WHAT DO I ALWAYS TELL MY STUDENTS?

MISHIMA & SGRAFITTO

CERAMICS II

clay, porcelain slip, oxide, & glaze

It's all about surface design!

And two great techniques are Mishima, 

an inlay technique,

and Sgrafitto,

an overlay technique.

This soft, sensitive swallow bowl belongs to senior Sarah Chang.

She was able to search thru my Kiln room shelves and find a tiny bag of left over Pink Oxide

which she poured into liquid porcelain slip

 to change up the colorway from off white to light pink.

She mixed that up thoroughly and did her Mishima in the center.

A close up.

To do the Mishima technique 

she built her porcelain bowl then used her sharp needle tool (bug pick)

to incise design lines into the clay's center area.

Next she used a brush and pushed the pink slip into those lines to fill them back up. 

And now the fun part.

When the slip and bowl are a bit past leatherhard she took a flexible metal rib

and scrapped across the surface to reveal her design.

Wella!

Here is a close up of her Sgrafitto area.

To do this part she brushes on the pink liquid slip directly onto the bowl's rim

when her bowl is still plastic.

Then when it all dries to leatherhard she carves out her design.

When I was in college these were two of my favorite techniques to do 

when I really wanted to make the pot's surface special.

STACK THEM UP!

 STACKED PIGMENTED PORCELAIN

CERAMICS II

porcelain clay, oxides & glazes

This is such a fun assignment but challenging.

That's why I save it for my second year clay kids.

They are required to mix up at least one color of clay using porcelain and oxides.

One of the challenges is to pour enough of the oxide colorant into the porcelain so that it changes the white into a color.

It's really hard to know how much to use.

When I do it for myself I do it by eye.

Above and below we see senior Nicholas Tudor's attempt.

He choose cobalt carbonate, 

but sadly after all this work with his design,

which looks so very cool...

we were hardly able to see the results.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to find the pix of his finished piece.

But I do have senior Yasmeen Pardo's mug below.

She had the same problem as Nick,

not being able to see the end results after all that work.

Senior Erin Hsiao went for it and poured a lot more into her white porcelain,

wedged it up,

then alternated it with the straight white,

and as you can see below it really showed up nicely in her very interesting sculptural form.

And senior Ju Eun Lee,

who also used cobalt,

simply stopped her wedging before it turned into a solid color,

and actually got a really nice marbled effect with several values.

So this is how we will probably do it next year.

Let me know what you think!

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.

A COUPLE MORE

PORCELAIN SLAB WRAPS

CERAMICS II

clay, glaze, oxides

If you remember this post from a couple of months back,

I'd shown off these delicate porcelain wraps.

Well two more recently came out of the glaze firing and I wanted to show them off.

Senior Erin Hsaio has rolled a lovely pattern over top her clay

 then let the piece break and crack as she folded it over for a super cool look.

And senior Cindy Ryoo has let her clay buckle over itself as she put it together.

You can see these pieces as well as so much more

 at our Open House show that is coming up in April.

More details to come.

Light and Airy

PORCELAIN SLAB WRAPS

CERAMICS II

porcelain, glaze & oxides

This is one of the first assignments of the school year for my 2nd year clay students.

It's a slab review as well as an introduction to porcelain.

Thinness is stressed,

along with decorative edges,

 and lots of embossed surface design.

Probably one of the most beautiful works in clay to ever be built in my classroom in 35 years by senior Ju Eun Lee.

So lovely that I had to take two pix in two different lights.

This next one by senior Yasmeen Pardo is also really cool.

She has adorned it with her signature metal pieces along the side edges, 

and look at how nicely the glaze is breaking around her surface design.

And what an interesting shape senior Nicolas Tudor has built on the right.

If you look at it from above it's a tear drop. 

He is using a new wooden rolling tool to emboss the clay's surface.

These next ones were shot on a different day and I wish I'd used another color backdrop.

They are a little hard to see because of the lack of contrast but they are really cool little wraps.

These two tiny cuties above belong to senior Cindy Ryoo along with the one on the right below.

The one below left was made by senior Sameera Baktra.

Great job ladies!

And this last one is another by Cindy.

She made several extras and really enjoyed the assignment.

Let's Eat!

PORCELAIN DINNERWARE SET

INTERMEDIATE 3-D ART

porcelain clay, glaze, oxides

Laarnie and Reis both expressed an interest in revisiting clay in their 3-d class so I wanted to challenge them since they are both outstanding students with this dinnerware assignment.

And 'm so glad I did because their results were incredible.

This first set belongs to junior Laarnie Barcelon.

The kids were required to make at least 3 pieces.  

Laarnie did a couple more for extra credit.

Her cup was my favorite with all the embossed designs she stamped into it.

And then to show them off she stained with red iron oxide and glazed with transparent over top.  

I also really loved the bottom of her bowl.

