Thoughts on Painting

Painting the pots can be a meditative process after decisions have been made about the mode and the palette have been decided on. Maybe trance would best describe the state I'm in when I'm sitting there with my brushes, slip and bisque ware. Last night I had a thought to try(again) to get a watercolor effect on some of the pots. Usually the underglaze gets absorbed into the glaze and the effect is lost or obscured. If anything it was a good exercise. With the birthday party and the mounting pressure just before this firing, I was feeling a little stiff or should I say the painting /brushwork was a little stiff.

Here is one of the pots that I did some very light watery underglaze painting on. On one hand the thought that it might fade with the glaze freed me up to just doodle and have fun. On the other hand, I was getting into the lines and the overlapping and darkening grays and I hoped that the painting would not be in vain. I'll be curious to see and try to keep track of these pots after they are fired. It's not going to be easy to do, but I'll make a note. (Please remind me next week. thanks)

An unfortunate impulse during the painting yesterday caused me to have to remix my black underglaze. I had some vague memory of reading or hearing from someone about additives to slips to ease the flow when painting on bisque. In case you haven't painted bisque ware, or aren't a potter, (there just may be a few non potters reading this, welcome to tech talk) the thickness of the slip is very important. The thinner the slip/underglaze is the easier it is to paint. Unfortunately the thinner the material the less opaque the color. So by adding an agent to help slip flow helps the painting without sacrificing (too much) the density of the slip.
Now that I've thoroughly confused everyone...I decided to add a little liquid laundry soap that I have around to prime my brushes for the wax resist.(another story) The slip went from a very heavy cream consistency to very watery. I had deflocculated the slip!!! AAGGHH, Oh Noooo. Well I thought about it for a moment. OK, the soap is alkaline and in order to get it back to a working consistency and I need to add an acid. So I reach for my vinegar, (a must have in the pottery studio) and dropped a teeny bit into the slip container and voila it thickened right up!
Well it didn't exactly inspire confidence to use this strange smelling mixture on all of the pots I had left to paint. But it was an interesting experiment. I gathered my wits and gathered my dry materials up from the kiln shed and mixed a small batch of white slip which is the base for my black. Here's my recipe

1 lb F4 feldspar
1 lb Silica
1 lb Avery Kaolin
1 lb OM4 ball clay
(notice a pattern?)
1/4 c #6Tile kaolin
pinch of Bentonite

It's a Rock Creek white slip and made a small bucket's worth. The materials are equal parts so it makes for easy mixing. The #6 Tile I guesstimated. The I mix in enough black Mason stain to make the mixture pretty dark. I would guess that I used about 1/4 lb #6650 (cobalt free) mason stain. I them use my trusted electric salad dressing blender (hand held) and mix the slip and the stain until smooth. I add water when necessary.

Here's picture of the container so you can see the color.
I guess it's about 20% Mason stain.

Off I go up the muddy path to pottery-ville. Have a good day/night!

100!

Wow! Today we were joined by Amber, our 100th faithful reader of Sawdust & Dirt. Amber is from my hometown of Clarksville, TN! Wow, what a coincidence! She describes herself as:

I'm in college full time, I work two part time jobs, I have a husband and a child. I'm Busy!

But not too busy to stop by and read the blog! As for the rest of you who haven't signed on, what's up ? No biggie. I'm not really sure what the advantages of being a follower are, besides the pride and the love. I guess I better come up with some kind of token of appreciation for all of you all. Does anyone have any ideas? T-shirts, tote bags, Michael Sherrill Mudtool's! Maybe a giveaway is in order. Hmmm.

Welcome Amber, and thank you, all, for staying with me here at ye olde blogge.

Nice Pair

I've hunted down a couple of pictures from a couple of my favorite books, Raised in Clay and Common Clay. The former is a wonderful catalog of southern potters initially published in 1984 and reissued in 1994 with a new afterword by author Nancy Sweezy. The latter is another fine survey of some southern potters working around the time of 19 and 71. Common Clay was written by the late Charles Counts.

illustration of late Alabama potter Norman Smith's heater/dryer
from "Raised In Clay"
(illust. by Daphne Shuttleworth)

Mrs. Smith stoking the heater.

a page from the book "Common Clay" shows Mr. Smith
holding what appears to be a piggie
bank in front of heater/dryer.

So, you see, history/necessity repeats itself. Although my operation is a little smaller, a potter's got to dry out their wares!

Go out or log on and buy these books if you don't have them, already. They are indespensible. If you don't I might get in trouble for not asking permission to use these pictures.

;-)

Birthday Girl!

It's going to be a beautiful blue Monday here. Well, maybe, rain in the forecast. But that won't stop us from partying with our little Lillian who is 5 today!

Happy birthday Lillian Kline!

Here are five bowls for Lillian, well, not really, they're for the upcoming firing.

Some Painted Pots

Here are some pictures from yesterdays painting.

some vignettes with birds


grasses with seagulls

apres Kyle Carpenter

some vignettes with birds


grasses with seagulls

Painting:my goal: 2 add something special & avoid wrecking a nice form, trying 2 strike a balance between form & surface.It's EZ 2 tip the balance @ this point.

Sunday Evening Pottery Club

In the after supper session, I'm painting a lot of birds. Here's a picture of the drying update.

I knew the old grill would come in handy for something besides toasting bagels.

Here's tonights shuffle:

Stereolab-Emperor Tomatoe(?)
The Strokes-Is This It?
T.Heads- 77
U2- How To Dismantle...
Stereo MC's-Connected

(sorry, no Sheryl Crow)

I'll post some pictures of painted pots later if I have to energy.

oh brother

I got to do what I got to. I've already loaded one bisque kiln's worth of leather hard pots! Boy, it's getting hot in here!

The Sauna

platter on a ladder and other damp pots under
the fan and near the wood stove on this beautiful spring day.

Even though it's fairly warm out I started a wood stove last night and cranked up the fan to dry out the wares. I dipped all of the big cups in # 6 Tile slip and that takes a while to really dry. A bit of irony here as just last week I was thinking to myself that I need to convert my dry box to a damp box just to stay ahead of the drying. The weather is such an important part of this making process.

With just a few days before the firing there are only two days to bisque fire. I've been working long days and it's this tight of schedule when I feel like a truck driver out on the road. At least I get to see the family in passing, but it's no fun being out in the shed. Gotta run.

That Pitcher: Update

Here's the latest on the pitcher we're "following". The kaolin slip was poured onto the pitcher with a paper cup leaving some nice blank areas totally by chance. Now if I can only get it dry and bisque fired by Wednesday!!???!?