Friday, March 12th, 2010
The CAG (Ceramic Artist Guild) will be presenting a series of workshop/seminars to train experienced Ceramists to become certified judges for sanctioned ceramic competitions.
If you have a background in ceramics and would like to participate and expand your own horizons, you may want to consider becoming a judge.
Some of the upcoming class locations and dates include:
PHOENIX, AZ – 3/18 BOISE, ID – APRIL VALLEJO, CA – 6/10 SALT LAKE CITY, UT – 6/15 DENVER, CO – 6/18 OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – 6/22 ATLANTA, GA – 6/26 WASHINGTON, DC – 6/29 BOSTON, MA – 7/1 BUFFALO, NY – 7/5 (Including our friends in Toronto, Canada) LACROSSE, WI – 7/8 BISMARK, ND – 7/10
BOISE, ID – PHASE II CLASS – 7/14
The CAG is also offering portions of the three phase training seminar online for those who are unable to personally attend a live session.
You can find out more about these training sessions by clicking here.
I encourage you to sign up early as space is limited.
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
I was greatly saddened to find that many of my favorite glazes and underglazes are being discontinued.
Mayco/Ceramichrome and Duncan are discontinuing a large number of their products. What is left will be a very small selection which I find very limiting to my creativity.
I understand part of why they are cutting back. It is the economy and the fact that the ceramics industry has fallen into a real depression. If a product does not sell, they cannot keep producing it. It is up to the consumer to support the manufacturers. The same thing has been happening to the mold manufacturers and the suppliers of all related ceramic products. That has been happening with all the ceramic shops that have gone out of business over the past few years.
This is a very sad thing and I hope that all of you will make a concerted effort to help revitalize the ceramics industry with your enthusiasm, support and efforts. We all have to fight forward and do what we can to support all aspects of this industry.
Knowing that many great products will no longer be available, I encourage you to contact your favorite suppliers and even new suppliers and stock up on any of your favorites that you find are being discontinued.
Go paint something today — have fun in the mud
Friday, October 16th, 2009
It doesn’t matter how much experience you have with ceramics, you are bound to have mistakes. Whether it be casting your rmolds, bisque or finished pieces, you can often turn those disasters into something useful.
This is first of a series of articles that will give you options for your ooopsies other than the trash barrel
Sometimes pieces collapse, or split with stress cracks during the casting process. No problem if you have a reclaimer, just toss the ware back into the recycling vat. But if you want to get really creative, try this:
To read the rest of this article, click here.
Friday, October 16th, 2009
I have always told my students that even if you dip your ceramic piece in pure gold it is not worth two cents if you do not clean it properly to begin with. Good cleaning is the difference between ceramics as a craft and ceramics as an art. Even a beginner can create a work of art.
Spending a little extra time to remove all traces of seams and re-incising details will always pay off in the long run. There are lots of little tricks of the trade that will help speed up the process, but you should never sacrifice quality for speed. Giving that extra bit of attention to your piece can raise its value and garner you a reputation that will keep your customers happy and returning.
There has been a lot of information written about the ‘how to’s’ in cleaning ceramic greenware, but my wonderful teacher showed me a method that I have passed on for almost 50 years that makes the process easy and quite fast. As you become experienced, you will be amazed at just how fast you can whip through a table full of greenware.
If you would like to learn how, and to read the rest of this article click here
Monday, September 28th, 2009
About 25 years ago, I always mixed up my own earthenware slip. It is not difficult, just takes patience and some time and a strong back; however when I moved to the South, there were no sources (that I could find – this was before the internet) to buy the raw materials. The only slip available was in pre-mixed, 2 gallon boxes. The cost was considerably higher, but the convenience was nice.
Now, though it is getting more and more difficult to find local supplies for hobbyists in the area of casting ceramic molds. I recently spent two weeks trying to find a local source for a gallon of ready made porcelain slip to fill an order for one of my customers.
I was about to tear out my hair before I finally found a source in another state and I had to pay high shipping costs to just get one gallon sent to me.
During my quest, I did find a local source who would have provided me with all of the fixin’s to mix my own slip; however they did not have a recipe for porcelain casting slip, just porcelain clay.
While waiting for my gallon of slip to arrive, I began a quest to find recipes to mix my own slip. I’m thinking it won’t be too long before I’m going to have to mix my earthenware slip also. To that end, I decided to share with my readers what I find out. I did find one recipe for porcelain casting slip – fire range cone 6-10. I have not attempted to make it yet, so I can not vouch for its result. If anyone tries this before I do, I would love to hear back as to what they think of the final result.
I will also be adding recipes for other slips besides porcelain soon.
To see this porcelain slip recipe, click here
Thursday, August 13th, 2009
Yes, it’s time to plan for Christmas and one of the best sellers every year are Christmas ornaments. Whether you sell bisque or finished pieces, ornaments are a nice steady source of income.
When making your ornaments, it is important to provide means by which the ornaments can be hung.
There are several methods available.
