Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Printing Plates


Blank dinner plates drying for bisque.

For the past week I've been very busy in the studio making dinner plates for Exquisite Pots II.
Above are all the plates that will be shipped out to each participating artist. 
Of course lets not forget the extras that were made because of all of my fears.
The fear that something will go wrong (and it will go wrong.... the very last minute.) 
Glazes crazing, popping off, kiln malfunctions, cracking n' crazing, pots lost in shipment, slipping out of hands, cats knocking them off tables, unexpected family emergencies, and moving to new studios...
the list goes on. 
So I'm trying to work hard and quickly to send out my wares to each artist. I'll have opportunities for Joe, Lisa and Ursula to decorate my plates at Northern Clay Center, but I'd rather use that time to decorate their surfaces and focus on their work during that time.

When I finished making their plates I started on two series of my own. I'll select a large dinner plate from both series and ship them out to NCC for the exhibit. 

Quick sketches for the Doodle Plates (First Series).The first stage is complete for the Doodle Plates.  
The second series (below) consist of image transfer dinner plates.
Patterns are screen printed onto newsprint paper with Amaco underglazes and transferred with mason stained slips.

Transfer Process finished and ready for hump molds.Rims trimmed and prepped for additional decoration. 

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Creative Challenges


For those of you who are not familiar with my surface decoration process mostly everything I do happens at the leather hard stage. Unfortunately that doesn't work well when some work is very ornate and/or would be shipped in freezing climates. Traveling far distances from Hawaii and California wasn't helpful either.  So what to do!?   

I considered each person's pots and surfaces as an opportunity for creative challenges. The first question was "How the hell am I going to decorate work when I can't decorate it at leather hard?" Fortunately, my processes include decals and luster. So instead of decorating everyone's work from the wet or bisque state it worked out to respond to the glazed pot and how to still create a unique and cohesive voice from both myself and the the artist. 

Over the phone or via e-mail I was able to touch base with each potter and discuss what the best plan would be. From Marc, Pete, Holly and Liz I'll be decaling all their work where as from Joe, Ursula and Lisa I'll have an opportunity at NCC this summer to work with each artist.

Pictured above is a sampling of work that has arrived (Walker, Scherzer, and Pintz). It's a real treat to live among these pieces in my studio and to consider how each piece will be decorated and executed. Notes, sketches, and pieces of masking tape to add spontaneous ideas have been very helpful. Thank goodness for test tiles because decorating these artists pots is very intimidating!  

Giddyup Cups


Screen-printed Images ready for transfer.Mint Julep Trophy Cups in progress.Cups complete and ready for bisque firing.


A few studio snapshots of the cups in progress. I'm really eager to see how the other artists approach these same forms.