Happy New Year!

I'm back in the studio and one of the things I'm working on is another Passover set with an Elijah and a Miriam cup. I wanted to use something different on the Miriam cup this time and came across these lampwork beads from an Etsy Israeli Artist named Meital Plotnik:

Distant Seas

Their color is absolutely luscious, bringing in the azure blue of the sea and the wonderfully feminine deep pink, their shape referencing, at least for me, a timbrel (tambourine).

The shape of the new Miriam's cup is a bit different than the previous, so it will be interesting to put it all together and see the effect. I still need to go out and find a chain. I'm hoping to find one which will be a bit easier to connect.

I've other multimedia ideas rolling around in my head, so stay tuned to the blog!

Last night I did a workshop in our studio on layered underglaze/colored slip surface decoration. It's a technique I learned when I attended The Surface Decoration workshop through the Potter's Guild in Temple, TX a couple of months ago.

I've been playing with the technique all week and have become incredibly inspired by the process. I'll walk you through the workshop so you might become inspired as well.

Here's the initial setup for the workshop. From the left side: slab prepared for platter demo, tile prepped for technique demo, sample stencils/sample patterns/heat wire, plaster molds, samples of finished pieces using technique. Please ignore the soft drink in the photo. It's not mine.

This is the stencil I used for the platter. It's adapted from a Judaica papercut. Papercuts are, for all intents and purposes, stencils. After sizing it correctly, using Picasa software, I traced it onto my .010 Lexan and cut it using a stencil heat wire. I'd say the stencil took me about two hours total, from printing to finished piece.

First I did a demo on a tile I had prepped earlier. (Everyone had two tiles to play with -- everyone only had time enough to complete one.) The prep involved painting black underglaze on the surface of the tile and allowing it to dry to matte consistency, while keeping the tile itself moist and pliable.

 I began by carving a series of angled lines as a backdrop. The lines will fire the color of the clay which, in this case, is low fire white.


You could just as easily make swirls, geometric patterns, or not carve at all. But the technique is about layers, so I carved.

 Being a little bit OCD in the studio, I used a ruler for my lines.

Then I took a stencil (a commercial one in this case) and used a rolling pin to embed it into the clay. 

The idea is you want the clay to come up so its surface is level with the top of the stencil. This will prevent your underglaze or slip from bleeding, giving you a crisp, clear image.

Because I used a black foundation color, which muddies overlying colors, I put a base coat of white underglaze. This acts the same way a primer does, helping your lighter colors pop. If you're going from light base to dark, this step is probably not necessary.


Then we had to "hurry up and wait" for this base layer to dry to matte. When the tiles are done, and dry enough, they'll be placed on a plaster slab and rolled over, to flatten the design side. It's important to compress the layers, leaving a smooth surface. This decreases your chances of cracking along stress lines created by carving and raising clay through the stencil/s.


At this point I had everyone base coat their tiles with the color of their choice.

While all the tiles dried I moved onto the platter demo .


Remember the stencil in an earlier photo? I used it for this platter. Since the stencil would block the pattern, I used Fossil Gray Amaco Velvet underglaze, which would give me a stonelike effect. It's fires gray with tiny black spots. 


When that dried to matte, I rolled on my stencil and used Medium Blue over it. This was the result when I peeled off the stencil.

I placed my "Shabbat" (in Hebrew, since I do Judaica) stencil over the centerpiece of the slab, trying to center it correctly.


Then, just as on the tile, I used a roller to fix it into place, again making sure the clay came up level with the top of the stencil.

Using black underglaze, I painted on a couple of coats and waited for it to set.


It doesn't need to dry completely before removing the stencil. It just needs to set enough so it won't smear.

Here it is, with the stencil removed.

Throughout the process, it's important to make sure your slab remains pliable. I do this by spraying plastic and laying the slab over that. Then, periodically, I pick up the slab and spray some more. Since the slab is about 1/2" thick, this keeps the clay pliable, while still allowing the surface colors to dry.

Once my underglazes have dried so they're no longer tacky to the touch, I cut out my platter.

                                                                             

Now let's backtrack a couple of steps. While I was waiting for my underglazes to dry, I took a plaster hump mold and centered it on a foam bat. I'll be using this to shape my platter.

