"Jenuine Junque" & Impressions in Clay

I was visiting my friend, Shifra, the other day at her shop "Jenuine Junque" in Springville. If you're passing through our town, be sure to stop at "Jenuine Junque". You never know what treasure you might find including one of a kind art, jewelry, clothing, and all sorts of wonderful gifts. Be sure walk around in the gardens and visit the side yard for wonderful "junque" for your garden.


While I was visiting, I asked Schifra if she had any jars of old buttons for sale. She was wondering why I wanted mismatched buttons. I explained that ceramic artists are always looking for items to texture their clay.




Since her shop carries lots of unique items, I thought for sure she might have a jar of buttons for sale. She didn't have a whole jar for sale, but looked in her personal stash and gave me some great buttons and other things to use for texture tools. Thanks Schifra, I have already put some of the items you gave me to good use.


I'm calling this my Sombrero Chip & Dip Platter. I never know where or what I might find to use to texture clay. Here I have used a button with a star pattern to press into the clay, as in the first detail photo above.

Geometry and Clay

I have set a goal for myself of making one new form a day. I have lots of ideas in my head and think, "Oh, I'll make that some day in the future". Then, sometimes those ideas are long forgotten. So I am sketching my ideas and trying to construct as many as I can.

The ringed petal vase is one such idea. My idea was to hand build a vase with sides gathered up by a ring of contrasting clay - what I would call a ringed petal vase. There would be slits in the sides where light would flow through. The top view drawing of the vase gave me another idea of making a wall hanging of a flower. I'll save that idea for another day.


While I was rolling out the red stoneware clay I was wondering how to hold up the sides till I could get the ring around the top. I gathered together some soft material and extra pieces of clay to use as props. As I was constructing the vase I could see after I cut the clay, that the sides of the vase wouldn't be long enough to gather and be held with the ring I had envisioned. So the ringed petal vase became a petal bowl.

As I've been drawing my ideas and then trying to construct them, I see I need to brush up on my geometry. I can visualize the ideas and draw them, but transferring my idea to clay is proving to be a challenge for me. And I love a challenge. Some geometry tools might come in useful, such as a compass. Perhaps some geometric templates would be helpful as well - circles, triangles, squares, rectangles and maybe even a trapezoid. Some of the patterns I have been cutting out of paper remind me of when I used to make quilts and used templates to cut my material. I might have to dig out some of my quilting templates and use them with clay.

Fern Platter - Negative Space Slip Image

While pruning in the garden today, I noticed the ferns and thought one would look wonderful impressed in clay. I cut a fern leaf and brought it into the house and rolled out a slab of red stoneware clay, SRFG Cone 5, from Aardvark with my rolling pin. (I am still patiently waiting for my homemade slab roller. I will have to call my friend and see how it's coming along). I laid the fern on the slab of clay and tried rolling it into the clay. The stem showed up nicely, but the fern leaflets weren't showing up, their impression was too light to see.


I decided to try a different approach - using the fern outline as negative space. I rolled the fern leaf deeper into the clay with my rolling pin. Then I formed a platter shape with the clay by draping it over a mold. Next I'll coat the whole platter with a contrasting color of slip covering the whole platter including the fern.

Now that I have coated the whole platter with slip, I've set it aside to dry. Once the slip dries, I will remove the fern and set the platter aside to dry. After the platter is dry I will bisque fire it and then I put a clear glaze over the platter and fire it again. I love the contrast of the green fern against the red clay.


While I am waiting for the slip to dry, I am wondering how I could maintain the color of the clay and glaze the fern green? Would I glaze the whole platter green, then lay the fern down and then glaze the whole platter again in a terra cotta color? Then when the fern burns out the bottom color of glaze will be the fern? Not sure if this will work, but want to try it.


Here is the platter with the fern removed. I think I like it. I had to rub off some of the slip that got under some of the leaves. I might have removed the fern a little too soon - couldn't wait to see what it looked like. I'd like to try more of this technique, perhaps on some pendants.

Wonder if there is another way to do this. Has anyone else tried this type of slip decoration? What are your techniques and how did they work out? I'd love to hear from you.

Alternative Kilns & Firing Techniques

I've always been fascinated with the many ways clay has been fired over the centuries. I also would like to try some these different firing techniques myself. Since I live in the country, I have plenty of room to experiment. I've been saving some materials to utilize in some firings. I've been gathering materials over the past year or so such as copper wire, hickory wood chips, and leaves from various plants with high oil content, etc. I want to see what what type of finishes I can obtain on some pieces.

