George Woideck is a teaching artist specializing in tile. mosaic, clay and professional development. See his work in the schools at tileandclayart.com.

Thirty-Third Post: More Online Resources for Art Teachers

2011-01-03T10:45:00.002-05:00

Hi all,

I hope you've had a good holiday season. It's back to work for all of us both in the classroom and in the studio. When conceiving of this blog I thought that there was a need to to share information about ceramic art--clay, glazes, kilns, tile, mosaic, classroom safety--with art teachers. During the time I've been writing this blog I've come across some online resources that seem to be designed for art educators. Some, like the Met Museum's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, I've covered in previous posts. Lately I've come across several others I'd like to share.

The first is Saudi Aramco World. It's both an online resource and a free, high quality magazine of Islamic art, culture and history. The web version has a searchable database as well as an image library filled with downloadable pictures of mosaics, tile, architecture, sculpture and painting. You'll love the six-times-a-year magazine that's printed on quality paper and is loaded with articles and color illustrations. The November/December issue came with a removable calendar featuring gorgeous pictures of Arabian horses! Neither the website nor the magazine has a political or religious message but are focused on communication and information. An excellent resource.

A bit more difficult to navigate is Cultural China, a website with fabulous images of art from China. I found it when searching Google Images for pictures of patterns in pottery. In this age of SmartBoards and digital projectors in the classroom this site is worth a bit of frustration in using.

One more resource worth mentioning is the web page devoted to the new exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art focused on how Norman Rockwell used photography in many of his seminal illustrations. A good example of the studio process in action. Find it here and enjoy.

I hope you'll find all of these helpful. Please let me know of other online resource that you'd like me to share with other art educators. And please remember that if you have any questions about clay, glazes, kilns, tile, mosaic or artist-in-residences you can email them to me through this blog.

Visit my artist-in-the-schools website at tileandclayart.com.

Best wishes for a creative and fulfilling 2011.

George Woideck

Thirty-Second Post: A History of Mosaic and Tile, Part One

2010-12-09T11:20:00.002-05:00

Mosaics: The Beginning of Architectural Ceramics, Part One

An Introduction to Architectural Ceramics: Ancient Mosaics

Dolphins from Greece

The field of Architectural Ceramics has played a dynamic role in the decoration of architecture from ancient civilizations to modern times. This field includes tile, mosaic and sculpture that is made from clay or glass. The history of Architectural Ceramics is fascinating, beginning in ancient Greece during pre-classical times (c. 800bce). Although ancient mosaics are often associated with the Roman Empire, the Greeks created the art form. Interestingly, the earliest Greek mosaics were not ceramic at all but were constructed from small square chips of stone. The Romans later called these chips “tesserae” which is where our word tessellation comes from.

Detail showing tesserae

The early mosaic artists must have felt the restrictions of the limited color palette offered by stone because they soon began using ceramic materials and glass in addition. The Romans loved all things Greek and created mosaics throughout their empire, from England in the West to North Africa in the South and to Turkey and Israel in the East. It's a thrill to view many of these mosaics still in place in their original locations. Others can be viewed in museum collections.


The Tree of Life	from the floor of a synagogue in Hamam Lif in Tunisia

Ancient mosaics have survived because the materials they're created from are so durable. In every case ancient mosaics were for floor decoration only--apparently it didn't occur to the Greeks and Romans that mosaics could be mounted on walls. For walls they used the fresco technique which involves painting on still moist plaster. Many frescoes from those times have also survived to this day including some from the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete dating from as early as1500bce.

Frescoes from Minoan Crete

The themes of ancient mosaics include gods and heroes doing what gods and heroes did, food, blood sports, animals, floral motifs,war and daily life. One of my favorite mosaics is from the ancient city of Pompeii that shows a Roman soothsayer telling the fortune of two surprised, somewhat overstuffed and richly dressed women. One doubts that the fortune teller is predicting the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius that destroyed the city in 79ce, but maybe she did. This mosaic and many others like it from Pompeii were buried for centuries in volcanic ash from Mt. Vesuvius, which although it killed tens of thousand of people, preserved the art for us to appreciate and learn from today.

Fortune teller from Pompeii

Medusa from Pompeii

Alexander the Great

George Woideck

George Woideck is a ceramic artist that specializes in tile and mosaic. View his work as an artist-in-residence and professional development workshop presenter at tileandclayart.com.

Thirty-First Post: Mixing Art and Science

2010-11-10T15:33:00.004-05:00

Hi all,

In this post I'm sharing an exciting and innovative mural project I just finished with the students at St. Joan of Arc School in Chagrin Falls Ohio. Working with Art teacher Bonnie Tanko and Principal Shelley DiBacco our goal was to create two tile murals: One in the stairwell leading to the Art room and the second in the stairwell leading to the Science room. During the design process with the students we searched for the relationship between Science and Art. We were delighted to discover how much is shared by these two subjects. We chose two very thought provoking titles for the murals. Outside of the art room the mural is titled "The Science of Art" and outside the Science room the mural is titled "The Art of Science". Take a look at the pictures below to see the finished projects. See more of my work with students and teachers at tileandclayart.com.

George Woideck

"The Science of Art"

"The Art of Science"

George Woideck answers questions about clay, glazes, kilns, classroom safety and more for art educators. Contact George through this blog, by emailing to gwoideck@tileandclayart.com or by calling 216 225 0368.

Thirtieth Post:: Fire & Smoke

2010-09-26T16:06:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

From now until October 28 there is an exciting exhibit, titled Fire and Smoke, of Raku, pit fired and alternative fired clay work at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland Ohio in Lake County. Ceramic work, including functional and non-functional pottery, sculpture and tile created by 21 artists is featured. The theme that unites this exhibit is the non traditional methods of firing used to create the pieces. I was pleased to be included in the roster of artists included in this exhibit. Particularly moving to view are the four large ceramic sculptures created by Sister Diane Pinchot, OSU, commemorating the three Catholic nuns and one church worker who were murdered in El Salvador in 1980. The gallery is open Monday through Friday 9am to 9pm and Saturday and Sunday from 9am to 5pm. (The exhibit will be closed Tuesday September 28). Below is pictured one of my porcelain Raku wall pieces from the show.

Best wishes,

George Woideck

View my work as an artist in the schools at tileandclayart.com

To subscribe to email update notifications of this blog click gwoideck@tileandclayart.com

Twenty.-Ninth Post: Online Resources for Art Teachers

2010-09-05T21:05:00.009-04:00

Hi all,

One of the benefits of art teachers' tech savvy is the availability of online resources. I've seen an art instructor in need of a quick fill-in project go online and have a worksheet printed and in the students' hands in several minutes. As a working artist there are several free websites that I particularly enjoy. The first is ceramicartsdaily.org.

