Surface Decoration Techniques, Part II

-
I continued working on surface decorating at last night's class. Over the weekend I had finished the sgraffito piece, so I just had to set it out to dry:
I call this one "Apatosaurus Under the Rising Sun". Or something. Anyway I quite like how it came out, though it was a little difficult keeping the edges of the carving smooth.

I also made a third plate with the scraps from the last 2 plates (which was a weird pain; the scraps didn't seem that dry but were very hard, so it took a ton of wedging):
It's not very exciting yet, because I want to do slip trailing on this one. That means using a squirt bottle type thing with a very thin nozzle to draw a design on the clay using an underglaze. Unfortunately the underglazes have to be prepped for that. They have to be pretty runny and there needs to not be any clumps, so they actually get forced through a sieve. Our teacher will work on that before the next class, so I'll be able to finish this on Saturday.

Finally, I worked a bunch on the oval box made of red raku clay. I got the long side cut out and decorated with a zigzag pattern, and I got the box very roughly assembled:
The bottom is all done, attached, reinforced, and paddled. You have to paddle the edges to get them all melded together, but I didn't have time for that on the top, so it still looks rather rough. Hopefully at home I can paddle the edges, then cut the lid off and reinforce the top. I'll do some sort of decoration or carving on the top, too.

I also got a bunch of raku clay all rolled out so I can make a garden decoration or two, but I haven't actually started on that yet. I'm definitely going to make a toadstool, but I'm not sure what else. I'm still pondering.

During the next class I intend to roll out enough cone 10 clay to start on the dragon egg I want to make plus the big garden decoration I'm hoping to do. I decided on a dinosaur for sure. It's going to be challenging, but it'll definitely give me growth opportunities, so that's good. ;)

I'm also hoping during the next class to make another couple of small bowls to decorate. Last night's demo from our instructor was a couple of interesting techniques that've been going around the interwebs. One is bubble glazing although it's not *really* glazing; it's actually an underglaze so you have to put a real glaze over the top. It's super cool. You just thin out some underglaze and add soap, then use a straw to blow bubbles and scoop them out onto the pottery.

The second technique is mocha diffusion, which is created by adding something acidic to an oxide wash. Our instructor used vinegar. You dip the piece in slip then while it's still wet apply dabs of the acid/oxide mixture, and it has a chemical reaction (the slip is basic) and creates this amazing feathery design.

Anyhow our instructor has supplies for both of these techniques so I'm going to try those out, hopefully. The mocha diffusion is done while the clay is still wet, but the bubble glazing has to wait until the piece is bisqued, so hopefully I can at least get both of the bowls molded and finished up that way on Saturday. It'll be a busy day!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Does it get easier?" Yes, but Also No...

-
Image
Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay It's complicated... "Does it get easier?" I see some form of this question asked a lot in beginner programming groups. I always struggle with how to answer this honestly and clearly, because the truth is not that simple. In some ways it does get easier, but in other ways it is almost always going to be difficult if you are advancing in your career . If you are a programmer and your job is easy for years on end, the most likely explanation is that you're in the kind of dead-end position that people try to avoid, not the kind of position people dream about when they think of becoming a developer. Most likely you are not getting better at being a dev, not working with new tech or solving new kinds of problems, not being given more responsibility, etc. etc. etc. I've seen some pushback from other newbie programmers on the idea that it could remain difficult past the initial learning stage. Notably I have never once seen somebody who...
Read more

How to Land Your First Dev Job: Develop Yourself, Market Yourself

-
Image
Image by magnetme from Pixabay In the coding and tech groups I'm in, I see the same question asked over and over by folks who are just learning to code, finishing up a bootcamp, degree, or other training program, or who have been looking for that first job for awhile and not having any luck: "what do I need to do to get my first dev job?" There's a whole ton of info out there on this topic, but it's scattered all over, so I thought I would gather together the best resources I've come across and share them, along with a bit of context, to try and help everybody struggling with or just plain wondering about this. There are a lot  of things you can do to improve your chances of finding a job and hopefully shorten your job search. They are broadly divided into 2 categories: developing yourself and your skills, and marketing yourself and your skills. Note that you don't need to do everything on this list, nor do you need to do it all at once. This is an "...
Read more

Git. The WHAT and WHY Edition.

-
Image
Lately I've seen a lot of new/aspiring developers talk about difficulties learning git . I was confused at first, because there are approximately a zillion git tutorials out there. But then I started really looking at what people were saying AND what all those tutorials contain. The problem is most tutorials start out with "here are a ton of git commands to memorize", and this is not where people are having problems. People are having problems with "what is git, why should I learn it, and what does it look like to use it in a real-life project?", and those questions are largely not answered in all those millions of tutorials. So at the risk of redundancy, I'm going to attempt to address these questions in Yet Another Article About Git. First, I want to make it clear that if you want to be a programmer, any kind of programmer, you need to know git. You just DO. This is the short version of the answer to "why should I learn it?".  The medium length a...
Read more