Tag Archives: underglaze

Art Diary 2018 – Week Ending August 24

Art Diary. A weekly wrap-up of art activities. For earlier posts, search under the category Art Diary.

Art!

Saturday, August 18 – As you know I’ve been working on illustrations for my Minuscule book, using a Chinese brush and India ink. When I really make a mess of a picture, I wipe it out with a few swashes of the brush, loaded with ink. Then I have really nice black background papers to draw on with white or colored gel pens. They are perfect for the TV-watching kind of art-making.

I also do the same thing with acrylic inks, if I happen to be using them. Depending on the color of the ink I’ll use a pale or a dark pen.

Here are a few examples.

Here are some peeks at the images I drew for the book.

Sunday, August 19 – More TV time in the evening and more black/white design things. Oh, some green, too.

Monday, August 20 – I did the firing of my clay pieces – the weather has moderated and it was cool enough to run the kiln. You may remember I loaded it a week or so ago.

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I happened to be passing through the garage later in the day and the kiln shows its temperature as being significantly higher –

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It tops out at about 1828 degrees F. This particular firing took just short of nine hours, typical for a bisque load (because the kiln brings up the temperature slowly so as to bake out moisture in the clay very gradually, making sure that it doesn’t turn to steam instead and explode the item).

I worked on more illustrations for my future Minuscule book:

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and as always there are leftovers. I have accumulated quite a collection at this point, a nice box-full.

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I had a couple more of those black/white ink doodle things, too, from last night.

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Finally, I think I’ve finished up these 6″ x 6″ cartoony type mixed media pieces.

Wednesday, August 22 – Today I faced a task I’ve known was coming for months, and I’ve been avoiding thinking about it. What is this dreaded event? Well, I’ll be participating in the Lansdale Festival of the Arts on Saturday, and…almost every painting I have is hanging in my exhibit that opened in July. I pick them up next Thursday, but that won’t help me this weekend.

I knew this situation was coming and I made only vague plans. I just figured, well, I’ll get an idea one way or another.

I have two very large paintings plus three medium sized ones here at home. And I’ve got a modest array of small paintings that can also be hung.

What I have decided to do, to fill out the booth this one time, is to bring out my array of small paintings that I don’t usually show – the ones I did for fun, or they have no frames, etc. etc. I took the box-full out into the garage and laid them out on a table to see what I have.

I plan to take two tables and set the paintings on them. I have small and large wire stands, which I usually use for clay work.

I have two ancient flip bins, which I used to use a lot when I made collage work – I often sold items matted but unframed, and those went into these bins. Maybe some of these paintings can fit into one of these.

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I think I can put the tiny ATC-sized paintings into an old drawer that I sometimes use as a table bin. Anything else, I can lay flat on the table. I’m hoping my display will look coherent and neat.

I re-packed the paintings and took them inside to wait with the other large paintings for Friday, when we load the car.

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You might say, why can’t you take whatever you want to the show? And/or, why didn’t you take your clay work?

First question, it is a juried show, and I juried in with acrylic paintings, so, that’s what I have to show.

Second question, you are right, I could have juried in with clay this year, and looking at what I have on hand right now, I would agree. But, I had to enter this show in March, I think, and at that time, I was more concerned with making enough work for my exhibit. See, I had purposely run down my paintings inventory over the last couple of years and suddenly – I needed work to show.

I had done the same thing for clay. My stock was quite low, tiles and sculptures. But I had no deadline for clay work, and additionally, clay takes a lot of lead time given the multiple steps in the creation process. I was not sure I could get enough clay work done at the same time as doing more paintings.

I also was at that time evaluating how many shows and events I wanted to be producing clay items for. I did not want to build up excess clay work – especially when I felt more sure of my plans for my paintings.

Now in retrospect and with some of this year’s events under my belt, I have decided to look for more shows for my clay, and keep my painting schedule stable or even reduce a couple of shows. Showing clay at Lansdale would have worked out fine, as it turns out. But – let’s look at it this way – some paintings that never get seen will now be the stars of my little show.

Friday, August 24 – I did a few odds and ends this afternoon before we pack up the car for tomorrow’s show. I painted some papers that I might use for my secret project:

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And then I went to the basement to start the process of coloring the clay work I took out of the kiln a few days ago. You may remember this process from earlier sessions. I plan to do the wild color patterns all over the cylinder figures and the puff people, but first I need to prepare their faces and give them an undercoat of underglaze. Here we go.

I brought the figures into the laundry room to work on, because I need to use water from the sink there.

: cylinder figures.

: baby cylinder figures.

First, I colored their faces with Velvet underglaze, Jet Black.

: cylinder figures.

: puff people.

Then I took a wet rag and, holding the figure under a trickle of water, I rubbed away the black color from the raised areas – it stays in the indentations. I then went back and did the same thing for the grooved areas at the bases of the cylinder figures. These areas are created when I make the join between the figure’s body and its base with a serrated tool. I could smooth these joins out and sometimes I do, but this session, I left them.

The faces are done and I am ready to wash off the black color at the bottom.

Here are the final results.

