Friday, July 30, 2010

It's Decoration Day, but not the holiday

This week has been decoration week, which consists of spraying layers of colored slip on all the greenware, then carving images and designs through the slip to reveal the white clay body beneath. So how has that all gone?

Set up spray booth & such...check.
Slip greenware...check
Carve...che- wait, it's time to bale hay, carving will have to wait.
Bale hay...check.
Ok, now carve...check...for a couple hours anyway.
Bale hay again...check.
Now we can carve for a while...che-wait, there is a fire call, carving will have to wait again.

It has been a pretty hectic week, only allowing me a few hours here and there to get this stuff decorated. Thankfully today I had a relatively uninterrupted day to get down to it. Here are some of the results.

Oil lamps and a set of bowls with various brown, blue and black slips.

Large-ish serving bowl in a couple different colors of brown. I was pretty pleased with how this design turned out. I will have to try it again in the future.

Salt and pepper shakers, wine set and a berry bowl set in various shades of brown, blue and black. Not real happy with the shakers, and I am undecided on the design on the wine set. I do
like the pattern on the berry bowl though. It too will be returning.

And finally, a green and black teapot with a plate design on it. That is, I was originally going to use this design on a set of plates, but thought it might look good on here. Still not happy with the proportions on this thing, though.

I was thinking about spraying a thin layer of clear and single firing some of this stuff. Not the stuff with wax on it (teapot, oil lamps, bowl set), of course, but I could swing it with most of the stuff. I have always been kind of leery of single firing, though. I'm always worried something is going to blow and ruin the whole load. I don't know; the jury is still out on that decision.

Now it is a break for supper and possibly a movie, then perhaps I will try to decorate a couple more pieces before bed. Wait, my wife just informed me that instead of more deco we will be bathing our son. I guess that works too.

-Rob

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