Sgrafitto – kidney dishes

 I thought I would practise my new found Sgrafitto skills on my kidney dishes.

They had been dried to a leather hard state (not fired) and then coated with three coats of coloured slip – orange on one and bright blue on another.

They had been dried to a leather hard state (not fired) and then coated with three coats of coloured slip – orange on one and bright blue on another. 

 

(The colour comes out when the firing process is finished.)

I decided on a kind of visual illusion pattern – which looks better on a flat piece of paper to be honest, but I think it did work quite well on this.

I started by marking the dishes out in sections…….

……then carved smaller lines into each of those sections.

I am quite pleased with the result of these.. off to the kiln to be biscuit fired before being glazed and fired again.

Learning Sgraffito

 This morning we had a ‘slip decorating’ demo planned, and our tutor had prepared a large dish to demonstrate on.

As I was hanging about the room as it was being prepared I asked some questions about how to apply my Sacred Geometry designs to clay – I was told to go home and prepare I pattern and he would show me during the demo.

So I went home and found a relatively easy pattern to draw on YouTube - https://youtu.be/m10l55vMTOw

And got to work.

Back at Uni, I placed the design onto the clay and pinned around the lines to give me a grid.

The clay had been painted with 2-3 coats of coloured slip.

Then it was time to carve out the marks with a carving tool.  Through the coloured slip and into the base clay underneath.

There were lots of other techniques going onto this plate too, but it was really cool to be able to add some of mine.

Rob (Tutor) then started adding coloured slip and other marks, some stencils and other bits to the dish.

This is the finished dish, with loads of decoration going on.

I have now been given the task of trimming it and getting it ready to fire – then I can keep it!  😊

Slab built glaze tester

 As I am planning to do some terracotta tiles soon, I decided I would make a flat glaze tester to test out some glazes before I use them on my real piece.

 

I rolled out some clay to 0.6mm, marked it off, scored the marks and added thin rolls of clay to create walls.

I stamped the letter of the alphabet in each box, this means I can make a note in a notebook of what glaze went into what square.

Now time to biscuit fire it and prepare 24 different glazes!!

Experimenting with marbles

  have melted marbles in the kiln quite a few times over the years, to make pin badges, tie-pins and other stuff.

But this time I wanted to see if I could fuse some to window glass.

The hardest job is getting all the little buggers to stay in the right place, as once you knock one it is like a domino effect and they roll about all over the place.

After a bit of swearing, and much more time than this deserved, I seemed to have them all laid out nicely in the kiln.

I placed a few on top of a small square of window glass – these too had the tendency to roll about, but we got there in the end.

The following morning I opened the kiln with anticipation, wondering if I would find a heap of melted marbles all in one corner of the kiln, but luckily they had stayed put and fused down nicely.

And the best bit was…. My experiment had worked too!

With no incompatibility cracks either would you believe?

 

Result!

A cracked dish – my first failure

 Remember this lovely (even if I do say so myself) dish I made ….. well, it’s now in the clay recycling tub ☹

I was looking through the firing shelves to see if any of my work had been done, and there I saw it…. My dish, which a huge crack right across!

I hunted down Mary, our technician, and asked why … there’s quite a few reasons, but in reality..”shit happens”!

Maybe it dried out too quickly, maybe I didn’t compress the clay enough.  Either way, I was a little bit broken hearted I have to say!

I did ask if there was any way of repairing it, and was told two or three times it would be easier and quicker to make a new one.  (and basically learn to cope with disappointment).

So, with a heavy heart I took it to the recycling room and dropped it in the tub.

It was quite sad to see it sink down into the murky water…. But all good practise I suppose.    Best go and make another one now!

Slump Mould - kidney dishes.

 For this slump mould I drew a shape on a piece of A4 mountboard and cut it out with a sharp craft knife.

Then I rolled out my clay to 0.6mm and laid it over the top.

Very carefully, with a slightly damp sponge, I eased the clay down through the hole, until it was the depth I wanted it to be.

Once I was happy with the depth, it was time to trim off the excess.

Then for some reason, I decided to make a second one.  I copied the shape and did the whole process again.

 

I then left them resting in a couple of buckets to dry a little.  The next lesson was going to be on slip decorating and sgraffito, so we needed to have something ready for then.

Sacred Geometry

I have to do two pieces of work for my Uni assignment, based on some research I had done previously.

As I seem to always been drawn to patterns - mandalas, kaleidoscopes etc.  I decided to go down that route.

My tutor advised me to research Sacred Geometry after I mentioned I was interested in Moroccan Tiles and would like to make something based on those.

