porcelain milk jug

i had a lot of fun with this one, wrapping the clay around a rolling pin to get the shape and then attaching the base… the paper clay seems to have greater shrinkage than the usual southern ice clay as it seems much tinier than when it first went into the kiln. probably 20-25% shrinkage. good for a small tea soiree

i have my saucers ready to go but need to perfect the cups so that is what i will concentrate on in the next couple of months - yes, could take a while. in fact it could be the end of the year before i have an entire tea set including the sugar bowl unless i get a week to myself (hmmm tell her she’s dreaming!)

ceramics - pre bisquit fire

it is amazing how different pieces look before and after a biscuit (or glaze) firing so i thought i would show you a couple of images pre-firing. the look is very matt but just you wait!
these beads are pre biscuit firing (a lower firing temperature). the porcelain has been stained and then shaped. they will probably drop back in colour intensity after the firing but i am hoping not too much
i will post the glazed (before high firing) images shortly. clay is such a fun and rewarding medium to work with and porcelain is really my favourite right now
by the way, my very talented friend (and mentor!), kirsty manger from yum design, is participating in an exhibition by the geelong potters at the karingallery, 4 james street, geelong at the moment. i might see you in there!
x

glazed ceramics - some ok and some not so ok

so here are the results... the testing phase has given some interesting results. some are good and some look like cake mixture has been stuck onto the clay - not so pretty. all a good learning curve though : )
i think i will re-glaze some and see what happens and i think what i have learned from this is that the porcelain really doesn't need much to enhance it at all
some of these will be utilised as jewelry and some mounted as wall pieces
oh, shots taken on iphone, not new camera
these are the stained porcelain beads. some of which then have a stained glaze (actually an extender with a powder stain mixed through it) and some have a clear gloss glaze and some are the stained clay fired to the higher temperature. you can see on the tulip in the middle that the stained extender is quite lumpy and flat. i may fire these again with a clear glaze over the top...

some of the tiles warped in the kiln as they were not flat but stacked sideways... they make for some interesting shapes and ideas for the future!
the linework was created by making my own tissue transfers. i generated a design on the computer, had it made up into a screen and then printed onto tissue paper and  applied the dried transfer to the clay (i did it with wet and dry clay to see what happened). so far they are not as clean as the commercial transfers but perhaps that is my doing

gluggy stain : ( and washed back glaze which looks a bit dirty on the white


rings - these i love because the porcelain is gorgeous. the detail it holds is lovely and a clear glaze on the unimpressed areas really highlights the patterns as well


xx
ps this was the really garish one that looks like green cake mixture and very bright pink icing - good for testing a few other things on!

porcelain wall installations

above are two pieces from a proposed wall installation. it is to be a repeat of the linocut pattern which has been pressed into long porcelain rectangles. each of these will use a different glaze. there should be a lot of movement created through the use of colour and light so it will be exciting to see it come to fruition...

i am also doing a series of larger pieces... the one below is the first finished. it is a 'build' of a couple of linocuts. the ones created after this (but not yet glazed) have taken a new direction altogether but it is always interesting to see how things progress. the plan is for an exhibition later in the year!

chin chin x