I have these lovely orange lilies in the living room that lift my spirits each time I walk through the room. The pleasure these flowers give me stimulated me to make a tall, heavy bottom vase to hold an arrangement of tall flowers without toppling over. After the vase was thrown, I decided I would try using the punch'ong stamps I bought at NCECA last year. I love the work made with these stamps but so far I have not mastered the use of these stamps. The stamps are of small flowers--like little daises. Slip is applied over the stamped area and after the slip has firmed up a bit it is scraped off the high areas leaving the slip only in the recessed area formed by the stamp. My clay fires to a very light grey so I used a red oxide slip. After I had painted the slip over the stamped area I thought I might use leave it that way--the trouble I've had using the stamps int he past is in trying to remove the slip from around the stamps.
Then I realized that I was treating this project as "too precious" for not wanting to follow through on the process. So I have gone back scraped away slip between the flowers. So we'll see how this works after it is bisqued and glaze fired.
With the help of a friend, I did get new elements into my kiln so it is ready to fire and I have a batch of dried pieces ready to be fired. Feels good to be back in the swing of the studio.
7 comments:
Wooohoo! Look forward to seeing these come through, well done. Great to see you up and running again.
Cheers
Doug
Doug, Thanks for the note. You can't imagine how much I appreciate your attention! Fondly, Gay
Gay, I'm glad you decided to take the chance and scrape away some slip. It will be very nice I'm sure. Nice form too. Ron
I want to see what the influence or idea is behind this? A pot that works the way you think it should work? The reason I ask is because I have tried some of this slip inlay stuff and I wiped while wet and when dry and it didn't really work at all! Most frustrating. But I've seen it work - Shimaoka for example inlays with his rope patterns - quite shallow I think - how does he do it???? I look forward to seeing how yours turn out.
Anyway, I agree, it's good to see you up and running again. And I know the feeling about the flowers. I know it isn't fashionable amongst heterosexual men, but I love flowers and at the moment, i have one of my new batch of pots, sitting on a window with Blackthorn blossom in it - very spring like and very japanese in essence, and very very cheering.
Thanks Ron and Andrew! Feels good to be back in the circle of working potters--even if/when working very slowly. Will try to load the kiln this evening or tomorrow morning--am eager to get some glaze on the pots.
I am not sure what Andrew is asking: "I want to see what the influence or idea is behind this? A pot that works the way you think it should work? "
Instead of rubbing the slip off the raised surface, I scratched it off with an exacto knife. Especially because of the red iron oxide I was afraid of smearing the slip all over the pot. Even using the knife very carefully, you can still see where the rio has blended into the surrounding areas.
Thanks for keeping in touch. Gay
Know what you mean when you refer to a plateau in the work with an attitude of: to precious (to continue).
Something inside the psyche says: "well, i was going "here" but this is pretty good and i'm afraid of messing it up."
That happens to me often!
Love your vase and will be most interested to see how it comes thru the bisque.
Bravo! on getting your elements installed. Admire your courage!
Hugs
Chae
Chae, I'm not brave at all! I would NEVER have thought to change the elements myself if a friend had not said that it was not hard and she would come help me through the process. It took us lots of time--surely someone being paid $50/hr would go faster--but really it is not hard. And especially after having working throuh it once it will be a snap to do again. Having 2 people does not make it go faster--only one can work in the kiln at a time (unless you take it apart which we did not do--but it was great to have another to confer with and to double check what we were doing. At the end, we had to go to another firiend's house to look at her kiln of same brand and model to check the wiring.
BTW, I wish you could get an electronic kiln. Then you could set it to do what ever you want--no more babysitting for ending moment to restart the kiln.
Today on Jeanette Harris' blog I read: "Good judgment comes from experience and a lot of that comes from bad judgment." In reference to protecting myself from the "too precious" syndrome! Gay
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