Manhole Cover Art and Bee Lino-cut
A few nights ago, I was walking my dog around my neighborhood in Denver, when I happened upon this manhold cover. While I had passed by on this street many a time, I never noticed it. Maybe, I noticed this time because the sun was setting and the last rays of the day highlighted the fishes’ silhouette. I’m not sure, but I did a double take and knew I had to come back with my camera in tow.
I’ve been wondering what a fish is doing on a manhole cover in the city of Denver. When I saw it today, I realized it reads “Drains to Rivers”. I googled images of manhole covers and there’s quite an assortment of eye candy if only we look down.
Drawing of Bee on linoleum
I have decided to add to my lino-cuts. My lone dragonfly needed another insect companion – the bee.
Bee relief print on clay
I have found that the relief prints on clay work better on flat pieces than ones in the round, so I’m playing around with some different clay shapes to print on. I like the idea of a house and once it’s fired I’ll add a wood block to the reverse side so that this will be able to hang on the wall as a small art piece. I think these might look great in small groupings. Mile Hi Ceramics does carry “ceramic ink pads” that I think I’m going to try out. I imagine these would work like regular stamps and ink pads on paper, only the ceramic ink will be fired onto the piece. What I’m curious to find out is whether the ceramic ink is to be applied on top of other glaze like china paint, or if it’s an underglaze.
Ginkgo Cup – need to work on my technique
Printing the relief prints in the round isn’t working out too great. I suppose I could use commercial rubber stamps, but I like the fact that I’m using my own stamps. It might be better to use the ceramic ink pads to apply my images.
Top view, ginkgo cup
For this cup, I tried to make it square after I had thrown it on the wheel, but, I don’t have the right size paddle. Consequently, the cup has all kinds of dings on it. I’ll most likely recycle this cup.
In other news, I joined another Etsy Street Team called Etsy Mud Team or EMT a group that works exclusively with clay. While it might seem counter productive for a ceramic artist do join other ceramic artists in marketing promotion. I actually think it will be beneficial. We all have different styles and use different materials and firing methods. When I did the Summer Art Market, I noticed that when people came into our booth, they either gravitated to my work, Kathleen’s or Mary Cay’s. There didn’t seem to be any cross-over. So I think this is going to be good!
That’s it for today,
Linocut Experiment part II
I entered the studio yesterday with the intention of throwing some ceramic tumblers to use as backgrounds for my lino-cut prints. And, I did, however, I got sidetracked making these little canvases (photo above) and some more pendants. I rolled out a few slabs of white stoneware clay because I’m just not going to deal with the slumping of the porcelain for this type of work. Some of the best tools that I use are a transluscent 18″ x 24″ self healing cutting mat, a metal ruler and an X-Acto knife. I use these tools for multiple mediums from painting, ceramics and fiber art. Couldn’t live without them!
Choices, choices, choices…I decided that I wanted 3″ square clay canvases for my prints for a couple of reasons. The lino-cuts I made are small, and I wouldn’t be using a lot of material if things don’t work out. I don’t have a slab roller in my studio, so I roll these out by hand with a rolling pin, and some 1/4″ thick pieces of wood to use as guides so that I can get an even slab. Once I let the slabs set up for about an hour, I placed the slabs directly on the cutting mat, lined up the clay with the 1″ guides and cut the slabs using my ruler and an X-Acto knife. I’m trying a couple of different techniques and 2 of the canvases are like tiles with no walls, however, the for the other 6, I added walls to the back so that they’ll protrude 1″ from the wall when they’re hung.
In the past, I’ve constructed ceramic boxes, by mitering the slabs for a really seamless look. It’s a little tricky, but it looks good. Last week, I watched Mary Cay demo making a box from clay using the butt to end joint construction method and decided to give it a try. It was fairly easy, but I’m not sure I’m sold yet. I’m going to sand the edges of the boxes today to see if they clean up a little better. I was perusing claystamps.com the other day because I’m considering buying a signature stamp to use on my ceramic work, and saw the owner also has another cool tool for sale: the Bevel-O-Matic – a tool that bevels clay slabs. I might have to pony up the $14.00 for this tool. When I was in college, I beveled slabs using a 2 x 2 which I had mitred using a power saw to use as a beveling guide. I can’t find my bevel guides, and while I like power tools, I’m a little afraid that I’m going to cut off afinger or two I tried this again.
