Prima Gallery

Broken pottery happens to everyone eventually. After a certain amount of use, someone is bound to drop a mug or plate. Luckily, it is easy to fix ceramics using special products and techniques. Follow the tips below to successfully prepare your broken ceramic pieces.

Fix Broken Pottery with Industrial Strength Adhesive

Often times, people will recommend using a two-part epoxy when fixing ceramics. Though the two-part epoxy works well, it is difficult to maneuver over a small area like the edge of the ceramic crack. It is easier to use an industrial strength adhesive gel.

Industrial strength adhesives, such as the E-6000 brand, can be purchased at local craft or home stores. The adhesive comes in gel form which makes it easier to apply to the ceramic. It is packaged in a small tube with an applicator tip, also making it easy to apply to small spaces.

Before gluing the ceramic, try piecing together the broken parts to make sure they fit snugly. If any small parts are missing, the ceramic piece might not be salvageable. Also make sure that all of the cracked parts are dry and free from dust. Run a dry paint brush along the break line to brush out any excess dust or dirt.

Next, use the applicator tip to apply a light amount of industrial strength adhesive gel to the crack. Remember that the gel will spread when the ceramic pieces are pushed together. Because of this, only apply a thin line of glue that does not cover the entire width.

Carefully but firmly press the two parts together and hold for around ten seconds. Wipe any excess glue away using a dry paper towel. Place the piece in a cool dry place to dry for a day.

Reusing Broken Ceramic Plates and Mugs

Never drink or eat out of broken ceramic dishes. Not only could this weaken the bond of the glue, but it could also be potentially harmful due to swallowing dust or glue chemicals. Instead, find other ways to use ceramics around the house.

Plates can be used to hold candles. Place a large pillar candle on a ceramic plate or fill the plate with river rocks and place a few votive candles amongst the rocks. Smaller pillar candles of varying heights can also be staggered on the plate for an interesting centerpiece.

Mugs can be used as pencil holders in the office. They also make nice planters for herbs or small flowers. Mugs can even be used to hold small hard candy, as long as the candy is wrapped in plastic.

Easily Fix Broken Ceramic Dishes

Though they can’t be used for eating or drinking again, ceramic dishes can serve a decorative purpose in anyone’s house. Luckily broken dishes and pottery can easily be fixed and still provide a variety of uses around the house.

DSLRs are complex pieces of photographic equipment and it is easy to get lost or fail to take full advantage of their capabilities. Looking beyond the user aids such as scene modes in entry level DSLRs, they are still capable of stunning results in the hands of a competent photographer even if they come in designer colors. .

Scene modes appear helpful but hey apply a one size fits all approach to more complex photographic situations and fail to take full advantage of the camera’s capabilities. Presumably, photographers choose DSLRs so they can produce excellent images under all conditions.

To learn how to cope with the complexity and powerful capabilities of your new DSLR try taking small steps. This means taking plenty of photographs of the same things in your neighborhood. This is how professionals try out new equipment and techniques.

Read the Manual

But not all at once. The aim is to read small sections of the manual, only as they are needed. Only read far enough to read the “Getting Started” or “Quick Start Guide” section. This should be enough to start taking photos and having fun with new camera. As the confidence in the camera builds move on to other sections in the user manual, one at a time.

P Mode

The first step is to leave all the menu settings on default so that the camera is in auto everything mode. Then set the mode dial to P and start shooting. This is a basic automatic exposure mode where the camera decides on the exposure settings and is good place to start for the first pictures. In the picture of the Nikon d3000 below, the P mode is grouped by the line on the mode dial with the serious photography modes.

This allows practice with all the other basic operations of taking a digital photograph and using it on the computer and printing it. The P mode is like training wheels on a bicycle, handy when learning, but they do prevent the user from using the device to its full capabilities.

Use The Viewfinder

When photographers use the viewfinder they are holding the cameras properly, minimizing the possibility of camera shake. Live view is largely a marketing gimmick designed to appeal to photographers graduating from cameras lacking a good optical viewfinder. Live view is useful when using a tripod, but for hand held shots use the viewfinder.

