Glazed pieces

I was so delighted to see the finish on the first four pieces that came out of the kiln. The glaze was lovely and the black had come out really intensely. Unfortunately though, the tecnician had rubbed the glaze from the rim of the pots so that presumably the lids could be fired on the pots. This gave a disappointing finish so I need to find out a way to keep the glaze on the rim of the pots and still fire the lids properly.

I was concerned that the first two pots I had done with the slip decoration would be very like footballs and while I do feel they are certainly a little too suggestive of footballs, I quite liked them as pieces.

I was really pleasesd with the other type of decoration, in painting the stain straight on. My first small pot had a lovely finish.

Very sadly however, the final three pieces done with this same preferred type of decoration were not fired to high enough a temperature due to a malfunction of the kiln so the glaze did not vitrify properly. there wasn't time to have these three re-fired. It was disappointing but hopefully I can fire them again to 1250 and they will come out nicely.

The final three pots. The glaze is opaque in places as they need to be re-fired.

Surface decoration

Having made the forms, the challenge then arose as to how to apply the surface decoration of the stripes and hexagons. The problem lay in the fact that it was not just one spherical shape that I was applying the hexagons to but rather they would carry over 3. Getting them to properly tesselate over each seam was really difficult.

I had previously looked at the possibility of using further clay on the surface to mould the hexagons to the surface of the pot. I wanted it to be flat in relief though.

First I applied black slip over the top spherical parts of the pots and from this drew circles and then made those circles into hexagons. This meant the hexagons did travel into each sphere but I wasn't really satisfied with how random the sizes were and the fact that they didn't really tesellate properly. It gave more of  an animal print impression I felt.

The two below on the right are the patterns carved from the slip covered surface. A little like a giraffe print I think.

I then examined the roof on the museum and how the hexagons were applied there and also the work of Nicholas Grimshaw in the Eden Project in Cornwall. In this he has huge dome shapes that touch each other and are covered with hexagons. In both cases, the tesselating hexagonal pattern was restricted to eah individual dome. When a new spherical shape started, a new set of hexagons was applied. As you can see in the middle pot above, I applied this technique, first drawing on the hexagons and then painting them in with a mixture of black stain and slip. I made the size of the hexagons decrease as the went further up the pot.

This is a close up of a piece by the very famous Hungarian Herend porcelain company. Each piece is very expensive but hand-painted with intriciate designs that perfectly fit into the shape of the form.

Taking inspiration from this in a much more simplified and less perfect way, the hand-painted hexagons was the method I decided to use to decorate the remainder of the pots.

In the persuit of perfection

Making positive forms and consequently moulds and cast pieces is a process that needs a certain degree of perfection. Looking around at the moulds in the studio, they themselves are almost works of art, perfectly even cut lines and smooth perfectly even surfaces. Unfortunately, despite much effort my moulds are not so beautiful and when I took out the positive forms, there were bubbles inside the big one. This was obviously due to my plaster having lumps or my not pouring the plaster around the form properly. I think I need to remember though that this is my first experience in this process and that the learning is what is most important here. One of my lid moulds too was far less than perfect due to the fact that my sharing line was in the wrong place. These are all things I can learn from though and improve on in the future.

My imperfect mould.

My first casts turned out really well though despite everything and with a little care and attention, they cleaned up very nicely.

If at first you don't suceed...

I wanted my pot to have a capacity of 500ml to hold the amount of honey that's most common here to buy in jars in the shops. I was concerned, despite many efforts at technical drawings trying to calculate the capacity my designed piece would have, that what I had made would be too small. Therefore, I decided to increase my design on the photocopier by 22% and make a second mould. This was good as I could learn the other method of creating a 2 piece mould anyway.




The two sizes I made...I'm not sure yet what their actual capacities will be.



The next step was to make the lids. This had to be done on the wheel and turned very quickly as the plaster dried so quickly. I managed to make a good shape for the large pot which I was happy with but the smaller one has a flater lid than I would have liked. It took 6 failed lids to finally achieve these two. A Hungarian student told me that from the time I pour the plaster into the mould at the top of the pot, I only have 5 minutes in which to create the shape fior the lid or otherwise it will be too late and too hard. I definitely need more practise to master this skill!

This is the 2nd larger form ready to have plaster poured on top and be made into a mould.

The beginning of the making!

Yesterday I started making my mould. I was apprehensive as using the lathe was new for me and the thought scared me! I made the plaster cylinder around the centre of the wheel and was shown how to use the lathe and begin to turn the plaster to make my shape and then left alone to figure it all out and get the feel for what I was doing. This was the best way to learn. I managed to create a shape I was very pleased with by very frequent measuring of my form and comparing it to my design image. I was also advised to put a piece of paper with the side profile of the design cut out so I could follow that to get the shape too. It's good to have the flexibility to be able to tweak the form as you watch it take take shape if you think something will improve on the design you have. I need to make my surface smooth still but I'm very pleased with my first step!

Early ideas

Being very restricted with materials and resources, these pictures show my roughly made maquettes of the sort of design I want to create. I don't think the honey swirler should be made from ceramic but perhaps metal would  compliment the pot design better. I will need to speak to the other departments at the college here and hopefully something will be possible.

The  below picture is a close up of the hexagonal tiles that make up the coloured, patterned roof of the Museum of Applied Arts which is where my ceramic department is located. I like the fact that the pattern I have chosen in the hexagons reflect the honey theme but also reflect something of my current surroundings.

Budapest!

This semester I am not in Limerick but in Budapest, studying at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. Things were difficult to adapt to at first here as the system and way of working is very different from home. Firstly we were not given a brief, but vague guidelines as to what type of an object I should make and after that it was really up to me. Also there is just Cliona from Limerick in my class and we have no actual college class time except a crit. on a Friday.

I decided I wanted to make a small object that would be functional and able to be given as a present. I wanted it to be generic. I accumulated a long list of possible objects I could make and finally got it down as far as a honey pot, a sugar bowl or a match striker. In the end I chose a honey pot. Unfortunately I can't seem to be able to upload pictures at the moment.
I realised how important it is to create a piece with it's purpose in mind. From a consumer point of view, an object needs to be something they can imagine themselves using and so something that immediately seems fit for it's purpose. Instead of using a typical hive shape or bee decoration, I decided to work on uing the stripe pattern and the honeycomb hexagonal pattern and to use the 3 part bee body form as the shape for the actual pot.