Color Studies

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This past month I’ve focused alot of attention on testing glazes. I’m still not entirely comfortable with using colored glazes on my tiles and vessels. But this is the year of conquering my fears so I think it’s time to start addressing the issue.

My biggest problem with colored glazes is their unpredictable nature. This can sometimes lead to nice surprises but more often than not, I’ve been disappointed by them. The most common problem: they obscure details. When one has worked hours on carving or sculpting a piece, it’s a drag to see a glaze smother the effort.

The good news is that I’ve discovered a line of celadon glazes from Amaco http://www.amaco.com/t/glazes-and-underglazes/high-fire/celadons. I’m not sure how long these have been around but I wish that I’d known about them sooner. There are two things that I really like about these glazes. The first is that my favorite glaze (aside from clear) is Potter’s Choice Celadon PC-40. It’s the beautiful bluish green glaze that I use on most of my tiles in  photographs. The reason I like it for my work is that it pools in lines, accentuating rather than obscuring detail. While I love the color of true celadon, I’m glad there are other color options that will give the same effect.

The second reason I like these glazes is that they’re mixable. This might not seem like a big deal but it really is. Mixing colors in most mediums is a fairly straight forward process. Not so with glazes. In the past, mixing two glazes would usually result in something completely unexpected and frequently undesired. Being able to blend colors, as well as, creating tints and shades is very exciting.

 

Stackable Tea Cups

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In an effort to better utilized cabinet space, I’ve modified my original porcelain tea cup design with bases that allow the cups to be stacked. These cups also have a wider band of clear glaze at the lip for easier cleaning. It’s also been fun to experiment with some new tessellation stamps. My next project will be designing a mug with an integral handle. I’ve got some ideas on paper – looking forward to seeing if they’ll work in clay.

Stamp Collection

stamp collection

A few weeks ago I started working on a series of stackable cups. After experimenting with the simple geometric and more complex tessellation stamps I made last year I thought it was time to get back into doing some figurative work.  I decided to translate my tessellation tiles into stamps. I’ve considered doing this for a long time but resisted because I thought it would be too hard to carve enough detail into the stamps to read well (the stamps are about the size of a quarter). Thankfully, carving detail wasn’t a problem. Whether or not they’ll read well (in reverse) when pressed into the slabs remains to be seen. Fingers crossed.

Fresh Off the Press

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My first set of porcelain cups came out of the kiln today. They’re 3 1/2″ high, 3 1/2″ in diameter, and hold 12 ounces of liquid. Like the “prototype” I wrote about in my last post, they’re glazed on the inside and lip but the exterior surface has been left unglazed. I’ve been using the prototype every morning for my coffee and I love the way it feels in my hand – I definitely won’t put handles on theses!

Simple Cup

cup

Since building the slab roller, I bought a book titled 500 Cups. It’s inspired me to try a variety of shapes, textures, and glazes. This simple porcelain cup is my favorite so far. It’s about 4 inches tall and glazed with clear on the inside only. I think the stamped pieces express the softness of clay especially when left unglazed.

Let’s Roll

slab roller

I’ve been pondering the idea of buying a slab roller. The problem is they seem really overpriced. So, today I came up with a simple design and built one. It’s essentially a wooden “track” with a removable canvas-covered board, a large rolling pin, and several pairs of sticks. It allows me to roll out consistent, smooth slabs in a range of thicknesses, very quickly.