Tips for glaze painting butterflies again

Painting more monarch butterflies on a teapot and a vase...not with underglaze, not with paint, but with real glazes and a tiny-tip applicator of a glaze!

I had a friend watch me as I used the designer liner by Mayco.  (Here shown not being used to make a line, with the push pin in the metal tip).  One of the big things about using small applicators or containers, is that they dry out easily.  I store my little glaze bottles upside down, and I clean out the tips of the Designer Liners before starting application.  I tried taking them off and storing them with the little plastic caps that came with them, but prefer the pins in the tips.

 I showed how I squeeze as I slowly move the metal tip along at an angle, not directly square to the surface.  And every second or third pull (never push) I'd clean the clay off the tip on a damp sponge, then start the line again on a scrap of plastic lid.  That way the little bits of bisque clay that get in the nozzle don't clog it up and cause big blobs.  However, blobs do occur at the beginning of each line as I put the tip onto the clay.  I go back and smooth them into more or less even width with the tip of an exacto knife blade.

It really helps to have a very smooth surface, since even small throwing lines caused by my fingers or a rib tool can catch the little metal tip and make jagged lines...like the bottom line on the butterfly above.

But the really tough part of this procedure is painting each area of color with several coats of Stroke N Coat glazes by Mayco.

Fortunately the black lines in the area which will be painted orange will show through the glaze, so I don't have to avoid painting on top of them.  I'd surely stop painting these butterflies if that were the case.  I go over the finished butterflies with clear matt glaze, then a coat of liquid wax before dipping the whole pot into a vat of glaze.  Or if I'm brushing on the glaze, I can skip the wax part.

Here was a post several years ago about this procedure.

Yes, I'll show you the finished product tomorrow, when it's been fired.  And here is what it looks like while it's waiting to be fired.  The teapot will be yellow with celadon interior, and the vase is Floating Blue inside and out.

Today's quote:

The sense of feeling bored in life can be an indicator that we need to be proactive in creating change. Daily Om

 

The fun of drawing on a round object

I admit to having a few images which I can draw without a preliminary sketch...like this tree.  But otters/ No, I have to sketch them.  And they came out so small, I think I'll have to try them again.  Even the crescent moon had to be sketched first.
I use a mechanical pencil, and it shows a bit before the firing, but disappears of course by the time it gets quite hot.

The curve of the pot isn't as bad as those little finger grooves which inevitably happen on hand thrown pots. They catch the point of my "designer liner" and give either a wobbly line, or a skipped line.  And with my eyesight, I never know they are there until a line has a blip in it.  Good thing there is a quick correction method.  A sharp blade, or even a pin, can scrape the glaze off almost completely.  Of course it does leave a change in texture of the surface, but compared to the other ones that are already there, it's not noticeable...especially since a coat of clear matt glaze will be painted over the whole thing.  And sometimes I don't correct my wobbly lines, cause I want folks to know I'm not a machine and I'm very imperfect.

Today's Quote:

The mysteries of separation and union are already wired
into you...” Matt Licata

A bit Nouveau

Trying out a new motif...

The technique was described in my post yesterday.

Size is 4-1/2 inches wide by 6-1/4 inches high.

Clay is Highwater's Little Loafers, all fired to cone 6 electric.

It's a Process!

Glazing with tiny pointed bottles of glaze (Designer Liner from Mayco) or brushes of glaze (Stroke & Coat from Mayco) is all about process.

My home has great light (if a bit shaded green this time of year) for painting.

I'm trying some new designs, so roughed out the idea on the pot with a pen (a pencil would also do well.)

I quickly found that I couldn't pull the lines perfectly straight.  So the wiggle is incorporated into the design.  That's what makes it art!

 Painting three coats of Stroke and Coat is a pain, and I usually end up just doing 2 heavy ones.

Fortunately the liner shows through most of the Stroke N Coat glazes, I've found by experience.

Then I lightly brush on two thin coats of Matte Clear Glaze (also by Mayco).  If I get too much of the clear bunched up by any of the line work, I've found it can make it blur. (Sometimes this is a good thing.)

I pour some white satin glaze into the interior at the Black Mountain Clay Studio, and dip the top edge also in it.  Then as soon as it's dry I dip the edge just barely into Plum.  That will probably cause some drippy-ness along the top edge, which is planned.

Come back tomorrow to see the finished product.   It's all a process!

Geraniums

All winter long, my potted geraniums have sat in a south facing window, and blessed the grey view of mountains with their bright blossoms.  The petals have fallen on the sill and the floor, but I lovingly picked them up in gratitude for their cheerfulness in my life.  Yesterday I finally placed them on balcony railing for the gentle rain last night.

So I decided (don't know the day, but it was a definite decision) to try to put them on my pottery.  It's an ongoing process to see which techniques I like best.  Should I try to capture each little petal in the cluster?  I think not.  The pow of the color says what I want.  Details might just be the thing for another person, but not me.

Linear work done with Mayco's Designer Liners, colors with Mayco's Stroke & Coat.  A thin layer of Matt Clear over all the colored parts, then waxed, then dipped into Satin White.

Cheese trays - in process

 And no, that doesn't make any processed cheese!

I thought they are rather large for cheese cutting...perhaps some fruit or crackers would also be spread around on these trays.  Here they are bisqued, with just a bit of bend from true flat where handles are.  I was amazed they didn't crack or bend more as large thin slabs are wont to do.

The rather normal shaped one is now waiting to be in a glaze kiln-load.

I just got some shots of my process of painting geraniums on the strange shaped one. I used 3 Stroke & Coat colors, and 3 Designer Liner colors (all by Mayco).

After painting all the color images, I then put a coat of matte clear over them all, and then wax them with a liquid wax.  That way I can next pour any glaze over the whole surface and won't interfere with all that painting.  I'll also wax the edges and back so there won't be glaze on those surfaces either.

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Monarch glazes

Painting a butterfly (or two).  I've looked at actual photos this time, and sketched the different butterflies with pencil.

Following the pencil design with a brush for larger black glaze areas

 This should be a commercial for Mayco, because the brushed glaze work is all with their Stroke and Coat (which matures at cone 5-6)

Adding detailed black glaze with Mayco Designer Liner.

It's not easy to see the orange glaze in my photos, but I put on 2-3 coats, which covers some of the black line work.  I've found so far, that the designer liner black is strong enough to come through lighter color glazes on top of it.

Then 2-3 coats of yellow go onto the bisqued pottery, because this color tends to fade very easily.

I add some green touches with green Designer Liner to pop out the flowers.  You can see here how messy the orange is, going over the edges of the black glaze.  I don't have any way to clean it up easily, because it will take off black as well if I try to scrape or sponge it off.  I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that it will fade a bit and look natural.

 Then little white dots around each wing for that Monarch touch...with white Designer Liner.

Final step, once everything is dry, I cover the whole surface with a Matt Clear glaze, which helps the lighter colors not fade as much.  And the stoneware will become a greyish matt color which helps show off the butterfly, I hope.

These are being left in the kiln room to be glaze fired at the BMCA studio, I hope by the end of the week, because there weren't many pieces in there when I went by.  I've got a platter that's sat there for 3 weeks now.

Anyway, the 4 little disc plates with ripple edges took an hour to paint these butterflies on them.