Exposure Compensation

This is a good first step in taking control of the DSLR as it allows finer tuning of the camera’s suggested exposure settings. Exposure Compensation is useful when lighting conditions become a bit more complex.

Using the EXIF Data

EXIF data is a marvelous feature of all digital cameras; they keep the shooting notes for photographers. Novice photographers often have no idea what shutter speed or aperture to use. Review the photographs made using the P mode, noting the settings the camera chose, and see the resultant picture. This gives a good starting point for photographers choosing these settings.

Aperture Priority

The most popular exposure mode amongst advanced photographers is Aperture priority, usually indicated by A or Av on the mode dial. Here the photographer sets the lens aperture to suit their Depth of Field needs and the camera decides the appropriate shutter speed.

Shutter Speed Priority

This is for capturing moving subjects, usually T or Tv. The photographer sets the shutter speed to suit the speed of the subject and the camera sets the lens aperture for a good exposure.

ISO

This is the sensitivity of the cameras to light. Higher the sensitivity is good for lower light conditions but image noise increases as the ISO increases. Set it to the lowest value or use the Auto ISO function which only raises it when low light conditions require more cameras sensitivity

Only the Start

DSLRs are incredibly powerful photographic tools and these first steps are long way from complete mastery of the digital camera. The main aim in any long-term project is to break down into small manageable steps. Suite 101 are continually adding more photography Feature Articles for photographers ranging from novice to expert.

The NCKCR is a non-profit and non-governmental organization aiming to rediscover and reintroduce Khmer ancestral pottery techniques and support the development of contemporary Khmer ceramic art. In the process, NCKCR creates economic opportunities, helping to decrease poverty in Cambodia.

Serge Rega established NCKCR in Siem Reap-Angkor, renowned for the Angkor temples. Tourists abound, creating substantial incomes, but paradoxically Siem Reap remains one of the poorer provinces of Cambodia. Siem Reap is emerging as a developed city, but geographically, poverty is displaced by about only 2 kilometers.

NCKCR is involved in Vocational training, which helps the poor rural population and will decrease poverty. Training is provided free of charge. Students are given an allowance to compensate for ‘lost’ time, which would otherwise be spent earning a living. Vocational training includes working with clay, but also technical skills, such as building a potter’s wheel, a kiln, tools etc. A student finishing a vocational training session with NCKCR must be able to establish his/her own studio. After training, students may be hired by NCKCR, or NCKCR may provide help to the young potter to install a studio.

Serge Rega says “rural workshops will help the poor and will allow women to express themselves, play a role in society and become participants in an economic activity”. The first rural workshop will be installed in August 2007 in Koh Ker (80 km north-east of Siem Reap) in collaboration with Heritage Watch NGO. A second rural workshop will be installed in May 2008 in Pouk Area, 30 km west of Siem Reap. Rural studios will provide economic assistance for poor peoples but will also play a role in the prevention of looting of Khmer Archaeological sites.

Research on Khmer Antique glazing and techniques – Antique Khmer ceramics are renowned, but the technology was lost during the recent terrible upheavals in Cambodia. NCKCR has sought to rediscover this technology, researching antique Khmer glazing, bisque, kilns, potters language etc. NCKCR wants to soon start the construction of an antique Khmer kiln (Dragon kiln). A first firing is scheduled for December 2007-January 2008. It will be the first time in 500 years such a kiln will be fired in Cambodia – a 10 day and night event. We will make this an international event, in order to facilitate exchange with potters from all around the world. For many years international potters have had exchanges with each other. Khmer potters rarely have the opportunity to travel outside of Cambodia to meet their peers, so this meeting will be held in Cambodia at the NCKCR. The kiln will allow us to fire our reconstituted antique Khmer glaze under the same conditions that it was made in Angkor. Such a kiln is a major tool in the research of antique Khmer techniques.

Revival of contemporary Khmer Ceramic Arts – NCKCR has rediscovered ancestral techniques, which it now teaches. When this knowledge is established, students are encouraged to develop contemporary Khmer ceramic art, with the support of a French volunteer designer. Contemporary Khmer ceramic art consists of stoneware, salt-glazed wares and raku. Different technologies will be used in the future.