It's produced by the Potters Council, the people who publish Ceramics Monthly Magazine and Pottery Making Illustrated. They also produce workshops on ceramic techniques at locations throughout the country. I had the opportunity to be a keynote speaker at the national architectural ceramics conference they hosted several years ago and was impressed by the organization. To access their database you'll need to register online. If you're serious about clay, joining the organization gives you the option of attending the workshops they sponsor.

The Northern Ohio area has an additional resource in the blog Northern Ohio Clay at http://northernohioclayguild.blogspot.com/. It contains mostly news about opportunities, workshops and exhibits.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art offers several outstanding resources. The first is the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History at http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/. It's searchable and interactive with thousands of images of art taken from the Met's world famous collection of art. Teamed with a digital projector or a SmartBoard it makes an outstanding tool for teaching art history.

The second resource from the Met's website has a more personal quality for me. In mid December of last year my wife Gail and I were visiting the Metropolitan and after seeing several outstanding exhibits, including the Samurai Armour show, we wandered into American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915. It was an absolute delight. Plus it was a joy to discover that the exhibit is documented in engaging web pages at http://www.metmuseum.org/special/americanstories/. The photos of the paintings are first rate and they can be enlarged and printed. If you love American painting you'll enjoy this resource. Be sure to read the ninth post of this blog for tips on visiting the Met and several other New York museums.

Best wishes to my friends in Art Education.

George Woideck

View my work as an artist in the schools at tileandclayart.com

To subscribe to email update notifications of this blog click gwoideck@tileandclayart.com

Twebty-Eigth Post: Raku Pottery in the Schools, Continued

2010-05-27T20:18:00.003-04:00

Hi all,

In May of 2010 I completed two Raku pottery residencies. At the first, I worked with Roxboro Elementary School (Cleveland Heights Ohio) art teacher Sheri Friend and her fourth and fifth grade students. Later in the month I traveled to Wapakoneta Ohio and worked with middle school art teacher Tracey Otto and her seventh graders. At both schools we had a very exciting and fulfilling Raku experience. As I explained in an earlier post, Raku pottery is like no other style with lots of fire, smoke and steam during the firing process and glazes that are unique in ceramic art. The art teachers now have the experience, kilns and glazes to duplicate the entire program and make it part of their curriculum. Take a look at the following photos from both schools as well as an article from the Lima News.

Best wishes,

George

View my work as an artist in the schools at tileandclayart.com

To subscribe to email update notifications of this blog click gwoideck@tileandclayart.com

Twenty-Seventh Post: Langston Phoenix Murals Unveiled

2010-04-17T11:33:00.003-04:00

Hi all,

On Friday April 16 we unveiled the two "Rise Like a Phoenix" mural at Oberlin Ohio's Langston Middle School. The unveiling took place at the school's annual arts festival. As mentioned in the last post, this project grew from one mural to two during the process. Each was situated on a landing located at the opposite end of the main school corridor from it's companion piece. Below are a photo of each of the murals.

George Woideck

View my work as an artist in the schools at tileandclayart.com

To subscribe to email update notifications of this blog click gwoideck@tileandclayart.com

Twenty-Sixth Post: The Oberlin Phoenix Tile Mural

2010-04-10T12:35:00.009-04:00

Hi all,

The Oberlin Ohio public schools faced a situation happening throughout the country. They had a school mascot that was much less than politically correct. Their sports teams were know as the Oberlin Indians. The town of Oberlin as well as the college there are known for liberal leaning politics. After much discussion, recently the mascot was renamed the Phoenix. As you know in mythology, the phoenix was credited for being able to rise from its own ashes and begin anew a cycle of growth, maturity and then a spectacular immolation, the ashes descending to the earth. Found in the ashes was a phoenix egg and the cycle began again.

The art teacher at Langston Middle School in Oberlin, Tiffany Georgiatis, ask me to work with her seventh grade students to create a tile mural celebrating their new mascot. The space, on a staircase landing was unusual, with a fan shape window in the center of the wall. I've often found that a uniquely shaped space produces a uniquely conceived project design. Halfway through the process of creating the mural with Mrs. Georgiatis' students, we received the exciting news that money was available to complete a second mural on a similar theme on the opposite wall, separated from the first by a long second floor hall. The second tile mural was designed and glazed by a fresh group of seventh grade art students from second semester. The two projects will be collectively titled "Rise Like a Phoenix" and will be unveiled at the annual Langston Middle School arts festival on Friday May 16 at 6pm.
Below is a picture of the original undecorated wall of the first mural followed by a photograph of the installation of that project.

George Woideck

View my work as an artist in the schools at tileandclayart.com

To subscribe to email update notifications of this blog click gwoideck@tileandclayart.com

Twenty-Fifth Post: Raku Pottery in the Schools

2010-01-24T14:29:00.010-05:00

Hi all,

Ceramic art has a built in mystique. Perhaps it's the mysterious miracle that occurs from when we close the lid of the kiln and turn it on to when we open it the next day and discover the treasures within. Perhaps it's the perceived danger inherent in kilns with their intense heat. Whatever it is, Raku pottery has a mystique that goes way beyond other types of ceramic art. The glaze effects, from eye-popping metallics, pearlescents and spiderweb crackles, that are impossible to obtain in other types of pottery and tile, contribute the the mystique. So does the firing process which seems to violate every principle of normal kiln procedure.
On reflection, though, the Raku pottery process teaches more about kiln firing that it obscures. One of the most illuminating parts of the process is the ability to actually watch the glazes melt and transform themselves from a matte finish to the shiny, glassy surface that so delights us. Once the melting is completed the pottery is removed from the kiln with long handled tongs and subjected to a treatment involving smoke and water that enhances the glazes and changes their finish, color and texture.
I've had the satisfaction of offering both Raku school residencies as well as Raku professional development programs. In both cases, the participants experience the complete Raku process including making the pottery, formulating the glazes from scratch, constructing a portable fiber kiln and firing the glazed pieces. This Spring I'll be offering the Raku professional development workshop to the art teachers of the North Ridgeville School District. Also, Roxboro Elementary School in Cleveland Heights Ohio will have me present Raku pottery workshops to its fourth and fifth grade students. Please check back later for further updates.