I always tell me students that it's human nature to turn things over to see the bottom so you had better make it look good.

She listened  :)

Another close up of one of her cups.

I feel badly that I didn't take a shot of junior Reis Makasa's set.

Don't know what I was thinking. 

But this is his plate.

On this piece he stained with cobalt and chrome carbonates to highlight his stamped areas, then transparent glaze over. 

Loved his mug and how his handle flows with the form. 

He took special pains with the oxides to show off his designs.

Great work you two!

BAM!!!!!!!!

STACKING PIGMENTED PORCELAIN

CERAMICS II

featuring my seniors

This was a new assignment this year for my second year clay students.  

I had them wedge oxides into pieces of porcelain, then roll each piece out into a thin slab, stack them together, roll the entire stack as one, then build anything they pleased with these very special slabs. 

They chose to make vase, mug and plate forms, then glazed them with transparent to showcase their work.

The results were spectacular as you will see.

From left to right in the arc we have James Cho, Shamara Mustafa, James again, and the cutie in the front belongs to Tahnee Thantrong.

This very complex mug above was created by Aman Patel, and below we have the subtle stylings of Aditi Ramesh.

Lovely!

Then Aman again for this highly original molded bowl.

Check out his visual flow between the three appliqued pieces on the bowls edge and the feet below.

It's all about visual flow baby!!  LOL

It's All About Surface Design - Student Work

MISHIMA & SGRAFFITO MOLDED SLAB BOWLS/PLATES

CERAMICS II

For my intermediate clay kids , I try to expand their surface design choices so that I bring in the more complex Mishima and Sgraffito techniques.  Already covered in Ceramics I were inlay, applied, pierced, carved, incised, and stamping.  All the techniques are done while the clay is either plastic or leatherhard.  Of course after bisque firing they can glaze and stain as well.  and after sawdust firing there is always the metallic rubbing choice.  So by now there is no excuse for a boring pot! 

What I really like that senior James Cho did with his plate was to trim the rim into an interesting geometric shape, then to mimic it with his sgraffito lines.

Senior Aditi Ramesh has a more organic edge with wonderful linear designs to delight our eyes.

Even though the bottom of senior Shamara Mustafa's bowl broke off (yes sometimes bad things happen with clay) she still has a marvelous night time cityscape inlayed into her clay.  And Aditi has given us a striking design thru contrast in her extra credit floral piece above. 

Senior Carol Oh has really knocked herself out with this amazing design above.  First of all a bowl within a bowl, very clever!  But for me it's all about her Mishima inlay that really pulls me in, and those ruffled edges.  

Love it!

But I've got to say that this little tiny bowl by senior Tahnee Thantrong has my heart.  So delicate and lovely with the scalloped edges and abstract human resting on the ledge, and then the beautiful finish of er choice of glaze.  

Wow!!!

Elegant Vase Forms - Student Work

MISHIMA & SGRAFFITO VASES

CERAMICS II

I introduced my Intermediate clay students  to two Japanese surface design techniques; Mishima, an inlay technique done with pigmented clay, and Sgraffito, an overlay technique with pigmented clay that you scratch your design thru.  Both are done with all porcelain clay and oxide pigments.  This assignment was also about slab building with only two sides for a more elegant look.  Asymmetry was also stressed. 

Above is the work of  seniors Shamara Mustafa and Tahnee Thantrong, and below we have seniors Aditi Ramesh and James Cho.

  

Beautiful work all of you!

Porcelain Slab Wraps - Student Work

CERAMICS II

a review

This was their first assignment of the year, a review of slab building but for the first time, doing it in the more expensive porcelain clay.  So I kept the scale very small.  These pieces may look big here on the blog but in reality, they measure only about 3" by 1 1'2".  And they are lovely!

I believe this first one by senior Aditi Ramesh was an extra credit piece.  I really like how she pushed the walls out which creates movement and a pleasant flow for the eye.  I 

The kids were required to make two pieces for this assignment.  This was one of Aditi's above.  I asked them to show all the seams and that they be decorative for added interest.  Aditi used Pinking Shears to actually cut the edges of the clay with.  Very cool. 

Senior Carol Oh took advantage of a rubber stamp to texture her surface above, as did senior Shamara Mustafa below.  I also really like how she didn't allow her piece to close all the way up.

Most of  the kids stained their pieces with oxides, then applied transparent glaze over top to show off their surface designs.  

This is cool how Tahnee peeled her edges over.  Notice she is using the same stamp as Shamara but how different they look because of the finishing technique.

I'm loving the shaping of this little cutie above by Shamara.  Both she and senior Aman Patel (below) did some overlapping which adds even more interest to the form.

And lastly, Tahnee has created this sweet little vase form with holes so she can hang it on a wall and perhaps put flowers inside.  Notice the contrast she achieved by only staining the main structure but then putting a bit of glaze only on the flower.  Nice look!