New work after the bisque firing

Well... I bisque fired the new slip-cast form that I mentioned in my last blog, and also the earthenware sculpture with the chain, that I showed in the bone dry stage in my last blog as well.  I received the cone 6 glazes that I ordered from Coyote Clay and Color and hope to do some glaze tests on the porcelain clay body that I'm using for the slip-casting as well as the earthenware clay body to determine how they will look before I commit to using them on my new work.  Today I slip-cast another form and also made up five new glazes to also test.  The range of the glazes that I made up are cone 06, cone 04, and a couple of cone 6 glazes.  I also am working on a wall piece, which I just started yesterday.  I have an idea on what I would like to do with the design, but I'll have to see how many I can produce...I'm currently working on five new pieces, so I guess we will see.  I only have five more weeks before I present the body of work for my candidacy in the MFA program of Ceramics at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.  I'm going to be extremely busy!!!  I'll keep you updated with photos of the work as it comes together.

Slip-Cast Work Fall 2010

In my last blog I mentioned about the cone six porcelain casting-slip and the new piece I am working on with it.  Well, I did my first cast with it and had some minor problems with some undercuts in the mold, but I managed to save the piece with a little work.  I'll have to fix the undercut problem by shaving it down to an angle that will hopefully create the removal of the piece from the mold easier.  In the photos shown of the form, I am starting to apply "nodes" to the conical shape of the form by hand. I'm going to make a gang press mold that I can pour slip into, to help that part of the process go faster.  I am going to be doing some work on the flat circular side opposite the conical side, but I'll have to post those photos once I reach that stage.  I plan on using this form to create a larger sculpture by exploring repetition and scale as well.  I'll keep updating the work on this piece as it comes along.

Mid-term work Fall 2010

The first picture is of a piece I was working on since mid July and went under more heat than I wanted, but I guess that's part of learning how the different gas kilns around here work.  The second and third photos are of a piece that is in the bone dry stage and will be put in the electric kiln for a bisque firing next week.  I have ordered some commercial glazes that are cone six.  I decided to order the glazes versus making them so I could save some time and work on my work.  The last photo is of a large sculpture that I am working on.  With this piece I am exploring scale as well as repetition to create a larger piece.  The glazes fired on the "grate" area is a cone 6 glaze that I made up from one of our shop glazes.  All the pieces were fired to cone 6 in oxidation (electric kiln), after their initial bisque firing in which I fired them at cone 08 in oxidation.  All the work is built by hand using slabs, except for the screws on the outer rim of the grate area, which were made using a press mold and then attached to the form after scoring and applying slip to the scored areas.  I also made up a cone 6 porcelain casting slip that I plan on casting next week.  I'll post images of how that goes in my next blog.