Best wishes,

George

View my work as an artist in the schools at tileandclayart.com

Twenty-Fourth Post: Heritage Middle School Broken Tile Mosaic, Part 2

2009-10-04T19:16:00.007-04:00

Hi all,

In the last post we looked at the finished product of a year-long process of creating a circular, broken tile mosaic in front of Heritage Middle School in Painesville Ohio. I thought you might enjoy seeing photos of the students who created and installed the project.

Two Eighth graders from this year's class that worked very hard to make the mosaic installation a success were Sigi and Ron who are pictured above

George
View my work as an artist in the schools at tileandclayart.com

Twenty-Third Post: New Outdoor Broken Tile Mosaic

2009-09-24T09:39:00.006-04:00

Hi all,

This is a brief post documenting the installation of the new broken tile mosaic bench at Heritage Middle School in Painesville Ohio created by the students under my direction and through the coordination of Young Audiences of Northeast Ohio. The bench is a celebration of the school's student population--approximately one-third Hispanic, one-third African-American and one-third of European descent. Heritage Middle was opened in the Fall of 2008 and the school wanted a colorful and meaningful tile bench at the main entrance. The mosaic work was completed by the eighth graders in the Spring of 2009 and was installed in September of that year. Represented in the design are 11 world countries and one US territory as well as the portraits of eight students. The cardinal directions are marked with parts of the Navajo sun symbol.

The broken tile mosaic technique was developed in Barcelona Spain around the year 1900 by architect Antonio Gaudi. The pictures in this post show tile setter Ernie Lodsdon and two Heritage students adhering the mosaic to the circular bench. One week later the piece will be grouted and ready for use.

George

Twenty-Second Post: Cleveland Museum of Art's New East Wing, Part One

2009-07-28T19:57:00.008-04:00

Hi all,

For the past month the talk in the Cleveland art world has focused on the opening of the Cleveland Museum of Art's new East Wing and the sudden resignation of Timothy Rub, the Museum's director for just three years. I would enjoy comments from readers on either subject.

My history with the CMA goes back to second grade when I attended Saturday classes there. In high school, my Saturday art classes were across the street at the Institute of Art, with trips to the Art Museum after lunch. My high school art club traveled to the Museum's May Show each Spring (after dinner downtown at the New york Spaghetti House.) After college at Baldwin-Wallace and Kent State and art school in New York, I returning to Cleveland to paint. The Museum was again a place to visit often. Finally, after a hiatus of recording and touring with a rock band, my re-involvement the the visual arts was through a teaching position in the Museum's Education Department. My association with that department continued until just several years ago.

This personal history of my relationship with the Cleveland Museum of Art is by way of introducing a discussion of its new East Wing. This new space is part of a long expansion process the Museum is undertaking. Last Summer the Museum re-opened the main floor of the its 1916 building which I covered in an earlier post to this blog. Much work is left to be done on this expansion process including the construction of a new West Wing, a new covered atrium replacing the outdoor garden court, the re-opening of Gartner Auditorium, the renovation of the lower level of the 1916 building and the re-installation of the bulk of the Museum's long stored collections.

My first visit to the Museum's new East Wing was late on a Wednesday afternoon in July. My wife Gail and I wanted to tour the new wing and have an early dinner before viewing a film showing there. As typical of the CMA, the galleries were beautifully finished and the art beautifully displayed. Natural light penetrated deep into the interior spaces of the new wing. The art includes European and American work from the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Photography now has its own galleries and is no longer diplayed in dimly lit corridors. Artists of the Cleveland School even have their own small gallery. There is one striking anomoly: A single, long, narrow gallery hung with art that should be viewed at a distance which is impossible in this space.

(This is the first of several blogs on the Cleveland Museum of Art. Please stop back for future installments.)

George Woideck

Twenty-First Post: A Busy Residency Season

2009-06-11T20:26:00.008-04:00

Hi all,

It's amazing to think how busy this school year has been and to see that my last post was all of six months ago. That last post dealt with three tile and mosaic projects at schools that were to be completed this Spring. Each was planned to be unique and expected to be challenging. I can report that each was successful but at this writing only two of the projects have been installed. The third, a broken tile mosaic is completed but not installed. Prep work on the concrete surface upon which the mosaic was to be adhered was not completed in time before the end of the school year. This was a major disappointment for all involved, including the students. Plans are underway for the project be installed either during the Summer or at the beginning of the 2009-10 school year in late August or early September.

The two projects that were completed include the tile mural in the cafeteria at Wiley Middle School in Cleveland Heights Ohio and a mammoth glass tile foyer at Nobel Elementary School, also in Cleveland Heights. Two very different approaches and two very successful projects.

Let's take a look at the Noble School project titled "Blossoming with Learning". Recently for security concerns the main entrance to Noble Elementary was move to a door adjacent to the office. Principal Julie Beers and Art Teacher Nancy Eisenberg wanted to create a colorful, welcoming entrance that would subtly direct visitors to the school office. Glass tile tesserae was chosen because of its ability to reflect and refract light. As with other mural projects, students were part of each step of its design and creation. The problem with properly documenting the finished mosaic is that it's installed on four adjacent walls covering about 300 square feet and using about 40,000 glass mosaic pieces. Pictured is the portal through which visitors must pass before checking in at the office. Also shown is a picture of students hand placing the tesserae in the art room during the construction phase. We'll have more pictures and news in future blog posts. Best wishes to my teaching friends for a relaxing as well as stimulating Summer.

George

Twentieth Post: Anatomy of a Residency, Part Five

2008-12-09T19:14:00.005-05:00

Hi all,

As the last installment in this series I thought I'd mention some of my upcoming residencies. I'm currently scheduled to do three projects at schools involving tile and mosaic. The amazing thing is that although they share the same ceramic medium, the similarity stops there. At Wiley Middle School in Cleveland Heights, Ohio we will be creating a tile mural for their lunchroom that will combine tile with extruded clay. Art teacher Heather Vokic wanted a work of art that would serve to display students' work so we will be making frames from extruded clay molding that will be incorporated in to a tile mural. The frames will allow for the display of ever changing two dimensional art. Next week I'll be meeting with the students to begin the design phase of the project.

At Heritage Middle School in Painesville Ohio, the residency will focus on an outdoor installation using broken tile mosaic, a la Antonio Gaudi of Barcelona Spain. Heritage is a brand new school and the project will celebrate the family backgrounds of the students. The student body is divided evenly between Chicano, Anglo and African- American, hence the school's name. We'll be incorporating faces, flags and geographical detail into the design.

