Continuing with the PROJECT!
I have pushed myself with this project as I
only gave myself 3 weeks for it to be completed! I feel that I worked extremely
hard as I was getting 12 casted cups out a day which I think is a great
achievement. As the pieces were coming out the bisque kiln I had to think of
designs which would sit on the mugs and came up with 3 different ones to show variety.
One with just black text which was hand written, the next with a black background
with white text on and then a final one with just a black band around the top
of the mug. To finish it off I decided to look into transfers to make it more personal
to the pub where I work, The Royal Exchange which is part of the Titanic Brewery
situated in Stoke-on-Trent. To do this I had to contact the Brewery and ask for
the logos which I am going to put on the
mugs. The logos which are going to go on to the mugs are Steerage, WhiteStar,
Iceberg, PlumPorter, CaptainSmith, Mild and Stout as these are the post popular
beers we sell.
The technical still I have learnt over this
period of time doing the live project:
Time
management – I have always struggle a little with this
as I seem to spend more time at the beginning of the project not doing what it
is I need to be doing:
· Making the mould always takes
longer than you imagine
·
Casting up the object takes a
long time but once you get into the middle of the project it’s very easy to
keep up with yourself as you keep the process going.
·
Having enough time to bisque
fire, glazing fire and the transfer firing takes it time as you need to allow about
a week or more for these.
Other skills :
·
Sponging and Fettling at first I
found this technique a little hard as you need to be constantly moving the mug around
to keep a nice even flow and avoid sharp edges on the mug.
·
Getting the slip right, at first
the mugs weren’t looking right as there were ripples on the surfaces inside the
mugs which isn’t what you want. To overcome this we added more clay to make the
slip thicker. This changed the outcome dramatically as the mug no longer had
the little ripples inside anymore.
·
Adding a handle, this technique was
fairly easy as you get the mug mark where the handle is going to go and then
get a knife (sharp tools) and scrape away the surface so you are left with a
flat surface and then place the handle on the flat surface with slip underneath
it to act as “glue” gluing the two parts together. Then with a brush, brush
around the handle to make sure it holds together.
·
Dipping, recapped on dipping
which is a glazing technique. This technique allows the glaze to sit nice and
evenly on the mug.
