Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Journey Workshop Feb 23 - Mar 6



Well I did not make it into the Masterworks East Show. There were about 140 entries with 80 crafts people entering. Evidently ceramics was the largest group - so that makes me feel a bit better. Anyway have been a bit slow to do any work in the last week - seem to be running out to ideas and steam.

I did work on several vases again - but ended up refraining from putting on any appliques - will try just to do the decorating with the glazes.



I also worked on another teapot with wire additions - adding a double loop for the knob to give it more presence. I also made the handle wider as with the last ones the wire created some cracks near the edges. I have tried to make the spout non flaring - maybe finally I have succeeded, but it seems a bit small for the teapot. The others had spouts a tad big. I wanted to get a handle that has some movement - but this handle again looks rather static. Will have to work on that.




I have long been trying to make some plates and bowls and tie them into my other applique work, without using appliques. I feel that the applique does not work well on plates and bowls. So have been trying out similar designs - fish/hair/ladies but using shellac resist and some carving.





I carve around the shellac design after rubbing with a wet sponge, as that gives the design a bit more depth. Also if you rub too much the shellac comes off. A bit is okay as that softens the design. The best way to use this techniques is to use hot paraffin wax as I used to 40 years ago, but that is messy, plus hard to work with when using a brush - though I have used a brass batik pipe(?) (not sure what they are called) to make lines.
On the deeper bowl I first painted on coloured slip - metallic rust and Titanium white mixed 1:1 and then used the shellac resist. Will see how that reacts with the stony yellow.




I also did another plate with stamps and carving and will redo the same glaze - stony yellow/Hannah ochre and try to get a better result with less Water blue on the hannah blue ash.

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