Posts Tagged “shiva paintsticks”

Cone 6 glazed stoneware
The cylinder above and the one below were part of a 4 part exercise to play around with different surface decorations on thrown forms. Both techniques are similar in that I carved away a design from the clay when it was still green (unfired). The difference is that the one below used a colored slip on the surface. I colored slip with copper carbonate and a little rutile to get the light green color on the raised portions of the cylinder.

Cone 6 glazed stoneware with colored slip
So where do I go from here? I like both the techniques and am incorporating colored slip and carving in my new work. 2 of the other techniques that I’m trying are a cold surface technique using my Shiva Paintsticks and other 2d materials. It also means that the surface decoration will be done after the piece is bisqued, and will never be glaze fired. It will render the piece non-functional since it won’t be able to withstand much handling which has its place in ceramics. Finally, the last technique that I tried was to carve a shaped stamp from some spongy foam material which I then used to apply glaze on the cylinder. The latter should be out of the kiln tomorrow.

I also like to consider the uses of every object that I make including my experiments. I think that these would make great utensil holders - practical and useful. In other news, my inlaws are in town visiting from San Antonio and will be here for a week, so I’m not sure how much I’m going to get accomplished in the next few days.

Tags: ceramic utensil holders, cone 6 glazes, pottery, shiva paintsticks, stoneware

I finished stitching, quilting and binding this one yesterday afternoon. It always takes me longer to do than I think it will. The finished size is 17.75″ x 20.5″, paint, fabric, batting and thread. I have also have this listed in my Etsy Shop.

I won’t be working on any art today, I spend Wednesday mornings at my daughter’s school and this afternoon, I’m having lunch with my ceramics mentor from the Art Student’s League of Denver. I’m getting back into clay and ceramics and will be building my studio as soon as it warms up.

Have a great day!

Tags: art quilt, shiva paintsticks

A grouping of some fabric impressions I made with Shiva Paintsticks
Impression on white fabric on top and painted fabric on bottom
Impression on brown fabric
The linocut that I used to make the impressions on the fabric samples
I was playing around in my studio yesterday with my new Shiva Paintsticks. I tried a number of techniques, but one that I think is really successful is to rub a paintstick over fabric that has been placed on some type of texture. I have some texture plates, but couldn’t find them anywhere because my studio is currently in a state of uncontrolled chaos and must be straightened up before I do anything else…toute suite!

Do you know how it feels when you know you have something and can’t find it anywhere. Then you end up making more of a mess in your desperation to find said item? That’s what it was like for me today, except that I did come across some lino-cuts that I had made in college from a print-making class. Perfect for placing under the fabric for an interesting design.

I should see if I can find any of the prints that I made using this particular lino-cut and share them with you. I also found two unused 18″ x 24″ pieces of Golden Cut Linoleum. I should cut these into smaller pieces and make some custom rubbing plates for myself. Of course, I would need to find my palm grip carving tools. They’re around here somewhere.

Now, I must wait for these fabric samples to dry. In the meantime, I started stitching this.

Observations: When I was painting the backgrounds onto the fabric I did try the Shiva Colorless Blender, which works pretty good. I think that I would go through one of these pretty quick, however, so I think I’ll stick with some type of oil based medium. I have also identified the colors that I will run out of fastest and the colors that I would like to have such as true pink, purple, lime green and maybe a few others to round out my palette.

Tags: fabric painting, lino-cuts, shiva paintsticks