June 15 - 22 "Batik" Type Resist with Underglazes

Well in one of my posts to Clayart I mentioned all the different techniques that I use, include "batik type resist with underglazes". A clayarter asked me to elaborate so I have included two pictures of 2 plates done a couple of years ago in that method and a brief explanation. They were done in oxidation fired to cone 7 1/2 and sprayed with Stoney White over non-commercial brown and blue underglazes. There is also a bit of overspray with rutile/gerstley borate and rutile/gerstley borate/red iron to give beige and darker beige highlights.

I refer to it as "batik" because you do it backwards as you would batik. First I wax all the areas where I do not want underglaze which is usually most of the pot. Then on the wheel I brush on the first base underglaze. Doing it on the wheel gives you an even coat. You also get little beads of underglaze on the waxed areas that add to the design. The beads kind of are reminiscent of the crackle lines that you get in batik.

I usually use a brown iron underglaze first. Then I wax the areas that I want to keep brown. So then I brush on the blue underglaze. If I wanted a third colour like green, I would wax out the areas that I want to stay blue and then brush on the green etc. I usually just use brown and blue. Now you have to rebisque to burn off the wax. So it is more time consuming but it gives a totally different effect than drawing directly. Try it and you will see what I mean.

I use this technique as I do not have very good drawing skills. I could let's say draw a flower in blue and brown underglaze but it would end up amateurish. By using the "batik" method I draw around the outline of the flower, the leaves, the petals, the stem and somehow that gives a very different effect and takes away some of the need to have good drawing skills - it adds a bit of naivety and simplicity. Not sure if that makes sense. In the 70's and 80's I guess that was my style, trying for a reduction look in electric. As I now have use of a gas kiln I no longer use this as much, though I am trying to find a glaze for cone 10 redux that would work with underglazes like the Stoney White.

June 7-14 Contemporary is even harder!

One of Steven's comments about one of my pots was that the reason that he liked a particular pot better than another one was that the woman applique was more contemporary. It got me thinking - my influence was my mother as she is an artist and she loved to draw figures. Her favorite painters are Picasso and Gustav Klimt. Here are two of my favorite paintings that she did many years ago. After the 1970's she rarely painted any more as she had to look after my father who had had a stroke and so perhaps her figure style was somewhat dated, though I don' really think so. Sadly now close to 90 she no longer has the energy to paint.

I was determined with this last vase to make the appliqued figures more contemporary - perhaps with torn or unfinished edges - to give it a more abstract look. However it ended up even worse - over designed, too cutsy. In making these pots, I find that often even though I hate what I am making I find that I cannot help myself and cannot move away from the direction that I am heading.



The rim also has way too much stuff. I was not too satisfied with the wavy top and so decided to cut some out on the back - that was mistake! This is the first vase where I have not thickened the rim by adding extra clay strips. The thin rim just does not do much for the pot - just a bit too delicate.

Whenever I added leatherhard pieces to the rim, usually I got some cracking at the joint. So for the last two pieces I tried something new. I rolled out a coil and added it fresh to the rim. So far, the first pot - no cracks and next one comes out next week and we'll see!
Otherwise I'll have to start using paperclay.



So I have ended up with a vase with two women - I tried to make them look like they have berries. My mother years ago had painted a picture of women picking blueberries and so I thought I would maybe reference that. Sort of blueberry bushes at the sides and back. However it looks like a wedding instead.

Actually I may be contemporary in a social sense - a pot with two woman getting married!

June 1 - 6 Trying to Pull It All Together

Well I have lined up along the living room window all the handbuilt pieces that I have made so far in my "journey" - landscape vases, fishing lady and fishing boat vases. I now have a flotilla! I tried to pick out what I liked best from each piece and then make an ulimate piece incorporating all these best features.




I decided to incorporate the following:
1. the tall shape was better than the longer boat shaped ones.
2. the kanthal wire "ladder rungs'.
3. a wavy top
4. some foreground slab for a 3-D effect
5. the figure has a fish tail
6. some cutouts in the foreground slab
7. simplified fish - one large fish as opposed to lots of little ones
8. wavy hair
9. When I glaze use the lighter pale yellow colour rather than the beige as it contrasts better with the blue.




After all this I am not sure if I really like it. I had used shellac resist and carving to make some of the pattern on the large fish and on the tail. It is the first time that I used this with the appliqued work and I find that I like it. However not sure that I like the whole piece - and after I thought I should have ended the tail not as a tail but as a large fish head as I had in another one of my pieces. It would have made for a more original and surprising picture on the back side.

May 25 - 31 Spraying is Hard to Do!

