New Glazes Tiles

Doing glaze tests is a tedious thing....

I can see why people find one or two glazes they like and just do everything with those.

But that would be too easy......


Testing glazes means a lot of stirring, sieving, dipping, drying, labeling, shifting buckets around, making notations on my test record pages.

Some tests were about new glazes; some were just checking old ones that might have changed over time.

I used to make my tiles really small because I put a string through the hole in the top and tie the tile to the glaze bucket. If the glaze is in a jar, I fasten the tile to the side with a big piece of transparent package tape.

I also use a Sharpie to label the bucket or jar in big letters. Saves a lot of time when you're trying to hunt down a glaze.

Bigger tiles mean more room for notes. I use any underglaze to do this. Just a dot on a piece of paper or spare yogurt lid is fine and handy for the underglaze. I also like the fine limner brushes to do the lettering with.

So, I'm rather sloppy when it comes to making these. Speed is the thing here, not perfection......

----------Of course, just as soon as I wrote this and fired the kiln, the thing overfired. The thermocouple failed. Pots welded themselves to the shelves and the witness cones are beautiful,  pearly puddles. 

A trip to Clay Art Center is in order. New shelves, new thermocouple, and while I'm at it, some grinding stones. 

Pottery:  It teaches you how to deal with failure and move on.

ALL the time.

Prophetic Tile

About 7+ years ago, I made this tile in a workshop.

The workshop focused on drawing with underglazes on pre-bisqued tiles. I had never tried this before and had no expectations going in about subject matter or technique.

After a short demo, we were handed the tile, given access to colors and told the "draw something".

I was stymied. My mind went blank. I couldn't think of one thing to draw. None of my lexicon of images or designs floated to the surface of my mind so I just began to doodle directly on the tile. I laid down a square. I added lines on the diagonal. Then I began to draw a landscape in the square and drew two snakes.

All totally out of character to what I usually did.

Years later. Guess where I am. In the desert, looking at landscapes like this one. Surrounded by these colors but, thankfully, so far---no green snakes.

Snake on a Plate

So here's the finished product of the snake plate. It is now hanging on the wall in the entryway.

When I pass it, I think about what I've learned lately about snakes and the Southwest.

It seems that snakes have a mixed reputation among the native people and I haven't come to understand it fully yet. It depends upon which group you're talking to.

Recently, I went to an Indian Market at the Arizona State Museum and while there, asked a Navajo artist about snakes in art.

The news wasn't good. I gather that snakes are not well thought of.

I was reading Halo of the Sun and the author writes that while learning Navajo rug weaving, she put a snake into the first rug she wove. There was much worrying about the fact that it could bring her bad luck. When she placed two roadrunners above the snake at the top of the rug, it seemed to neutralize or at least keep the snake in check.

I also read in the same book about the custom of weaving a pathway with an opening design along the side of a rug to 'free' the design and release it to be used again.

Now, the design of my snake is within many lines and bars. So I'm hoping that will keep it held inbounds and that it can only reside there and not find a pathway out. It cannot call other snakes in. There is much to learn here.

We'll see.

Oh, and by the way. Never speak to a snake.

What a Difference a Glaze Makes, part 2

These examples are roughly the same shape. They're the salt and pepper shakers I make both in singles and/or in sets. These are singles because they are experiments with form and glaze. The pear on the left is glazed in only celadon. It's an early one. The second has an underglaze of black applied to the piece when was raw clay. I brush the underglaze on using a slowly spinning wheel. Same form - very different outcome: One composed, quiet, the other zany and playful. The black & white one reminds me of an Italian clown's striped leggings.

This is how I make them: I put about 1 1/2 lbs. porcelain on the wheel, center, then make a donut shape by opening a hole that goes straight down to the wheelhead in the center. I form a cone-shape that's about about an inch+ tall, wide at the bottom, narrow at the top with a tiny hole at the apex. The hole is small enough that the head of a dressmaker's pin would pass through--bead sized.

Then I carefully pull the sides up into a pear shape closing the form at the top and sealing the air within. (You can modify the shape once the pear is sealed, manipulating the trapped air.)

I set it aside for a day or until it becomes firm enough to have the application of a stem and/or leaves on the top. Keep it on the batt. Sometimes I carefully indent the top before affixing the stem. A leaf or two can be formed and added too, but keep in mind how you're going to deal with the underside of the leaf when it comes time to glaze. I usually make them pretty form-fitting to the pear.

Then I let the pear dry on the batt. When it's ready to come off, I smooth the bottom, sign the clay and set it on the self to be fired. Sometimes I wax the very bottom and just set it on the kiln shelf; other times I stilt the piece, as in this shot.