Here I've begun shaping the slab against the mold using a rubber rib. You could just as easily use a wooden one. The idea is initially to use lighter pressure, molding the clay to the shape of the mold.

I slowly increased pressure on the clay, both compressing the piece and trying to flatten out the textured layers from the carvings and the raised stencil parts. This is to prevent cracking from multiple sources: not enough compression of the slab (especially on a larger piece), stress from the carvings and raised lines from the stencil. This also gives a nice, smooth surface to the inside of the functional piece.

Compress, compress, compress.........

When I feel I've finished compressing, I take a serrated rib and score the bottom where I want to place my foot. I do this while the wheel is moving, making it simple to be sure the foot will be centered. The step missing here is that I trimmed the rim of the platter with the pointed tip of a sculpting stick. Then I used a damp sponge to smooth off the sharp edge. Then I just trimmed up a little along the inside. I smooth that off when the platter is removed from the mold.

 

 

 

 

 

Then I put slip over the scoring. I'm using slip made from my clay body with water and a little vinegar to act as a flocculant.

I've made a coil using a handle cutter. You could just as easily roll one or use an extruder. I've scored the coil, slipped it, and joined it to the bottom of my platter.

I laid the ends of the coil one over the other and make an angular cut through both, to create a joining edge. I set the wheel to spin and work with the foot, centering it and bringing clay down to join it seamlessly to the body of the platter. I work on this a bit, making sure the foot is compressed, centered, and well joined.

Here's a photo of the finished platter (note the cleaned up edge), and a bit of the tile with Amethyst having been painted over the white base.

 The technique has all sorts of possibilities. I encouraged my students to play with it, telling them I'd love to see where they take it and how they make it their own.

My recent labor of love, the Representational Seder Set is done and it is, if I may say so with the greatest of humility, wonderful! I know this is true because my husband, Avi, says so!



Here are the pieces and a bit of the thought behind them. The photo precedes the explanations for the pieces.:



Charoset - Charoset symbolizes the mortar with which the Israelites bonded bricks when they were enslaved in Ancient Egypt. The word Charoset comes from the Hebrew word cheres which means clay. In the representational set, the charoset is held the bowl with bricks impressed on the outside.

Karpas – There is a green, leafy vegetable (usually celery or parsley/lettuce) called karpas which reminds the participants that Passover corresponds with Spring and the harvest, which, in ancient times was a cause for celebration by itself. A more contemporary interpretation links karpas with the biblical description of the Hebrew slaves marking their doorposts at the time of the first Passover. A bunch of hyssop was to be dipped in the blood of the paschal lamb and used to strike the lintel and the doorposts (Exodus 12:22) so that the tenth plague (death of the firstborn) would not be visited upon their households. In the representational set, karpas is symbolized by a container mimicking the wood of the doors and the crossbeam of the lintel over that door.


 
Maror and Chazeret – The word maror comes from the Hebrew word mar, which means bitter. The seder plate usually contains two places for maror (bitter herbs), representing the bitterness of slavery. There are two places, called maror and chazeret, since the commandment (Numbers 9:11) to eat the paschal lamb "with unleavened bread and bitter herbs" uses the plural ("bitter herbs"). In the representational set, the maror and chazeret are linked by the use of a yoke and rope, symbolizing the years of slavery our people endured.


 
Zeroa – The zeroa (roasted shank bone) represents God's mighty arm when he freed the jews from slavery in Egypt. The zeroa is also symbolic of the Paschal lamb offered as the Passover sacrifice in the Jerusalem Temple. The platform altar is the representational piece in this set.

Baytzah – The seder also uses a hard-boiled egg called a baytzah which represents the second offerings given at the temple in Jerusalem on Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot. The roasted egg is symbolic of the festival sacrifice made in biblical times. On Passover, an additional sacrifice (the Paschal lamb) was offered as well. In the representational set, the nest holds the baytzah (egg).



Salt Water – During the course of the Seder, the karpas is dipped in salt water to represent tears. The set includes a tear-shaped bowl with colors mimicking the different depths of the Red Sea.

I've just finished three teapots. Count them, THREE! Why three? I received a commission for a teapot to match a pair of Saba and Savta (grandpa and grandma) mugs. We agreed on a 3-4 cup capacity. While throwing I ended up with the Three Bears.

