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!

december 2014

this is one of my favorite places anywhere,  The Clay Spot! 

i went for a few hours on Monday to construct some bowls, and then again Wednesday to decorate,

There are six bowls and two plates. i used a variiety of screen prints, some mishima and a bit of slip trailing.  It has been so long since I did any clay that The decorating didnt really all come together the way it sometimes does.  however, it was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed the process a lot.

The clay is Helios porcelain so the final colors should be quite clear and the clay body a beautiful white.    we'll see... 

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.

More tiles

These tiles all have some green on them. I like the chartreuse underglaze, and I have been trying to develop another darker green glaze that won't go all of or brown at cone six

This is closest I've come to a medium green, and I wish I could remember what I did to get it. I think I must have combined chartreuse with another color.

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Notes on some ongoing ideas

 Just a couple of notes on things...
I changed the SD card on the camera, and found that I had taken a photo of my letter tiles a week or two ago.  They are shown here laid out on a paper.  the largest tiles are about 8 inches tall,

 Of course there are lots of things to look at and mull over.  there were a lot of square tiles that have letters on them that i did not think to take a photo of.   I'm not really satisfied with them at this point.  I need to mull over why that is and what to do next about this project. 

2.  About a year ago I made this little tree and the birds.  You can tell the scale of  them by the size of the lilies.

 The birds aren't permanently affixed to the tree branch, but there are holes with a wire that connects them. 

 I think that I'd like to try another thing like this, and vary it a bit.  Also, what about leaves on a tree.  Or maybe a more abstract perch for the birds.  Maybe more birds. 

This morning I went to a sculpture class at "Savannah's Clay Spot" (HI Lisa).  It was quite fun, and somewhat stimulating.  I need to think about what I want to make, but in the meantime, I have started to make a large oval, "boat-shaped" footed bowl.  and also a hill with a couple of sheep on it.  Not sure where I'm going with that yet. 

Mishima

whether some of these are technically mishima, I don't know. 
Mishima is usually used to describe laying slip into incised lines in the clay.  Often I press lines into clay with stamps, especially carved wooden or rubber stamps.  Other times I draw into the clay with a somewhat blunt pencil. 

 here, the gray lines were made with bisque roller stamps, and the circle and flower design on the lower part of the pot is made with a flexible rubber stamp.

 Here the mishima is the red flowers.

 I often use it on edges

 I usually remove the extra color on top with a flexible metal rib, and a damp sponge. 

New Directions

I haven't been selling the things I've been making, so even though I've been giving many items as gifts, I am starting to stockpile a lot (really a lot) of mugs, trays, vases and bowls.  At some point, this is sort of disturbing to me.  If I continue to make things, it feels odd to just make them to put in a growing pile of stuff.  Because of this, I decided to branch out into different types of ceramics beyond functional ware. 
One direction that I thought of going is to small sculptures.  This is intriguing to me, but somewhat daunting, for whatever reason. 
Another direction is in to making tiles.  I love tiles, and have loved them for years.  I don't feel bad at all about having big stacks of tiles around. 
So, when I went back to my studio this past week, I rolled out slabs and started cutting tile.  As one thing leads to another, I decided to bring my love of letters into the tile.  So, now I have embarked on  making letter tiles.
Just another surface to play on. 

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