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April 19, 2004

Like a Donut Chef

I concentrated on glazing today in studio.

I had a whole pile of stuff that needed washing and glazing: seven Beethovens, nine Hello Kitties, five eggs, and three gnomes. Plus the nest and some other odds and ends (a couple baby heads). I didn't get to everything.

I started by glazing the eggs with Shiny White, which is a sort of eggshelly shiny white glaze like a sink or toilet might be glazed with. Then I did the Kitties: three in various dips of Shiny White, then three with assorted decoration in pink engobe, dipped in Transparent, then three just dipped in Transparent. I had to wash one of the Kitties whose glaze I marred by not paying attention, but they're not doing a cone 10 firing until later in the week so it's all good.

I painted one baby head with pink engobe and dipped it halfway in Transparent, which kind of made it look like an orc from the LOTR movie. One of the guys remarked that it was really disturbing. The other baby head -- the one that is going in the giant egg on the nest -- I painted in thick red iron oxide, so it will come out shiny gunmetal when it's fired at cone 10. I finished working on the egg for that one -- a piece from a mold borrowed from Angela -- earlier in the day.

For the Beethovens, I dipped the faceless one in Mark's Temoku (which is black with gold flecks in it fired on white clay at cone 10), then dipped the others in Shiny White. I'll dip them in Trout Green tomorrow, so when they're fired they'll be a pale green that darkens in the depressions. I had to wait on dipping them the second time because the clay was so thin that the glaze had to air dry, and that's slower than letting the clay suck up all the water.

I didn't get to the gnomes, in part because I couldn't quite decide which glaze I wanted to use. I think I know now.

Finally, I glazed the one pear I have -- which I'm going to make into a bell -- with one of the low-fire underglazes. Those underglazes become actual glazes at cone 10, and there happened to be one that's sort of golden yellow with brown flecks in it, like a pear. So I put two coats of that on the pear and I'll finish it tomorrow morning. I realized when I got home that I'd left the bottle of underglaze out, and I hope nobody gets themself in trouble with it.

Other studio fun: One of the people in another class asked to use my Beethoven mold, so I left her a note on it saying yes, and telling her not to use red clay in it (red clay will stain the mold and any white clay I use in it forever after; I'm fairly sure I'll be remaking that mold over the summer, but I don't want to borrow trouble). Then somebody else in the class asked to use the same mold, so I said yes. He managed to pour the mold in the last minutes of the class, so the clay will still be in there tomorrow when this other person wants to use it. Maybe I will demold it for him tomorrow afternoon, if he doesn't show up and do it himself. We only have a couple weeks of wet clay left, and the Beethoven mold has to sit overnight to unmold properly.

Next class I'm going to bring in the text I want to print for the platform to hold the Beethovens. I'm trying to find sheet music for Beethoven's 7th symphony, but maybe I will give up and go with the 9th (which is my favourite, anyway).

PS - I forgot to mention: I also made a gnome with wings on it (wings from a classmate's mold). I'm going to call it "Fly Away Gnome." It will go with the Gnome Garden.

Posted by ayse on 04/19/04 at 7:04 PM

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April 19, 2004

Like a Donut Chef