Today I went into the studio to pick up 9 more finished items, and glaze the remaining ones.
Two of them are sculptures for my garden. Both created from extruded B-Mix clay, and sprayed with "Very Black" stain. I was told that they would survive in the garden better when unglazed. Although I think I will pull them into the shed for the winter, so they won't go through unnecessary freezing or wetness :
#15 - This one is meant to sit right in the garden. I look forward to identifying a home for it, and will be sure to post photos once it's out there. The finish is a metallic sort of black, with a bit of lustre when in natural light. I have my former teacher, Sabrina, to thank for pointing out to me how nice it will look in the garden. The colour looked dull and disappointing when I pulled it off the shelf, but she walked me outside, and showed me how the colour performed in the sunlight. It was at that point, I decided to go ahead with finishing my dragon in this colour, as I had originally planned.
#16 - This extruded sculpture will be suspended on a rebar rod. I look forward to finding it a spot in the garden, also.
Two of them are more of the shallow bowls which I cut when the bowl was freshly thrown, and decorated with slip once leather hard.
#17 - I really like how this bowl turned out, and the design seems to complement the funky shape quite well. It started as 800g of recycled clay. It is decorated in White, Turquoise and Black slip. The whole piece is dipped in Celadon glaze. I decided to trim the sides of the bowl only, and leave the coiled wire pattern on the bottom. I just sanded it a bit to smooth it. It's funny but I like the speckled pattern in the clay. I remember not liking this, in my first couple of classes, which is one of the reasons I switched from the grey clay to the white clay. Now I think I appreciate the character it adds to the piece.
#18 - I like the vibrant colours of this bowl, decorated in Blue and Black slip. The top is sprayed with Clear glaze (so it will go on fine and not interfere with the pattern), and for the bottom, I poured Deep Blue glaze over it. The Deep Blue goes very nicely with the Blue slip pattern. I really like how this turned out. Even my stamp is clearly visible.
The remaining five are more extruded vases.
#19 - This one I dipped in Bamboo glaze, and then decorated by spraying Green and Teal overglaze with the airbrush attachment. I held the Japanese maple leaves with my left hand, while I sprayed with my right hand. The "surprise" on this one is that it is not actually a vase, it is a cylinder, since it dried too much before I could add a base. But I think I will find a home for it, probably in the garden somewhere.
#20 - This one was formed in a similar way, also glazed in Bamboo and sprayed in Green and Teal overglaze, but this one bears the outline of an oak leaf. It has a simple base, and is a nice size and weight for a cylindrical vase.
#21 - This tall twisty vase was also glazed outside with Bamboo, but inside and on the rim with Matt Green. Then a pattern (I think I was thinking sky with clouds, and rolling hills, but it came out a pretty pleasant abstract) was sprayed with Green and Teal overglazes.
#22 - This cylindrical vase / container with wonky top was finished with a sprig (from Charmian). I brushed Deep Blue glaze on the sprig, then dipped the whole piece in Clear, and then sprayed Blue overglaze. I like the blended effect. The shape may not be outstanding, but the colours look very professional to me. What do you think?
#23 - This one was a pretty big disappointment to me, because I had high expectations for it. It started as an extrusion formed by combining several chunks of clay together. The class divided up the results, and I ended up with what looked like a beautiful striped log. So I was inspired to roll (that was not easy!) a wood texture pattern on it. I was thinking to finish it like a chunk of wood, but the glazing did not achieve that effect. Inside, I finished it with Khaki glaze, which actually looks very good. But then I dipped the outside in Clear, and it gave everything a ghostly look, which I don't particularly like. I'm not sure what I was thinking, but if I could redo it, I would pick a warmer colour. Then, I noticed a crack (barely visible in that bottom left photo) which looks like there is a chip and a crack from top almost to bottom. It could be a pressure crack, or it may have even been bumped somewhere along the process. I may try to drip a crazy glue into the crack, and see if it fills it in. Although I would suspect it is still watertight even without glue.
I glazed my remaining pieces today, but had the sad news that they won't actually be fired in the kiln for another 3 or 4 weeks, until the next set of classes finish, so my dragon will need to wait. I took a few photos of my pieces as I glazed them, so will post photos when I have another opportunity.
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