The first teapot was way too big. But the owner of my studio loved the size and asked if I could finish it for her as a gift. So I threw a lid and a spout and pulled a handle. Then I took navy blue underglaze (to match her dishes) and used it to make a wide band of color on the body. Finally, I carved an entire flock of cranes around the pot, similar to this mug.

This time I didn't add the effect of the water, since the background will be a deeper blue.


The second teapot was a bit smaller, but still too big for the commission piece. I finished it with a white underglaze band and added pink, purple, and light blue round sponge-stamped dots. It came out much nicer than I anticipated and it will be sold at a fundraiser for breast cancer research in November.

 Third time was the charm. The pot was the perfect size and it's been decorated with a Moorish Jewish star pattern.

I was going to have it repeat around the pot, but decided it would be too busy. I wound up putting one centered under the handle and one on each side. It gave the pot an understated Jewish theme without screaming it in your face as you pour your tea or coffee.


I keep forgetting my camera, so I don't have interim shots of the pots. But I'm hoping they'll be bisque fired by the time I get back from my 10 day trip (driving through the Southwest with my hubby). Then a quick coat of clear glaze and into the glaze fire for completion!

As we approach the end of this year's High Holiday cycle with the celebration of Shemini Atzeret and Simchas Torah, I've turned my creative eye to Passover. I've recently sold the Seder Set in my shop, leaving an open spot for a new design.

I've always liked the deconstructed Seder Sets and have decided to turn in that direction and create a Representational Seder Set, with pieces designed to inspire discussion of the symbolic foods on the Passover table.

I began by throwing a tall, straight sided cylinder, which I cut into 4 sections of equal size. This avoided the uncertainty of getting a matching set by throwing each piece separately. The  bottoms of these would be cut from a slab. But a couple of them would be treated to texturing on a couple of different texture boards before their bottoms were added.

The Charoset dish, representing the mortar with which our ancestors built structures as slaves in ancient Egypt, is textured with a brick pattern. The other has a wood pattern for the Karpas, or the greens, which has several different interpretive symbols. The one I have chosen is a lesser known one, it's representation as the plant material used to mark the doorposts of each Jewish home to protect its inhabitants from the final plague -- the killing of the firstborn.

The easiest way to texture the exteriors of these open cylinders was to roll them over texture boards using a rolling pin on their inside. The bricks were easy. However, for the wood, I cut the top of one of the sections off so I could roll the bottom one way and the top portion the other, then reattaching the pieces once the textures had been rolled on. This gives the appearance of a door with the lintel on top.

The Baytzah (egg) just has a slab base, with a surrounding nest created by pressing clay through a garlic press and attaching sections of it with a bit of slip. The Zeroah (bone) will sit on a slab "altar" with curved "legs" to elevate it.

The greatest representational challenge was the Maror and Chazeret, both bitter herbs -- two types, since the text speaks of bitter herbS, After much thinking and even more discussion, I decided to link the two cylinders on a single base, adding a yoke to the front of one. Once the piece has been fired, I'll loop a small rope from the yoke, around the two bowls.

I'll also be making a bowl for the salt water in the shape of a tear. However, I need to first finish up the underglazing of the pieces that have already been made.

I haven't taken photos yet. But, rest assured, they'll be forthcoming soon.

Well, true to my predictions, I've become underglaze crazy. In fact, I'm trying to switch from my Mason Stains in slip to Amaco Velvet Underglazes for most of my work calling for that type of application. But this switch has not been without its issues.

For one thing, I still get some fading with many of the colors. I've now printed out a color variations chart for them, indicating what they will do  at cone 5 glazed and unglazed (and cone 10, though I don't think I'll see cone 10 for quite a while).

Another issue I'm having is watching the colors fade away under my clear glaze overcoat. I think I'm going to try thinning the glaze a bit before applying it. The thickness creates a milkiness, obscuring the color beneath.

Finally, I've had the underglaze run under the clear glaze on a vertical surface. This is NOT a good thing, considering most of my work is vertical (mugs). Again, I think it's a function of the thickness of the applied clear glaze. I've applied a thinner coat on my latest mugs. We'll see what happens.

