Vintage textile block

While perusing article on Ceramic Art Daily I came across a ceramic artist Gay Smith.  I really like her pieces for two reason, well three. First, her forms are very simple yet organic. Second, I love to see sets of pots with different colors rather than all the same. And thirdly, she used vintage textile printing blocks to add texture.

on AfghanTribalArts

It was this third idea that struck me the most so I set out on a shopping trip (online of course) to find some vintage TPBs for myself.
On etsy there are allot of beautiful carved wood TPBs. Some appear to be new and were great but what I wanted was a connection to the past, a TPB with history. Some etsy shops that I found with this type of TPB are amandajames1, afghantribalarts, and rayela.
I found the one I wanted at The Polkadot Magpie. She shipped out my order very quickly. The day I received the package I opened it and the first thing I thought was "yippee, she sent me peanuts"!  Being low on shipping supplies puts me in recycle mode.

Quickly, I snapped back to reality and eagerly dug in to find my new toy. It was every bit as beautiful as I'd hoped. After putting my new stash of peanuts away I went straight into the studio. Bearing in mind the CAD article I tried my TPB on a slab of scrap clay. I was disappointed to find that, rather than leaving a gorgeous pattern as I had anticipated, it stuck and distorted. Gay Smith said she wet the block to prevent it from sticking. She used her block on freshly thrown clay and I was doing a slab of soft clay but I figured I'd give it a try.  So off to the sink I went and back with a wet block I came. Well that was a bad idea! I spent the next 15 minutes scraping clay out of the tiny crevices of my new old TPB. The whole while I'm thinking of what to do next.

Dry didn't work, wet was even worse.

Perhaps powdering the TPB would work. So once dry I dusted it down with some baby powder and presto! I'm not sure whether it was the dryer clay, the baby powder or a combination of the two but it worked!

It was a clean crisp impression of my new favorite stamp! I wonder what the life of this cool TPB was, no doubt it was used for printing borders on some cool fabric.  I will be using it on my business card holders for sure and on dishes and mugs and platters and... You get the idea.

I'd run out of time for playing with my new toy for that day but learned a few things. First of all reading is great for getting inspired but there truly is no better way than hands on learning. Also, nothing is ever as easy as you expect. Lastly, trying new tools or techniques keeps you humble but it also fuels the fires of creativity.

www.OlliePots.com

The making of pottery - pots on fire!

Proper ventilation prevents glaze defects.

Since my kiln is in the midst of a glaze firing, I figured I'd take the oportunity to share with you some of the process of firing your pieces. In future blogs I'll share many subjects on how to make pottery. But for now let's just focus on the firing process.

There are a few ways that firings can differ from one another. When most people think of firings they often envision a huge kiln, with smoke coming out the top, cooking the pots for days on end. While this is an ancient method of firing (wood burning) it is not the method used by the majority of potters at this time. Sometimes people think of red hot pots being taken out of a kiln and placed into barrels of combustable materials. This also is a well known technique for firing. It is called Raku and named after a Japanese family that developed tea ware for traditional Japanese tea ceremonies. There are also gas-burning kilns and electric kilns, even pit firings. Using an electric kiln is more common as it provides more predictable results. This is what I use.

slowly getting hotter!

Today I am doing the second firing on the wares. It is the glaze firing. The first firing is at a lower temperature, typically between 1648-1940 degrees F, and is called a bisque firing. During the bisque firing, clay that is bone dry, is very slowly heated up to evaporate moisture and eliminate physical and chemically bonded water. If done incorrectly the results can be explosive, so care is needed. In the end the result is pottery that is harder, less fragile and ready to glaze.

After applying glaze and letting it dry completely we do a glaze-firing. This is what I am doing right now. Glaze-firing temperatures can be as low as bisque-firing or as high as 2516 degrees F. Your pots will reach a temperature between 2165-2185 degrees F. Truly "hot pots"! These very high temperatures cause the clay and glaze to vitrify becoming fused at the particulate level. Most pottery is glaze-fired only once, although I often refire two to three times to achieve the desired effect. Again, the pots are susceptible to damage, such as exploding, warping, fusing to the shelf, forming blisters and any number of glaze deffects during this firing so great care is needed. As all potters do, I've learned a great deal thru trial and error. No pot lost is truly a loss since there is always a lesson learned.

Hot Pots!

Well, that's a basic run thru of how firings work. When you get your pottery and as you enjoy it remember that, that little pot went thru a great deal to make it to you! Enjoy!

Glaze Testing

I've been working on new glazes and firing schedules.  I found a nice cool down schedule that makes my coffee glaze look richer.  It gives the appearance of a wood fired piece.  My other glaze that I'm doing is a teal celedon.  It continues to settle and powder.  I added more bentonite and hopefully that will help.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/80699501/handmade-pottery-ring-dish-leaf-motif

Glaze testing is labor intensive but much less discouraging than using glazes on finished pots that end up ruined because of bad glaze.  Glaze can make or brake a pot... and I mean literally... I take a hammer to bad pots!  So after much pot smashing over the years I try to remind myself to test twice; glaze once.