Glaze Tests, Lino-Cut Update and EZ Screen Print
Working at the ceramic studio at the Art Student’s League of Denver allowed me extensive use of their bucket and commercial glazes which was fabulous. I had a great deal of options available to me. Now that I am going to be working from my home studio, I am faced with the daunting task of making my own glazes or purchasing commercial glazes. Stocking and furnishing my studio has proved to be expensive and I have a wish list a mile long. I knew it would be like this in the beginning so I make do where I can. I have the basics and it’s amazing how many common every day things can substitute for the “real” equipment.
For example, I’d like a slab roller but a good one cost $1,000+. So, I use a humble rolling pin, 2 wooden slats as guides to get an even thickness and regular old canvas. It works but not with the same ease as a slab roller. One of my first tasks is deciding which glazes I want to use in my studio. For functional ware, it’s much more economical to make my own glazes. For the time being, I’ve decided on a clear, white, pale blue, blue/green and celadon. I, know they’re all related colorwise. I do think I could have some versatility with the clear and white by adding mason stains for the colorant.
I decided to make 3,000 gram batches of each glaze for my studio to start. I already know that this isn’t enough. I made these in 5 gallon buckets – and initially added too much water to the raw materials when I made the glaze. I won’t be able to dip my work, but will have to brush on the glaze. I’m lazy in that regard and want to dip my work. I don’t mind brushing on the glaze, but it’s difficult to get an even application of glaze. So, I’ll most likely be making larger batches in the future. After making the glaze and then firing these test tiles, I decanted a lot of water from the buckets. They’re a-ok right now.
I had a glaze fire in my mini Aim 88T Test Kiln yesterday and just peeked in the kiln this morning. I’m so pleased with the outcome of the firing and my new work! One of the items that went into the kiln were these little stoneware canvases above. I’ll share the glaze fired results in my next post. I brushed on black underglaze and then wiped off a good bit of that so that the black would sink into the recessed areas of the relief prints. Twitters about…
Last week, I ordered the EZ Screen Print Kit. On Saturday, the kit arrived in the mail and I’m excited to try it out. I think I’m going to start by screening underglaze onto a couple of test pieces and see how that works, because I still have to order the decal paper and the overglaze. Mile Hi Ceramics doesn’t carry overglazes, and Stone Leaf Pottery is closed on Mondays, so I might have to place an online order for someAmaco Water Based Versa Color Overglazes. This would be awesome if these worked because they’re water based vs. oil based and they’re lead free. China paint and overglaze traditionally include lead as an ingredient which would not make this type of work suitable for functional work – nor is lead something I want to expose myself to.
Meanwhile, today, I’m going to go to Meiningers or Jerry’s Art-O-rama to pick up some Lazertran to do some cold surface image transfers onto a glazed surface that is already prepared!
Have a good week everyone,
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?
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,
