more and more

more handbuilding and more decoration.... I got back to the Clay Spot a few days ago and had some fun with Helios, 

Yesterday I spent four hours decorating the pieces I made, and then another hour today, 

decorating is time intensive!

Along with the silkscreening that I usually add, I did a bit of mishima on most all of the pieces, 

the stechnique is not complicated.  First, you incise a line into leatherhard clay

then, paint underglaze or slip so that it fills in the line,

In the past, I've mixed a bit of white clay into the black underglaze to produce a charcoal color, but this time I went for the whole black

After it sets up a bit you need to remove the excess color, just leaving the part that fills in the line

you can sometimes scrape off some of the underglaze with a metal rib, and you can also use a damp sponge, dampening and wiping, and cleaning the sponge over and over to wipe off more of the streaks

I was working on five small dishes, six squarish plates about five inches wide and three darted cups

some have just mishima, and others have screenprinting as well

I painted the undersides today and added some slip decoretion, but forgot to take any photos,

I also made another eight cups today, so I need to decorate them tomorrow!   

I got a few things glazed that I made last time I was here in march, so it will be fun to see them come out of the kiln.  I've had a bit of trouble figuring out how thick to apply the glaze-- too thick and it looks cloudy over dark colored underglaze, and too thin leads to roughness on the rims.  Hope I get it right this time!

But sometimes plates

The other thing I like to make is little slab plates, 

We have a stack of them in use, and I like them for snacks,

This week I intended to make a small matching set

But I seem to have forgotten my goal partway through the decorating phase

Here the undersides do match..

Also made a couple of vases, 

This one I think the decoration is a bit off, it's too small scale or something

The pinkish areas were also too flat, so I scratched them a bit.  Also, perhaps I needed another color in it, 

Mostly Mugs

It seems that mugs are what I like to make.

When I say I like to make, that means getting them to the decorated stage, not necessarily to the glazed and finished stage

I like to use underglaze, and I like to do slip trailing,

I like to work in small groups, and use one color one day and use another color on another day

Although mostly the mugs I make  are about 4 inches tall, the other day I tried some taller ones, the ones decorated in pink, above.  The walls are quite thin and seem like they might be a bit fragile.  But I like the way they feel.

Critique #2

On the whole, I really enjoy making these little trays. They are quite a nice shape to try out ideas on.

Often the underside is quite different than the top. I like the way the signature is in a cartouche.

It can be surprisingly tricky to paint an even edge when using 3 coats of underglaze. the circles are trailed dots, using wet newsprint circles as guides.

mishima with red underglaze, trailed white slip over pale blue underglaze.

I like trailed lines and dots, it seems. I like a dotted line better than a solid outline, in general, unless it is mishima.

the same flowers as in the dish above, but this time using trailed underglaze instead of mishima,. the rabbit shape was masked off with newsprint, then outlined in brown.

I rather like this one. It uses one of my favorite screens, with the numbers on it. I also like the dots in turquoise over the deep yellow. I like the fanning of the white trailed lines over the dark blue.

this is the underside of the same dish.

This is the link to Mud Colony to see what others are doing this week! http://mudcolony.blogspot.ca/

Little trays

I have been keeping most of the pots I made recently, partly because I tried out so many different combinations of underglaze colors and motifs.
This is one of the color combinations that I liked, shown on two little slab dishes.they are about 3" wide, 5" long, and 1-1/4" tall.

 both of them use a beige underglaze coating, 3 layers,
silkscreened ovals in white,
silkscreened pattern in deep yellow, either the crosshatching or the dots
silkscreened motifs in chocolate brown,
trailed underglaze dots in chocolate brown

 the white over beige makes a kind of iridescent look.

Some Close-ups

These are some close-ups of surfaces,

Silk-screening on Tall surfaces

Yes, I mostly have done stencilled decoration on "tall" things, such as vases, the one below on left is about 9 inches tall.  

 but really, if you lay the piece on it's side, it's just another curved thing.
these are all just bisque,

layers of images,

some of my screens

Starting up again

I didn't really intend to take such a lengthy break from working with clay, but things kept happening, and all of a sudden I realized that I hadn't gone into the studio since mid- October.
However, last weekend I picked up some clay, and my niece came for an overnight visit, and we had a nice time doing some hand-building.
That seemed to get the ball rolling again, and today I spent a few hours in my backyard studio here in Asquith.

I noticed that someone had been interested in how the silkscreening with underglaze is done, and a while back I had taken some photos to illustrate the process.
I won't go into how to make the silkscreens, since that is pretty technical, and you have to do some trial and error to get your setup right. It is also explained in various places if you google it.

This is what I do:
Sometimes I lay down a base layer of underglaze color by painting three coats onto a leather hard clay surface
In the photos, I am working on some tiles, although I am usually working on a rounded surface.
If I want to mask off a section or a shape, I use newsprint shapes that are dipped in water, then they stick to the leather hard clay surface.
Dip the silkscreen into a bucket of water and then blot off the extra water on a towel. If the screen is damp it sort of helps the underglaze to pass through the mesh better. Also it clings better to the surface
Hold the screen against the surface of the clay.
With a small piece of a dry sponge, dip into some thickened under glaze, I usually let some get thicker by letting some of the water evaporate out of it. If the underglaze is too runny, it makes a mess, and the image is blurred.
Dab the underglaze through the screen, or you can rub it in a circular motion.
You can add more than one color to get shaded effects. Take the screen away from the surface
You can screen other images to layer patterns.
If you used a newsprint resist, take it off when everything is still damp. I use a pin tool to lift a corner and then pull it off.

Often I then add slip trailing, or scratch some marks over the screened image for more interest.
I usually bisque, and then cover all with a clear glaze, but recently I fired some things up to cone six with no glaze over, and that was an interesting surface.