My Peru bottle is done. It has been almost all semester but it is finished! That is one thing I have learned about ceramics, everything takes a long long time. Hand building is time consuming, the piece drying is time consuming, and if your glazes are detail guess what? You got it, time consuming! But I still love ceramics and will enjoy doing three-dimensional pieces for the rest of my life. I also love the fact that I will never have to have a “normal” job if I don’t want. Ah, my love of art.

The part that was supposed to be black didn't turn out that way. The red terra sigillata that we mixed the black with needed more black than what was called for.

The Hepworth inspired piece, the second project one is done. I must say that that after all the difficulty I have had with this piece, I didn’t think I would ever like it! But now that it is painted I actually kind of do like it.
This piece broke in the process of moving it to the kiln. Since that happened and all the terrible cracks (I did not like the clay I was using), I had to glue it back together with Elmer’s glue and some grog mix. Grog? Well that is pulverized fired clay. So it is fine particles fired.



Looks great though right? You can’t really tell where it broke so that is all I need.


My coral reef is all put together. I need to add the texture to the Christmas tree worm and the tubes. The springing (all the texture for the reef part) took the longest. But I am quit happy with it.

I will be even happier with it if after it is bisque fired the glazes all come out bright and pretty. That will be this week some time.


Recently I have learned to throw. Now you see other people do it and they make it look so easy. Unfortunately, it is not in any way shape or form easy to learn. The assignment is to throw 6 cylinders. Four of them need to be 6 inches after shrinkage, and 2 of them being 8 inches after shrinkage. I currently have 2 over 6 inches. They are due tomorrow. So guess what I am about to go do? Yep, got to go throw down on the wheel!

These are some stunning pieces of jewelry and metal work, right?


Surprise! They are not metal at all, well kind of. Turns out all these pieces are made from a medium called PMC or Precious Metal Clay. It was first formulated in Japan by the Mitsubishi Motor Company. It has fine particles of silver mixed into the malleable materials. It mold just like clay. Once it is fired in the kiln, the silver melts and creates a fully metallic object. It is pretty neat stuff. The thing I find, is when I learn about new products, or materials, I become curious. So curious that I would love to work with the piece to see how it truly handles. I want to see the extent to which I can push it. PMC is on my list (and it is a long list) to try.


Raku
While it might sound like some sort of Asian food dish or Asian Pop Culture deal, it is not. At the end of this semester, our final project in ceramics is Raku firing. I am looking forward to it! Raku is also developed by the Japanese. I have been at school before when they do Raku firings, and am very optimistic about doing it myself. The Raku firing has a very distinctive smell. Some call it nauseating but I call it wonderful! It smells of campfire and clay.

The appeal of the Raku is its aesthetics. It is usually always full of color and shiny. The colors can blend and merge with each other, creating a beautiful piece, although sometimes it can look a little cheesy. In most cases, Raku gives off this metallic look. Each piece fired will be unique; they never turn out the same. You do have to be careful with Raku firing. It tends to have thermal shock and may explode in the kiln (which is due to the natural process of the firing).

Other than pottery

What really fascinates me are some of the artist out there working with ceramics, that don’t make their pieces just pottery. Ceramics is really a versatile medium and can create amazing abstract and even naturalistic pieces. For instance look at some of Tip Toland’s work. The ability to make it look so much like a real human is remarkable. Tip even goes so far as to use synthetic hair for the pieces. I really love what Tip Toland is doing! I don’t know if I would have the patience for it!

I finally finished putting Norris on to my Peru vase. Lots of little Norris’s all over! Well, three of them anyways. Using the terra sigillata was a little different than the glazes. It was definitely more thin than most the glazes. I had to be careful to not get too much on the brush, other wise it would get all over the place.


I am very excited to see how it will turn out. When I was using the black it was very similar to the dark red. There was only a subtle difference between the two. It was very difficult to distinguish them from each other when they were painted on. Once the piece is fired in the kiln, the black will be very rich.
The Line around the neck of the piece is the black, where as the red the inner stripe after the white!


I was looking at various ceramic artist and I came upon Jennifer McCurdy. All I can say is WOW! Her pieces are absolutely some of the most stunning pieces I have seen in a long time. She does her pieces thrown on the wheel. The wheel is something that takes practice, years of it. As you can tell by the amazing visual effects of her pieces she is a master potter. She uses translucent porcelain then fires it high fired at cone 10.


For my coral reef piece, I am looking at various columns as the base. I am leaning prominently towards the ionic columns. I looked at Corinthian columns but I am afraid that they would over complicate the top part of the piece where the coral reef will be. However, if I could arrange it in such a way as to make it look like the coral reef was actually part of the flowery look of the Corinthian column, it might look alright.
Ionic column

Corinthian Column

I was watching the Discovery Channel’s show Life. It is a fascinating show. I really think the videography is amazing! This particular episode was about deep sea creatures and it had a part about coral reefs. It had an animal on it that I have to use. I loved the way they burrow into the reef then spread open. I can see why they are called a Christmas tree. I have to say the textures and the colors in the reefs are amazing. I am not sure the name of this plant but just look at the textures all over. I love it.
Christmas Tree Worm

I am now on the journey of using terra sigillata to begin the decorating of Nugget and finally Norris, the moon animal will be on the piece. So what exactly is terra sigillata?

Terra Sigillata is what the ancient world used before they had modern day glazes.It is a mixture of dried clay and coloring and water. It comes in mainly white, creme, black, red, and brown. For instance, the Greeks red and black vases are a prime example of this.

There are specific formulas for it, like a recipe for cooking. The one that I made the other day, for instance, had to have 28 pounds of water to 14 pounds of dried ground up, powder form clay. Then after mixing the terra sigillata, we had to let it set. It takes anywhere from 48 hours to 5 days to set the mixture just right. Once it is set there are three distinctive layers in the bucket. The top coat is the water that has pulled to the top, the bottom is left over clay sedatives, and the middle is the good stuff. The middle is the terra sigillata. This is what is used to decorate the pots.

Everything in the ceramics world takes a while to dry. So before I can begin glazing my second piece inspired by Barbra Hepworth it has to dry, which means I am moving on to another piece.

I am now in the process of building a reliquary, but not your ordinary square box with decorations on it. I am making something to hold my Pisces spirit. What better for a Pisces spirit than a coral reef! Clever right? Well I thought so. In order for it to look important and not like a diorama I am morphing it with what will be it’s base. The base will be an ionic column, with curvy flutes. What I am most excited about is the experimentation I will get to do with texture, and once it dries out enough, the bright colored glazes I will get to use! Bright colors make me so happy. Don’t believe me? Take a peek at the bedroom I painted Sunkist orange.

The little curly plants in the picture below is what inspired me for the ionic columns.

While I am working on this Coral Reef Reliquary, I am using recycled clay. Yep, I said recycled clay. I had no idea you could do this, but turns out you can. You take pieces of dried up, hard clay then soak it in water. The water puts the moisture back into it. Then you use a machine called a pug mill.

This is an example of a pug mill. The tube coming out of the right is the clay!

As you are putting the clay into the pug mill you make sure there are no random items in it, like a spoon, or rubber ribs (we found these when we were using the pug mill). The pug mill, with the mixture of grog (pulverized fired clay or even temper), push it out into clay bars, which in turn can be reused for more projects. It is very nice to not have to go to the store to get more clay, but to reuse stuff people didn’t need or want. Talk about being green!