Found Clay Prints and Revolutions…
I am happy to say that I have a glaze fire in progress as I write this post which includes my effigy doll! I’ll have to see if I can whip out a body for him in the next couple of days so that I can post the results before leaving on our Griswold family vacation. Meanwhile, I found these 2 clay “prints” above the other day while doing a little studio clean up. These are the simplest of clay prints one can probably make. Simply take a leaf, flower or other item and impress the whole thing into the clay. For these, I added black underglaze and wiped it away which highlights the impression.
I remember making these when I was in school a few years ago for a clay book that I was working on, but never finished. Both sides are printed and it was to become an accordian book bound by wire. The only problem now, is that I can’t find the other “pages” so I’ve decided to glaze only 1 side and will then devise some kind of rustic hanger so these may be wall mounted. I glazed these with a celadon glaze and am interested to see what the transparent pale green glaze will look like over the red clay body.
Last week, I received a phone call that surprised and inspired me – so much so that I had to wait a few days before I could blog about it. Out of the blue, Paul Wandless called me after seeing my blog post about his book, Image Transfer on Clay. He confessed to me that he normally doesn’t call people like that, but he happens to know both my former college ceramic professor, Ray Chen, and my ceramic’s mentor and dear friend, Mary Cay. It’s a small world, isn’t it??
At any rate he gave me some excellent advice on making my own ceramic decals and other alternative processes for transferring imagery onto clay. Did you know that you can do intaglio and solar plate printing on clay? I didn’t either, but am excited to read about it in Paul’s new article coming out this September in Pottery Making Illustrated.
We talked a good bit about stretching the boundaries of traditional clay work and printmaking which excited me so much. I have thought a lot about my push to bring my work to the market versus making work that truly speaks to me on a deeper level. You know what that work is when you’re making it. Your insides sing and time ceases to matter. It’s a bit different than production work – not that there’s anything wrong with that because, of course, we all need to make a living somehow.
Our conversation reminded me of a sentence that I recently read in Art and Fear on the topic of approval and acceptance…
The only pure communication is between you and your work. (pg. 47)
I’ve thought about that sentence a lot and what it really means. Can we live in a vacuum so pure that the rest of the baggage that comes with making art doesn’t matter? I myself have a hard time turning the noise off and it seems to me that must be a most Zen-like disposition to possess.
Meanwhile, Paul is trying to ignite a revolution if anyone is interested!
Thinking in Colorado,
& Lazy Summer Days">Clay Whistle & Lazy Summer Days
It’s the lazy days of summer and right about now, I’m hearing a lot of “Mom, I’m booorrredddd!” What to do? My clay production has slowed down considerably, perhaps due to the heat – though I feel perfectly acclimated now. I only notice it’s hot outside when I happen to pop into an air conditioned store where it’s icy cold. Or maybe production has slowed down because I’m trying to come up with activities to keep my 9 year old from spending too much time in front of the computer screen and TV.
We’ve been trying to go on a lot of field trips including the Titanic exhibit at the Denver Museum of Science and Nature – which was fascinating. We’re going to follow that exhibition up with a trip to the “unsinkable” Molly Brown House right here in Denver. We’re also planning the great American vacation that will most likely rival one of Griswold’s. Yep, we’re going to go camping and will visit Mount Rushmore in a week or so!
Meanwhile, my daughter and I pulled out Ceramics for Kids by Mary Ellis and made our first ever clay whistle. It was a collaborative effort. Originally, we both attempted to make one but we could only get one to whistle, so the other ended up in my scrap bucket. I made the body and my daughter decorated the whistle into a turtle. It’s currently in the bisque kiln, along with my effigy doll head, feet and hands.
If you would like to see how to make your own whistle, visit Chris Henley or Dwight Bartholomew who have some wonderful tutorials available on their websites.
To step it up a bit, visit Kenji Ogawa who makes beautiful ocarinas, or clay flutes. He has also mastered the art of playing the ocarina and even has an mp3 available on his site if you’d like to hear beautiful music being played with an ocarina.
Have a good week everyone,
& Honeysuckle Vase Update">Colored Porcelain & Honeysuckle Vase Update
After starting up my own studio last spring, I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting with different techniques to find my own voice, if you will. It seems like there’s just no end to the techniques and processes in the ceramic arts. I have really been enjoying image transfer on clay and just ordered 100 sheets of traditional decal paper from Ceramic Supply, so expect a lot of this to crop up in my work in the future.
Meanwhile, I have been meaning to play around with some Millefiori/Murrini techniques using colored clay. Some of the artists who inspired me are Jane Peiser, Vince Pitelka and Chris Campbell among others who all use the medium quite differently. I am truly inspired by Jane Peiser, who according to her website is 73 years old (though the website is older – she talks about it being winter in NC and we know that’s just not true) and is still producing art- my hero! Forget about retirement when you’re doing what you love.
Anyway, last spring, I had colored some porcelain with Mazerine blue mason stain and another 1 pound block with a green stain. I forgot about them until recently when I discovered them sitting on the shelf behind some glazes. I decided to whip out a couple of pendants to see how they would turn out. I have to say that I’m pretty pleased. I think today, I’m going to mix up a few more batches of colored clay, but instead of wedging the color in, I’m going to mix the stain in with 2 cups of porcelain slip which I already have made up and then dry them on a plaster slab for later use. I wedged in the color for these and I remember thinking that there had to be a better way because that was a lot of work to throughly mix in the stain.
I’m going to load my bisque kiln today with some of the work from David’s special order. I had hoped to have more work at the bisque stage, but it just hasn’t happened. I’ve been too busy doing something close to nothing (who knows who sang that ditty?). Actually, just enjoying the summer with my daughter and watching lots of movies – just saw Miss Potter and The Last Mimzy this past week. Loved them both!
Till later,
Lazertran Image Transfer on Glazed Ceramic Ware
Yesterday, I was playing around with some Lazertran paper that I purchased at my local art supply store and I’m quite pleased with the results. I first saw some finished projects in Paul Wandless’ book Image Transfer on Clay a few weeks ago and decided to give it a go. Lazertran can, however, be used on any number of surfaces besides clay – check out the Lazertran Gallery for specific examples. Pretty exciting!
Using Paul’s book and the instructions on the Lazertran package, I achieved great results:
To keep it simple, I used clip art to start along, with some glazed ceramic canvases that I had already prepared. This is a cold surface technique, meaning that the decal is not fired onto the finished piece. But, since these are meant for the wall and are functional – that is just fine.
After cutting out the images, I soaked the decals in water until they began to slide off the backing papers
While the decals were still damp, I positioned them onto the ceramic pieces.
Once the decals had dried, I painted on 1 light coat of real turpentine. If you’re going to try this, use the turpentine sparingly – I went over the decals a second time which caused the decal to disintegrate slightly. I don’t think it detracts from the image, but depending on the artist’s intention it could.
After the turpentine had completely dried, I sprayed on a coat of satin polyurethane to seal the image onto the glazed piece. I used Lazertran formulated for inkjet printers which dries white where there are unprinted areas. The polyurethane causes the unprinted parts to become transparent.
I think that there could be a lot of exciting possibilities using this product – including reusing original art, photographs, digital art etc. The sky really does seem like the limit here!
It’s mid-morning on Wednesday and I must get in a few hours in the Studio before taking my daughter and her friend to the Denver Art Museum this afternoon – which should be a muc more enjoyable venture compared to the last time I chaperoned a field trip there.
