Dead Albatross bowls

Ceramic rock bowls.

by frogpondsrock on March 28, 2010

in ceramics,Dead Albatross bowls,Fun

When I returned to ceramics after a break of nearly twenty years, I became obsessed with perfectly formed objects. I lusted after Korean celadon tea cups and Japanese woodfired tea bowls. The perfection of Les Blakeborough’s porcelain made my soul shiver and Gwyn Hannsen Piggot’s still life arrangements were to die for.

In my first year of ceramic study I only kept one piece of work and I was incredibly hard on myself. I set my standards so high that I was destined to fail. I don’t know if this was a subconsciuos act of sabatoge or not, though I suspect it probably was. At the end of my second year of study I had relaxed a bit and was starting to produce work that had potential.

The last three years have been incredibly difficult as well as incredibly rewarding. I have learned to relax and  I have stopped being so hyper critical of my own work. Stopping drinking has been the catalyst for this new kindness to myself as has the support of you my internetz.Through your eyes I have been able to view myself as a bonafide artist, though I still have moments when I am sure someone is going to look at my work and say that isn’t good enough you aren’t an artist at all.

I have come to a place where I am happy with myself and with my work. I have stopped fighting my nature and my ceramics have improved because of it.

So instead of trying to make delicate teacups that look capable of floating off the table. I am making work that soothes my soul. The dead albatross bowls and handbuilt platters make my heart sing. My slipcast work satisfies my longing for beauty and elegance though they will never be perfectly formed and will always look very hand made. My catch cry of late has become if you want perfection go and buy it from the kitchen section of a large department store.

Now I am making ceramic rocks. These rock bowls are a beginning of a ceramic exploration of ideas. I am trying to get an earthy, natural feel balanced with a crisp inner beauty. The outside surface will remain matte and rock-like whilst the inside should be lovely and shiny and crystalline.

These bowls are in the kiln at the moment and I will get to see whether they have worked or not on Wednesday. They are very heavy and I will have to work on that as they will cost a fortune to ship. It would be like I was trying to post a brick.

So this is where I am at, at the moment. I still haven’t started on the dragon eggs yet, though I have started an extensive programme of glaze testing. I am planning on using the Easter break to make the dragon egg mould as well as a number of other projects I have on the go.

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The first dead albatross bowl.

by frogpondsrock on November 18, 2009

in ceramics,Dead Albatross bowls,environmental stuff

The first dead albatross bowl is out of the kiln and here it is tadaaa!

dead Albatross bowl.

This is the bowl that I made in response to this photo, taken on Midway atoll by Chris Jordan.

albatross chick 4

As I was working I only had  a vague idea of how I was going to glaze the bowl, because at the time the making of the bowl was paramount. Everything else was secondary. I am learning to think about glazing as I am working with the raw clay but it is hard to think that far ahead, as the making consumes me.

Once I had finished the bowl, I began to think about glazes and the overall effect that I was after. I initially decided I wanted a shiny glaze over the bird  which would highlight the plastic and I wanted a duller matt blaze over the background for extra contrast and to sort of imitate a sandy beach.

I roughly painted a Ruth Langman clear glaze* over the albatross when the pot was dry and this was fired to bisque.I changed my mind about the matt glaze for the background and decided to go with a shiny, honey coloured, sort of crackley glaze I have called Shannon’s Special* The bowl was then fired in oxidation to 1280° celcius

As a prototype bowl I am thrilled to bits with this piece, it has given me a lot to think about.I have another dead albatross bowl in the kiln at the moment, that has been glazed wholly with Shannon’s Special. I am really looking forward to seeing it on Friday.

If you are interested in seeing how I made the dead albatross bowl, I have published  step by step photos here.

*Ruth Langman

silica                                         31

Kaolin                                       10

Neophyline syenite                    30

gerstley borate                          21

wollastonite                                 8

*Shannon’s Special

Potash feldspar          50

Ball clay                      25

Whiting                        25

Rutile                              3

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How to make a dead albatross bowl.

by frogpondsrock on November 4, 2009

in ceramics,Dead Albatross bowls,environmental stuff,fauna and flora,On my soapbox

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Chris Jordan’s albatross photographs. I sent an email off to him asking for permission to reproduce one of his images here but I haven’t received a reply so if you click on his name you will go straight to the images of the dead albatross chicks.

I  planned to take photos of all the steps involved in making the bowl. Once I started to work I got so caught up with the making that I kept on forgetting to take the shots. I would glance up in the middle of adding something to the bowl and see the camera and think,”shit I forgot the photos” and quickly snap away.

I rolled out some clay. It is exactly the same as rolling out pastry except if you nibble bits of the edges it tastes like mud.

I rolled out some clay until it was quite thin.

I rolled out another thin sheet of clay and then cut out an albatross shaped piece of clay.

I then added an albatross shaped piece of clay. I had totally forgotten about taking photos at this stage.

I then started to paint the albatross with black and white slip. Slip is liquid clay. You can buy slip from the clay shop. I make my own slip from white clay and add body stains to make all the colours except black. To make black slip I make up a black oxide mix which is 3% black iron oxide, 2% manganese,2% cobalt oxide and 2% nickel oxide. I then add a couple of teaspoons of this mix to half a cup or so of slip. It should fire to a lovely dark charcoal colour (fingers crossed).

I started to colour in the albatross with slip.

I then pressed shapes into the belly of the albatross for texture and to highlight the foreign nature of the plastic.

I then pressed some circles and lines into the albatrosses belly, to represent the plastic.

I decorated the shapes with commercial underglaze colour as well as coloured slip.

I decorated some more using underglaze colours as well as coloured slip.

I now carefully picked it up and  plonked it on top of a hump mould and hoped like hell that it wouldn’t rip too much, as the clay was really thin.

I then picked up the clay and put it on the hump mould. Hoping that it wouldn't rip too much.

Now I needed to add another layer of clay to make the pot a bit thicker. So I rolled out some more clay, painted it with some slip so that it would stick and then added it to the bowl. I squashed the new layer of clay down with a rolling pin and then smacked it with a piece of driftwood planking until I was happy with the shape and the texture.

I rolled out another sheet of clay and put it on to thicken up the bowl. then I bashed it with a piece of driftwood.

I then painted this layer with black slip.

I painted this layer with black slip.You can see the marks left by the driftwood.

I still had the pieces of clay leftover from when I had cut out the albatross shape. So I painted them with a slip I had made from local clay gathered from the side of the road, it fires to orange. So I stuck them onto the bowl as well.

I put the leftover clay pieces from the albatross on the bowl as well.

I covered them with clingwrap so that they wouldn’t dry out any more and then I squished it all together with the rolling pin.

I covered the clay with cling wrap and and squished everything together with a rolling pin.

Once I was happy that everything was all squished together. I took off the clingwrap and gave it a bit of a bash with the driftwood paddle.

This is the end result of the bottom of the pot.

I left it on the mould until it had dried out to not quite leather hard. I am an impatient potter and all the time I had been making the bowl, I didn’t have a clue how the albatross inside the bowl had fared.I didn’t know if it had ripped or distorted and I was itching to find out. So as soon as the bowl could be flipped off the mould and still retain a bowl like shape, I turned it over.

And here is the dead albatross.

this is what the albatross ended up looking like.

It took me all morning to make one bowl and the whole process from start to finish was very satisfying. I don’t feel quite so helpless in the face of the enormity of the tragedy of the albatrosses. I have since made another albatoss bowl and I am hoping like mad that I will be happy enough with them to put them in the exhibition.

* edited:- You can see photos of the fired bowl here.

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