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I then took them out to my work table and proceeded to give the cylinder figures a coat of Velvet underglaze Jet Black. This base will form the underlying color for when I put on the colorful designs.

I will do the smaller figures another day. Until then, they will wait over on the other table.

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All right, that’s it for this week, except for packing the car, as I mentioned earlier, for tomorrow’s show.

See you next week! Thanks for following along with me.

Stop It

This lady looks like she is just about to say, “Stop running in the house!”, thinking that the lamp will be on the floor pretty soon, if things don’t calm down.

Clay tiles, @4″ x 4″, Velvet underglazes on handmade tile, fired at cone 06, January, 2018.

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Art Diary 2018 – Week Ending July 6

Art Diary. A weekly wrap-up of art activities. For earlier posts, search under the category Art Diary.

And we are off on another Art week…

Note: Since we’ll be setting up for the Tinicum Arts Festival on Friday, I’m posting this entry in the Diary a day early. I’ll include show info from Friday, July 6, in next week’s post.

Friday, June 29 – I know it was part of last week, but I’ll show you the first attempt at clay sgraffito (look at last week’s post if you wonder what I’m talking about).

The underglaze dried on the tiles I had laid out – no longer shiny but instead dry to the touch. (Note – this photo is from Saturday, but, you get the idea).

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I did not have the tool the You Tube video recommended so I made do with these small loop tools.

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Then I set to work. I realized fairly soon that the process is a lot like doing linoleum block print carving – it’s a subtractive rather than an additive process. I also learned that there is no need to dig hard into the clay. A light touch is better. I ended up with these tiles. Not great, but then, let’s face it, I never did this before, in this manner!

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Saturday, June 30 – We stopped by the Ceramic Shop in Norristown, PA, to get the tool that was recommended by the video. You may remember this store from the Art Diary of a few weeks ago. Here’s what I got – I’ve already forgotten its name, but it has a curved end and a straight one.

I went through the process of putting five coats of underglaze on tiles and letting it dry. Then I set to work. I had decided to make figures sort of like ones I had done in ink from the figure drawing book I mentioned earlier this year in the Diary.

The new tool really made a difference. I was better able to control the cutting process. As I said, all that’s needed is to remove the underglaze and the slightest bit of clay, so that the white clay is exposed. There is no need to strip away deep into the tile. In the end I had these figures:

It’s also recommended to use a clay with no grog (larger clay particles that make it hold together better, used for sculpture or tiles), but – I have clay with grog, and since I use it for a sculpture or tiles much more than sgraffito, I worked with it. I can see it would be a little easier to make clean lines with a more plastic clay, but…I’m happy with this direction I’m going, for now.

I also spent time in the studio today. I have a long-term project that I am embarking on, and I cannot reveal it until after I have completed it – it is a commission. I will show you hints of it, though, so you know that I am doing…something…

Sunday, July 1 – More sgraffito tiles in process.

Monday, July 2 – This week is shaping up to be another choppy one for art, I think. My computer fell ill on Sunday and so it’s off being fixed; shouldn’t be long but I was confused by not having it. My mental flurry was compounded by the need to deal with state bureaucracy involving my sales tax license (which I’ve had since the 90’s, do not owe money on, and yet is tangled in a snafu that the people at the state say they can’t figure out who should help me. We have now enlisted the aid of our elected state rep’s office to maneuver through the red tape after submitting paperwork and hours on the phone. Ugh. Nothing major, but taking a LOT of time. And not done yet.)

Paperwork is part of being an artist, too – that must be the lesson here?

Anyway. I decided to load the kiln. I won’t be running it for about ten days. I will not have many days at home over the next couple of weeks, and it is also not good for the kiln to be working in 95 F temperatures. But – the warm weather means that I can put items in the kiln that are not totally dry – they will be plenty ready by the time I get to firing.

I’ve got a different set-up this time. The tall woman figure has to stand on the bottom shelf. I had calculated her height, when making the figure, for this situation.

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This means I can use only half-shelves to stack up. I have just two – you can see that if I had more I’d have room to put more work in, but – I also estimated the number of items I could fit in pretty well – I’ve got everything in here that I’ve made since the last big firings a couple of months ago.

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You can also see that I put in some terracotta clay “rocks” on the top shelf – they are darker because they have not dried at all. I will make sure they are ok before I fire the kiln, but ten days out here in the garage and I think they will be…DRY.

I also worked on my secret project a little…

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Tuesday, July 3 – I had just enough time to work on these little paintings/drawings/whatevers. I’m heading them in the direction of the small images with text that you might remember from earlier. (Think Ogre Babies.) They are 6″ x 6″ and good for picking up when I have a little time.

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Wednesday, July 4 – I spent the afternoon in the basement (the cool refreshing basement – it’s about 95 F outside) working on some more sgraffito tiles. This time I rolled out terracotta clay (actually yesterday, but you’ve seen enough shots of rolled out clay, I think…)

I put black glaze on most of them but I also decided to try some white.

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I am wondering how the white will show up against the orange of the terracotta. Here’s how the tiles in white looked at the end of the session.

