Some brilliant news, my work is being exhibited in Contemporary Craft Open Exhibition at Unit Twelve in Stafford, from 5th Dec 2013- 1st March 2014.

The image above shows my pieces which I displayed at my Degree Show at DMU June 2013.

How my FMP2 developed.

My Aim was to produce a range of high quality functional and useable ceramic boxes.

I did this by experimenting with two different methods of making the boxes, slab building and slip casting them. I tried both methods out as I feel that I needed to improve on my slab building and this technique allowed me to manipulate the clay by pushing objects into the clay to create textures and surface pattern. I am more confident in the mould making/slip casting process so along with the slab built boxes I created a range of slip casted boxes as I feel that they will be more sophisticated.

The concept behind this project was to create a range of handmade ceramic boxes which can be used in a different ways e.g., storing special objects, jewellery, memories, photos in one place and keep them safe in the boxes or just to have them on display. As inspiration I looked at a wide range of designer/makers focusing on form and surface pattern

 The colour scheme:

Using the stains I have bought from Potclays and the glazes from Mayco these were the colour scheme. (Nice bright colours?)

To experiment I used the stains in 3 different ways:

·      Mixing the stain to water and then painting it on bisque pieces

·      Mixing the stain to the clear glaze

·      Mixing the stain to the slip so the colour is already in the clay.

·      The method which worked best was mixing the stain and the dry clear mix together as this gave the best solid block colour

Adding surface pattern:

·         I pushed a selection my jewellery into the clay to get an impression.

This will gave me a selection of different imprints and depths in the clay.

The forms

Step by step:

Slab built boxes:

·         For the forms I rolled out slabs of clay and then pressed my jewellery pieces into the clay to get an impression

·         Then bisque fire them to have a stamp (which will let me create the same pattern over and over again)

·         Then I cut up the clay slabs when at the leather hard stage and make slab boxes.

·         After the slab box had gone leather hard, I made plaster moulds of the boxes so could slip cast them and create replicas.

·         To show development I made different sizes of the slab built boxes. Also I decided to leave the feeds on some of the slip casted boxes to see what this would look like. I liked the outcome.

Another method of creating the boxes

Slip Casted Boxes

·         I Created 3 different sized boxes with lids to fit in plaster, and then created 3 part moulds.

·         With having the moulds this allowed me to play around with surface pattern.

·         I  created collections of boxes, some plain, some textured

Overall I am very pleased with this project and feel I could continue this project and develop it more as I could create different patterns to place on to the boxes.

 Slip casted boxes, with coloured stains and clear glaze over the top

  Slip casted boxes, with feeds left on, coloured glaze on inside, clear out the outside  

 Slip casted boxes developed, with coloured glaze on inside, clear out the outside  

Slip casted boxes developed, with feeds left on, coloured glaze on inside, clear out the outside  

FIRST TERM COMPLETE!

With the first set of work set up I can now relax!

Year 3 WORK!

Carrying on with the theme of Found Objects, I first collected a wide range of objects which I found around the home and other places.

 To start my work I have to create moulds from the objects I did this straight away as I was thrilled to get started and create objects.

To start off with I did some test tiles, I had some terracotta clay left over so I decided to use this and used coloured slips over the top and added textures to them. I was very pleased with the out come.

So I began drawing and came up with these ideas shown in the image below. To experiment with colour I decided to add stains to the slip to see what this would look like. I did some examples and this is how they came out, but unfortunately i applied to much glaze on the pieces so they so they don’t look to nice.

So back to the development stage, I went back to the moulds and did a lot of slip casting so I had a look of shapes to work with. So with having all the objects around me I started experimenting with them by cutting them in half, turning them upside down, cutting areas away and so on.

I as I liked the feel of the terracotta clay I bought some in slip form, and did some casts in this. Then I added to coloured slips to the casted objects to show a variation from the white background to the brown background to see how the glazes/slips react to the different clay bodies. 

SO with the first batch back I began to glaze the pieces, I used a clear glaze on two pieces. One being completely white and then with the coloured slip an area came out blue and used the clear glaze over the top. I like this as the area came out more as a block of colour. Experimenting with the clear glaze with stain in here are a few tests which I have done. I am not pleased with these, so I shall keep on experimenting further.

Great News

I will be exhibiting one of my Raku Pieces at Unit Twelve :

http://www.unittwelve.co.uk/exhibitions.htm

From the 1^st November – 25^th November really pleased I managed to get this J

ANOTHER SLIP CASTED PIECE

Below are a few images of another slip casted piece which I have decorated with black and white slip. Before I did any decoration, I produced some drawings which influenced the designs on the piece.

My Raku Pieces

Below are a few images of my Raku Pieces 

Raku in the Making              

As I haven’t had the chance to do Raku before Mark gave me the chance to have a go at and it was great. 

The technique which I learnt through this process was slab building and how to do pinch pots. With the slab building I learnt that if you measure the slab out correctly then they would all fit together nicely and look good.

So the first thing I did was to make the slab long and thin and then had to leave it to go leather hard before I could do any work to it. Once the clay was leather hard I started the measuring and cutting, I used a T – square as this gave me straight lines and edges. Then I constructed the pieces together starting with the longer sides and then the smaller sides. Once it was all together I started to add surface pattern on to the pieces.

With having 3 slab built pieces and then 10 pinch pots all bisque fired then it was time to have the Raku Firing Celebration. As Raku Firing is a celebration my family and Marks family all got together and then got everyone involved in the glazing part.

