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I am going to post this one quickly, blogger would not work on Monday when I wanted to post, I think we all had the same problem. So here are the pot with the second colour applied over the paper cut outs. Once all the papers are removed and the pot has dried a little I have painted on four black windows for the birds, these are then scrapped away leaving a boarder. There is a lot of painting and scraping. I had a comment form Amapolablau from Switzerland about the layers of slip, I lost it, so if you can send it again that would be great and I can answer your question.
6 comments:
Hi Kitty, another beautiful pot, and so much work, so glad you are showing your process here. I had a problem with blogger too. I had a whole post done and it disappeared and I had to re-write and re-load the photos and then quickly post. I think they must do some updating of their site or something, it would be nice if they let us know when they are doing that.
Thanks Linda, I will post again soon on the next stage.
Hi Kitty, here I am again. I have been following your blog and marvelling at your incredibly beautiful pots for some time. I am just back from a workshop about plant + paper resists at West Dean College near Chichester with Gordon Cooke. He wanted us to apply the engobe very thick so I was really surprised when I read that you apply so many coats. Do you use the slip water thin then? At home I have a big problem with pinholes + boiling/blistering when I apply several different colours. And I always wonder how you manage to do such a lot of work in what seems so little time. Thank you for sharing so much and being so nice. Wishing you felices pascuas
heidy
Kitty, If I have not commented on your pottery let me now say they are truly wonderful. Keep up the good work.
Amapolablau I have successfully downloaded your comment this time. Now to the slip; I suppose I do use it fairly thin, it is between single and double cream in consistency. I can be very obsessed with my slip; it is after all the canvas I work on. If I am pouring the slip or dipping then it is just one coat but it goes on so much thicker then. The 200 mesh sieve is essential I think for all the slips. I am also painting onto very dark clay (red earthenware) and it has to cover this up.
A pinhole is basically a burst bubble which has left a crater at an early point in the firing cycle so it has had time to heal over in the latter part of the cycle. PH’s are more likely on the horizontal surface because of the lack of gravity available during the glaze fluxing movement. The pinholes I get are down to dust on the pot and sometimes when the surface decoration is heavy the glaze does not adhere to the biscuit slipped surface properly; after I glaze I go over the whole pot with a thumb and a scalpel, rubbing the powdery glaze surface everywhere, and where there are drips I cut then off with a very sharp scalpel. Glazing can take forever and I am neurotic about that too.
But it sounds to me like your firing cycle might be the problem. There are some key moments in the chamber to be aware of. Change action begins 350 oC – 450 oC (I soak an hour at 450 oC) so it needs to be slow for this bit. Then the dunting point (573 oC) at this point the completely dry particles are only just touching each other, the pot holds together by sintering and the sinter is strong enough to take the piece to partial vitrification to burn out the carbon and then the sulpher content from the clay body. You need to take it slowly (an hour +) from 750oC - 800oC to get the carbon burnt out; sulpher lingers until 1100oC so it comes out later. This is just the biscuit fire.
If you can perfect the biscuit fire I think the bloating and craters and bubbles will disappear because they are the cause of gases attempting to escape through the fluid glaze. Smash up one of your biscuit stage pots and have a look at the core and see if there is a colour change, if there is then that is your problem. And all that for a touch of GAS.
Hello Kevin, thanks for your comment, I LOVE your blog.
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