Fusion Mentorship - February Meeting

Well I an getting further and further behind in my blogging. Our mentorship group meets every  6 weeks so our next meeting was near the end of February - and with more bad driving weather - but not as bad as in January. It was a rather short meeting as three of our members were away.
I had managed to glaze some of my work as we had had a gas firing at the Guild, though i did not fire the nuclear teapot as I had broken the lid and needed to make another one.
The slab vase with the woman's face I ended up taking the suggestion from the last meeting and used a white glaze and so ended up glazing with white salt.

Glazed face vase with earring and nose stud not inserted yet.

However I just could not limit myself to one colour as had been suggested so that it would look like a stone carving, but had to add some Shaner Oribe  with a bit of Temmoku at the base. I forgot that I had used Bmix, which tends to turn the white salt yellowish as it picks up the iron from the clay. So was not that pleased with the piece. I plan to reglaze in electric with some white glaze over it.

For the Bottom Billion I had added some gold to the piece - this is the first time that I had used this type of china paint and I put on two coats and so a lot of it ran.. This totally obliterated the hands on the piece and it just looked a mess. I will bisque fire it to see if I can make the gold disappear.

The Bottom Billion - with gold lustre addition that ran

The second version of the Bottom Billion with the book (to indicate the book "The Bottom Billion") at the top,  I used a gosu (black) slip for the hands and then some blue slip under the hands. It was all glazed with Malcolm Davis Shino plus some Temmoku on the bottom. There was also a fish that was glued just under the neck and a tap in the middle under the hands - it was supposed to symbolize a tap to turn on the oil well. Well the whole thing did not turn out well - the hands ended up looking like sea anemones, the book on top was kind of lost - just way tooooooo  much going on. However the shino get great iridescence. Will have to revisit this concept from a fresh start.

Second version of the Bottom Billion - standing on an oil slick.

I was going to do a large plate with a woman holding a platter with something that would tie it into the bottom billion. It sat on my bench for a couple of weeks before I just ended up with a face on it. It was done over a garbage can (see post on garbage can platters from several years ago) and I added the extruded rim out of paper clay a few days later. I had some trouble with one of the large applique pieces lifting off - so not sure how it will fire, though I tried to fix it with paper clay. So that was it - I brought the bass player that I had also glazed as it was the only thing that I was really halfway pleased with. I seem to have diverged from my themes. I will have to try to stay on course in the next few months - get back to working as well on the Forest Theme, and the Nuclear Theme. I think that I wil drop the dancing ladies.

Fusion Mentorship - January Meeting Part II

From feedback from the Novmber meeting I tried working on expanding my vase forms to make them more interesting. I was going to make a three part vase - with interlocking and matching sides - and carry out the forest theme from our farm - the virgin forest, the clearing of the land and then the return to the forest.  I did not have a clear picture in my head and the vases did not fit together that well, so ended up making three pots with three separate designs.

Trying for a three part composition of vases - but did not have a clear picture in my head.

One was just the forest trees as I have done before, so I did not bring it to the meeting as I could not really come up with anything new there, but I persevered working on it as sometimes new ideas come up when doing repeats.

Forest vase  again! - but did try to bring out the shape on the left.

The second ended up as bass players as the evening before I had attended the Messiah played by the Deep River Symphony Orchestra and the Choral Group. There were three bass players and the way they played  and stood with their instruments really made for an interesting composition. I ended quite liking that as the pot also flowed with the figures. I left that at home as well as it did not seem to fit into my themes.

The Bass Players - front and back

The last pot with a side panel I had a lot of trouble deciding what to do with and at first I made several holes that went all the way through, but ended up filling them in again. Eventually I ended up with a face of a woman, with a nose stud and earring as I felt it needed to add something a bit more interesting. Besides I like gimmicks.

Homage to Keith

I called it homage to Keith as he wears an earring. The suggestion was that I glaze it all in white so that it looks like it was carved out of stone. It would not be a colour that i would have chosen but we'll see. So this 3 part project did not turn out as I had originally expected - but that is what makes working with clay so much fun.

