Teapot

hidden by plaster.  After many years the plaster stops sticking well and the brick, the foundation of the wall, starts revealing itself.  I’ve also been noticing what appears to be an increase in graffiti lately.  This has me thinking about the message people are painting on walls.  I’m not an advocate of defacing property but I have seen some graffiti that is really amazing.  The difference, in my opinion is tagging vs. urban art.  I can get into a big discussion about that but I’ll save it for another post.  It just got me thinking about what graffiti used to look like and what message I would like to present.  This teapot is just one example of the series in progress.

Tea Bowl

A friend on Facebook recently posted about counting glazes instead of counting sheep when sleep is allusive.   I do the same type of thing but it doesn’t normally get me to sleep, it has the opposite effect.  I’ll be laying there all warm and snugly with the Whiggle as ideas start popping into my head.  Which of course makes me want to jump out of bed and rush to the studio to start working on these ideas.  Of course the problem with pottery is that it requires patience.  When I have an idea for a great glaze design I can’t just start doing it, often the correct piece needs to be made first.  Sometimes it’s several pieces in a series.  These pieces have to be thrown, trimmed, dried, and bisque fired before they will ever see the glaze.  Please understand, I’m not complaining, I love the process of ceramics and the time it takes.  I even love the fact that, unlike some other art forms, the results are not instant; pottery always has some nervous anticipation to it.  Opening the kiln is like Christmas, and I’ll never complain about that joy even when it does mean you get something that you don’t want (think pink bunny pajamas).  Pottery forces us to become patient.  Patience is a virtue.  It’s such a nice feeling to be a virtuous potter.
Right now I have several series ideas running through my head, they have started to take shape into the clay.  I’m so excited to see the results and share them with you.

Ingredients

Fancy Mac & Cheese

• 4 cups Macaroni
• 8 Tablespoons Butter
• 2 whole Medium Onions, Cut In Half And Sliced Thin
• 1 package GimmeLean Sausage Substitute
• ¼ cups All-purpose Flour
• 2 cups Whole Or 2% Milk
• ½ cups Half & Half
• 2 whole Egg Yolks, Beaten
• Salt & Pepper (to Taste)
• ½ cups Grated Gruyere Cheese
• ½ cups Grated Fontina Cheese
• ½ cups Grated Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese
• 4 ounces, weight Chevre (soft Goat Cheese)

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook macaroni for half the time of the package instructions. Drain and set aside.

Fry GimmeLean until slightly, but not overly, crispy. Drain on a paper towel.

Melt 4 tablespoons butter in a skillet and saute onions over medium-low heat for 10 to 12 minutes, or until golden brown and soft. Set aside.

In a pot, melt 4 tablespoons butter. Sprinkle in flour and whisk to combine. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat for 1 minute. Pour in milk and half & half, then cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until thick. Reduce heat to low. Add salt & pepper to taste. (Do not undersalt!)

Beat egg yolks and drizzle 1/4 cup hot mixture into the yolks, stirring constantly. Stir to combine. Pour egg mixture into sauce and cook for another minute.

Add cheeses and stir until melted. Add onions and soysage and stir. Taste for seasonings and add more salt if needed. Add cooked macaroni and stir to coat.

Pour into a baking dish and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until sizzling and hot.

The first technique was to create a bas-relief on the platters from the previous class. We each had a platter or two with a thin skin of porcelain over Lizella . We drew broad patterns on the platters then painted part of the pattern with shellac. After the shellac dried we started wiping away the porcelain with wet sponges. The shellac will burn off in the kiln leaving a great contrast between the white porcelain and the dark Lizella clay. It will also leave a relief texture. I have one piece where the porcelain is very thick; this gave quite a deep bas-relief. I’ve used a variation of this technique on porcelain pieces without any other clay underneath; I’m excited to see the results of this adaptation.

Greenware Platters

Next we did some sgraffito on greenware. This process involves coating a piece with a thin coat of slip or under glaze and then scratching through the veneer to reveal the color of the clay body underneath. We put black underglaze over light colored stoneware. One student also coated the black underglaze with wax before scratching the surface which is supposed to keep the lines cleaner. The drawing I did has very fine lines and no major areas of glaze removal. Chris is worried that it will be too dark and not show much, if any, flashing. I might just be wasting the salt glaze on this piece, we’ll see.

When we were done with the sgraffito pieces we did some work with wax resists . We painted a pattern onto our bisque pieces and then glazed the entire piece. The glaze will not stick wherever the pot is waxed. Just like the shellac on the previous pieces, the wax will burn off in the kiln. When one does this on a pot that is fired in an electric or gas kiln the wax will reveal the raw clay body. When this is done in the salt kiln the salt should glaze the entire piece with a variance in color between the standard glazed areas and the waxed areas.

Bisque pots

The hardest part for everyone in using these techniques was the need to visualize backwards as we were working with negatives. A lot of thought needs to be put into which part of a design is staying and which part is being removed by the wax, shellac or scratched off in the sgraffito. If a mistake is made on sgraffito more glaze can be added to cover the mistake, wax can be burned off with a torch but shellac is not as forgiving so careful planning is recommended.

Next Saturday we unload the kiln, I can’t wait!