Sometimes I think ceramics has a lot in common with depression, there are days of excitement, and anticipation, bursting with creativity and hope that are often followed by disapointment and bleak negativity and it seems that we are perpetually setting ourselves up for a fall....or maybe thats just me!! No, its ok, I love what I do and feel very lucky that I can work in my own space, with a material that, generally I can do anything with and can to express myself every day through work that I can sell, you can't get much better than that. But the downside of working alone is that just as there is often no one around to share the elation of successs, there is also no one to help disperse the feeling of disapointment when things don't turn out the way one had hoped. Its easy to think that you are the only person that this happens to, especially when we see such fantastic work on other peoples blogs and websites, but I know that this impression does not reflect reality and that behind the scenes we are all working very hard to realise in material form something that starts as a vague notion in our heads. Its a constant challenge and often a struggle but we all know that we love the successes and that failure is part of the process, and often we
grow to love the 'failures' too!
So, to cut a very long story short, I'm glad I photographed those plates before they were fired because that was the last we saw of all that detailed brushwork, some of the colours burnt out, which I knew was likely but I'm going to rework a couple of them with some onglaze colours which will, I hope add some depth and to them.
Some, I'm happy with, black is always good but I'm also thinking that I need to use some better quality colours so I'll get some body stains and make up my own to suit the palette that I'm looki
ng for.
I've just put this one in to a bisque and I've got some new shapes in there too.
ps can anyone tell me how to get photos in the right place within the text on blogger, it takes me ages to get them to move to where I want them?
grow to love the 'failures' too!
ng for.
8 comments:
ha haaa!! i'll have to snap some failures then ali, plenty of those its all in the learny curve you see...some of those colours burn out if the glaze doesnt like em, i know we have a chart for the ceramic solutions colours and it tells you what temp the cols will go to..i think the new chinese ones are fairly good if you want to head that way..
love the big green swoosh ..will i see that one sunday?
They are the chinese colours!I know have to do much more testing and I'm going to make up some new glazes, I might have to bring that plate on Sunday, I just went through my stock and its pretty low!
wow, truly amazing patience to do your drawings I am sure, just beautiful. Love the birds below too. One looks like a kingfisher.
Ah ceramics! It's times like these I ask "Why didn't we become painters?" I use the Chinese colours and they work well for me. If you want a more intense colour try the one stroke. I really like your green swoosh plate too!
Hi Lynda, thanks for your kind comment, the bird is a kookaburra, from the kingfisher family but much noisier!
Hi Erin, thanks, I went to see your show at Light Square yesterday, I love the painted bowls, and you've done a wonderful self portrait in one of them!I've been using the one strokes but maybe they need to be fired a bit lower, are those the underglazes or onestrokes on your bowls?
Thanks Ali! Yes, the black is the one stroke. I first use slips (because the Chinese colours don't like slips over the top), then I use the Chinese underglaze colours, then the black one stroke. I use to use Cesco's black, but found the one stroke quicker and easier to apply. I fire to 1140c.
oh yeah, the self portrait I did so quickly with just a few strokes. I didn't expect it to look like me - but everyone recognised me!!! Very funny.
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