week 25 - another successfull Making Day

A few weeks ago I wrote about the volunteer work that I do for Kirkgate Studios & Workshops and the fundraising that we are doing. We have had two more 'Making Days' in June so I thought it was time to report on them!

Knitting
KS&W has a group of absolutely enthusiastic knitters who can whip out a pair of fingerless glove in a few hours. One of our users Gill Smith has brought in a fabulous array of knitting patterns. That combined with the reams of yarn that have been donated = some very nice items for the craft sale!



Fingerless mittens - I am so buying a pair for myself!!


Leaf Bowls
Our second making day focused on 'Leaf bowls' which are always a crowd pleaser. The sun had been shining and the leaves were out, a group of about 10 of us made over 20 bowls. The leaves are rolled into the clay with the back side down so the veins leave an imprint, then you carefully cut around the edge of the clay and leave to harden in a plaster mold so they curve upwards.



Raw materials and pieces drying in clay moulds

Finishing touches as the clay dries for biscuit firing.






Egyptian Paste
Egyptian paste is a new material for most of us but it is an old technique because it was developed and first used by the egyptians. It is a self glazing clay - which means that you only fire it once. You can achieve different colours by mixing different metal oxides into the base mix. Blue, torquise, green and purple.

Gill has used this material before and brought in these examples. Very pretty and tactile!



Here we all are making the beads. The oxides are strong chemicals, so it is best to wear gloves when working with the paste.


Putting hundreds of beads on the racks...




In addition to the beads we made these pendants - a mixture of scarab pendants and other shapes.

week 24 - Second week of Raku

I had a very productive day making more items !

Three leaf plates - these should make good Xmas presents!



Close-up - the veins in the leaves make wonderful impressions in the clay!


Another 2-sided bottle, this time in a more heavily grogged clay so the finish will be different. I dont intend to polish this bottle, but will probably glaze it in white instead, leaving a few areas bare so that they go black.





2 patchwork bowls - these are made by putting textures on bits of clay and then just fusing them together with slip. Because the clay runs in all different directions, this kind of bowl is supposed to hold up really well in the Raku firing. All the textures will be places for the glaze to pool, they should look really cool.



This one developed a little hole while I was making it - so I just let it develop, it could look really nice on the finished article!



I was tempted to make more today, but I think that I probably have enough work to fire, I might struggle to get them all done in one firing day actually!!

week 23 - First week of Raku

Raku is a type of japanese pottery where the pieces are fired in an outdoor kiln, usually a gas one. When the piece is red hot (around 800'C) you remove it from the fire and put it in metal container with organic/flammable materials (usually wood chips).

When the ceramics meet with the flammable materials, they catch on fire. This does 2 things - creates smoke and creates a 'reductive' atmosphere where the oxygen is being used up by the burning materials and then carbon is drawn into the bare clay colouring it black. Where the clay is covered with a glaze, certain special effects can be achieved, again due to this condition of heat without any oxygen. The most well known of these is a cracked appearance where the fine cracks have all been coloured black by the carbon.

Because the clay heats up relatively quickly and then cools down quickly, they clay goes under a lot of stress. Certain modelling techniques work better than others - also the type of clay you use makes a big difference. Relatively simply forms without lots of breakable appendages are best! Rough textures and unfinished edges can look wonderful!

I had my first Raku class (it is spread over 4 Wednesdays) and it was great!

I made some test tiles and buttons and also a fairly finished 2 sided bottle. It will not have any glaze but will have horse-hair sprinkled onto it and then polished with wax. The horse-hair, gives a wonderful wiggly linear sort of imprint as it burns and fuses to the pot.







Next week is the second week of making, I have a few more ideas I want to try: leaf plates, I bet these look incredible in Raku. I also want ot make another 2-sided bottle and a few 'patchwork' bowls. The creative juices are really flowing!!!!

week 22 - Polka Dot Bowls

The best thing about Wednesdays-for-art is that when you have an idea or feel inspired, you are only a week away from an Art day and you can make it!

I had lots of fun today making these polka-dot bowls! They turned out really well; I am pleased.

Making my spotty clay using bits of dried up slip that I rolled into balls and then pressed into the clay and rolled flat.


Spotty clay in the mold


I made one in grey Croxton and one in Terracotta. They both have white and dark green spots.



My braid pots came out of the kiln as well - they look great! I am glad I waited until I was sure of what I wanted before I glazed them. The larger one is for kitchen utensils and the other one is for your nail brush and sponge. I think I am going to make one to contain herbs. I've been using this plastic container on my window sill...it doesn't really look very good, lets be honest!

That is next weeks project planned!

week 21 - Experiments semi successful...

A few more test tiles came out of the kiln that combined the Mocha technique with coloured slip and bits of coloured clay that were pressed into the tiles. Some interesting effects, I am intrigued to see that the kind of oxide that I used in the mocha did not change colour in the firing. Some of them do (esp the cobalt blues).

This one is the most successful I think - the black swirl is actually shiny black glaze and the rest was gazed with clear. Overall I'm not too sure that the mocha works with the other elements. I think it is one of those techniques that needs to be used on its own or very sparingly.



The background of this is green slip - it often goes metallic like this, but I did not expect it to come out so splotchy. The braid is white slip that I rolled into the clay and it finished in clear glaze.



This tile has dark blue slip painted on it and then the white blob of slip on top. The cobalt in the blue slip reacted with some of the glazes, their should have been orange spots on this and now it looks like it has mold growing on it! The swirls are that shiny black glaze again and the rest is in transparent. Weird. Ceramics meet science experiment.



This tile has two colours of slip pressed into it: a braid of white and balls of green slip. On top I brushed some brown slip and squirted a few linear elements in brown. It is just glazed in clear. I like how they green balls sort of make fuzzy polka dots. I might have to do a bit more experimenting with that technique!!

Hmm I feel a new series coming on! I better get down to KS&W!