Noble Elementary School in Cleveland Heights Ohio alreading has a mural titled "Reading is a Treasure to be Discovered" that the students and I created several years ago. As is the case of many schools, Noble has recently moved its main entrance to a new, more secure location. The new entrance lacks a wecoming feeling so we're discussing a glass tile mosaic installtion in the foyer that would add color and warmth to the area.

For me, the delightful part of the upcoming projects is their variety and design and technical challeges. These challenges keep my job interesting and allow me to use all my experience as a full time ceramic artist.

You can view past projects and keep up with new developments at my website tileandclayart.com.

Best wishes,

George

Nineteenth Post:: Anatomy of a Residency, Part Four

2008-11-21T09:38:00.005-05:00

Hi all,

The mural at Westerly School was dedicated with a splash. The unveiling or dedication of a major installation is an important event. It gives focus to the achievements of the students, teacher(s) and artist. It's also an ideal media event although my preference has always been to document the students at work instead of the finished product.

As I mentioned earlier, we were a bit under the gun with the Westerly project. Our goal was to have the piece installed a month before our first freezing weather. That is so the cement product we use for adhering the tiles to the exterior wall has time to dry and cure. In Northern Ohio the date of the first frost is difficult to predict. As I'm writing this, I'm watching snow flurries blow past my window. Brrrr.

The dedication and unveiling was an exciting event with all the students in attendance. After the paper covering was removed there was applause and cheers followed by students passing by the mural and pointing towards or touching the part they decorated. Thanks to art teacher Debra Sanson, Principal Sylvia Cooper and the students, staff and parents of Westerly Elementary School for making this a memorable success.

George Woideck

Eighteenth Post: Anatomy of a Residency, Part Three

2008-11-11T17:20:00.007-05:00

Hi all,

Last week was the annual convention of the Ohio Art Education Association (OAEA) in Toledo Ohio. I had the opportunity to give two workshops on the subject of finding and using an artist-in-the-schools. I want to thank the art teachers who attended the workshops and say another hello to my friends in the art education community. Art teachers know how to give a great conference as well as have a great time.

One of the benefits of visiting Toledo is their Museum of Art. I remember seeing several years ago a full page color ad from the Frick Collection in the New York Times for a new exhibit. The headline read "Masterpieces of European Painting from the Toledo Museum of Art." I had to chuckle that the New York art world had finally caught up with what we Ohioans had known for years: Toledo has a great museum of art. It's a comprehensive museum with wide ranging collections representing many styles, eras, mediums and regions. In addition to the collection and special exhibitions the museum features the separate Glass Pavilion that has has a marvelous collection of glass art from ancient to contemporary.

Moving away from the convention, I wanted to add another installment of the series "Anatomy of a Residency." In our last post we discussed decorating the tiles for the ceramic tile mural at Westerly School in Bay Village Ohio. At Westerly we were up against a tight time schedule. The mural was to be installed outdoors against an exterior wall underneath a canopy. Outdoor installation are very tricky and our goal was to have the work completed and in place as early in October as possible. Art teacher Debra Sanson and I got the tiles in and out of the kiln in record speed firing both at the school and at my studio. A dedicated team of volunteers assisted myself and tile setter Ernie Logsdon in the installation. Pictured are several images of the installation.

George

Seventeenth Post: Anatomy of a Residency, Part Two

2008-10-25T18:55:00.006-04:00

Hi,

In my last post entry I began documenting the process used in creating the new time mural "The Nature of Learning" at Westerly School in Bay Village Ohio. Before continuing I wanted to mention that a tile mural is only one of a many artist-in-residence possibilities. My residencies have included Raku pottery creation and firing, mosaic murals, an exploration of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, the pottery techniques of Ohio Native Americans and early settlers, Majolica pottery, Symmetry in Art, Math and History using mosaics, Tessellations in Art and Math and many more. The goal of all of these residencies is to engage the students in a creative process with multiple steps, new learning and a culminating project.

We left off the last post, "Anatomy of a Residency" with a description of the design process. After the design was approved it was time to decorate the tiles. For most mural projects I prefer using the Majolica technique because of its large palette of color. I'm not talking about the "Majolica" glazes you find in ceramic and art supply catalogs but real Majolica that was developed in the Eastern Mediterranean before the Renaissance. It's sometimes called mailolica, faience or delft but is essentially the same process. This gives Majolica a nice art history component. It's also kid friendly because its a "what you see is what you get" process. As opposed to bottle glazes, the colors do not significantly change from decoration to unloading from the kiln. Less confusion that way.

Pictured are three Westerly students decorating a block of tiles.

More about this mural residency in future posts.

I hope to see many of my Ohio art teaching friends at the upcoming 2008 OAEA conference in Toledo Ohio in November. I'll be presenting a workshop titled "Artist-in-Residences: Who They Are; What They Do; and How to Find One" on Thursday November 6 at 3pm and Friday November 7 at 4pm. Please stop by and say hi.

George

Sixteenth Post: Anatomy of a Residency, Part One

2008-10-12T19:57:00.008-04:00

Hi,

In early September I began an artist-in-residence at Westerly Elementary School in Bay Village Ohio. Our goal was to create a ceramic tile mural for the outside entrance of the school. This blog entry will begin to document the process used to create the mural.

I was invited to Westerly by principal Sylvia Cooper and Art teacher Debbie Sanson. The school is famous for its award winning courtyard habitat that is loaded with a variety of plants and animals. In the center of the habitat is a pond with a waterfall. In the Spring of each year, a mating pair of ducks flies in to build a nest, lay eggs and hatch ducklings. Most evident is how much affection the students and staff have for the habitat. For the mural, the school selected the theme "The Nature of Learning" which was to illustrate the diverse wildlife living in the courtyard habitat and near the school. Bay village is a western suburb of Cleveland, located on the shores of Lake Erie. Located in the city is a metropark that includes a beach where I used to swim as a teenager. Fortunately for subsequent generations, Lake Erie is much cleaner than it was back then. Between the lake, the habitat and people's backyards we had a diverse list of animals to choose from for our design. In fact, too many as it worked out and we had to be selective. The creatures included mammals, marsupials, insects, arachnids, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles.

My goal when working at a school to create a mural or mosaic is to have the students claim ownership of the project. I look at myself as a facilitator as much as an artist in these situations. Therefor I include the students in every step of the project. They may not fire the kiln or install the mural but their input, creativity and effort is evident in the finished piece. If that were not so then it would be my mural and not theirs.

Shown above are two Westerly students consulting a scale drawing of the mural design..