Fusion Mentorship - January Meeting - Part I

Well I am well behind in my posts, so I'm playing catch up again.
The January meeting was almost two months after our last meeting in November and with Christmas in between there was not as much time to make work as I had expected. I braved the snowy Saturday morning weather again - with my husband driving this time - to North Bay on snow packed roads but made it on time for the start of the meeting.

Nuclear cooling tower coffee set, but coffee pot needs to match the cups.

With my nuclear theme, I had lots of problems trying to get some sort of clear printed words on the pots. For the teapot I used stick-on stencil letters, waxed  around them, removed the letters and then brushed on black underglaze. It worked very well.

The trouble is I was not able to find small stick-on letters for the cups, so tried the gum arabic, stain/linseed oil method as described in Ceramic Arts Daily but my cups were too dry to get a good transfer - they need be a soft leather hard. So I just ended up writing on the cups with an underglaze squeeze bottle and thin metal tip - not what I really wanted. I glazed them with a clear glaze - and as the set was made of B-mix - it ended up gray - having picked up the iron from the body - which I liked . I wanted it to look industrial. - a safe every day process. Because the teapot did not match the cooling tower cups I decided to make another teapot - this time in the shape of a cooling tower, with a steam cloud for the knob, but did not get a chance to glaze that one for the meeting.

The fuel bundle trivet I glazed in a commercial glaze - Amaco bronze - and it was quite effective as a metallic looking glaze and suited the fuel bundle end section.. However as it was too time consuming to make as a multiple copy unless slipcast it, but I would have to do it in at least two parts. So I drew and xeroxed the pattern and transferred it to the trivets - a faster method though not as effective.visually.

Candu fuel bundle end view

I will need to work some more to see what I can come up with regarding the CANDU reactor as it does not have cooling towers, but a containment building and so the cooling towers representing nuclear energy does not resonate with the Canadian public.

I glazed the three sopranos with my usually stoney yellow, Hannah blue ash and some watercolour green. The blue ended up too stark so I reglazed with some stoney white at cone 6 slow cool electric which toned it down but the colours are all a bit muddy. I keep forgetting that the Bax is not the best for these colours as the glaze does pick up some iron from the clay. I need to use a porcelain or remember to spray with a white slip first. I really like the B-mix for handbuilding - it is really easy to fix seams or add stuff even if things get too hard.

The Three Sopranos

For the Bottom Billion I ended up glazing the pot with my usually Dan Hill blue lithium slip, MD shino and temmoku. The glaze ended up really nice - a bit of golden lustre - as the shino sometimes get, but the hands, with some rutile overglaze did not show up well - look more like a tree. The oil slick is in temmoku with some rutile overglaze spray.
I had made another one on that theme - with a narrower base, a book for the top, hands reaching up again and a tap handle. Again there was just too much info and all the messages got overloaded,plus the hands again did not look like hands but sea anemones.  I've also been lax in taking photos so do not have a pictures of the Bottom Billion pots from that meeting.

Tips for Pulling Handles Off Of Mugs

I think that handles are one of the main skills that separate the real potters from the wannabes, especially on mugs. Almost every time you see a great handle it was made by a potter who had what I would call professional training of several years at a university, college etc.  And most of those have been pulled directly off the mug. I know there are many other types, and lots of those handles are great as well but everyone should have a handle that is pulled off the cup in their handle making repertoire.
I am still working on this. It took me many years to "see" what was wrong with my "pulled first and then attached handle". Three years later I am still working to perfect this type of handle. I suspect that it will always be a work in progress.
One thing that I find is that if you do not time the stiffness of the mug correctly you can easily distort the cup when pulling the handle which may distort again in the firing due to clay memory. This would always discourage me trying to make this type of handle.
In order to be able to attach a handle without distorting the cup when I was learning this type of handle I would keep a variety of fast food cups on hand and stick them into the cup until they fit snugly and make a good seal. For the initial attachment I would put my left hand inside to support the wall of the cup. But once I started pulling the handle I placed a correctly sized fast food cup inside the rim until it fitted tightly. That way - no distortion when applying and working on the handle and less chance of clay memory distorting the cup in the firing. I have a variety of different sized cups on hand for this. Also as a final touch I rotated a tightly fitting cup inside the clay cup to "set" the roundness of the rim.

