Ode to Monitors -- Shira Leon

1. What is your name (I may not always be able to tell by your email)?

Shira Leon

2. When did you start coming to Lillstreet?

Fall of 2010

3. What brought/brings you to Lillstreet?

I was burning out working on the computer all the time and wanted to do something tactile. 

4. What is the nature of your clay work -- functional or sculptural?

Functional

5. What is your process?  Do you sketch, prototype and conceptualize? etc.

I draw a lot before moving to clay. 

6. What or who influence your work?

I'm inspired by the meeting of art and function in everyday objects, modern design, architecture and forms and patterns found in nature.  

7. Do you work with other medium besides clay?

Right now, only clay.  I've done a lot of drawing, painting and photography in the past. 

8. What are your duties as a monitor?

I load one of the Bailey kilns once a week and clean the studio.

9. If there’s one thing you absolutely have to inform the Lillstreet clay community that would make your work easier, what would it be?
The two questions I answer most frequently have to do with the firing schedule and where work is...  

Take a little time to read and understand the firing calendar - it's posted just at the entrance to the green ware shelves.  It might be easier to understand in terms of loading and unloading.  90% of the time this is the schedule:

Glaze is unloaded and loaded Wednesdays and Sundays

Bisk is unloaded and loaded Mondays and Thursdays

If you don't see your work, it is probably in a kiln or on the shelves/carts.  Feel free to turn carts around to get a different view - just watch for wobbly pieces!  Look at all the shelves in the green ware area as we condense and sometimes nest after each load.  So, your work might be in a different place than where you put it.  It's extremely rare that a piece truly goes missing.

(Editor: While it is quite ok to turn the glaze cart around to find your pieces, please watch for other people's pieces and also please refrain from touching or moving pieces that are on the green ware shelves.  Also, if you truly didn't get your piece back, check the reject shelf at the beginning of the green ware area.  If you happen to break someone else's pieces, do not "destroy the evidence" -- let someone know or leave a note to apologize)