So these represent the best tiles I have fired in the last year, and include tests for brushwork and the saggar firing, there is so much variation and I have started to mount them in some new ways as I think these go beyond throw away objects.
For a while I have been thinking about tiles as an act of experimentation, they are something that can be created in the fraction of time for throwing, there is a lot less focus that goes into creating them, no hunching over the wheel. In some ways they are quite disposable.
I don’t generally use tile for glaze tests as they don’t have gravity and thickness’s similar to pots but I do use them to test ideas, patterns, new and more recently my saggars to see what effects are possible. In these sorts of ways the tiles are part of the experimentation and systematic testing that I was used to when I was a chemistry student many moons ago.
So this was my first test tile in a saggar, this actually gave me more confidence about saggar firing than any other piece in that kiln. it is mounted on a scrap piece of plywood that whitewashed and waxed. A lot of the wood I use for mounting and framing would otherwise just end up in landfill.I just love the marks shells leave on the honey glaze, and the horses tail leaves an amazing texture too. The round osb was cut because I wanted some more throwing batts but after I these ones I wasn’t sure they would last as batts so I decided to try this one for a mount and I quite like it due to it being so different.The marks just left by the shells and the reduction in my little kiln are amazing, I can’t help but stare at them. These were placed on top of each other so have the same shells but they appear reflected. The tile on the left has a porcelain slip which affects the colour too.These don’t fit this shadow box and I will make them a new frame in September. The frame was orriginally intended for the large tile above but was based on it shrinking from bisque to vitrified, but it was a few millimetres off so it doesn’t fit but it looks better with the two reflections. Moral of the story wait until you have finished work before building it a frame.I started working on my brush work last year but haven’t had much chance to get back to it in recent months, but cobaly markings and sgraffito are the only ways I can find that get around that feeling of my work not being reduction fired.I do like graduations in colour going from light to dark. The tile on the left is unglazed with porcelain slip and some flashing. The other two tiles have my honey glaze and varying amounts of local reduction.These are some older tests in a shadow frame that I made. The tiles are a homemade porcelain my standard clay with iron added and some commercial black clay. It is made from cutting down some pine that was in the bin pile, the problem is it was quite ugly. I was wrapping blue painters masking tape around it and I really liked the blue it seemed to tie everything together.A tile I made in 2012 to test sgraffito, high fired terracotta and a commercial white slip, with lustre for windows. In a shadow box frame.
These are my first attempts at framing and I want to do more, and I want to work a lot more in tiles. I also want to work more at creating my own clays. These so far really have my creative juices flowing.
In case you didn’t see it my new youtube mini-series started woodworking for potters
So what do you the reader like and have you ever framed your ceramic work?
I loved my time on the “Writing Matters” workshops that were provided by MIRIAD for researchers. There are some really skilled writers with distinct voices in the group. It has made me want to write more but not in a stiff academic way, but in a more human flowing voice. Talking to other members of the group about my writing and my research revealed to me that what I was actually interested in my work is actually communication. I had never thought about it this way but all my research and thinking seems to point towards looking at different ways…
At my last supervisory meeting I was encouraged to create something a bit more visually interesting in my video than I had submitted at the meeting. The videos I submitted for the meeting were the first videos I had ever tried to edit on Lightworks rather than windows movie maker. I was just trying to get to terms with it all and create a functional lesson in a technique. In my mind after finding applications like Meerkat and Periscope, was that I would just live stream a class with an application like Go To Meeting where the participants can meet…
The Harris Museum commissioned a film about my making process, which is interesting to watch. As a maker I am infinitely influenced by the sea, whether it is painting patterns, carving boats or actually using found materials as part of my making.
There is simplicity in slip, the mixing of clay and water to a smooth homogenous liquid. Slip decoration is so seductive and there is something about the playfulness of surface that it brings. There are some amazing potters that slip decorate on Instagram like Naofumi Maeno, and Kazuhiro Ashizawa I am always jealous of their surfaces. Doug Fitch has been a major influence on my work too and love talking clay with him. Though slip is something I fell in love with around the time I met Adam Field, I saw he was doing carving with a tool much broader…
Or how something I created due to injury became of of my favourite ceramic creations. In 2018 I was preparing for Earth and Fire in Nottinghamshire and working as a Design Technology Technician (wood, metal and plastics) as a day job, I was using a bandsaw which was something I did most days as I was generally using the laser cutter and supervising classes at the same time. Our bandsaw wasn’t the best, it was in all likelihood bought by the school long before I was born and it was in constant need of TLC. Regardless, as I made a…
At the start of every project, there is a lot of testing as I enjoy that part and a new project is often a great excuse to try something new, new glazes, new clay etc. In the last post I already showed the new clays I am starting with, plus add on to those Blackpool School of Arts buff clay and crank clay, as well as my own standard clay plus my standard clay with approx 5% red iron oxide, added and some addition grog. The first job was rolling out small slabs and measuring 10cm lines on each so…
2 Comments
tiles are useful as glaze tests etc,but as you’ve found can be framed and sold (Hannah and Doug do this too) or even used at home…as tiles!
I made a concious decision to make bigger tiles the older tiles are 6cm square and aren’t much use as they are thin and very wonky. I made a mould like Doug and Hannah but the test one I made I just don’t like it bounces every which way when I try and use it.
I have thought about using them as tiles but can’t produce the quantity and the quality isn’t where I want it yet.
tiles are useful as glaze tests etc,but as you’ve found can be framed and sold (Hannah and Doug do this too) or even used at home…as tiles!
I made a concious decision to make bigger tiles the older tiles are 6cm square and aren’t much use as they are thin and very wonky. I made a mould like Doug and Hannah but the test one I made I just don’t like it bounces every which way when I try and use it.
I have thought about using them as tiles but can’t produce the quantity and the quality isn’t where I want it yet.