Finishing Up

We're entering the last week of classes at CAC and everyone, myself included, has been glazing and finishing projects from this spring session. It's been a great session and it's hard to believe it's coming to a close. I just wanted to show you some of my finished/glazed pieces that have been featured in my most recent posts. I'm very happy with most of the results and am inspired to follow up on some of the techniques I've shown. That's the way it works with me, one thing leads to another and I'm off again on some creative journey. Lately, I've been overwhelmed with new ideas and wish I had the time to investigate!! Anyway, here are some of my finished projects from the spring session.

P.S.I'm off to Florida on June 7 to visit my mom and looking forward to that.

Paper Resist

This week, I revisted a technique I haven't done in awhile. Paper resist! I began by cutting multiple shapes from newspaper. I then threw a rounded vase and when finished I moistened the surface with a wet sponge. I laid the strips of dry newspaper in the desired pattern and made sure the paper stuck sufficiently with a minimum of puckering. The moisture on the surface adheres the newspaper well. I ran my finger carefully along the edge of the paper to make sure there was a good enough seal. I then applied a stain (in this case it was Oriental Rust, a Laguna MS 100 series stain)over the surface where the paper was stuck. After applying the stain, I immediately removed the newspaper to reveal my pattern. Some seeping of the stain is inevitable and I don't even bother cleaning it up. I like the jagged edge that is created and with the additional texture I add, it becomes unnoticeable. I let the vase dry a little (20 minutes in the sun) at which point I used my sgraffito tool to carve lines through the slip and added some additional texture and carving. This is such a versatile technique that can be used on just about any form and works well with slab work, too. Many thanks again to my student Misako for the pics!

Textured Slab Project

This week I brought to class a sheet of plexiglass that had been discarded at my husbands work (He's a model maker). He brought it home a few weeks ago and asked if I could use it. I thought it might make an interesting impression in clay since it had all these circles cut out of it and so I decided to do an impromptu textured slab project with my classes. What fun it was! I brought to class my huge collection of texture tools along with the plexi sheet for my students to play with and here are some pictures of the resulting projects. As you can see, the grid-like texture was just a springboard for more elaborate designs. I kept thinking...less is more..and had to force myself to stop added texture to each piece. I'm thinking of making some more cylinders with this texture technique.

Throwing with Marbleized Clay

Feeling like I've neglected my wheel students this past week, I decided to demo with marbleized clay. I mixed three clay bodies together, wedged them briefly and threw three different forms - one for each of my classes. There are several important things to remember about mixing and working with this blended clay. First, make sure the the clays are the same consisitency (moisture). I usually start out with 3 slabs of the different clay, throw them down forcefully on top of each other at first (to eliminate trapped air in between each slab) and then begin the spiral wedging technique. I am very careful to wedge only 6 or 7 motions since overwedging will blend the clay too much. By slightly blending, you get a more interesting swirl pattern in your finished thrown piece. During the throwing process, the blended clay is hidden under a thin layer of slip that's created when you moisten the surface with water and throw. The magic appears when after the piece is thrown and sits to dry a little, you take your trimming tool and remove the thin layer of slip that covers the form. If you've not over wedged and wedged properly, your amazing one of a kind surface will appear. Above are the pictures of the process from start to finish. I also included pictures of the bowl and vase I made with the same technique. Many thanks to Mary Alice for taking the pictures with my tempermental camera!

Slab Box Demonstration

This week our demonstration was a variation on last weeks purse demo. I made a template out of posterboard that resembled the shape of an iron cross. Placing the template on top of a large slab of clay, I traced and cut around it. (note: clay should be about a 1/4 inch thick) Next I joined each edge together one at at time to form the box shape. By adding strips over each side seam and top edge, I got the desired look of a paper or soft leather box. I then added the detail of the stitching and button(I used a eucalyptus pod to texture the button..try it sometime..it makes a really gorgeous flower impression). Two really important things to remember is work with the clay when it is fresh out of the bag. This enables you to just moisten the seam and not have to score. The second thing is to not over-work or over-handle the clay. It was great to see how many students gave it a go! Next week I'll get back on the wheel and give equal time to the throwers in class! I've included pics of the demo and also my talented and wonderful students in my Thursday morning class! I'll be bringing my camera to my Tuesday and Wednesday classes so beware!!