Fight against illicit trade of Khmer Antiques – Looting of archaeological evidence is catastrophic for the understanding of our past, our roots. Looting of antiques include two actors: the looter of the archaeological site trying to support his family, and the buyer. If NCKCR can offer the buyer high quality Khmer antique replicas, it can help to avoid the purchase of originals. Looting of archeological sites destroys potential income from tourism in rural areas, while it’s a unsustainable source of income for poorer peoples. Serge says “Installation of rural workshops will offer a chance to get sustainable money incomes for populations”.

The goal of self-financing will ensure the sustainability and independence of NCKCR – NCKCR is not a cursory project – it’s aim is the long-term promotion of Khmer ceramics. This includes establishing a Khmer potter’s library with books translated into Khmer language, workshops, raw material furniture, research etc. In order to reach this goal, NCKCR’s target is to be self-supporting within two years,

Museums and large art galleries are treasure houses of historic collections and famous art from many periods in history. Often there is less than a quarter of the collection on display at any time due to space.

In the film, European Vacation, the family exhausts themselves by trying to see every major art piece and famous painting in as many galleries and museums as they can cram in during a two week visit to several cities in Europe.

While their antics were hilarious, cultural overload and tiredness was the result of their futility in trying to see and do it all. This can sometimes be the unfortunate reality of such once-in-a-lifetime visits. Accept that in a limited time it is just not possible to see and do everything. But with a little planning, maximum enjoyment can be gained and over-tiredness avoided.

The best pieces in any collection are usually always on display due to popularity. However, to avoid disappointment, it is wise to check before a visit that a specific work of art is available, as it may be on loan to another museum for a traveling exhibition, or taken away for repair work. Some museums will have free entry at certain times but most will have either a ticket entry or bigger cities will offer museum passes to several.

Use the internet to search for the major cultural attractions for your chosen destination. Museums and galleries are often some of the best marketed and advertised attractions; check local papers, TV, radio and billboards. Tourist centers and libraries will carry leaflets and brochures for all there is to see and do. Hotels and guesthouses will also carry a selection and asking locals can also provide good insider tips on the best value, what is worth the trip and what to avoid.

Gallery Guides and Information Booths

On arriving at the museum or gallery, the first place to stop should be the information booth. They will have floor plans, exhibitions guides, information on when the next guided tour will take place and some even offer highlights tours.

Often there will be audio guide CD players in several languages, available for a small rental fee, which will play information about key pieces in the collection. These can provide good background information about a piece.

However, the most important thing to do is look. Look at the item and try to understand it. Who made it and why? What is it for? Is it confusing or upsetting? Why is the piece in the collection? Is it a good or bad example?

Sometimes it is enough to just walk around and enjoy the beauty of the pieces. Other items can totally baffle and may require further information or provoke further investigation. If a guide is around, ask questions. The guides are often volunteers and will know the collection very well. They enjoy talking about the collection and can often provide insightful information and added depth and understanding.

While a visit to a museum is educational, it should also be enjoyable. It can be fun to guess what an item is before reading the information plaques provided. Often the information center will provide activity packs for children or suggested routes around the collection if time is short.

Remember to take frequent breaks and rest stops. Often there will be restaurants and cafes in the building or eating areas provided if you prefer to bring your own refreshments.

Museum Themes, Interactive Exhibits

Many museums will have a specific theme such as war or industry periods showing farming equipment, aircraft, pioneer museums or science museums. These can be much more interactive, with hands-on activities, videos and lectures. They can often spark new interests or begin a family history search.

Many individuals and teams of specialists have researched, catalogued and preserved the collections. More recently, much effort has gone into presenting the collections using multimedia to enhance the enjoyment, and help visitors see, learn and understand about history, cultures and the world.

Crystal is a cheaper low-grade gems, used to impersonate the only glass. Easily without damage identification method is as follows:

1 touch method:
Gems are crystals, heat quickly, the glass is amorphous crystallization, heat slowly. Therefore, touching the sample, crystalline  have a cool feeling; and there are warm feeling of glass.Of course, such recognition to the prior general practice, familiar with the differences between the two can only be determined after the test is not available before too long holding time, or place where a heat source for too long, so as not to affect the test results of the external environment. In addition, to test sensitivity, is usually sensitive parts such as tongue or fingers to determine the cool or warm.

