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.