I've started making large bug-like creatures. No, not this little guy, he's for real! And dead, sad day. And he looks like a ninja turtle. :D My studio-mate Leah found him and gave him to me. I am the unofficial bug lover and saver of the studio, rescuing even the tiniest gnat from my water bucket.
These are legs, although they are upside down. I coil build them this way, and they will be attached to the body by fitting them over collars after firing. Ya know...theoretically. I build them to fit, but I don't wanna actually put it all together until I get it glaze fired so the clay is at it's strongest. Fingers crossed!
This is the body before I had the top built. Those skinny extensions of the legs are actually the collars that will fit into the legs, so they won't be seen.
Then I added some weird growth. I want each creature to have its own sort of environment it carries on it's back, all unique to each individual creature. I made this one a bit simple since it's my first one and was a little experimental.
Added some worms!
Tentacles? Vines?
Mossy fungus.
Real critters making their homes in my imaginary critters. :)
This has been bisque fired since these pics were taken and is waiting to be glazed, along with some of the functional goods I've been working on. I've also made some yarn bowls that aren't pictured.
That brown mug is from a small test batch of clay I made using barnard clay in the mix. It should fire to a nice, dark chocolate brown. We'll see!
Box o' test tiles!
Recent cone 6 tests.
Last semester we had to formulate our own base glaze deciding things like whether we want a matte glaze or glossy, opaque or transparent, etc. I wanted a nice buttery matte, and got it on the first try using the molecular unity formula (soooo confusing). These are both my base glaze, on the left fired in a cone 10 reduction firing, and on the right at cone six oxidation (in a gas kiln). I was excited to see it could go from cone 6 all the way up to cone 10. I was also excited to see small crystal growth from the cone 10 test. :) Can't wait to see how it does in a wood fire! If you want the glaze recipe just let me know. It feels soooo nice on the hands.
Using our base glaze, we then had to add colorants (oxides) to our recipe and see what happens. This one was a guess at adding manganese and cobalt to my base glaze to get a certain effect, and I actually got exactly what I was looking for in this case as well. I was really excited and surprised, haha. It has a nice blue on the highlights, and it is a nice eggplant purple where it pools and is thicker. These pics don't do any of these justice really. Like I said, just ask for the recipe if you are interested.
I believe this one had titanium dioxide added (I'd have to double check) and once again this isn't the best pic, but it turned out lovely. It's the palest periwinkle blue with small crystals.
That's all for now. I should be loading another bisque in two or three days, and then going on a glazing frenzy. I shall return with my results!
