Christmas ornament project

Original ornament designs.
Bisque fired.

Then I made molds from each of them.

The molds were bisque fired.  I chose to not continue with a couple of them, but now I can press new clay into them, cut around the designs to get them to have clean edges, then let them firm up over night, and finish them off with some tool work and cleaning the edges.  Then they get bisqued and this time I glaze them, hand painted several coats of Stroke & Coat by Mayco, and little dots with designer liner by Mayco.

I think I'll ask $10 each for them.  Do you think that's a good price?

Today's Quote:
“When a famous writer gets a famous prize, we readers are given an opportunity to reread their books, but also to rethink the thoughts that we have had about those books.” Kazoo Ishiguro Winner Nobel Prize 2017

Cheerful Sunflowers on turquoise

I recently went wild with sunflowers.  This batch are the yellow variety, and I glazed them (as usual) with Mayco's Stroke & Coat glazes (cone 5-6).

Tiny vase, somewhat askew.

Tiny bowl in front (sauce size) and little vase behind

 Toothpick holder size in front, little cup behind (and below)

The background is an interesting mix that I'm pretty happy about.

I used our studio satin white basic glaze, about a gallon, then mixed in a mason stain called Bermuda Green (from Highwater Clay).  I used about half the packet...no idea how many grams.  And since I was using the mixed wet white glaze, this is about as "seat-of-the-pants" as you can get with glaze formulas!

I paint the lines first (Designer Liner)  then the color inlay, then paint wax over these then dip into the background glaze.

But I've done this mix about 3 times now, and don't use it that often, so it seems pretty stable.
For now anyway!

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

 

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.