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?
For the uninitiated, I should explain what a Saggar is, it is a big piece of pottery that smaller pottery is sealed in. Traditionally this was done in Stoke on Trent to protect the pottery from the coal fire that they fired their kilns with. Modern Potters use them to get a reduction environment inside an electric kiln, this stops the kiln from getting damaged and brings some different effects to the pots. I threw a a saggar a few years ago and it has been sat on the top shelf on my studio for a few years now, not…
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…
Last time I wrote about the importance of a narrow focus, I considered writing this one about having a broad focus. I changed my mind when I remembered Michael Kline’s post “play the Pro” which was about how we are all hobbyists at times. Michael has been playing around with slip inlay, and spent quite some time with the work under wraps until he felt more confident with it. But this playfulness in the working process brings a level of joy. Having closed down Red Fox Pottery in 2012 I stepped away from clay to become an art teacher. Teacher…
I have been busy recently working through my dissertation and creating videos for the practical part of the research. Learning to edit on Adobe Premiere Pro has been a bit of a slog this week but it has sped up the process no end now I am getting to grips with it. I just wish it weren’t a subscription based service but nevermind. 1) I had the idea of making a video from the pots point of view, I replaced some of the sound to change the qualities.
For the last year I have been experimenting with firing inside a saggar inside my electric kiln. From the start I have to say anything fired in this method I wouldn’t sell as food safe and to make certain of that I don’t make functional ware with this method, just things that are purely sculptural, albeit quite small sculptures. So what’s a saggar and what does it do? A saggar is a sacrificial pot that was originally used in industry to keep ceramic glaze free from ash during the firings, especially with coal as this can make the wares quite…
One of the advantages of going back to a form of making I haven’t used much and I am not comfortable with gives me fresh insights into the making process, for me hand building is something I never really pushed on with like I did with throwing. Each part of the hand building process has its own rhythm; it doesn’t matter how fast or slow. What is more important keeping a steady rhythm, rhythm improves the flow of making, in fact trying to go fast and misplacing hands can cause the mind to pause and wonder what it is you…
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.