We'll continue our narrative on creating the tile mural "The Nature of Learning" at Westerly School in further blog entries.

George Woideck

Fifteenth Post: Professional Development

2008-10-04T19:25:00.006-04:00

Hi,

About six weeks ago I received and email from the elementary curriculum director for a suburban Ohio school district. She was inviting me back for the third year to do a professional development workshop for her elementary art teachers. I was delighted with the invitation. The art teachers are great in that district and the multiple visits have allowed me to lead them in an in-depth exploration of ceramics in the classroom. During my first visit the music teachers were also included and I presented my workshop "Sounds of the Earth", which involves making playable musical instruments from clay. During lunch that day the teachers expressed their pleasure that the workshop was actually related to their teaching fields. Previous workshops they had taken had dealt with subjects such as academic standards, achievement testing and their new on-line system for posting grades. At last, something they could use in their art and music rooms! Last year it was just the art teachers and we did an adaptation of my workshop "Deepening the Understanding of Symmetry with Mosaics". Its focus is art, math and science. So you can understand my enthusiasm when i received the third invitation to offer a workshop. This year we're planning an exploration of the techniques used in creating pottery and tile in the Mediterranean ceramic style of Majolica. With its colorful decorative style, Majolica is ideal for the classroom. It's also very user friendly with colors that change little during firing. What you see while decorating is pretty much what you get when the pieces come out of the kiln, just shinier. We'll mix glazes from scratch and design and decorate a panel of tiles covered with a repeating motif. The pieces will be fired there and the teachers will have their finished work within a week. My goal is to leave the teachers with a complete program, with examples, that they can offer their students. To learn more about professional development programs including custom designed ones, visit my website at tileandclayart.com. You can contact me at 216 225 0368 to discuss possibilities.

Pictured at right is a teacher participating n my workshop "Deepening the Understanding of Symmetry with Mosaics" presented at the Muse Machine Dayton in the Summer of 2007.

Next post : "Anatomy of a Residency", documenting a recent tile mural created with the students at Westerly School in Bay Village Ohio.

George Woideck

Fourteenth Post: Secrets and Lies of Kilns and Firing, Part Three

2008-09-15T10:33:00.010-04:00

Hi,

I'm sitting at a coffee shop, using their wi-fi since we have no power at my home and studio. The remnants of Hurricane Ike blew through Northeastern Ohio last night and the electric company has no idea when power will be restored. Downed trees litter the street in front of my home. I was to be starting a clay tile mural today at Westerly School in Bay Village, Ohio this morning. The theme of the mural is "The Nature of Reading" and the design features the multitude of plants and animals in the school's award winning habitat. We'll start tomorrow if the power is back. This inconvenience is nothing like what's being experienced by people in Texas, however.

In this addition to my posts on the subject of kilns I thought I'd share some suggestions to make your firing go smoother. As you may know, I've been working in ceramics for thirty years now and these are some principles I've used over that time.

1. Fire bisque kilns slow and glaze kilns fast. As we discussed in the last post, clay work fired for the first time goes through several chemical changes. Work fired for the second time has already gone through those transitions so when firing them set your kiln for fast firing. It'll take less time and may use less power.
2. Unglazed pieces can be touching each other in the bisque kiln. They can be even stacked on top of each other within limits. Use common sense here. Leave about 1/2 inch between each glazed piece.
3. Unglazed pieces do not have to be stilted during a firing. If your students sponge the bottoms and lower edges of their work after applying glazes you do not need to stilt them either. If you're confident that the glazes were applied evenly and the work is clean on the bottom and your kiln fires consistently, you can forget about stilts altogether. To be on the safe side, when you try this the first time, be sure that your kiln shelves are well protected with kiln wash.
4. Use only three posts for each full of half shelf when stacking your kiln. This keeps the shelves from rocking, warping and cracking. I've been told by a kiln technician that full kiln shelves are not warranted for cracking if four posts are used.
5. Kiln wash only one side of each shelf. Fire them plain side up for bisque and kiln washed side up for glaze firings. This also minimizes warping over time.
6. Be very careful of your back when stacking a top loading electric kiln. I've often seen a concrete block on the floor to be used as a step in front of a kiln to make loading easier. Potters often have lower back problems from leaning over their potter's wheels and their kilns. A potter friend who was just five feet tall used to get dizzy when leaning over while loading the bottom of part of her kiln. I think the top lip of the kiln used to cut off her circulation and she nearly fainted a number of times!

Got any questions regarding kilns and glazes? Please email me and share your thoughts.

(Below: Maya beaker from about year 800ce)

George

Thirteenth Post: Secrets and Lies of Kilns and Firing, Part Two

2008-09-07T20:05:00.004-04:00

Hi,

Several weeks ago, in the Eleventh Post we discussed the fact that if clay is not completely dry, it will explode during a kiln firing, destroying itself and all the pottery and sculpture around it. In that post I suggested several tactics to use to insure ceramic work is bone dry before it reaches the boiling point of water in the kiln,100 degrees C (212 Degrees F). We're talking about the first or bisque firing. (We'll discuss glaze firing in a future post.) Once the kiln is closed and firing has begun, all sorts of fascinating things happen to the clay. At 350 degrees C (662 degrees F) a second type of water that has been chemically attached to the clay is driven off. It's the point of no return: The material can no longer reconsituted and be turned back to clay by adding water. The next important stage comes at about 570 degrees C (1060 degrees F) during what is called the quartz inversion when the quartz crystals in clay rearrange themselves. What happens to the crystals is a bit technical but it is important to the strength and structure of clay. It's considered important to raise the temperature slowly during these changes in the clay. Bisque firing is not to be rushed for all the reasons discussed so far. One last phase occurs during the firing when organic and inorganic substances like carbon sulfur are burned from the body. These chemicals contribute to the distinctive and possibly toxic odors we smell during a kiln firing. For the health of us and our students it's important to properly vent the kiln!

Once the kiln has reached the appropriate temperature for bisque firing (cone 06 is about right for most clay bodies) the kiln shuts itself off, or is manually turned off, and is allowed to cool slowly. I remember once when one of the guards at the Cleveland Museum of Art opened the Education Department kiln out of curiosity when it was just reaching peak firing temperature. It was very fortunate that the guard was not injured by the shattering pottery. I hated to apologize to my students for the fact that their ceramic work on the top several kiln shelves was destroyed by the inrush of cold air. It's best to let the kiln to cool overnight before just "cracking" the door or lid. Then let it cool down to the point that the pieces can be unloaded bare handed.

