So much frosting!!!!

This past week I have been doing a lot of mixing and a lot of frosting!!! I feel like I work in a clay bakery!! I've finally discovered how to mix clay to the right consistency for frosting in a more efficient and effective way than what I was doing before.  Instead of starting with solid clay and adding water to it to get it to the frosting consistency, I am using clay that comes in a powder that I then add water too until it reaches the right thickness, and then I mix it using a mixer attachment for the drill. It's actually a lot like making actual frosting haha, which is another reason I like this process better!! I've gone through four 50lb bags already and need to order more.

Why have I been mixing all of this clay? Well, Brandon and I have decided to collaborate to create an installation that combines our two interests. We are essentially creating a surrealist landscape...Brandon is creating a coyote that will be surrounded by a landscape that is made up of pastel-y multi-colored frosting.  The frosting will be kind of crawling up the coyote, in a way starting to consume it. The frosting has a very organic almost floral feel to it, but at the same time frosting pure sugar, which is an interesting contrast. This idea started in our Collaboration Ceramics workshop, but Brandon and I were so excited about the idea and wanted to invest a lot of time into it and make it pretty large scale.  Ideally, we want the landscape to extend about 6' coming out from the wall and 6' up the wall.

So I've basically just been frosting, and frosting, and doing more frosting.  I have thousands of these little frosting "flowers." Once they are done, I will fire them. Then color them in different pastel colors with an airbrush.  Then we are going to assemble and install them to create the landscape.

I'm really excited about collaborating with Brandon! I really like working as a team on a project.  It is a different way of working, but it has been really successful so far! I'm also excited about making a larger scale installation because it is where I can see my personal work going and I've been wanting to try it, so this has been a great opportunity to do so!