TACKLING AN EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TECHNIQUE

STACKED CLAY/NERIKOMI/CLAY VENEER

CERAMICS II

porcelain clay, oxides, & glaze

We've only been doing this assignment for about the past 2 years but we've learned a lot

in the process.

This is a Japanese technique that is beautiful and complex.

You begin with a white Porcelain base clay and wedge into it an oxide colorant.

My kiddos have to make at least 2 contrasting colors.

Then they need to pick a design to slice and alternately stack these slabs together

and inlay them into a white porcelain foundation.

We are still trying to iron out the wrinkles in the inlay as I will point out.

And the other wrinkle is what form to then build with these slabs so they won't crack.

Again you will see.

But I think we got closer last year.

My newbie Intermediate clay gals are just starting on this project today and we've talked it out,

researched the heck out of it on the Internet,

and we might just conquer it this year.

So go seniors Olivia Kruger, Lina Kim and Dustiney Ansiboy.

This gorgeous bowl was built last year by senior Ylia Madayag.

She was able to do a seamless inlay,

but sadly her clay stressed and cracked over the mold she used to form her bowl.

But at least the cracks were consistent all the way around the rim.

We all loved her stacked design.

This next one was made by junior Chloe Chang.

No cracks but she did struggle with the inlay separating as it dried and was fired.

And here are two views of junior Eugene Ho's cup.

Wonderful inlays and just the barest of cracking.

If you have never worked in Porcelain,

it is so yummy but so stubborn to get to know.

It dries out very quickly, 

but can be rolled oh so thinly so that very delicate creations can be made,

if you work fast enough that is.

ha ha

This lovely vase is the work of junior Julia Ruiz.

She managed no separations and no cracking.

Way to go Julia!!!

And senior Sarah Oh made two really fun canes,

a chicken and a heart.

We do see separations and cracks here,

but it's still quite a feat!

And last but not least Eugene got real playful with all his left over clay colors and cane.

He had a couple of jelly roll slices left and the rest he partially wedged together

which created a marbled look.

And then he loosely formed it over a mold

and applied some cool appendages.

I believe it sold this piece at Open House.

We all loved it.

And no separations or cracks,

how about that??

Thanks you 5 for being such great sports and hard workers 

to try to pull off this very difficult art form.

We literally stretched you guys to new horizons.

WHAT'S IN YOUR STACK

STACKED CLAY

CERAMICS II

Porcelain clay, oxides, transparent glaze

We saw my demos. in the last post from yesterday,

now we see what senior Sarah Chang came up with for her assignment.

Sarah followed my lead and reused her excess pieces as well,

and came away with 3 lovely works of art.

Sarah made two colored mixtures,

Cobalt and Rutile.

She built the sweet slab footed bowl first,

then with leftovers created her mug.

Sarah enjoyed this process so much that she made two other Stacked designs,

and built the delicate glass form on the left with pinwheel and checkerboard stacks.

OXIDES AS CLAY COLORANTS

A challenging but wonderful learning experience for my Ceramics II students

is this Stacked Clay assignment.

I give the kids white Porcelain slip 

and they mix their own colors from the 4 oxides we have to choose from.

Then they poke holes into a piece of white Porcelain clay and pour their colored slips

into the clay body.

Wedging is next to mix everything together until the porcelain turns another color.

In this piece above,

 which I think I may have shared 2-3 years ago,

I mixed Cobalt Carbonate into the white clay body 

so that it would turn blue in the final glaze firing.

Then I rolled pieces of this blue clay into slabs 

and stacked alternated slabs of white between them.

I rolled all top & side edges together to bond the slabs into one

 and push out the air bubbles in between,

then rolled the bonded combo. slab into a long piece so that I could roll that up into a jelly roll.

Phew!

Next the roll was turned on it's side,

and thin slabs were cut and inlayed onto a waiting white porcelain slab.

The bowl was then formed over a newspaper mold and feet attached.

Above is another bowl/plate that I made for a demo. maybe 2 years ago.

It's a bit hard to see the actual second color I mixed from this pix,

but I made one mixture of Red Iron (brown),

 and another of Chrome Carbonate (pale greenish blue grey).

I really liked the elongated form that came from this demo.

I never plan anything ahead or know what I'm going to come up with,

so it's always a surprise.

Helps me to be more creative.

This was my demo. last year for 2nd year student senior Sarah Chang.

I lucked out and ended up with 3 pieces.

The first one is the glass form on backside left.

In that piece you can see the pattern I stacked the Blue and white slabs in.

But I ended up with so much leftover clay that I didn't want to throw away it,

so I overlapped the edges I had cut off and made another glass form,

the one on the right back.

Once again,

as I cut off edges, 

I had tiny pieces of slab left over,

so again I overlapped them and managed to use them all up in this last tiny vase form in front.

Way too much fun!

IT'S ALL ABOUT SURFACE DESIGN

MISHIMA VASES

I say that over and over again to my clay kids.

I tell them anyone can make a pot,

which in drawing is like a blank canvas. 

It's what you put on the surface that makes it special.

So senior Yasmeen Pardo marbled half her vase form with our oxides, 

and the other side features her actual assignment,

an inlayed Mishima design.

Senior Erin Hsiao has pretty much put the same design on both sides for a more symmetrical piece.

These kids had to roll super thin slabs of porcelain the make a 2 sides vase form.

One of the hardest things they didn't account for was making a two sided pot stand.

There is not much there on the bottom that touches the table surface.