With the Raku kiln being fired up and hot enough for the pieces to be put in the excitement started. My roll at first was to put the straw, hay and sawdust into the metal bucket where the red hot pieces were being put in and flames started to appear. Once the pieces where cool enough we got them out and scrubbed the burnt hay, straw and sawdust of them and left them to cool. The second firing I got to take the pieces out of the Raku kiln with metal tongs this was enjoyable. The last firing was eventful! 
Over all the experience was amazing as I have never done this type of firing before. In the near future I hope to do this type of firing again when I get my own studio as I will hopefully have the space. 

 Below are a few images of how I made my Raku pieces.

The Weekend of 24^th- 27^th August 2012

Exchangetonbury !!

As the weekend grew near I was getting more nervous about how well my mugs would sell. I didn’t need to be worried as I sold most of them. Also I got very good feedback from the costumers saying the handle is very good, light in weight and very pleasing to the eye. The Teapot I made also went down well raising around £150 for the charity Douglas Macmillan Hospice.

Completed my Mugs !

So pleased with the transfers as they are a sold bold colour! I really enjoyed working on this project as I got to learn a lot of new skills and techniques.

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. 

Session 8

STARTIGN MY LIVE PROJECT – Designing the Mugs and Tea Pot for Titanic Brewery and raising money for Douglas Macmillan Hospice.

At the end of August we are having a fun filled weekend at the Royal Exchange in Stone, where I have been asked to design some mugs and a Tea Pot to raise some money for the charity.

So to start off, I started casting the handles. As you can see from the images below I have done quite a few. My target is to make 40 mugs and 1 Tea Pot.

Session 7

With the stuff out of the kiln we could glaze the objects. We cleared the studio as a big space was needed. I glazed 3 of my sculptures and going to put under glaze on the other two sculptures.

As I had completed my Tea Pot design I started cutting it out and placing the designs on my Tea Pot.

Session 6

As there was enough bowls, jugs, mugs, teapots and my sculpture to pack the kiln, we packed it. As I had never packed one before I was shown how to do it correctly.

Tip: mark where you have put the kiln props as this will help keep everything lined up.

Session 5 Today I got to make my own Sculptures, from small casted objects which would lead to a final outcome. Today’s session was just about playing around with shapes to create a more abstract final outcome. I got to work on my carving and joining technique. As you can see from the images I really enjoyed playing around with the casted shapes and going to develop them further by adding glazes to the sculptures to bring out the details on each one of the sculptures.

SESSION 4

Mould Making

In today’s session I got shown how to make a mould. As you can see from the images, the edges around the models are very neat (where the plaster meets the clay model). This creates a neat seam line, meaning that you won’t need to neaten up the slip casted piece that much.

If you have a messy mould this will mean your slip casted piece will be very messy and will take time to neaten up. If you put the time into your mould it will take less time to neaten it up. 

This group of images show my decoration on my Bowl.
Session 3 

In this session I learnt how to use stencils to decorate a form

The top image shows the stencils which i have cut out of paper.

The two images below show the bowl with black slip on it and i have painted it on with a brush and using the whirler to get a nice even finish. 

Some Technical Stuff:

Pint weight of glaze = 28 fl oz

Pint weight of water = 20 fl oz

Dry weight of glaze = 8 oz

Bentonite = is used as it is a suspender which stops the dry part of the glaze from separating from the liquid (water)

Calcium Chloride addition = is also used as it is a suspender which stops the dry part of the glaze from separating from the liquid (water)Also it makes it easier to apply coatings of even thickness when it has been mixed into the glaze.

 Tongs = are used to hold a piece of ceramics.-

Lets you hold a cup/bowl and allows you to dip the shape into the glaze with minimum finger marks placed on the form 

   

This clever piece of equipment is called
a Torsion Visc Commeter.


Session 2 

Wasting no time we got stuck in ! 

   The image below is a Torsion Visc Commeter which measures the Fluidity of the Slip. 

   So to use it you have to :

   make sure the dial (the little pointer) is on one 

  fill the little container with slip and stir for 1 minute with a glass rod
  then spin the dial round (anti-clockwise)
  let it stop - this reading shows the fluidity.
  leave for a minute (this will allow the slip to go a little bit thicker)
  then spin the dial again (anti-clockwise) 
  let it stop - this reading shows the Thixotropy
  leave for another minute and the slip with get thicker

  then spin the dial again when we tested the Fluidity.

When we tested the slip our readings where

273 - fluidity

267- thixotrophy 

264 - thixotrophy 

what Thixotorphy means - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thixotropy

After using the Torsion Visc Commeter and we were happy with the readings we got started on the Slip Casting. We casted all day as this is a good way of getting loads of casts done as everything is set up and will save you time in the long run.

We ended up casting two big platters, loads of tea pot lids, some forms that I shall be using to create my sculpture! and casted two tea pots. which  get decorate mine and take it home J

!Below shows my TeaPot in the making ! 

The First Session 

As it was the first session, we discussed what we both wanted to get out of this work experience.

objectives:

how a 'real life potter' works in his studio 

learn as many new skills as possible:

 new glazing techniques, 

applying new surface pattern techniques, 

how to create a form by using slip casted pieces and joining them together 

how to create molds by using found objects as the model

how to set up a kiln/pack a kiln 

So with a few objectives discussed we started to do some work.

I learnt the 

weight of water - 1 pint = 20 fl oz.    (563ml)

New Glazing Technique :

Dipping -