Showing posts with label hand building. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hand building. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Colored slips


More bottles. Playing with underglazes and the banding wheel. When they come out of the kiln I will be using iron oxide in the spray booth and my Bone glaze which is semi opaque so the colors will not be this bright. No matter the medium; painting, textiles, clay. I've always worked this way. Bright colors masked with dingy layers to give it age and patina. I prefer second hand clothing as well.


This is my Streamline cup. It comes from a one piece mold and is cast usually in porcelain. I'll cast it in recycled clay too but sometimes the rim warps a bit. Again, colored slips. I make all my own slips using a ∆6 vitreous underglaze recipe and then adding about 20% colorant. I am also experimenting with Bauer flashing slip with 20% colorants in the wood kiln and soda kiln. The colorants I use are for the most part Mason stains. For Black I use Black Iron Oxide.


Here is a break down of the quilted cup. The bottom, as shown in previous posts is a three part slip cast mold. The top is a hand built coil that is rolled out with a pony roller and then cut on the side that adjoins to the cup. That leaves the upper edge a 'live edge' or natural edge. This gives each cup it's distinctive personality and size.


Here are a couple of new colors for the alphabet cups. The leathery one in the center is our Bone glaze with Pumpkin on top. The one with the blue ring is our Emerald glaze (Bone glaze with copper oxide) with Bright Sky Blue on top. 
Our Bone glaze is Ron Roys Bone High Calcium Semi Matte base with 5% Titanium and 1% Rutile. For those who do not know who Ron Roy is check out his book Mastering Cone 6 Glazes. Bright Sky Blue recipes are all over the net. 

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Naked Raku workshop. Part 1


Yesterday we had a Raku workshop at the studio. Here are the demo pots I made on Sunday. Both are made by slumping clay on wooden cutout templates and putting together the parts. We will be firing them in two weeks with  process called Naked Raku. I'll post more about this tomorrow.


This is Mari throwing raku clay on the wheel. Today is her Birthday! Happy Birthday Mari! 



And this is her cute dog Raffi. He's our studio dog.


Hand building, although a slow process, gives us the ability to build complex forms that you could not make on the wheel. It also offers the opportunity for someone to come into the studio with no clay experience and build something very comparable to what I would build. 


Although it is not for everyone. Some folks are drawn to the wheel like a moth to a light bulb. As I was drawn years ago. The wheel is what got me hooked on clay. I threw for about six or seven years before I ever considered hand building. 


Hand building is often relegated to kids work. True it is easier for them to do as the wheel takes a great understanding of the 'center'. But when mastered hand building shows subtleties that the wheel could never capture.


Both have a place in my studio.


My son made a cupcake. I believe it is gluten free.