When I saw this book, Alternative Kilns and Firing Techniques, on Paul Andrew Wandless' website, I decided to order it. Paul had so many beautiful examples of his work, I was intriquted to look further into this world of fire. The book is written by James C. Watkins and Paul Andrew Wandless and covers Raku, Pit, Saggar and Barrel firings and has great color photos and very well done illustrations. There are also glaze formulas and examples of wonderful ceramic pieces which have been fired in alternative ways. I discovered Paul Andrew Wandless website from an article in Ceramic Arts Daily where Paul Wandless showed how to do paper slip transfer. I tried the method of his paper slip transfer and was successful and thought why not try some new and exciting firing methods.

I'm also planning on leaving this book on my husband's nightstand in hopes of enticing him into the world of firing clay. More on this topic later.

Fawn & Textured Test Tiles

This weekend we took a drive into the mountains and went to a friends's 60th birthday party. On the way home, we saw a mother deer and her fawn on the side of the road. They stood still long enough for use to get a photo.

Today, I ran into my ceramics instructor, John Temple, at the post office and was telling him what I have been working on this summer, the new clay, new forms, slip decoration and slip transfer methods. I mentioned I was trying to get enough stuff made to fire up my kiln and he said, "You might want to fire some test tiles first, rather than putting in the new forms you worked so hard on." Boy am I glad I ran into him. He is so right. Why should I try firing my pieces first when I don't know how these new clays are going to perform? And I don't know how my new kiln is going to fire.


So I decided to make up some test tiles with the new clays. I was thinking I wanted some texture on the test tiles and wished I had a large textured mat to use so I could texture the whole sheet of clay and then cut it out. While I was out shopping, I thought about bath mats, but couldn't find one that would work. While walking through the auto section, I saw a mat used protect the carpet in cars - the perfect texture mat. It has raised ridges vertically and on a diagonal and it's large enough to texture a whole sheet of clay at once. Yippee! I also thought a rectangular cookie cutter would be perfect for cutting out test tiles, but I couldn't find any cookies cutters, so I just used a plastic rectangular butter dish.


I've got my first set of clay test tiles done and now I have two more types of clay to make test tiles for. Once these and the other sets dry I'll be able to fire up my kiln and do a bisque fire, then test some glazes on these test tiles.

The Clay Speaks Its Mind

Sometimes the clay speaks it's mind and your hands just have to follow. I started out with a fairly large piece of cassius basaltic clay hoping to construct what I named a scroll bowl. Then a couple of things weren't working the way I wanted, so I modified my idea. After I made the bowl it was teetering so I knew I needed some feet. I put some small feet on it and it was still teetering. So I removed the small feet and made some longer feet. Since the feet are attached to the bottom and it is curved and am hoping they will stay attached. I'm anxious to see what happens as it dries.


When I get an idea to make something in clay, I make a quick drawing so I'll remember my idea. The scroll bowl idea popped into my head, so I drew some mockups. As you can see from my drawings, what I made in clay doesn't look anything like the concept I had. Does anyone else do this? Do you have an idea, draw a mock up and then make the piece and it doesn't turn out anything like you drew or imagined? Then do you like the new form, better than your original concept? I still want to try making the scroll bowl, maybe next time.

Two Tea Cups

I was looking for some information on what size tea cups normally are and I came across the AMACO site and found they have several lesson plans posted. Here's two tea cups from one of their lesson plans I managed to make, in between going to a friend's house for lunch and getting all my watering and farm work done. I'm using the Cassius Basaltic clay again.

These tea cups looked like a good form to practice my hand building skills on. The cups are really green; the slip isn't even dry. I am hoping the cups will shrink some, they might be a bit too large for tea cups, but then again it depends on how much tea you like. They are comfortable to hold in both hands and I was thinking how nice it would be to hold a warm cup of tea in the cup when the weather turns cold.

I like the pedestal the cup sits on. I want to develop a pedestal to use with cups, soup bowls, serving bowls and maybe salad bowls. I realized when it came time to decorate the sides of the cups, I didn't have just the right sprig. I'll have to devote some time to making a few. So I rifled through the kitchen drawers and found a meat tenderizer mallet and used that. The mallet makes a nice impression in the clay.

No Sign In to Make Comments !

