Ceramic art and techniques.
We started off our 3 week end exhibition this weekend. Our ceramic group ( Cuesta ) holds a yearly exhibition in an old farm that has been declared a protected monument .
Here are some pics of a glaze i worked on this year. A cone six electric fired iron and ash glaze. A black oxide pigment mix was sprayed on at an angle to pick up the high spots.
This is the latest work i am busy with. I am working on the finish i will get after firing,i am wanting the top of the crackle to sinter out just a bit so i can add what ever i want to the background body.
These bottle shapes have had a terra sigillata cote and have been fired to 1020.The thin one has had two different colors
of terra on and the darker one can be seen to bleed through here and there. I have used a low temp glaze to mask off the parts not to be affected by the smoke. So we shall see how they come out after the smoke fire.
This is a stoneware paperclay body that i used a slab roller and a texture stamp to make. It has been glazed to cone 6 with the following recipe ,—- Porcelain body clay, dry (low temp porcelain 1250c ) 20% / Silica -20% / Wollastonite – 20% / cal bor. frit 5 % / Borax – 15 %/ added 2% red iron ox. and 1% copper carb. The glaze sits well on the body with no cracks but i would like less shine, but not a bad glaze. This was cone six with a 20 min soak. Next time i will add a bit of fine rutil to give it a bit of life.
This is a low temp. red that has had some iron chromate and frited iron solution sprayed onto the glaze before baking to 1050 c. This is normally a deeper red but now there are flashings of orange and yellows. Different but..
Here are some pieces that came out of the bisc. oven. Still working mainly with the slab roller. Shoulder still out of it, so centering on the kick wheel a problem.
Well here it is the end of the year, wow how fast it goes now.Well this will be my last for this year. A large bottle form made out of a porcelain stoneware mix, with a heavy relief pattern. Another one for the drying rack. Happy New year.!
Got this one made early xmas morning. The clay just has to be at the right stage of dryness to be able to shape the form after turning.
