Thursday 13 November 2008

This Week's Ceramic Class was.... Drum Roll Please....

... Great! That tutor of mine is like Jekyll and Hyde!

Cynthia came up with a great solution for the glazing issue, and when I talked about it with the tutor he said that was fine!
"So I can glaze right down to the bottom?"
"Yes".
Wow. What happened to him? Actually, he was really helpful all evening! Maybe he's found my blog!!

So I got to work and made a couple of those, one for my first mug and one for my little bowl. After seeing the effect of iron oxide on a couple of pieces I thought I would use that on my castle, so I didn't need to make a pedestal for that in the end. I don't know how others apply it, but this was a liquid that needed to be painted on and then sponged off for the desired effect, and it was incredibly messy! Mind you, we only have two sinks/basins at class - on one the taps just trickle, and on the other the water sprays everywhere! So guess which one I used?

After all that messing around I only had half an hour left of class. I didn't want to waste a single minute though! So I got to work on a small roasting dish for my toad in the hole! (Great photo in that link! Yum yum!)


This is coil built with a slab base. I could do it quickly because all the sausages are pre-made at the beginning of class with a machine. I still had to rush though, so I've wrapped it well with a damp paper towel and hopefully it won't be too dry next week for me to smooth out.

I mentioned last week that I had glazed my face piece without really knowing how it would come out. Well, this was the result:


To get this effect I painted on honey glaze first, then white (painted on because of the lose pieces, which are now firmly attached. You can see at the top on the left that one piece slipped). I seem to have lost a lot of detail under the glaze, but the tutor kept telling me to give it three layers (no wonder it runs!). What do you think?

9 comments:

Leanne Pizio said...

Hey Un D,
Love the platform idea for glazing!
And I love your face. Beautiful and subtle. She reminds me of a plaster face on the side of an old castle that has been there for ages.
I think I have skype ready if you would like to try and see if I can work it out. Let me know or just email me.
Good job on your pieces!
Leanne

Undaunted said...

Thank you Leanne. Yes, I know what you mean, I had the same thought, but the piece is shiny which doesn't show up in this photo. I wish I had access to more glazes at class! I think I would have liked this piece to be a matt finish personally, but I hope the recipient likes it the way it is!

Lovethiscottage.blogspot.com said...

What fun you are having...I know where there is some clay in a ravine nearby...makes me want to go digging...

Undaunted said...

Go digging Kathi!! You could make a friend for Tess!

Anonymous said...

Yay! Hopefully your class experience will continue to improve.

I love the way the face is glazed.

Anonymous said...

PS "toad in a hole" doesn't sound that appetizing - until I clicked on the link ;)

Undaunted said...

Thank you Cynthia, I hope so too! I'm glad you like the way the face turned out.

Haha, I wonder what the French version of "toad in the hole" would be!!

jafabrit said...

The face has this antique quality that I really like. oh my that toad in the hole looks good :)

Undaunted said...

Thank you Jafabrit :)

That toad in the hole does look good doesn't it? Do you (still) make it sometimes? (Coming from the UK I'm presuming you have made it at some point!)