1) Utilize the area provided in the casting by making sure the indentation or hole is clear
2) Use a skewer of some kind to poke a hold in the top of the ornament where by a ribbon or string can be threaded through as a hanger, or
3) insert wire loops into the wet casting so that string, ribbon, wire hooks or chains can be threaded through it to hang the ornament after painting.
In my many years of casting ornaments, I have found that a continuous, circular wire loop provides the most secure and versatile means to display and hang ceramic or porcelain ornaments. Because they are inserted in the wetware, they will need to be made from a wire that can withstand high firing temperatures. Nichrome wire can fired up to about 2400 degrees Fahrenheit without melting, so it is good for use with ceramic, porcelain or stoneware.
For simple and cost effective instructions on how to make the best kind of wire loop, click here
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
Porcelain is the finest among all clays. It is the purest and finest textured clay found on earth. It is made from Kaolin clay that was found in China around 700 AD. Most of the fine pottery and ceramic products were exported from the orient and they were mostly made from this elegant clay. Chinese found a way to fire this clay to the hottest temperatures (up to about 2500 degrees Fahrenheit) which is necessary to mature it to a very hard and non-porous state. Fired porcelain is completely vitrified, glass-like and impermeable. It is translucent to varying degrees based upon thickness and exact formulation. Sadly the term porcelain has not been standardized and one see’s many references to products as porcelain which are not made from true porcelain clays.
It is believed that porcelain was named by the French who compared its translucent beauty to part of a seashell that they nicknamed “little pig” porcellana (cowrie shell) or porcelaine. For many years, China porcelain was highly sought after for its beauty and delicacy. Traders shipped it all over Europe and it became high demand around 1200-1400 AD. Until sometime in the 17th century, the only place to get porcelain or china was from China. Only in relatively recent history have the mysteries of working with porcelain and other locations for natural resources become available to the world outside of China. Collectors today, still place great value on the pottery developed in China dating back to the various Dynasties like the Ming Dynasty.
Porcelain is somewhat translucent in that you can see light and shadows through the fired ware. It has many grades of quality and translucency the finest among them is ‘bone China’. Bone China derives its name from the fact that when developed it had crushed bone added to the formula. The more bone, the more translucent the final product. The inclusion of other minerals and chemicals determines the final outcome and grade of porcelain.
To read the rest of this article, click here.
Friday, February 13th, 2009
The process of pouring ceramic molds is called casting or slip casting. Before you begin, it is a good idea that you know how the mold works. Ceramic molds are made of plaster as opposed to other molds being rubber, sponge, metal or plastic. The reason is that plaster absorbs water.
Slip is liquid clay, it has a lot of water in it (see “What is Ceramic or Clay Slip”) and in order for it to hold a shape, the water needs to be removed. Enter the plaster mold.
There are many kinds of plaster molds, ranging from one piece to two piece to multiple pieces that fit together and form a cavity to hold the slip. Most common, and addressed in this article, is the two piece mold. These molds are designed to fit together tightly to form a cavity with a single opening that is used to receive and expel the liquid clay. See “What is a Ceramic Mold”.
When you fill your mold with liquid clay, the plaster begins to absorb the water and the clay platelets begin to stick to the sides of the mold. This creates the shell that will ultimately form your finished item. The longer you leave the slip in the mold, the more water that will be drawn out and the thicker the shell will be. When the shell is as thick as you want it, you then drain off the excess slip and you are left with a hollow item.
To read the rest of this article, click here.
Friday, January 30th, 2009
Primarily, ceramic slip is clay that has been thinned down with water and sometimes additional chemicals to be used for various purposes in the field of clay arts. It is clay mixed with water to a smooth gravy-like, liquid consistency.
In pottery, it is used for decorating or coating the crafted items as well as acting like a glue or paste to adhere parts together. In ceramics, it is used to cast plaster molds creating images and shapes as well as various finishing techniques.
It is called slip because of its smooth, slippery consistency… a texture without roughness, smooth to the touch. The term comes from Middle English: slime, from Old English: ‘slypa’ or ‘slyppe’ and also has Indo-European roots: sleubh. Just step in the middle of a puddle of it on your floor and you will understand completely. It is well named.
Click here to read the rest of this article.
Monday, January 26th, 2009
In a nutshell, greenware is raw clay. Clay that has not been fired or ‘baked’. Potters throw pots and until they are fired, they are greenware. It does not matter if an item has been sculpted by hand, cast with a mold, earthenware, porcelain, stoneware or any other form of clay, until it is fired it is raw or greenware.
While in the unfired state, it can be broken quite easily. Most fragile is cast porcelain, then cast earthenware, then sculpted bodies. This is primarily because of the density and thickness of the item as well as the fragility of the clay body.
When handling raw clay ware, it is important that you support the bottom rather than trying to pick it up from the top as the weight causes stress and can cause the piece to snap and or crumble.
In its raw form, most clays can be crushed and recycled; however once fired, they cannot. There are two major differences between clay bodies – Low-fire and high-fire. Low-fire clays are those that require lower temperatures to reach maturity as opposed to those which require higher temperatures.
To read the rest of this article, click here.