Ceramics: A Horrible Guessing Game?

Why, yes! 

Yes. 

It is.

The gallery opening at Roos Arts in Rosendale happened last night. This event was in conjunction with the Women's Studio Workshop's annual Chilibowl fundraiser.  Local ceramists worked with volunteers at WSW to create donations.  All proceeds will go directly to the studio!  Exciting.

Anyway, I made a contribution.  Here's the thing... I decided to work a surface I don't usually work on using two processes brand new to me and one in which I had dabbled.  Also I don't know anything about clay bodies, slips, or glaze colors.  So just so we're straight, I'm making excuses as to why it looks ugly.  Or why I'm not happy with its existance.

Anyways.

Greenware: before first firing

Process 1:  Glaze silkscreen transfer.  I had a hexagonal pattern representing a beehive.  It was an earthy reddish brown before firing.  I silkscreened my image onto some tissue paper and then immediately pressed it into my piece.   For the most part it was successful.  Small parts of the image I had to fill in with a brush.

Process 2: Sgrffito!  (I'm not 100% on this spelling, sorry to all my clay people)  Sgrffito is a process with two layers of clay. You start with a base (your bowl or object) and apply a colored slip (liquid clay) When the slip is dryish using a variety of clay tools you remove the top layer. The process is similar in effect to wood cut or etching. What I sgrffito-ed was eggs in my beehive glazed image.  This is when the piece became much more abstract/ambiguous than originally planned.

Process 3: Wax in-lay.  Similar to sgrffito but you are adding a layer of wax to the equation. You carve through the wax and then lay colored underglaze into the lines. The wax resists the underglaze and burns off in the kiln.  Wax is not as clean as sgrffito.  Wax sticks to itself.  I had to layer wax very thick to fill in my previous sgfrfito-ed parts so they wouldn't fill with the yellow slip I was using for bees.  

Waxed bees.  

It was kind of a mess.  

The longer I worked with it the more I appreciated what you could do with it.  

However, I achieved none of its potential with this first attempt.

End product

We can see here how the silkscreen underglaze got lost in my black slip.   Which, to me, looks better.  I feel like at some point I teetered on a line between representational or not and a stronger push in either direction would have created a stronger piece.  Also I think the composition is kind of whack.  The yellow slip for the bees was much brighter than anticipated.  

LUCKILY, 

because ceramics is  

(title reference) 

a horrible guessing game

my piece cracked in the kiln!  

In two places! 

It's not show worthy.

Ha.

Ha ha.

Bwahahahahahaha.

I'm pretty stoked about this because I ended up showing a piece I was proud of, created for last year's chilibowl but not fired in time. Scraffito all the way baby.  I'm very sorry to whoever threw this piece because I can't link to your work since I don't know who you are.  Hopefully some sleuthing will result in me updating this with credit to you.

Roos submission complete!

That'll be the end of this one.  

And just for funsies, I'd like to introduce my editor:

She hasn't figured out the password yet.

Waterlogged

Dear god.

It's been like 2 weeks.

 Ok go!

I was hoping to update with some kinda finished projects BUT I don't have any yet so this one's gonna be quick and dirty.  After making encaustic paint for the past 6 months, I finally got the stones to paint with some.  In progress:

Figured I might as well try and make that drawing look like a finished piece.

For the first time in way too long, I spent the entire weekend in the studio!  I should have taken more pictures so this could be a photo laden post without tired brain babbles.  Oh well.  

What I did was turn this:

Into this:

Since I wanted a longer fiber in the paper I didn't adequately cut down my flax before loading the beater.  After a 9 hour beating time on Saturday, I gave the machine a rest and finished it up on Sunday morning.  Even after waiting until the beater was down to add the abaca, the flax still needed a few more hours which resulted in slightly shorter flax fibers and over beaten abaca.  All sheets pulled today are in the dry stack so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see how they turned out.  The beginning of pulling sheets was rough.  It had been awhile.  Only about half of the pulp was used so there are plenty of second chances in a vat just waiting.

For reals next time, before and after pictures of the Roos Art ceramic piece.  The second firing took place yesterday.  

Still trying to take myself seriously.

Seriously.

50% of the time, it works EVERYTIME.

Hey hey! It's been a week(ish) so I'm back.  The super bowl happened.  The commercials were .... pathetic.  C'mon guys, how much are you paying for this prime airtime?  Damn you for making my super bowl a less enjoyable experience.  Luckily for both of us, (the commercials or whoever was responsible for them and me) I was passed out from overeating for most of them.  Oh, to be an American.

WOAH, deviated from what I'm supposed to be talking about.  This week I worked on a graduation present for my best-friends-foreva-hetero-life-partner-blah (BFFHLB) Tina! 

This is my first attempt at a top whorl drop spindle.  Turns out research really is key for most things.  My design certainly leaves a few things to be desired.  Fortunately, the present accidentally remained hanging in my kitchen while I drove the 210 minutes south to Wilmington, DE., THUS giving me more time to make a new one since my first was so subpar. 

I shaped a 1/2 in wooden dowel on a belt sander to snugly fit (not quite snug enough, I had to fudge it with some PVA) my top whorl which was a piece of alabaster that was shaped, sanded, carved, and polished into a 3 in diameter disk with a notch for the yarn to rest. 

If anyone is unfamiliar with the term "top whorl drop spindle"  its a tool that you can use to spin yarn from carted wool.  My BFFHLPB Tina! is an excellent crotchet-(er) person so I usually try and give her a yarn themed present.

Problems with my design:
-Top whorl too heavy
-Top whorl not wide enough, doesn't provide optimum spin
-Top whorl not attached in a snug, central way

Geez, when I list it that way it sounds like I made it 100% incorrectly.  Look, it works, I promise, it just doesn't work WELL.  I'd like to try again, flattening and widening my disk and drilling a hole for the dowel that's much closer to the actual size.  Although I love the feel of finished stone, I think attempt number 2 will be all wood all the time.  Maybe this time I will play with stains as well since time is on my side.

Other news:  first attempt at paper marbling hilariously terrible.  Thanks to some coworkers, friends, and a little bit of patience, optimism is restored for round two of paper vs. ink.

Again.
Research would have been helpful.
It'll be ok.

Looks like this coming week is a do over.

Next time:  details about the upcoming ceramics show at Roos Gallery in Rosendale, NY with progress pictures of my collaboration with the WSW  Ceramics Coordinator Ruth McKinney Burket.

Cha know, Steph Bell.
Same name.