We've been talking about the mysterious processes that occur in the kiln during bisque firing. More about glaze firing in a future post.

I'm pleased to announce that I will be offering two workshops at the upcoming Ohio Art Education Association conference in Toledo Ohio November 6 and 7, 2008. The title of the workshops is "Artists-in-the-Schools: Who They Are, What They Do, How to Find One" and will cover theme of artist-in-residences in the schools and how to best use them. I hope to see my Ohio teaching friends at the conference. You can find more information at oaea.org.

George Woideck

Twelth Post: An Exciting Tool to Help Teach Art History

2008-09-01T20:15:00.010-04:00

Hi,

Some years ago I was hired by a middle size, suburban Northern Ohio school district to give a series of workshops to their art teaching staff. The goal was to build a sense cohesion within the department. Work on a district wide curriculum guide and course of study had stalled and our goal was to jump start the process. Attendance was required and included teachers working at all age levels. I thought I'd be clever and show the teachers that I understood the diverse duties, outside of teaching, that they performed within their schools each day. Duties that often other teachers were not responsible for. I had prepared a list of about a dozen of the extra functions the teachers performed and wrote them on a chalk board. But the workshop participants kept adding more and more duties until the list topped 25. It was an education for me in humility and reinforced my appreciation for the jobs that art teachers do each day.

I had known all along the number of mediums an art teacher needs to be capable of teaching. Drawing, painting, various crafts including ceramics, collage, printmaking, design, sculpture and in the older grades photography, graphic design, web design, jewelry, among others subjects, are the daily fare of art teachers. Let's not forget art history. Most art room walls are covered with student work as well as reproductions of the work of famous artists. I can't tell you how many times I've seen copies of Van Gogh's Starry Night in classrooms over the years. While surfing the web looking for documentation for the second part of my series of blogs "Secrets and Lies of Kilns and Firing" I came across a web resource that I think art teachers will find helpful in teaching art history. I had never visited this site before and I'm not aware of any publicity for it. It's produced by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is totally interactive, user friendly and appropriate for student use. It's the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History and can be found at metmuseum.org/toah/splash.htm. Check it out. I think you'll enjoy it. I'd be happy to hear your reactions. Use the link below to email me.

I'm excited by a new video that's been added to my website, tileandclayart.com. It's a brief documentary, created by Young Audiences of Northeast Ohio, of the process we used to create a Raku tile mural titled "East Meets West". The mural is 24 feet long and is located at Granger Elementary School in the Highland School District in Medina County Ohio. Visually the mural has a Japanese dragon meeting the Great Serpent Mound of Adams County Ohio over a hallway in the school. It's glazed in metalic greens and reds as well as black, crackel blue and white. I had the pleasure of working again with art teacher Joan Zacharias on this project. I hope you enjoy the video.

George

Eleventh Post: Secrets and Lies of Kilns and Firing, Part One

2008-08-25T09:17:00.009-04:00

Hi,

There's no more mystery in ceramics than what happens in a kiln during a firing. Once the lid is closed and the switches turned on it seems that the clay pieces inside are consigned to a mystical process. It's impossible to see the processes that turns raw clay into hard ceramic and dull glazes into glossy glass. Also a mystery is why some pieces survive firing and some don't; why some glazes turn out bright and shiny and why other times they're full of defects. My goal in this series of posts is to demystify the firing process and analyze why problems occur during it. I'm drawing on years of experience as a production potter in stoneware and porcelain where it was imperative that firing problems were solved immediately.

Let's start with the bisque firing (the first firing) and what happens to the clay when the pieces are put into the kiln. The first myth I'd like to expose is the belief that air bubbles in clay are what causes pottery and sculpture to explode: Not so! It's moisture that is the culprit. When the water in the clay turns to steam at 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees centigrade) it multiplies in volume 1675 times. If that force is great enough to drive a steam locomotive or a steam ship, it's more than enough to destroy a piece of pottery. The sad thing is that the exploding clay piece usually take out the all the adjacent works and makes a mess in the kiln for the teacher to clean up. So making sure that everything is bone dry before going into the kiln is of prime importance. Water usually hides in the thick bottoms of pottery and sculpture. As for pottery, making sure that students create work that has walls and bottoms that are relatively thin and of equal thickness is a good start to trouble free bisque kiln firings. Drying the clay pieces in an area with good air circulation helps. A trick I've used in my studio is to put an oscillating table fan in front of the greenware (dry, unfired clay pieces) overnight before loading the kiln. While loading the kiln I touch the pieces to my cheek. If they feel cool, chances are that water is still evaporating from the clay. Another technique I've used when in doubt of the dryness of my work is to load the kiln and preheat the clay pieces overnight with the lid propped partly open. You may not feel confident firing a kiln overnight but drying the work at a low temperature should cause no problems.

Next week: More on kiln firing, Since this series of posts on firing and kilns will continue in future weeks please email me with questions you'd like discussed.

George

Tenth Post: Safety in the Classroom and Studio

2008-08-18T09:43:00.006-04:00

Hello,

I was talking to a classroom teacher last week. She had spoken to Young Audiences of Northeast Ohio about a new school program I'm offering, "From Books into Art" and asked them to have me call her to discuss coming to her school. Although school wasn't starting for more than a week, this teacher was in the classroom setting up. She wasn't alone. Teachers around the country are doing the same thing. Unpacking boxes. Filling supply shelves. Focusing on lesson plans. And art teachers have the additional consideration of providing a safe space for their students to create in. Classroom safety is akin to studio safety, both using similar materials in an enclosed indoor space. It's identical in another important way: The artist spends long hours in the studio as does the art teacher in the classroom. And that's when safety issues become even more important. I've pointed out many times during my teacher workshop "Everything You wanted to Know About Clay, Glazes and Kilns, but Didn't Know Who to Ask", that if the teacher is safe in the classroom, the students will be too. The students spend perhaps a class period per week in the art room while the teacher spends all day, five days a week there. So it's a matter of self protection for the teacher.

The ceramic field has special considerations regarding classroom safety. It seems to boil down to potentially hazardous materials and the atmosphere within the classroom. You notice that I didn't mention the fear of the kiln burning down the school. It's never happened. Kilns are designed to keep heat in, not let it out to cause fire. But art teachers are tempting fate when they store flammable materials like paper and fabric near the kiln. Kilns do let out fumes, however, that need to be vented outdoors. The new vents that draw fumes downward and out through the equivalent of a dryer hose seem to work best.