And here are the black ones. I have full confidence in this color scheme – I’ve made lots of black on terracotta clay and the results are strong and very striking, I think.

I wish I could fit these into the next kiln load but there is just no more room. I am sure they will be included soon, though – glaze loads are less tightly packed, because the items cannot be stacked, so that means the current bisque load in process will take 2-3 loads to work through with color, and these red tiles will slip in there.

I like how these turned out. I am getting more sure of myself in working in this way. I did do one thing wrong in this group – I forgot to keep the tiles under covers while I was working, and over the hours that passed, well, some dried out more than I should have let them. It was noticeable in the white ones – I left them until last.

It was harder to carve with precision and I found the tool scraping and bouncing at times. Also, the terracotta clay has a lot of grog (grit) in it, and that causes swerves when the tool hits.

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Well, that’s all part of learning. I’m very happy with these results and I’ll be very interested to see how they and their white clay companions fire.

OK, that’s it for this week! Thank you for coming along with me.

Handstand and I Clap

I made an earlier version of this motif some time ago. I like this one better for a lot of reasons.

I could do a handstand when I was in high school. No more!

Clay tile, Velvet underglazes on handmade tile, @ 7″ x 7″, fired at cone 06, January, 2018.

Clay tile handstand lady on a checked floor @ 7x7 1-18003

Art Diary 2018 – Week Ending June 29

Art Diary. A weekly wrap-up of art activities. For earlier posts, search under the category Art Diary.

Here we go with another week of Art!

Saturday, June 23 – I did a little work in the studio – first I did some more illustrations for my Minuscule story book.

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I always have some extras, some experiments, or some “use up the scrap paper” to save for some other project later on.

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I put some colors down on these 6″ x 6″ boards. I think eventually they will become some more of those sort of cartoon/painting things I’ve done a few of recently – think Ogre Babies.

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Monday, June 25 – I had a little time today to get to the basement and work on some clay. Here’s a tray of dried tiles from last week, ready to be fired.

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Here are some more plain puff people. Now I will have enough of them to experiment with color applications and see what I think looks best. Once they are fired, of course!

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I had some extra slabs, so I made some cats.

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And then the ever-popular clay rocks – these are formed from bits of clay that I feel are drying out too much to do anything with – I just form the clay into a rough shape and then tap it (hard) with a paddle. These items have to be very well-dried before they go into the kiln or they will explode, being solid. But since they are not very big, I don’t anticipate trouble.

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Tuesday, June 26 – this week is shaping up to be busy and choppy-scheduled. I grabbed a little time late in the afternoon to work on some more Minuscule illustrations.

I’m falling into a rhythm with these pictures. It seems to work best if I think of what I want, then just go right to trying to depict it, with the idea I’ll make a couple of tries (at least). So I’m ending up with alternates. Well, I’ll pick the one that I think works best for the book and the others will find their way into some other format – keep your eyes peeled in the future and see if you notice them showing up.

Thursday, June 28 – This art week is being fitted into nooks and crannies of time. I was out all afternoon and most of the morning I continued catching up on a lot of long-put-off computer-oriented things and paperwork (including entering a couple of fall shows). I did squeeze in a couple of small things.

I want to do some clay tiles incorporating the technique of sgraffito. All this means is, I want to scratch into the clay to make images. There are different ways of doing this. I looked at a couple of You Tube offerings to see what I could pick up. I’ve done sgraffito before but I thought I’d just check and see if I could improve previous results.

I rolled out some tiles in white clay.

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Pretty ordinary looking. Well, what I need to do is let them dry to a leather-hard state (leather-hard being clay talk for dried enough not to bend but still moist). Then I need to put 4-5 coats of Jet Black Velvet underglaze on them (I could use any color, and maybe I’ll switch around, but I am thinking a black/white finished look).

Then I’ll carve into them, removing black and leaving white behind, until I’m done. I’ll check these tonight before bedtime – they might be at leather-hard, or not, but no matter what, I’ll put them under plastic to stop the drying process and resume things at my next session.

Here’s an art-drop-off project getting ready – My husband spray-painted the lids of these pimiento jars black and then…

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I’m filling the jars with little wooden people I made about three years ago, I think. I will also add a little note telling the person who picks up the jar that it’s ok to take it home.

I bought the wooden people blanks from Dick Blick and decorated them into tiny women figures with acrylics and markers. I gave some away, and now I want to finish things off by leaving these out in the world. Maybe this weekend or next week.

Finally, I think I’ve completed my last group of edge-repainting. Good. I’m glad that is all done.

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Friday, June 29 – A short little session (I was at Poetry Marathon today).

I got out my notes I took on sgraffito work in clay.

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My tiles are at a good stage for a trial. I took out four of them and started on the coats of underglaze. It takes time – there needs to be drying in between coats and at the last, it must be dry to touch.

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These are not. I got out a fan to blow on them. Drying will take time, here in the basement. That’s ok, I can do other things while I wait. I sprayed the remaining tiles with a little water to keep them from continuing to dry (they will do it even under the plastic).

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