This is an idea that's been bouncing around inside my head for the past few weeks. It's a geared and steam motif design for a small experimental series of cups and canisters. This project uses the strategy of using cut paper stencils and slips to create compositions to be used as the base designs. After the pieces are glazed, they are then enhanced with a collage layer of home printed high iron decals that are then refired onto the finished surface.
To create enough stencils to play with, I make a stack of 32 sheets of newsprint sandwiched between 2 sheets of thin plastic posterboard. The edges are taped up and a pos/neg design is rubber cemented to the surface. The design is then pierced with a thin drill bit to allow a jewelers saw blade to be threaded though and cut away the design.
The plastic on the exterior of the stack gives the stack a workable level of stiffness. With practice, imagination, and patience, you can get pretty noodley with your designs.
I like mixing and matching stencils to create my designs. I usually start off working to create a specific composition... just to see what it looks like. But after that though, the work turns to a pure freeform and organic style of composition.
This is where I get to fall into a nighttime groove... it's all about the Jazz... the surprises of a flow...it's where the racers happen...
The studio has been a flurry of activity over the past 3 weeks. Between all of the hours and hours spent blissfully gardening, 28 cubic feet of bisque has been put through the kiln and 17 cubic feet of glaze has gone through as well. Well over half of that work was in prep for an experimental soda firing this weekend at Clay Planet in Santa Rosa, CA. with Matt Brown from Moss Beach Ceramics, (more on that in a later post). Finished works are finally beginning to flow out of the studio again. Most joyously, I’ve been very happy with the new works coming out of the kiln for my BoneOrchard collection of teaware. Here are a few works selected from the last firing that will be available at FetishGhost’s Etsy storefront.
This is the process of applying the newsprint stencils to the surface of a freshly thrown cup that's still attached to the wheel head. The stencils are adhered to the surface by spritzing the surface of the cup with water and laying the stencil in place. A gentle pressing with a damp sponge sets the stencil in to place.
A contrasting colored clay slip is then sponged over the entire design. This slip was colored with cobalt oxide, this will fire to a wonderful blue that will influence any glaze that applied over it.
