New Work/Raku

Raku Sculptured Pot

This is my newest Raku piece. Last Wednesday we fired up the raku kiln. It is much more pleasant now the weather is cooler. There is nothing much hotter than doing raku in Florida in the summer! If you think collage, a piece of clay here, a stamped section there, and then shaped as if a sculpture that is how I approach my pottery. The glazes used are a sagent green which bring out coppers and gold tones and a white crackle for contrast. The areas left unglazed turn black in the oxygen reduction process of the firing. This is not a huge piece as it may look in the photo, it is a small piece, but oh so sweet.

I love making areas that are like emblems or patches, then adding them on to the surface of the pot. I like texture working against texture, and marked contrast. I am not a potter as such, I am an mixed media artist learning about pottery and glass fusion. I am learning how to bring these experiences back to my mixed media world. I am also allowing myself to just relax and try something totally different...not worrying about anything, but enjoying the media and seeing what it will do if I approach it without rules or expectations. I just want to experiment and play and break the rules...fresh eyes, new approach, discoveries along the way.

I make my own stamps out of clay. I try to keep making them and have a number waiting for my use at any one time. There are many versions of stamps. The can be small single stamps, they can be cylinders that roll, or curved rectangles that rock back and forth. Texture mats are very helpful as well. The wave portion on the section above is done by a texture mat.

Creating Your Own Push Molds

As you know I am mainly a fine artist and the mere mention of molds makes me think of patterns, stencils, and other things not created by oneself. But when our teacher Kathy mentioned using found objects to push into clay to make your own molds, she had my attention. If I can make it or design it myself then I am fine. These were projects one group was making using push molds made with a variety of texture mats and objects. As long as an object has a very high relief, and is fairly firm you can use it for a push mold. Just push it down into a piece of clay, bisque fire the piece and next time you are ready to make a mold of you own design. I have one art piece that I made my own molds for using real cowboy boots. Instead of clay I pushed them into plaster of Paris I had poured into a wooden box frame. Then I made a reverse mold. I put the boots in a raku firing and mounted them on an old rusted ironing board. The piece was called line dancing, it came out very well.

PRINTING ON CLAY

PRINTING ON CLAY

There are many methods one can use to print on clay, but this is one our class found that has been successful for us.

We experimented with various ink recipes and different ways of putting the " ink" on clay. Our teacher Kathy made many test tiles and made notations on each. It was truly a trial and error process. That is what I love about art, the process of experimentation. In the first to photo's Kathy is selecting a xerox image for her pottery. All the images we use are either royalty free or our own drawings and photo's.

Supplies you will need:

1) xerox image

2) "clay ink"

3) brayer

4) 2 plastic bowls of water

5)newspaper

6)rubber gloves

7)small sponges

1)Choose your image, cutting off excess paper, but leaving a good half inch.

2) Apply a teaspoon or more of gum of arabic solution to the glass.

3) Put your image on top of the wet area image facing upwards.

4) Rub the excess gum solution over top of image.

5) Take sponge and wipe around image removing excess gum solution

5) Apply ink to brayer and roll on to image. It is best to roll in one direction and then repeat rolling in the opposite direction.

6) Using a small sponge with water softly dab the image until ink is removed. It may take several times.

7) Repeat three times, apply ink and removing

8) After the last application carefully put image on clay that has been allowed to dry slightly, not quite leather hard. The clay must be moist enough to absorb the ink.

9) Now burnish lightly with a spoon and allow to dry

10) burnish again lightly and remove.

The ink will be very smudgy until the clay is fired, so be careful touching and handling during this phase.

Clean the water often. One bowl should have a teaspoon of gum solution and clean sponges. The other bowl will be for the inking and re-inking process. This is a very messy process so rubber gloves keep your hands clean while you work with the ink.

One of the things that one must be careful about is rolling on the ink. It is easy with small images for them to just roll on to the roller and then it is tricky to get them off in one piece.

Dabbing the image softly many times removes the ink, until you are ready to re-ink and then finally apply it your clay piece.

In this image Kathy is placing her picture on her pottery piece being careful to leave

space for other images.

In the photo to the left Kathy is burnish the back of the photo with a metal spoon.

A plastic spoon will work also.

Judy is one of my classmates who is trying the process for the first time with great success.

I will post the exact "clay ink" formula for you in the next post. You will need gum solution, linseed oil and a ceramic powder. The ink needs to be made 48 hours ahead of time. After the initial mixing of the ingredients, the ink must be repeatedly shaken for 20 minutes. Putting small marbles or pebbles inside the jar helps to mix the ink better. Once made the ink must be used and not saved more that a couple of days or it will crystalize.

Tomorrow Printing on Clay!!!

PRINTING ON CLAY

Art class tomorrow is printing on clay! Our teacher Kathy, and I worked to come up with a recipe and techniques that are successful in putting photo images on clay. Here are two tiles and a pot I created with photo images transferred to a clay surface. The first is a nature study of insects. The second is an early geisha photo taken from my Japanese post card collection. The pot to the left is an image of my Mother when she was in college. She is now 98 and a half. She was a science teacher and biology major. She taught me a love of science and nature. One of my earliest memories is of the science department when Mother was studying for her masters degree. I was 5 and my brother was 9. We went with her to school and while she was in class we were allowed to visit the university campus. I remember the glass jars with specimens and mounted insects. I remember the old worn dark wood floors. The memories still influence my art today. I wonder what memories you have from your childhood and how they influence your art or appreciation of the arts today.

More of the Blue Spiral Gallery/Asheville

Square footage wise, one of the largest galleries in the South East. A wide variety of fine crafts and art is represented in this gallery. While many galleries have struggled through these touch economic times this gallery seems to thrive.

I apologize that I do not have the names of the artist work you are seeing, but if you go to the websites of interest, click on the Blue Spiral it will take you directly to their site and you may ask further information.

MAKING THE CHOICE/ORIGINAL ART

Making the choice to have original art is your home is a conscious deliberate plan. I have buy a piece at time, or make something myself or trade with artist friends. In Asheville I even had the good luck to find the work of a well know artist that had been given to good will charities. It was for resale at a huge discount.

The platter above is one I made. One of the first functional pieces of art I have ever made. Not perfect, but it works and I like the glaze.

The blue stone wear hand thrown plates have been with us a long time. My Partner, Ann, brought them with her from Colorado.

They are some of my favorite pieces.

The lovely wheel thrown bowl with the warm brown glaze is made by my sister in law April. She is a very good wheel person, she can throw huge bowls. The shapes are lovely and the glazes wonderful(she makes her own).

Make a commitment to art, your own and others. Choose to have original art in your home and life!