2, magnifying observation:
Glass surface and often into the whirlpool of the thread within the pattern, its appearance much like the honey or glue them into the clear water after mixing, as mixing with uneven phenomenon. Glass-house often with varying amounts of air bubbles, the bubble has beads shaped, oval-shaped, elongated shape and flat, etc., these phenomena in other crystalline gems are rare within.Another glass of crisp brittle or cracked in the jewelry inlaid Office Department, under the glass would be caving due to fragmentation of small pieces and leave the dent smooth curved like shells. Natural stone for better toughness, fracture rare.

3, glass fake gemstone supplier because of lower prices, it is very rough milling quality, or even molten glass is poured into the mold in the casting. Facet of such products often not smooth, faceted edges do not cross between the straight. Generally the more precious stones, pondering the better the quality.

4, the glass is not a homogeneous body crystal crystal crystal belong to the non-homogeneous body, usually with a polarimeter can be detected.

5, hardness distinction: crystal hardness of 7, the glass usually around 5.5, less obvious parts with jewelry in the glass can be tested separately carved out.

Many think of sculpture as a static, ever-constant work of three-dimensional art such as classical figurative works in stone. Kinetic sculpture is a far cry from these weighty forms. Kinetic sculpture is made up of light, flowing, free-moving parts that create an ever-changing combination of forms. Any art form made of free-moving components can be called a kinetic sculpture.

Alexander Calder: The Inventor of the Kinetic Sculpture Mobile

The first widely-recognized kinetic sculpture was created by artist, Alexander Calder around 1930. Calder created much of his earlier work using wire and focusing on linear forms. He would create sculptures of animals and people, forming their features and creating the illusion of mass with the linear wire. After creating a series of these sculptures, his work started to evolve toward simpler, but more interactive works of art.

Inspired by Modernist artist Piet Mondrian, Calder combined simple geometric shapes in bold colors with his linear wire to create hanging artworks. These artworks were created by suspending a series of wire branches, that would hang from a pivot point, from one main suspension point on the ceiling. These series of wires and shapes would hang and slowly swivel back and forth from their varying suspention points.

After witnessing some of Calder’s kinetic sculptures, French Dadaist artist Marcel Duchamp gave them the name mobiles, which indicated that they were made for motion. This term caught on and Calder’s sculptures were, from then on, known as mobiles. Calder continued to create large, free-moving mobiles, some of which extended as far as 20 feet long.

Teaching Kinetic Sculpture in the Art Classroom

Students can learn to use movable elements to enhance a work of art. They can do this by adding a kinetic element to a sculpture project or by creating an entirely kinetic work of art like a mobile.

To add a kinetic element to a work of art, the art teacher can ask that the students to attach an element using one pivoting point, one suspended line, or a hinge that allows the item to flip. This attachment could be incorporated into metals projects, wood projects, or even those projects made from matte board. Student could use wire, string and fasteners to attach these kinetic elements. To keep the work meaningful, the teacher could have the students write a justification or an artist’s statement about the use of their kinetic element.

To create a mobile based on Calder’s work, the students could use wire, string and matte board. Spray paint could be used to color the pieces of matte board. The teacher could require the students to start with a horizontal wire that would suspend three different kinetic elements. Students could use a limited color palette of three to four colors and use varying sizes of the same shape to create a harmonized look.

Appreciating Kinetic Sculpture

Though kinetic sculpture does not attempt to realisticly depict a figure, its beauty comes from the poetic grace of its movement and color. Art viewers can appreciate the simple charm in its form and construction. Kinetic art will constantly transform and engage an art viewer.By appreciating this type of kinetic sculpture, art viewers can expand their cultural horizons and experience something purely beautiful.

Every form of art has its own beauty. While carrying the special beauty, every art requires certain basic fundamental principles to be observed while doing the same. So the art of drawing has also a set of fundamental principles. Along with the growing practice of doing practical training, it would be necessary to know these art fundamentals, too. Here are some of the fundamentals of drawing.