I threw 3 tumblers yesterday. Don’t ask me why I stopped at 3, because I had prepared 8 – 1 lb. balls of clay. I think the idea to use the lino-cuts on a flat surface popped into my head and I left my wheel to pursue that. I sometimes work in my studio like I talk – in tangents. And boy oh boy – they zing out from no where sometimes. Anyway, when I went back to my tumblers, they were too dry to work anymore. I cracked 2 of them trying to alter the shape. So, for the 3rd and final one, I just printed my ginkgo leaf lino-cut using blue underglaze.
The remaining 2 tumblers, I cut in half. They felt a little heavy and since I have decided not to trim the bottoms of these, I wanted to see how well I did getting the side walls thin. As you can see from the photograph, the bottom is a little too heavy in comparison to the walls. That tells me that I can can go a little further down when I open the clay up and begin to throw. Now, if I had decided to add a foot to these, I think these would have been perfect.
I’ve decided to pass on the Gocco for right now, because I found EZ-Screenprint. You can create 8.5″ x 11″ screen prints that develop using light and regular water – no special bulbs, chemicals or goop. I think I’m going to order one of these starter kits and give it a try. I also found a supplier of special ceramic ink to use to make custom color ceramic decals. First things first…I must push the relief printing a little more.
What are your favorite tools?
Linocut Experiment
In my last post, I wrote about a book, Image Transfer on Clay, by Paul Wandless and some of the techniques that I wanted to try out. I’ve got my eye on a Print Gocco, but first I’m going to try some of the image transfer techniques with the materials that I have readily available in my studio. I have my mind set on making some ceramic tumblers and impressing my lino-cut onto them for decoration. I was at a friend’s house last week, and I drank wine from a handmade ceramic cup and I can’t tell you how much that added to the experience of drinking the wine and spending time with my friend. Suffice it to say, it left me feeling very full and contented.
I need new wine glasses myself and have been searching for just the right ones for the last 6 months or so. I was looking for glass ones, but ceramic ones will be oh, so much better! These will not have the typical stem, but rather will be modeled after some my friends have recently purchased at Divino, that look like small juice glasses.
I chose an image of a dragonfly from some Dover Clip Art as the basis of my design. I was looking for something simple and small that I could use as my stamp. If you sign up for Dover’s email list, they send free clip art samples to you once a week. I have a folder on my computer just for the clip art in the event I need a little help with the shape or details of something I’m making. Once I cut the linoleum down to size I drew the dragonfly directly onto the linoleum.
I haven’t made a relief print block in quite some time and I had to reacquaint myself with the process. Safety precautions: cut away from yourself, don’t have your hands in front of the direction of your carving tool – better yet, use a bench hook to use as a stop.
I used Lyra watercolor crayons to test out my linocut. It works pretty good. Next up today, I’m going to throw some small porcelain tumblers and print my dragonfly onto the clay to see how well this is going to work. So, stay tuned for part 2 coming up the day after next. Here’s an article by Paul Wandless from Pottery Making Illustrated on how to use a lino-cut to impress clay.
Enjoy your Sunday, and Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads out there,
Image Transfer on Clay
I picked up the book (above) from the library a few weeks ago and only got around to reading it yesterday morning. Paul Wandless’ book has me swimming with ideas of how to use some print-making techniques on clay. I think it’s going to be the next phase of experimentation in clay work for me. I do love the immediacy of carving in clay, but it is time consuming, a commodity that I always seem to be lacking lately. I do have some Golden Cut Linoleum that I have been planning on using. I just need to cut the sheets down to size. The ones that I have are 18″ x 24″ sheets. By taking the time to carve a master block, I would be able to make multiples of a single image. I’m a proficient thrower and slab maker so I could easily throw a set of mugs and then “print” the design vs. carving them for hours.
Also up next is trying out some toner decals for ceramic pieces and some other image transfer techniques on clay such as Lazertran transfers as outlined in Paul’s book. Lazertran transfers don’t work for functional pieces because it’s a cold technique, meaning that it’s not fired onto the surface. Toner decals are fired onto the surface which would make these pieces useable.
I’m also intrigued by a Japanese product, called RISO Print Gocco. GOCCO is an at home screen printing process, and depending on the size of your unit, you can make masters for a 4″ x 6″ image up to double that size. Paul Wandless also does screen printing on clay, but the GOCCO seems like it would be a little easier to set up. Instead of inks for the screen printing, underglazes are used for ceramics. The image is then baked on the surface of the piece and it can be glazed too. I have done relief printing on clay before and really enjoyed the process.
You can check out some of Paul’s work here.
I took someone to the airport this morning at 5am, I didn’t realize how beautiful the sunrise is over the city of Denver at that time of day. I wish I had brought my camera!
Have a good weekend everyone,
