Tuesday 27 November 2012

burning terracotta

At college someone accidently put a terracotta pot into the porcelain firing... we expected disaster but got a beautifully toasted and very dark pot. Had been meaning to try this out myself and at last have started testing slip cast terracotta at high temps.


The clear glazed inside makes the pot almost black. Great texture on unglazed areas - a little bit of grit in the clay gives a good feel. I will experiment with a white glaze next time and see how that looks. The pots are amazingly strong and they did not seem to have the same warping/memory problems as porcelain. And I can do a mixed firing with porcelain which is important when trying to juggle space in a tiny kiln. Definitely worthy of more experiments and worth looking at combining porcelain and burnt terracotta items.

Saturday 17 November 2012

more handles

Had another go at handles... trying to save electricity I biscuit fired a mix of pots including some burnished ones which meant I could only go to 800deg. This left the porcelain very brittle and I broke 3 out of 4 of my test mugs before I could glaze them. Another good lesson!

The surviving mug had a smaller and lower handle than the earlier batch and this change did resolve most of the warping issues.




Saturday 27 October 2012

handles pt3

First batch of mugs... major warping as feared. On the plus side I like the glazes especially my new grey/blue. I think a set with varying strengths of colour on each mug would look good. And the coloured rim just about works too, a good bit of continuity with the earthenware bowls I used to make.


Still some work to do on dipping into glaze and getting a neat top edge. Next time I will try pouring in clear glaze and then paint wax resist around the inside of the rim which will allow me to dip the outside of the vessel without getting any of the outside colour on the inside. Hopefully.



I think that the weight of the handles is pulling the clay when its molten and soft in the kiln.

How to address warping?

- reducing the size and weight of the handles is a first step (they look too big anyway so thats easy).

- placing the handles lower down, away from the rim which is I expect the most vulnerable part

- deliberately warping a few raw pots in the opposite direction and see if the handle then pulls them back into the right shape

Wednesday 24 October 2012

cards

At last I got a small set of business cards printed. Kicking myself for not getting this organised earlier. Makes such a simple difference to be able to give people a card when they are interested in or buy work. I used MOO who were great and had option of printing 50 cards with one front and 5 different photo backs. Ideal for the indecisive.


Sunday 21 October 2012

handles pt2


First batch of test mugs, survived biscuit firing with handles intact. Now to glaze and the real test - how they cope with 1270 deg C..

Thursday 18 October 2012

bantam egg cups

... a commission to make egg cups small enough to fit tiny bantam eggs being road-tested before sending off to their new homes;


Wednesday 10 October 2012

handles...


some slipcast pots awaiting test handles, getting into the spirit of the thing with a denby mug. Not my inspiration, just my cuppa in for scale.

The tall middle pot will be cut up to make strap handles. In theory making the handles from the same material which is at the same consistency as the body will greatly increase chances of success....


First strap handles on. So far so good (with nifty saucer for coffee cup). Will make a batch of six of each size and then fire. I wont be able to judge whether its worked until the glaze firing which is where any warps or cracks are most likely to appear.

Friday 31 August 2012

open studios




Thank you to everyone who visited Julia and me at Bridport Open Studios last weekend (and the previous two saturdays). It was a great show, beautifully curated by Julia. Lots of really helpful feedback, useful comments and healthy sales too.

New glazed work was very well received and now that I make my glazes from scratch it has become something I enjoy - so lots more experimentation to come! A couple of people mentioned trying matte glazes... watch this space...

...And quite a few people asked about handles. I have always avoided them, mostly because I never use them (generally holding a cup or mug by its sides) and I like the ambiguity of a simple vessel - it can be whatever you want it to be. As soon as there is a handle, a use is suggested. However, I want to make pots that are useful and people love using so testing out handles is going to be my next step. Its going to be challenging as I have a few years practice at making vessels but none at making handles... creating a handle that is at the same skill level as the vessel might prove tricky... First step is lots of research.

Friday 24 August 2012

glaze tests


chrome green and a kind of tenmoku


alkaline copper turquoise

Tuesday 21 August 2012

open studios


Bridport's summer festival of culture is now in full swing!

We have had two Open Studios days and are getting ready for the big bank holiday opening. So far its gone really well, lots of very useful and interesting feedback and plenty of sales.



People definitely go for the brightly coloured work first and the copper green glaze has been very successful.... so much so that I am going to do some more glaze experiments and introduce some new colours and effects.


Casting in action... destined for some experiments with new glazes. With luck I might be able to get some new pieces into the show for the weekend - an ideal opportunity to test with potential customers

Tuesday 7 August 2012

Don Pottery

























Noticing a lot of similarities between my recent slip-casts which are based on modern food packaging and patterns from a victorian industrial pottery catalogue... Timeless designs? Supermarkets subliminally linking into our feelings of nostalgia and comfort?

A bit more info on the Don Pottery from http://www.rotherhamweb.co.uk

John and William Green owned the Don Pottery, established in 1801. John , had been a partner in both the Leeds and Swinton potteries, and the high quality wares were influenced by the Leeds pottery products. It was situated on the bank of the Don canal on the boundary between Swinton and Mexborough which gave good access. 
Around 1810 they experimented with porcelain, resulting in the production of some highly successful pieces, which are extremely rare. Don Pottery was exported to the Middle East, Russia, and South America.Business declined in the 1830s and the Greens were declared bankrupt in 1834 and the pottery advertised for sale. Many moulds and patterns were purchased by other local potteries and re-used. 
In 1839, Samuel Barker who owned the Mexborough Pottery, purchased Don Pottery, both potteries were run by him until 1848 when production was centred on the Don Pottery site. (Samuel Barker died at Mexborough House, aged 53 on 15 July 1856.) In 1882, it was rented out to other partners, although it still traded as Samuel Barker & Sons. The pottery closed in 1893 when all the stock was sold to pay overdue rent.


Tuesday 31 July 2012

new work


After my making frenzy of the past few weeks I have two kiln loads of finished pots. There are lots of new shapes in there which I will need to live with and use for a while to assess how well they really work and what I really think of them. First signs though are good. Loving the cobalt highlights, stops all the rust getting too drab.



Sunday 29 July 2012

New Website

Having run out of patience with trying to learn html I have decided to use an on-line web builder. Weebly is dead easy and results can be made quite clean and simple. While I am trying to sort out my domain name the site can be previewed at

http://stevenwill.weebly.com


Saturday 28 July 2012

Starting Work

The fine dry weather really helps with my potting - I can get stuff done about 4x faster. The cycle of making a pot including all the different stages and drying times normally takes at least a week in the damp Dorset climate... in the warmth and the dry of this week I can do the same in 1 day


especially if I use the oven to speed things up even more...


I have managed to make a kiln load already - in record time for me. I am experimenting with a lot of new shapes so cant wait to see how they come out

Friday 27 July 2012

Bridport Open Studios 2012

This will be the first time I show my work after finishing college. I am sharing a space in town with a friend, fantastic artist Julia Hutton. I had better get making...



Thursday 26 July 2012

first post

Hi, welcome to my new blog! I have just finished an art foundation where I did a weekly blog (http://lowfired.blogspot.com), this new one is hopefully going to chart how I take my ceramics forward from here...