How do they work you ask? You will notice there are no holes in the top. Everything goes it and comes out the bottom. It's physics. You turn the pear over and pour the salt/pepper in through the cone which now acts as a funnel, gently rotate the pear upright and when you want seasoning, just shake the thing straight up and down. The cone has retained the granules inside by forming a donut-shaped reservoir inside, when you shake it the salt or pepper flies up to the top on the inside and some falls out the tiny hole at the top of the cone. Depending on how large the hole is, the more stingy or generous the fall-out is. One customer, after puzzling over how the thing worked, suddenly 'got it' and said, "Isn't it great when physic works?"

Clay Jags

I'm on another 'clay jag'. It happens. I get all enthused about making a certain form--in this case, tumblers--then try and see how many different kinds I can make. Sometimes I have to race to get the ideas all down on paper before going merrily off on another 'jag'. This finished tumbler was made while taking a class by Jamie Walker some time ago at Pottery Northwest on painting on raw clay with underglazes. It's an experimental piece. (Pfuut! as if that was something new. Nearly everything I make is experimental.) The designs were lightly drawn in pencil on a slightly damp thrown piece then outlined and filled in with a brush and underglaze. I used a bit of scraffito on the wide band at the top just to see what would happen. (I love to use it because it holds a pint of liquid and has a very comfortable lip.)

So here's some tumblers in process on the current jag: They have been thrown on the wheel and altered, they are awaiting a complete dry-out before being put into the bisque kiln. The first series of 6 (really 7 just in case and to keep a reference piece) were what I'm calling Innies and Outties. They either have areas that are pronounced dents or bumpy bits added to the outside. It's amazing how interesting they are to hold. A hand diversion.

The second is pure class. I have a stamp which I used to make the center medalian. First, I stamped slabbed clay, then thought, "How can I make nice clean cuts around the shape? I know, where's my biscuit cutter!" There's an old cutter rattling around somewhere in my studio. (See, that's why you need all kinds of crap in your studio because when you need it you NEED it.) I made another set of 6 with this motif, but with more going on with the surface--nubs and dents. The one pictured here is sort of an 'out-take'.

And the final set of 6 are tumblers on small pedestals. These are thrown separately and will be bisqued as two pieces, then glazed and fused together in the final firing--another test to see if THAT will work. I'm seeing these in a reddish brown with dark chocolate brown interiors and bases. We'll see.........

I still have more designs to go. Another set of 6 with the flared lip and oriental-like stamps down one side, a set with a series of large dents and indented lines, and yet another set with an underglazed big, dark spot on one side.

Ray Guns

I just noticed an article in Wired about a potter who is makeing raku ray guns. They're really nice. You can find them at http://blog.wired.com/tableofmalcontents/2007/04/ufo_ray_guns_in.html.


I've been making ray guns for several years and also do them on the wheel, but they're made from procelain and used a clear glaze fired at cone 6. On the first two, I selected primary colors in order to relate to the colors used in cheap, shiny plastic toys. Sometimes I have used underglazes and sometimes overglazes. The first one is named "Molecular Redistributor".

The second is "If Mars Attacks" and has more overglaze treatment, though it is difficult to see the difference. Both "If Mars Attacks" and "Molecular" were exhibited at "Toys Designed by Artists" at the Arkansas Art Center in Little Rock AR and "The Whmsical Clay" show in Beverly, MA a couple of years ago.

The white ray gun, "Ectoid Extractor" , has not been shown anywhere yet. I have a mate to this one still in the studio yet to be assembled. I like the white shiny surface and glass combination.

The darker fourth gun is "Lunar Artifact" and it was included in the Whimsical show at the end of last year.

Calder's Cat

So I got a message from my gallery saying that over the Christmas holiday, both sets of my "Cat Plates" sold. I'm delighted. They were a lot of work, but so much fun to make. I love to let my whimsey run wild.

It all started many years ago when I was working at Seattle University in the Fine Arts Department and having a conversation with one of my favorite people, Roupin Shakarian, about Christo's work and how draping fabric over landscapes and buildings created a whole new image. I dashed off a quick sketch of a cat all wrapped up like a mummy and labeled it "Christo's Cat".

Some months ago, I was going through a file of old sketches and ran across it again. The idea still made me laugh and, since I had learned lately how to draw with underglaze on raw clay. (I had been wrestling with learning how to throw plates and the two ideas came together instantly.) I began to develop a whole collection of different artists' cats: Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Michelangelo, Dali, Henry Moore, Georgia O'Keefe. Christo & Calder. After many, many plates, I finally made two sets I was happy with.
The only hiccough has been that one of the buyers thought the Calder plate had a bit of fuzziness on part of the banding and would like a replacement. I explained that it would take a good while before I could have one ready, since it would have to be thrown, drawn and decorated, bisque fired and glaze fired--all to be included with other work in progress in the making/firing cycle. The gallery owner said that they were okay with that and understand the process. That's great. So, I've been in the studio making many Calder plates because it wouldn't be wise to only make one and think that it will be perfect...not going to happen.....I have to hedge my bets. Also have to make enough stuff to fill the kiln. This is going to take a while. In the meantime, I'll develop drawing on clay further with more pieces and ideas.