Many tips also mention tapping the end of the handle to compress the butt end. You can do this with your forefinger, or tapping on the table or use a wooden paddle. For a long time I just did not see the reasoning behind this until it finally hit me (duh!!). The more compressed the clay, the smaller the distances between the particles and so the less they will shrink when drying - so this prevents cracks from developing at the joint.

Tapping to compress the end of the handle prior to attachment

Pulled handle pugs prior to compressing on left and after compressing
 on right - note its oval shape and smooth edges of the butt end.

Rather fuzzy pic - but it shows the scoring that leaves an unscored
edge all round the butt end.

Another tip is not scoring the butt end right to the edges. This way you have a solid "rim" around the butt and when you apply it it leaves a slight crack with smooth rounded edges all around. You can accentuate this with a pencil after you have attached the handle and it has set up a bit.This slight crack tends to fill with glaze - and depending on the glaze will nicely emphasize the join.

I never score the bottom join and never compress it either and never seem to have problems on the bottom join. I always cover the cups overnight and after that air dry them. - even speed stuff up after that in the oven or kiln with no cracking.

Three cups with the pulled handle

So after three years I find that I have finally managed to put on handles with this method just as easily and fast as those that are pulled first but they look so much better - they seem to grow more out of the cup. However looking at the above three pics I think that they still need work - they seem to stick out a bit too much. It is hard to make them comfortable for two fingers yet look stylish.

Right now I seem to have gotten into a rut in the shape and style of pulled handle off the mug. My next goal is to work on the blended handle - where the join either top or bottom or both are fully blended into the cup. I really love those, but they are more time consuming to make, though well worth the effort.

The Gift of Really Seeing

As the year ends with Christmas shoppers hopefully buying lots of gifts of pottery I am wishing everyone success in their journey in clay. My aim for 2013 is to make better pots - especially in terms of form. For this I need to keep training my eye - need to really look at pots. Here is a cup that I bought about 8 years ago. I rarely make bright blue pots and so I guess that's why I sometimes buy them. At the time I thought it was not bad - not great but not bad. Years later I can see that it is a very bad handle and not a very stylish cup at that - not a good foot nor an inspiring form - so actually a pretty bad cup.

Cup with fly away handle - lacking a good foot and
uninspiring shape that I bought several years ago..

My mentorship with Steven Hill  really helped me to look critically at pots and actually see what I was looking at. I thought that over the past few years I had become much more adept at this - especially at discerning good form. I was quite disappointed recently when I bought a cup and totally missed the handle part of it. I bought it because of the colour - a rutile blue - which we have been trying to get in our gas kiln at the Guild with mixed success. It would be an example of what we would strive for. It was not until I brought it home and looked at it again that I realized how bad the handle was.

Handle all wonky - it would not have
 taken much for the potter to round out the handle at least.

Yet it was so obvious - I had been seduced by the colour. I was so disappointed in myself.. It just goes to show you really need to work at "seeing" a pot as a whole. So how can we expect the buying public to choose good design and a well made pot if an experienced  potter like myself can't see it sometimes. So here is wishing everyone  in 2013 the gift of really seeing - seeing good form, good function and making great pots.

Fusion Mentorship - November Meeting

Well it was another great meeting - well worth the drive in iffy weather on partially snow covered roads. Fortunately at this time of the year and on early Saturday morning there was little traffic on our portion of the Trans Canada highway . At the October meeting I was last to talk about my work - so this time I had to go first. I was not able to glaze any of the pots as our gas firing was not until the following week so I just took bisque ware of my three themes.

One thing that stuck in my mind that Keith said and that echoed Steven Hills philosophy - you have to keep improving. If you make a great pot - next time make an even better one. If you keep on doing the same thing your pots eventually end up stale.