Moist clays and glazes often state that they art non toxic and that's generally true while they remain moist. Once they dry and create dust however, it's a different matter for they can cause breathing problems with long term exposure as well as asthma attacks more immediately. Having done a web search on art room safety I see that sweeping floors is not recommended. In my studio I use a special filter for my shop vac that filters particles as small as .3 microns. It's made from Gore-Tex (!) and seems to eliminate the fine dust that ceramic materials produce.

During my artist-in-residencies, the art teacher will sometimes show me bags of dry glazes and other ceramic materials that have been donated by a community member or from a ceramic studio that has gone out business. Perhaps these materials have languished in a supply cupboard in the school for years. The question is always the same: Is this stuff safe? The bags usually have little information on them and were produced in an era when safety considerations were not as prominent in peoples minds. Without further information about these glazes and materials I tell the art teachers to assume that they are toxic. This unfortunately places the responsibility for safe disposal of these materials on the art teacher.

I found the web site http://www.arts.ufl.edu/art/rt_room/teach/art_hazards.html a place to start.

The pictures on today's post were taken during tile decoration in Joan Zacharias' classroom for the mural "Portals of Learning", at Granger Elementary School in Medina County, Ohio.

George

Ninth Post: The Mosaics of Hammam Lif

2008-08-10T11:34:00.007-04:00

Hi everyone,

As I'm sure you've gathered, mosaics are a particular passion of mine. Recently I completed a mosaic with students at Cleveland Heights High School and currently I'm working on a mosaic fireplace surround for the master bedroom of a home in a Chicago suburb. It was a particular joy last Fall to attend an exhibit at the Dayton Art Institute titled "The Roman World." I was in the Dayton suburb of Beavercreek presenting a professional development workshop to art teachers there. Central to the exhibit were a group of late Roman mosaics taken from the Hammam Lif site in present day Tunisia. The mosaics once comprised part of the floor of a synagogue and are some of the finest examples of the art from the era when the Western Roman Empire was crumbling. Pictured above and to the right is the section titled "The Tree of Paradise." The mosaics were discovered by accident in the 19th century by a French Army Captain who had ordered his soldiers to clear space for a garden behind his house. One of his officers created a plan of the site during its excavation. Some time later the Brooklyn Museum of Art (see the preceding post to this blog) acquired the mosaics. They remain on tour and I felt very fortunate to see them in Dayton last year. The Dayton Art Institute is an example of the many fine museums that can be found throughout my home state of Ohio.

George Woideck

Eighth Post: Three New York City Museums

2008-08-03T15:18:00.007-04:00

Hi there,

My wife Gail and I returned from New York City last week and I've had time to reflect on the three museums we visited there and the differences between them. New York is a city of museums and galleries, and people often travel to the city just to see art. I thought I'd share some recent experiences.

One of our favorite viewing experiences is the Onassis Cultural Center across from Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan. It's funded by part of the Onassis fortune and it displays art with a Greek theme, from ancient to modern. Thanks to that funding the Center has free admission and is able to bring top quality art and artifacts to the U.S. in beautifully displayed exhibitions. Currently there is "From The Land of The Labyrinth: Minoan Crete, 3000-1100 B.C." Pictured above is a rhyton from in the form of a bull from the exhibit. I've seen many of these pieces in museums in Hania and Iraklion Crete and it's a joy to see them here. The exhibit runs through September 13, 2008. Visit the gift shop and taverna upstairs from the Center. Their website is: onassisusa.org.

The Brooklyn Museum is one of New York's best kept secrets. Just a short subway ride from Manhattan it's also a bargain: General admission is $8 with special prices for seniors and children. The quality of the art at the Brooklyn is often as good as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it's just a smaller museum. Perfect for people who don't want to be overwhelmed by massive crowds. Sort of like the Cleveland Museum 0f Art in size. I was in one of the Brooklyn's beautiful Egyptian galleries and there were only two other people in there with me. My wife Gail and I rate museums by the offerings in their cafes and the Brooklyn's cafe rates high for quality and value.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the world's greatest as well as richest museums. The Temple of Dendur, the Greek and Roman collections, the Impressionist art and so much more make this a marvelous viewing experience. With our New York granddaughters we're reading "From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" (about the adventures of a sister and brother who run away from home to live in the Met) and we've had fun finding the locations in the museum that were mentioned in the book. The Met charges $20 admission but I'll let you in on a little secret: Since the museum (a private institution) sits on public land (Central Park) the $20 is only a "suggested" entrance fee. You can pay as much or as little as you want. I'm glad that I didn't pay full admission on my last visit because a number of the museum's galleries were temporarily closed because of "staffing problems." This included most of the art from India and Korea on a busy Sunday afternoon in the Summer. Quite a shock and disappointment that made a visit to one of our great museums much less enjoyable.

George Woideck

Seventh Post: Call for Future Post Subjects

2008-07-27T10:35:00.007-04:00

Hi everyone,

A goal of creating this blog was to was to write a weekly series of posts of interest to art teachers on the themes of tile, mosaic and clay. Over the years, while being an artist-in-residence , teachers have often expressed to me a feeling of isolation within their schools. There may may be four math teachers, and four science teachers in their school but they may be the only art teacher there. I've also been surprised to discover that within many school districts, art teachers do not get together to develop a sense of community and shared purpose within their discipline. It often seems to occur only during district-wide or county-wide art exhibitions of student work. So I've seen this blog as a chance to share information, ideas and thoughts related to art and particularly my field of ceramics with teachers in an informal setting.

During my years of association with the Teacher Resource Center of the Education Department of the Cleveland Museum of Art I designed and presented hands-on workshops for teachers of art. I often asked participants to suggest ideas for future workshops. Many of my best workshops came from ideas from those teachers. One of my most popular workshops each Fall was entitled "All You Wanted to Know About Clay, Glazes and Kilns, But Didn't Know Who to Ask." It turns out that art teachers have lots of questions about the ceramic field. We began the session by covering a blackboard with topics to discuss while doing an innovative clay project. Often the answers to teachers' questions were found within the experience of other workshop participants and I felt I was acting just as a moderator. As many of you know but may not want to admit, the start of the school year is only a month off. I thought that I would take this opportunity to solicit questions about clay, glazes and kilns that you would like me to address in posts nearer to the start of school. Remember, I'm a ceramic artist, so please confine your questions to that area of art. I hope we can have lively discussion.