Seeing The Shapes

Basically the visual art is matter of seeing. So an artist has to see very well the object to be drawn or painted. The shapes, yes, the shapes of the objects are of much importance. Once you identify the shape of an object well, you can think about its lining that would recreate the shape on paper or canvas. You can start drawing after getting exact idea of the shapes.

Light Effect

The intensity of light falling on an object indicates the areas of your operation. The light decides where to move your pencil or brush. Lighted area would take the lighter colours and the spaces getting lesser light would be darker. That is called the ‘value’ in the language of art. A good drawing would have the full range of the values, meaning all types of shades should be depicted as per their values.

Control and Consistency

Consistency is the maintaining of a particular style of drawing or painting. If you can do it, your artwork would be like your signature. People would see an artwork and they would recognize it immediately as yours. So to keep working on your own style is crucially important in the world of art. Moreover, if you have good control over the pencil, you can draw precise lining and shading. The structure of the objects drawn and their relative size would render an artwork aesthetically beautiful. At later stage, it would help in exploiting the fullest value of colours and creating rich textures.

No Room for Deviation

This applies to the portrait drawing. When you are working under a commission and are required to draw or paint the portrait of a person, a slight variation would ruin your entire work. A slightly bigger eye or a lip thicker than the original one could displease the person being portrayed. In portrait drawing, there is room for artistic imagination, but you will have to honour the reality, too.

Get Together All the Helps

An artist uses various resources while doing his or her pencil drawing or a painting. You can use your sketchbook or the photographs of the object or the scene to be drawn. Instructions available in and on videos would be a great help for the beginners. Finally, if you can spare regular hours of time, thinking about to attend a painting or drawing course would be a great idea.

It’s not every day that we are honored with our own museum exhibition. Of course, in accepting the invitation, we have also bought some pressure. After all, we want to show only our best work. But there are five of us here–Junior, Pilcher, Mosley, Hairy and me. While I’m the famous one, the others are artistically and emotionally involved and the question arises, “Can we agree on what IS our best work?” These four guys really bear down, spouting something about pressure making diamonds. I see it more as “under stress, they regress.”

If you watch them closely and ask a few questions, you’ll find that each comes to his love for ceramics from a different place. For Hairy it’s the only honest way he knows to make a living. For Mosley it’s an immersion in magic; he loves fire, chemicals and watching clay thrown on a wheel. The fact that he can’t do the latter makes it all the more desirable. Pilcher is a recovering academic who can’t get past his first step. To him, no process or question is too small to track down. Having made his discovery, he is then compelled to talk about it, and at great length. Unfortunately, he has more words than discoveries, so while I’m running the pottery, he’s running his mouth. By the law of averages, he does come up with some great stuff. But even that’s a black hole because, while he’ll tell you all about it, he won’t tell you how he did it.

Junior is the toughest case. He comes to ceramics as if it’s a religion. He is a born-again, fundamentalist, clay-thumping potter. For him, Rascal Ware is a divine calling that guarantees dignity and meaning with every breath, even if every breath is oxygen depleted. He takes that as a sign to embrace reduction firing. Junior seeks nothing less than the Kingdom of Clay, such as it might be, where he and George Ohr will sit at the right hand of whomever. He shouldn’t hold his breath. It’s rumored that Bernard Leach is still in purgatory for condescending to . . . well, pretty much everyone.

For my part, I am the power behind the thrown-that’s not a typo. Nor is it an exaggeration. By the strength of my personality, imagination and wily fingers, I can play these guys like a piccolo – though they would tell you I beat them like a drum. I remind them that some men would pay for that kind of experience.

What we have produced for the Canton Museum of Art is, of course, a collection of everybody’s strength. There are not that many seashells-score one for Georgette! I call it the Rascal Ware Trifecta: “Twos and Fews,” “Pete and Re-Petes”, and “Inspired and Expired.” You can look at these works as pottery that is born of poetry, prose, biography and our collective human condition. All of the pieces are driven by the Rascal Ware Story, the first five chapters of which are on display. You really should read them in order to understand what you see. Some readers will discover truth and beauty. The truth we build with a pitchfork; the beauty is just a skim coat.