Ceramics week 8

Making a two-piece mould for slip casting. The "air" above the fruit and clay will be filled with plaster - but there are a few things to do first. To cast the figurine, you need a three-part mould - or you can block off the space between the ears and do some manipulations later - this all feels very complicated!

Back to the two-part mould - you need to make a hole to pour the clay in - that's done with a cone of clay that's cut in half. And you need those dimples (make them by twirling a small coin in the clay) to align the two halves of the mould.The plastic (or card) is held securely with more tape, and clay logs tucked firmly round the base. Plaster will be poured in, so you don't want it to leak out. And that wall needs to be strong.
Casting the mould had to wait for later. At the time I was sure I'd never use this - but never say never - writing about it, I can see possibilities. Unfortunately by the time the rest of the process was demonstrated, I was wrapped up in my own work. It took a long time to get going on my own stuff in this class - my mind is full of the "outdoor project" in sculpture, and also clogged with "how do I get the ceramics and the sculpture working together, now that I have a theme". So most of the morning was thinking time - it was 12.30 before I got to the clay. "Will do better next time" - class time is limited, after all!

Here's what came out of the kiln. The black slip looks very brown after bisque firing - I'll use white, black and clear glazes on these experiments.
These three with their "velvet black" stoneware glaze provided a lesson - on dusty pots, the glaze sticks to the dust and you get crawling - irregular glazing. So, sponge them off before glazing. Next time!
Other experiments were with forms (cut from foamcore), starting with houseplans-that-stick-up-in-the-air
and moving along to non-rectangular pieces, and remembering to use the third dimension - something I need more practice at -
These are "slushing around in the subconscious" and I need to look harder at them, play more, draw some, cut different ones. Not sure where this is going - at some point the subconscious, having eaten enough, will give out a geyser-like burp, and The Idea will arrive.

After lunch, some glazing - these unclaimed pots are going in to the pot sale -
and a dreadful warning - if you don't clean your pots' bottoms, they will stick to the kiln shelf -
I hope I wiped this one well enough, and that all this glaze doesn't drip -
At the end of the day I had some more slip-patterned, embossed slabs, and scary-looking "mouths of hell" with pins stuck into them. Not sure if the pins will survive, or what other technical problems might arise (this is all stabs in the dark still) - or even if the Mouths of Hell fit into my theme, which I'm trying to focus closely on (inside, outside, in between).
Something for next week - screen printing with slip on cardboard.