So I bought myself a book by John Michell, and searched for some You Tube tutorials and had a play!

I was advised to try this tutor online - Adam Williamson

So I tried his Baba Nakkash pattern.

You start by building up a grid of circles and lines, only using a pair of compasses and a ruler.

Then you add in the main lines, rubbing out some gridlines to help as you go.

Finally you rub out all of the grid lines left and the main pattern remains.

I really enjoyed this, I have always liked building patterns - and I often do some Zentangling, which is mindful doodling really.   I can see myself creating a lot more of these patterns.

Making Jellyfish Paperweights.

I have been practising my jellyfish paperweights, I love this technique and they look so organic when finished.

Just a little bit of coldworking to do now to make the bases all smooth and pretty, as they are marked and sharp from breaking them off the iron.

This is how you make them........

 Take a gather of glass from the furnace.

Gently marver, then keeping the iron upright, dip the end in frit – get a good coverage.

Take a second gather.

Gently marver, then sitting at the bench use a pokey tool to push the colour down into the glass, wetting the tool between each poke so that it doesn’t stick.

Pull the glass out to stretch the ‘tentacles’.

Then chop off the end.

Now you need a partner to get another gather of glass with some colour on it.   Hold it in an optic mould for a minute to get a nice shape, and attach it to the end of the work on your iron.

Reheat and push the new colour down slightly over the head over the top of the tentacles.

Take another gather of glass over the top.

Form into a nice shape, cut a line with the Jacks and knock off the iron.

Place in the annealer.

Easy eh?    :)

Learning how to use 3D software

 One of our classes in our Uni course was to learn how to use 3D software - in this case an application called Rhino.

Our task was to build a tool that we could use, either within glass or clay.

I just could not fathom this out at all!   There were way too many options and things to remember.

I had worked out that if I failed this part of the module, yet got decent grades on the rest, I might just be ok.... but then I gave my head a shake and reminded myself that I was 'here to learn' and learn I would!

So, I took the bulls by the horns and admitted to the tutor that I had no clue whatsoever what I was doing in Rhino.  He offered me an extra lesson and an hour later I was creating tools  :)

I think my issue was the classes were two hours long, and I just don't seem to have the ability to digest that much information, I seem to need little snippets - go away and practise, then come back and learn some more.

So my extra class, which was only an hour long seemed to work well. I was then able to go home and practise this little bit and made some headway.

Still not sure if it is my favourite form of design, but at least I got something done.

My tool was then cut out of 10mm steel using a waterjet cutter.

But the work doesn't stop there!  I now need to make it all nice and shiny and comfortable to hold.

There are a few hours work ahead of me yet to get this tool finished.

Sling Mould – flower print dish

 Today we had a demo in making Sling or Slump Moulds.

You create a sling over a frame, using a towel (or other fabric) – but first you need to find a form.

I had an idea that a lampshade frame would make a good form, so I trotted off to the charity shop to see what I could find.  I found a vintage lampshade that was plastic with a veneer inside.

I draped a towel across the top of the lampshade and tied it tightly with string. 

Then I rolled out my clay and laid it over the top.

Very carefully, with a slightly damp sponge, I eased the clay down onto the towel sling.

Once I was happy with the depth, it was time to trim off the excess.

Then it was time to smooth the whole thing out and make it all neat and tidy.

I decided I would like to experiment and see how rubber stamps might work. I only had a set of two different sized flowers, so went with those.  Have now decided to get some more in different designs 😊

Really pleased with how this turned out – now it was time to cover it lightly and wait for it to become leather hard so I could trim it a little.

Once leather hard, I could trim the lip off a little and tidy it up, then it was ready to dry properly and be fired.

Watch this space for the next update on this dish  :)

Making a hump mould - nibbles dish

Today we had a demo in making Hump Moulds.

You create a form either from handbuilding or throwing, make a plaster cast of it, and from the plaster mould you can reproduce many dishes the same by using slabs of clay that are coaxed into the mould with a damp sponge.

But first the mould………

I decided I would like a kind of pear shaped nibbles dish, that would sit in an almost flower shape when in multiples.  So I formed a solid lump of clay into the shape I wanted.

 Next I put my shape on an acrylic board and built a little wall of clay around it so I could judge where the plaster would go.

Time to mix up the plaster mix….

Plaster Recipe for hump mould:  (to be measured up as required)

• ·       1.5lb plaster powder
• ·       1 pint water

I built up the plaster in layers by hand – I didn’t want the mould to be super heavy, so I added an even layer around the clay but not too much.

Once the plaster was set it was time to flip it over and scoop out the clay.

A quick wash and brush up later and the mould is now ready to go……