Best wishes,

George

Sixth Post: Gaudi in New York

2008-07-23T17:31:00.004-04:00

Hi everyone,

We're in New York this week celebrating the birth of a new grandson. When visiting here we always take advantage of the city's great art and museum scene. Public art is everywhere. One of the most significant outdoor installations is a mosaic covered, linear sculpture that surrounds three sides of Grant's Tomb (gee, I wonder who's buried there?) in Riverside Park at West 122nd Street. Created in 1975 by artist Pedro Silva, to commemorate the US Bicentennial, it tells the history of New York City in dozens of colorful linked scenes. The piece is in the style of Barcelona artist and architect Antonio Gaudi who popularized the technique of broken tile mosaic. Although the piece does not fit with the Classical edifice of Grant's Tomb, it's one of the most delightful outdoor installations of public art anywhere.

Broken tile mosaics have had a bit of a revival in recent years. The technique of smashing dishes and tiles and reassembling the pieces is covered in many how-to books on mosaics. People's results have been uneven, however, and often fail when installed in outdoor settings. I'll be covering broken tile mosaics in depth in a future post of this blog.

George

Fifth Post: The Return of the Cleveland Museum of Art

2008-07-13T15:39:00.004-04:00

Hi everyone,

The big news in visual arts in Cleveland is the partial reopening of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The upper floor of the 1916 building was opened to the public on Sunday June 29. This includes the redesigned Garden Court with balcony (pictured to the left), the Armor Court and the galleries that ring the perimeter of the building. The focus is primarily on traditional European and American painting and decorative arts and the armor, of course. Although this represents a small fraction of the Museum's gallery space and collections it's the beginning of a process that will last to 2012.

I visited the Museum on a rainy Wednesday, several days after the reopening of the 1916 building, and found the galleries packed with people, particularly families with children. This was significant because the crowd pleasing art of the impressionists and expressionists is not currently on display. I think it represents a hunger for our museum to up an running again. Most people seemed pleased by the result. Comments I heard were primarily focused on the redesign of the Garden Court and the subsequent removal of the plants and particularly the wishing well from that gallery. The jury seems to be out on that issue. More changes are coming of course.

I hope everyone in the Northern Ohio area, and further afield too, takes the opportunity to visit the Cleveland Museum of Art this Summer. Please let me know your thoughts.

George

Fourth Post: Tessellations-They're All Around Us 2

2008-07-06T15:30:00.004-04:00

Hi,

In the the last post I mentioned how much more I'm aware of tessellations in our world. In part I can thank that new awareness to Al DeGennaro, math teacher at the Mosaic School of Cleveland Heights High School. Al and history teacher John Stephens invited me to create a mosaic/tile mural outside the Mosaic School office. You read about it at http://heightsobserver.org/read/1/3/putting-the-pieces-together.

When I returned home after installing the project I took a closer look at a group of miniature gift boxes we have on display in our living room. They were a gift from a party guest. Each stack of four boxes is only four inches high and the gift wrap for each stack had a different theme. Upon closer examination I realized that one theme was the tessellations of artist M. C. Escher. It's picture on the right. A delightful discovery. I'm not sure if the artist who created the miniature boxes printed the images on the wrapping paper or if the the paper is commercially available. Perhaps you have other examples of tessellations you'd like to share.

George

Third Post: Tessellations-They're All Around Us

2008-06-29T21:16:00.005-04:00

Hi,

Tessellations are at the intesection where art and math (particularly geometry) cross. If you were to ask a math teacher for a definition of a tessellation he/she may answer that it is "an arrangement of shapes that completely covers a surface, with no gaps and no overlaps." The word tessellation derives from the the Latin "tesserae", the little flat squares of stone, ceramic or glass used in making a mosaic. An artist or art teacher might have an additional different definition, pointing to the engaging work of M. C. Escher who added a transformative quality to the geometric tessellation. Whatever your definition, it's intriquing to see how tessellations pervade our visual lives. I was reminded of that fact when I recently came across an example of a tessellation in an unusual place. It was in the living room of a friend in New York City. On a settee were two pillows in white and brown made from a fabric that this friend had brought back from a trip to Peru. The pattern on the fabric was a repeating design of light and dark birds flying in opposite directions. A perfect Escher tessellation! Whether the Native American weavers had ever heard of Escher is anyone's guess.

This interest in tessellations has led me to create a new professional development workshop, "Teaching Tessellations in Math, Geometry and Art." My goal is to bring together the art and the math to create an integrated, engaging approach to teaching both. This workshop is a logical extension of my popular professional development workshop "Deepening the Understanding of Symmetry with Mosaics. In both workshops my goal is to explore that intersection of art and math.

George

Second Post: The Imagine Nation

2008-06-25T09:55:00.003-04:00

Hi All,

Working as a teaching artist in the schools I've witnessed a trend that involves using the arts to support the learning of other subjects, primarily math, science and reading. This trend has been exacerbated by initiatives like No Child Left Behind. The arts have increasingly become a tool for improving test scores in other subjects. I've always been a believer in the concept that education occurs in a broad front and that the arts should be integrated into the rest of the curriculum. So I have never had a problem developing artist-in-residences as well as ceramic projects that do that. I'm comfortable doing that because I'm genuinely interested in science, math and social studies. For instance it's not much of a leap to connect the creating, glazing and firing of Raku pottery to the culture of Japan. Everyone benefits. Likewise with my workshops that connect the theme of symmetry with mosaics. It's a natural fit. But like many of you, I'm alarmed by the effort to put the arts into a supporting role in education.

For these reasons I was delighted to learn of The Imagine Nation initiative. You can read more at theimaginenation.net. It makes a strong case for the importance that imaginative thought, creative problem problem solving and innovation will have in the twenty-first century and how rote learning and teaching to the test destroys these vital skills. The point is that the arts are the best places to nurture those skills.

The case statement for The Imagine Nation can be found at: http://www.theimaginenation.net/resources/tin_casestatement.pdf.

Let me know what you think.

George

First Post Greeting

2008-06-16T20:29:00.005-04:00

Hi and welcome to Tile, Mosaic+Clay in Schools, a blog dedicated to art educators wanting to know more about clay in all its forms. I'm ceramic artist George Woideck and I'll draw on my thirty years of experience as a teaching artist to provide you with information and commentary on a broad range of topics relating to clay in the classroom. Look for this blog each Monday and feel free to post comments, questions and suggestions for future blog entries. To learn more about me and my career visit my artist-in-th-schools website at tileandclayart.com. My studio work for private clients as well as public places can be viewed at artisanarchitecturalceramics.com. Best wishes for a fulfilling and relaxing Summer to all of my friends in art education.

George