Meanwhile, let me share one of my successes -- since not everything is doom and gloom. The following is an Apples and Honey set for the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashana), coming up the evening of Sept. 8, 2010. We eat apples dipped in honey to symbolize our wish for a sweet year.

I've been promising a demo and I needed to remake the baby gift that blew up in the kiln, so I took the opportunity to combine the two. So, these are the deep dark secrets of my upcoming custom baby plate series using the wonderful art of my good friend David Kaminsky.

I begin with a plate that has dried to almost leather, meaning it's no longer tacky to the touch, but still has a decent amount of give in its softness.

I print out a scanned copy of the art I'm using, sizing it to the area I need to cover. Then, because making an impression of this size using the paper leaves remnants of said paper on the damp clay, I trace the pattern onto a piece of plastic wrap using a permanent marker. I then use this to gently incise the pattern onto my plate.

Once the pattern is completely incised, I grab my Amaco Velvet Underglazes and consider my color options.

 

Then I just start painting. I use a few different brushes, all natural fiber. 

I don't worry too much about the details. These can be cleaned up later when the underglazes have dried, but the clay is still moist. For the most intense color I use three coats of each color. Because I'm anal, I only work with one color at a time, allowing each coat to dry in between. The clay tends to absorb a lot of the moisture, so three coats usually doesn't take very long.

For the sky background, because I don't want the plate to be overpowering, I use a "wash" coat of the underglaze rather than the intensity three coats would offer. This is done with a quick single coat.

Then it's time to add the name. I know -- I could have just done it on the same plastic I used for the main picture. But the letters are more delicate and I prefer using the heavier quality of paper for this and, since the paper doesn't sit on the clay for long when incising the name, I don't get any paper fibers stuck to the clay.

Finally, I fill in the letters for the name, use my incising tool to accent the definition lines, clean up any small smudges, and the initial work on the baby plate is done. It will go in for a bisque firing, which will bring out the stronger shades of the underglaze though, unlike regular glaze, they won't change too much from what you see here.

To be continued.........

It's been a slow week in my etsy shop, but a busy one in the studio. I threw several mugs of different ilks: Hebrew, birding, and a La Taza mug for a local coffee shop that sells them. I threw a tile to fire a large commission plate on (so it doesn't drag on the kiln shelf as it shrinks in firing). And I finished underglazing two baby name plates using my friend David's drawings.

One of the name plates bears the name "Yossi". Nobody I know, but certainly a very popular name among Israelis and, hopefully, some Americans. But it's simply a prototype showing a sample of my work for future custom orders.

The other plate sits under plastic waiting for us to discover the name of our friends' new baby daughter. Jewish superstitious custom is not to reveal the name of a new baby until he or she has been officially "named" in temple. We're assuming she was named this weekend; so I'm hoping to get her name on this plate, which will be our baby gift, this week.

I also got my finished Panoramic Crane mug out of the final glaze firing. It's my donation to San Antonio's Empty Bowls fundraiser silent auction. I think it's gorgeous!







We'll see if the people attending think the same.

I'm moving into a new world and that world contains Amaco Velvet Underglazes.

"Why?" you may ask.

I recently completed a weddding kiddush cup commission. The customer wanted it in Northwestern University purple, which is a rather intense color -- one I knew I couldn't achieve using Mason stains in slip. So, I broke down, asked around, and came up with Amaco's Amethyst underglaze.

The kiddush cup came out wonderfully!


Tied in with that was the receipt of new drawings by my artist friend David. Several of them are adorable imaginary animals that would be absolutely perfect on a baby name plate (in Hebrew, of course). But they just wouldn't look right carved through a single color of slip, which has been my hallmark technique up 'til now.

So, when I put the two events together, it helps make up my mind to try using strong pastel underglazes on my soon-to-be-made baby name plates. Since shipping info shows my underglazes are due to come on the 28th, I think I'll throw a couple of plates today so they're trimmed and ready to decorate early next week.

Meanwhile, I'm also working on a rather large plate that's a commission piece, with the tree of life around the rim and encroaching on the center, with the words Tikkun Olam in bark textured sprigs in the center of the piece. The customer wants lots of color on the plate -- but I think I'll leave the various colors on the individual letters, add brown on the tree, and I'll decide on the background once it's been bisque fired and I can get a better feel for what the finished plate might look like.