Well I had worked on the singing ladies/go-go-girls. This time I threw and altered them. It was fun to do - especially adding details - sort of like playing dress-up with dolls - though you would think I would be way too old for that. They ended up a lot fatter, with less movement that I had hoped - so I now have the Three Sopranos. They actually are functional with the hands being stoppers on spouts on the left and right ones and the heads are lids. Next time I will try for thinner and taller and a more youthful looking trio. I would also like the push outs to fit together better so when they are side by side they fit tightly.

The Three Sopranos - thrown and altered. (Photo by Judith Ingwersen)

The Bottom Billion again I had trouble with - I had a sketch which I liked better as the top had much more emphasis that what I actually ended up with. We've all seen aid trucks handing out food in Africa and all the hands reaching up to grab the food - that was what I was looking for. The fish dangling from the top represents the food - and only one fish - so little of it for all those people. The pot sits on an oil slick - representing the natural resources and pollution that is left behind when companies come in to mine the natural resources. The reason that all those countries are in the bottom billion is that they have corrupt governments and are rich in natural resources. That way it is easy for companies to bribe the government officials, so the companies get the resources at a bargain price, leaving the pollution behind while the general population does not benefit at all. I highly recommend the book "The Bottom Billion" which deals with why a billion people are living in 12th century conditions and what can be done about it.

The Bottom Billion - hands reaching up. A fish is supposed to
hang down from the round knob under the  top. (photo by Judith Ingwersen)

The hands need work and the shape of the pot needs to correlate better with the hands and the oil slick needs to be a much more integral part of the pot.

We all agreed that the top needed more work, with suggestions that the fish had biblical connotations and so maybe added gold luster to it would really add emphasis to it. Someone else thought the top was a book - but  it was just a top. Now that I think of it - an open book would be a good idea - more connection to the book A Bottom Billion.

The nuclear theme had me stumped for a while and I finally managed to come up with some ideas as a first go. The cooling towers for nuclear plants have a shape that is ideal for a cup - and I made a spoon that has a handle like a steam cloud that added a whimsical touch to a serious subject. Canadian nuclear reactors are very different from those used in the rest of the world - they do not use cooling towers. However due to the Three Mile Island accident in the U.S. in the 1980's, cooling towers have become synonymous with nuclear power plants,. Candu reactors have fuel in bundles that is quite attractive design wise. So I made a trivet out of the end design of a fuel bundle. So that is my source of heat. (After all - all that a nuclear plant is - the most complicated method we have a boiling water.) I was going to use this as trivets for each cup, but it is way too time consuming to make them, unless I develop a casting approach to them. So instead to using them under the cups I decided to make a coffee pot and put it on the trivet.

Candu fuel bundle

The term Rad on the coffee pot - has a double meaning - rad being a unit of radiation and also meaning fantastic, unique, great -. I called it The Coffee Set for the 45%. (45% is the % of the world population that supports nuclear power according to a Sept 2012 global survey.).) The cups I decorated with slogans like 100% carbon free and I made plain trivets for the cups with other slogans - like "Nuclear power or climate change?" and "Power to save the world!' - sort of hokey - but it's a start.
The cups do not match the coffee pot in design, so next time I will try a cooling tower coffee pot.

Coffee set for the 45%. (Photo by Judith Ingwersen)

I need a better method to transfer the writing to the pots. I used the gum arabic and linseed oil with stains and xerox copies as shown on Ceramics Art Daily.
http://ceramicartsdaily.org/ceramic-supplies/ceramic-colorants-ceramic-supplies-2/photo-lithography-on-clay-a-surprisingly-simple-way-to-print-images-on-clay/

The pots really need to be a soft leather hard to transfer the printing well - so I need to practice more or else come up with another method using silk screening or decals. It was suggested that I glaze them bright yellow with black lettering - that would really stand out but those are the colours used on nuclear hazard signs. So not an image that I want to project. I want to project an everyday, safe, industrial process.

I did not do any work on the rock wall forest vase for this meeting.
So I have my four themes - rockwall forest vase, the signing ladies/go-go girls, the Bottom Billion and the nuclear theme. Maybe too many themes, but I am sure that I will narrow things down as time goes on. Our next meeting isn't until the middle of January so hopefully should have lots of time to work on things.