Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Day three--- Take the easy task first

For day three, Deborah gave us two tasks to complete (one task in the morning, one task after lunch). Still wary of challenge, I chose to complete the easier task first.

Deborah showed us how to create tiles with the use of resist materials. After throwing the slabs and flattening them, we embedded them with leaves and flower stems. It was fun to figure out where to space the leaves and stems. Deborah had also brought in some mint, so there was a wonderful scent during this process too.

The next step was to put underglaze over the entire clay square. The leaves and organic materials resisted the underglaze.  Deborah encouraged us to experiment with various colors of underglazes. Underglaze is put on greenware and then put in the kiln.  It has a matte finish.  After the underglaze dried (aided through the use of a hairdryer or blowtorch), we carefully peeled the leaves off of the clay. The pieces were then put in the kiln.


Here is the slab with the embedded leaves and layer one of underglaze.

Here is the slab again, with a second layer of underglaze (yellow). Later, I also added red.
After the leaves were carefully removed, I used a block cutter to form the shape for four tiles.
Close-up of tile before it went into the kiln

Pieces from day one and two---already out of the kiln. That fish.... yikes:) My pitcher got a crack in the unwieldy spout. Everything "survived" though--yay!




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