My spraying is improving! We talked how much concentration it takes for me to spray my pots - with all the different glazes and different thickness. I have to really pay attention to what I am doing and at the end of a spraying session I am beat. So different from before when I would just blast away with mostly one colour! Steven agreed. He also finds that spraying is the most difficult part of his process, while throwing is very relaxing.




In the fish plate that just came out this week I lost my concentration at the end and pressed the trigger a bit too hard blasting darker spots near the upper right hand side. (There is quite a bit of glare on the pot so it is not as obvious in the photo.) Once I realized what had happened, I tried brushing with a stiff brush to smooth out the spot and it might have helped a bit. The other alternative was to wash it all off and start all over again. In retrospect I should have washed it as I find that area really distracting and I had spent quite a bit of time decorating that pot.

The Hannah Blue turned out less harsh and I think it might have been due to some Stony Yellow spray on top. Again whenever I get some great results somehow I seem to have missed out in making notes on it. Note taking is hard to do as well - I definitely need to concentrate more on my notes!

Journey May 19 - 25 May Critique

Well 2 months is waaaay too long without a Steven Hill fix! I was ready well ahead of time for the monthly critique as I had uploaded all my pictures a few days before, unlike most months when I am still frantically getting it all together the night before.




We talked about how my plates had slumped on one side - I guess mainly from being drier on one side. Steven says one way that he prevents that with his large platters is to keep the pots spinning slowly on his extra wheels. I also still have trouble getting a smooth continuous curve in my shallow bowls and seem to end up with a bit of a flat bottom and if my foot in not just outside the flat area the wall will slump. As Steven says with a continuous curve it does not matter where you place the foot. He explained how he makes the continuous curve and I will try his method. I really do need more throwing practice.


We discussed how to get more of a subdued contrast between the Stony yellow and Hannah blue on my latest fish plate. Finally got one that did not slump. I had thought of lowering the cobalt but not maybe adding some cobalt to the yellow. As well I could spray some yellow on the blue. Will try both of those - I could also spray more Hannah Ochre over the yellow than I have been doing - enough to get some ash rivulets which I am not getting now and that would give me a third colour contrast.



We again discussed feet. Unlike some potters whose work is recognizable by their feet, I don't really have a standard foot - sometimes they are round, sometimes narrow, sometimes wide. Steven felt that feet should be round as rims are round and so the foot should match the rim for a unified look. Also a round foot has less surface area to touch a table top and so also less area to sand/polish for a smooth surface.

I had used the center area for my signature as I find that often it gets obliterated by the glaze. I may try rubbing in some contrasting slip or underglaze to highlight the signature.







I had been working hard on my spraying and Steven felt that I had improved in my spraying - both the fishing lady and the cylindrical pot were well glazed, though the cylinder could have had a bit more contrast on the rim. He feels that whenever you have a strong feature you should emphasize it a bit - so a touch of darker brown would have highlighted that a bit more than the thinish layer of Stony Yellow.

In order to get the rim to be continuous and still go to form the loop I had thrown a wide rim, cut it and then added it to the top of the pot, forming the loop and joining the ends on one side of the loop for a continuous look.

Well I will write up the rest of the session next week as I need to go and make some pots!

Journey Workshop April 27 - May 18 In a Holding Pattern

Well I have had a slab pot sitting on the kitchen counter waiting for inspiration for the last three weeks. Originally it was to have some figures appliqued from the "Revolution" book but I just have not been able to get my mental idea into clay. I usually try a few paper cut outs first - but nothing ended up looking right. First of all what am I doing thinking about a Revolution? It all started because I loved the style of the figures in the book made form torn and cut out paper strips.

I also think I ended up with the wrong shape for the vase - sort of looks like a sports trophy - enough to uninspire anyone. I finally tried a bunch of little people appliqued and then covered them with ladder rungs. But I think I will have to use paper clay for the ladder rungs as they will undoubtedly crack when drying.
Not sure if I will finish off properly or recycle.

Anyway it's about a week later and I have not done anything about the piece - I think I should recycle.

Spent some time glazing some work for the May gas firing - did a lot of reglazes - to get them out of the way. I reglaze by heating up the pots in an electric kiln and then spraying.

I need to work some more on my fishing lady series - so I lined up all boat/fishing lady pieces up in a row in chronological order to see where I should go next. I will try and pick out the things that I like about each piece and incorporate them into the next one. I guess that I like the taller pieces best in terms of shape. I also like the wire additions. The figures need to be a bit more contemporary - maybe use some torn clay in places.

Spent most of the last two weeks doing a lot of yard work as my husband was waiting for hip surgery so was not able to help much. Now with my husband home from surgery last week, I can finally get back to clay!