Nancy Jonnum on wed 24 sep 03
I have a question for you. I hope it will start a little thread of
conversation, because I think maybe other people would be
interested, too.
I make sculptural creatures. Sometimes they are animals--frogs,
dogs, alligators. Sometimes they are gargoyles or characters from
stories. I make them from clay with lots of grog and some paper fiber.
Sometimes they are pretty big--maybe two feet high or two feet long.
Sometimes they are made in parts that fit together. Often they have a
lot of texture. I fire these creatures in saggars. I like the results of
saggar firing, because it is kind of rough and unpredictable. I don't
want a nice, smooth shiny surface on these creatures. But saggar
firing is messy, smelly and a lot of work.
I would love some suggestions of other ways to finish these guys.
Would some of you volunteer information about how you treat the
surfaces of you work? Any ideas would be appreciated.
Nancy
Darnie Sizemore on wed 24 sep 03
Nancy,
Sometimes I will use an oxide stain, Red or Black Iron, Ochre ext.. I will make a stain by adding a but of water. I brush it onto the pot, let it sit of a few seconds and then wipe it off with a sponge. The stain will stick to the texture and recessed places, and will wipe off the rest. I suggest using gloves as this can be quite messy.
Good Luck,
Darnie
Nancy Jonnum <> wrote:
I have a question for you. I hope it will start a little thread of
conversation, because I think maybe other people would be
interested, too.
I make sculptural creatures. Sometimes they are animals--frogs,
dogs, alligators. Sometimes they are gargoyles or characters from
stories. I make them from clay with lots of grog and some paper fiber.
Sometimes they are pretty big--maybe two feet high or two feet long.
Sometimes they are made in parts that fit together. Often they have a
lot of texture. I fire these creatures in saggars. I like the results of
saggar firing, because it is kind of rough and unpredictable. I don't
want a nice, smooth shiny surface on these creatures. But saggar
firing is messy, smelly and a lot of work.
I would love some suggestions of other ways to finish these guys.
Would some of you volunteer information about how you treat the
surfaces of you work? Any ideas would be appreciated.
Nancy
______________________________________________________________________________
Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at melpots@pclink.com.
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
Snail Scott on wed 24 sep 03
At 12:15 AM 9/24/03 -0400, you wrote:
>...I like the results of
>saggar firing, because it is kind of rough and unpredictable. I don't
>want a nice, smooth shiny surface on these creatures. But saggar
>firing is messy, smelly and a lot of work.
> I would love some suggestions of other ways to finish these guys...
I like engobes. You can formulate a base recipe
to goon greenware or dry clay or bisque - whichever
stage you prefer to decorate at - and add stains
to it. You can mix them like paint, and add flux to
some to vary the gloss here and there. Not as
random as a sagger firing, but having done the
saggar work already and learned what you like and
don't like about the results, perhaps you can apply
the same aesthetic to a more deliberately created
surface.
Oxides and washes can be applies with a range of
varied results as well. Try combining them with
the engobes applied thin and rubbed a bit. They
don't have to go on like housepaint, especially
since a smooth even surface is not your goal.
Paint can also be a great surface. If the work is
destined to stay indoors, paint can give a varied
and subtle effect. It gives the option of an
immediate look at the result, and instant
alterations as desired without need of refiring!
(For work that might end up outdoors, though, I
prefer to stick with fired materials.)
-Snail
Judy Nelson-Moore on thu 25 sep 03
> But saggar firing is messy, smelly and a lot of work.
> I would love some suggestions of other ways to finish these guys.
I understand what you are saying. I have been doing saggar work
(sculptural forms) for many years, in electric, gas and pit, and then came
to the same place you are with the mess, smell, work and unhealthy fumes,
so I stopped for a few years.
I have done cold surfacing (paint and other materials surfacing post-
firing). I have gone back to glazes, at temperatures ranging from 06 to 01
to 3 to 6. I got disenchanted with cone 10 reduction many years ago. I
have done some combinations of glazes/stains and cold surfacing that I feel
are successful. I have done combinations of saggar firing and cold
surfacing and/or glazing. Some of the most successful of these mixed
techniques have been saggar fired work that was ugly...so I put a matt cone
6 glaze over the top and fired to cone 3-6. The surface was
fantastic...dry matt, variable, crusty.
Now, recently, I am going back to some saggar firing. I guess I just
missed the fumed look once in a while.
Personally, I feel most comfortable with mid-range (cone 3-6) fired glazes,
stains and some cold-patinas. I like the hardness of the clay body, but it
doesn't have that "burnt" look that high-fire reduction can get. I like
the effects you can get with multiple firings...at different temperatures.
On sculptural forms, I think very dry or matt surfaces, with visual
texture, cracking, crawling, etc. is the best, depending on your forms.
The problem is that crawling, cracking is often gotten with
cryolite...which is another smelly unhealthy mess during the firing. You
have to search to find the glazes that most potters feel are a mistake.
Lana Wilson's book has a lot of good ideas.
Judy Nelson-Moore
Santa Fe, New Mexico
www.nelsonmoore.com/art
Nancy and Jerry Jonnum on sat 11 oct 03
Thank you to Judy Nelson-Moore, Snail Scott, and Darnie Sizemore for
replying to my letter about how to finish my sculptures. I am sorry
that I am not able to reply to each of you personally. I read Clayart
on Escribe.com, and it doesn't give me individual addresses. All of
your ideas were good ones, and I'll try them all. I am especially
enthusiastic about engobes. I looked them up in the archives and there
was lots of good information there. In fact, lots of the information
was written by Snail Scott. So many thanks to you three and to all the
people who take time to share their knowledge on Clayart.
Nancy
| |
|
