Here I am again on a Sunday morning getting a blog post ready for The Sunday Ceramics link up.
But all I can think about today is Invasion Day and my deep shame that today is the super duper penultimate racist free for all day in a year of racist asshattery and I just want to turn off the internet and ignore everything.
Australia Day should be a day of celebrating everything good about Australia, a day of moving forward, a day of remembering our Colonial history, of acknowledging invasion but it should ultimately be a day of healing and of celebrating together. We should be building on the foundation of goodwill generated by PM Rudd’s apology, instead we have this travesty of jingoistic nationalism. A day where the plan is to get as pissed as possible while listening to Triple Js hottest one hundred. A day of barbecues and simmering violence. One of the busiest days of the year for the Police and the Ambos. Straya Cunse Oi Oi Oi let’s get pissed, bash the missus and tell them fucken abos to get over themselves cause this is our day cunse. Straya Oi Oi Oi.
Now that is out of the way, said but not forgotten I might be able to think ceramic thoughts.
Last Thursday I had a ceramic student Molly, come and spend the day in my studio with me. I demonstrated the basics of slip casting as well as my super fast style of hand building, I talked all day, waved my arms around a lot, I even threw a cup, fresh out of the mould at Molly and she is still as keen as, to return again this week. Wow.
The benefits for me of having a student come and spend the day, is that Molly forces me to be more organised. I wanted to demonstrate what rutile did in a glaze and couldn’t find my test pieces, so this week I will sort out all my test tiles and put them in the one spot.
I also bought an extruder yesterday from a retiring potter and as I scavenged through her studio I found some texture stamps. These terracotta stamps are very neat and well made, where as my stamps are messy. So I think I have a good start to next weeks lesson as Molly and I will make some stamps.
My stamps are always an afterthought, made from any old left over clay that I have to hand, so I think I will make some stamps especially for my clay kids and for the adult groups I am going to be teaching this year.
Molly and I had a bit of a play with some shellac. I tend to avoid shellac as I become completely engrossed in the process and spend hours just fiddling away. This is Molly’s decoration on one of my cups. For those of you unfamiliar with the process, shellac or water etching is the technique of painting shellac onto a form and then, once the shellac is dry, gently washing away the clay surrounding it. The brown dots here that you can see is the shellac, and the dots will be raised bumps on the cup. The shellac will burn away in the bisque firing leaving the piece all white again. When I thought my youngest grand daughter was going to be severely vision impaired, it was shellac I was going to use to incorporate braille into my work.
I am busily making skulls and spoons, light things to take over to the Warrandyte Expo next month.
And that is me for the week, I was going to delete the bit about my thoughts on Invasion Day but as my politics are so entwined in my ceramics it felt a bit like cheating. I added in enough photos of ceramics so that you could ignore my words and just look at the photos.
Please join in the link up if you want, as the link will be open all week and I check it each day.
Just add your name and URL to the Mr Linky below.
Using the “Sunday Ceramics” title and photo I provided is OPTIONAL it is up to you.
Link back here to me.
Comments on this entry are closed.
Don’t mind the historical reminder, timely, – food for thought
I like your very clear thinking in explaining the shellac etching process, and your accompanying images.
I also like your excellent photos, which also make an excellent teaching tool, and a great set of teaching resources, (*pictures telling stories*) which also would help those who need a visual guide) and, also stimulate anticipation and ideas in students before they start making. My students used to love seeing such photos, I think it made them feel secure, and helped me teach better.
I like looking at them, anyway.
My hands tingled to want to make, and, brought to mind several fond memories in making, and different ceramic teachers and hand building workshops at Hornsby, TAFE.
My personal favourite, is the one showing, your gutsy, textured, rustic, sculptural spoons, practical and engaging, would grace any kitchen, and right at home in a country, rustic kitchen. To me, there is an animated charm about them, and what pleasure to fill them with salt or any spice.
I want to pluck them out of your photo and use them, and because each is unique, I would want a set.
Will need to save pennies.
Cheers, Krista
I will make you a set of spoons Krista, I am procrastinating as it is getting a bit warm here and I need a nudge to go into the studio. You can msg me on FB and tell me what you would like the spoons to be used for? The ones in the photo started out as tea scoops but after using them for a while I think the handles are a bit short. They are not any good as eating spoons because of the roughness of the unglazed underside but they are nice to hold 🙂
I love the terracotta texture stamps, did the retiring potter make her own? Or could I find some in craft stores? I think they’d be great for stamping designs on biscuits before baking them, or making patterns in pastry or royal icing.
So those brown dots on the cup will become white after firing? I rather like them as they are, brown. The cup is very pretty.
Happy Australia Day.
Yes, the terracotta stamps were made by the other potter, they are lovely. I find that the childrens pattern making stuff in the play do section of the toy shops work well for patter making in cooking , maybe have a look there River? I can “try” to make you a stamp or two but my stamps are a bit wonky
Hi Kim
Yes I know what you mean about Australia Day. I think we should either do away with it all together (won’t happen) or instead celebrate the date of Federation which is when all the little convict colonies (oh sorry WA and SA) came together as a Nation.
My stamps never look as neat as those!!
Diane, the potter is also a printmaker and I find that printmakers are always super precise types of people. Her line work is simple but so effective. and thank you for understanding my need to have a small rant, yesterday did my head in with the level of abuse flung around, it was really quite sad. As Michael Mansell said at the protest in Hobart yesterday, Aboriginal people do not want to be protesting every year, they want to enjoy Australia Day as well.
Cool what you are doing with shellac…..more to try!
I usually make my clay stamps out of porcelain fired to a bisque (^06 – ^04) temp. Bisque porcelain seems to absorb more moisture giving me a longer working time.
Love those spoons!
I use the shellac to make patterns, Smart Cat, it gives a wonderful raised surface. You can buy Shellac flakes at a hardware store and you add either turps or methylated spirit to the flakes and tadaa shellac, it smells like varnish and sets hard on the work. I wait until the work has gone past leather hard to the point where it is almost too dry to do anything with and then paint the shellac on. The process is also called water etching and so you might be able to have a google. or look through Ceramic Arts Daily for some links. But it is a very addictive process 🙂
Love the terracotta stamps. I can thing of so many crafty projects I’d love to use them for. I’ve never seen anything like them.
Love the terrecotta stamps and I am going to have to find out more about that shellac technique, sounds like fun. I feel the urge to experiment 🙂 thankyou for sharing
I love your comments & your pottery. I find it funny that you need a nudge when it’s warming & I need a nudge when it’s chilly (between 40 & -7F) this winter (opposite hemisphere, we’re in deep winter here). I too recently came across some beautifully made stamps & had a touch of clay envy. Mine are all lumpy but, fit my hand.
I really LOVE the shellac design, and what an interesting concept to include braille work into ceramics. I’ve read about the process, but have yet to try it on my own.
What beautiful stamps you came across as well! Very well made. My hand made stamps, like yours, are not nearly as neat and precise… though they probably should be. 🙂
Shawna
jsbarts.blospot.com