You can now make comments on my blog without signing in. I have updated my blog comment section, changing the requirements to make comments so anyone can make comments. Several people mentioned they can't remember sign in names and since our world is so busy I am hopefully making life a little easier for you.

Another online blog recommended not requiring a sign in on blogs to increase blog comments. So in the interest of sharing and increasing comments, which is why I started this blog in the first place, I am putting myself out there. If you wanted to make a comment about a previous post, but decided not to because of the sign in hindrance, please do so now. I'd love to hear from you.

I hope I'm not deluged with a ton of spam.

Paper Slip Transfer Onto Greenware

The other day I was at the 99 cent store and saw a syringe in the food basting department and was thinking it would be perfect for slip trailing, so I purchased one. I remembered reading an article by Paul Andrew Wandless about paper slip transfer onto green ware in Ceramic Arts Daily and decided to give it a try.

I drew a trio of daisies on a piece of paper (photo is the rejected first attempt). Then I rolled out a large piece of dark brown clay and set it aside. Then I filled the syringe with porcelain slip I had already made up. Next I outlined the drawing of the daisies with some porcelain slip.


I had forgotten to start with dry paper and only mist it when you want to transfer it, so the photo of the daisy drawing is of the one I had to reject as the wet paper was smearing the slip all over the place.

So I drew the trio of daisies again and outlined the drawing with slip and set it aside to dry. When the slip drawing was dry, I lightly misted the dark clay and turned the slip drawing over and placed it on the dark clay. Then I misted the back of the paper and started pressing down firmly with a sponge. I pulled up the paper to see if the slip was transferring and saw it wasn't so I misted the paper again. Again I pressed and slightly rubbed the drawing against the brown clay. I checked again and the slip had transferred to the clay.


Here's my feeble attempt at the transfer. Instead of daisies they look like dandelions. I was happy I even got some part of the drawing to transfer. As I was rubbing the paper to get the slip to transfer some of the brown clay transferred to the porcelain slip. Then some of the porcelain slip got on the background. I tried to wipe everything up and got even more smears. Even though I was using a syringe, the slip seemed to come out too thick in places. With practice I will get better at drawing with slip. It was kind of magical how the slip on the paper releases itself and transfers to the clay. All kinds of ideas come to mind on how to utilize this technique. Back to the drawing board.

Slip Trailing

5" tall x 1.5" wide

I'm continuing to make pieces for my first kiln load. Today I tried my hand at slip trailing. I wanted a high contrast against the dark clay, so I made some porcelain slip and experimented with it. Actually I painted the porcelain slip onto these green ware vessels.

6" tall x 4" wide

Can't wait to see how my dot and stripe vessels turn out. I'm really having fun experimenting with new techniques. Next, I'd like to try some more slip trailing using a bulb syringe or a slip trailing bottle.

New Clay and Lavender & Peach Harvest

Wheelbarrow with Red Haven Peaches

I've been harvesting my lavender and peaches here on my farm, Springville Lavender Gardens. So far I've picked 300 peaches from my one Red Haven peach tree. The tree is only 4 years old, I can't believe how many peaches it has and I thinned them too. I am planning on freezing any I don't sell. I'm also going to make a peach cobbler for a party this coming weekend. I didn't count the number of stems of lavender, but there were literally thousands.

Royal Purple Lavender with Vitex & Fuji apple tree

My clay hands got rusty in such a short time. I tried making a porcelain bowl a few days ago and it cracked terribly. I finally gave up and crushed it. Rather than fight the porcelain, I decided to switch to a new clay I wanted to try. Oh, I almost forgot I did succeed in making a porcelain spoon rest, but I don't like the form so I am revising it.

Hand built 1.75" tall by 9" wide

The new clay is called Cassius Basaltic. If there were small children around, I wouldn't leave this clay out since it looks just like chocolate candy when wet. It's dark brown when green, but fires almost black. I plan on glazing with a clear to maintain the black color. The charts say this is a Cone 5/6 clay, but I have read several comments from others who recommend only firing it to Cone 4. Here are a couple of bowls make with the new clay which aren't quite leather hard yet. This clay seems to dry very slowly. I guess that's a good thing compared to the porcelain which dried too quickly. I've made several other pieces with this new clay and they are drying.

Hand built 3.75" tall by 10" wide

Hopefully in the next week or so I can make enough pieces to fill my kiln to give it a test run, but my gardening chores are taking much of my time right now. This coming week is supposed to be well over 100 F so watering may take precedence.