Ceramic Process
Brushstroke Series
I wasn’t planning on making such a large collection when I first started creating these dishes, and I didn’t have much practice with the pinch method before making these. I had originally set out to make a set of dishes for my cousin, who had just bought her first home. Her dishes ended up being the prototypes for this collection, but most of the dishes I had made for her ended up being too small. When you are making something for the first time the size of the piece always seems bigger than it actually is. I have the same illusion happen with my glass work as well. But with ceramics, you have to remember that the material shrinks when it is fired, so not only does the excitement of making your first piece distort the size of it, but it also really does get smaller. Stoneware clay can shrink up to 7%. I always make shrink tests for a new clay type before I begin working in it.
Brushstrokes
I honestly can’t remember where these brush strokes came from, they just sort of happened. I find the process of painting this dish set very meditative and thoroughly enjoy it. Sometimes I visualize all the brush strokes together, before I start painting, to understand how they will fit with each other. This is usually on a plate where the surface is flat and you will see all of the brushstrokes at once. But sometimes, I just go for it, and think about each stroke individually as I go. I love every part of making this dishware set from the beginning to the end.
Mugs
The shape of these mugs felt the most natural to make of all the pieces in the dishware set. When working with the clay I didn’t have to force the shape, it kind of just happened, which made it the best shape to practice with. As I said before, the original set I made ended up a lot smaller than I intended. These guys came out of the oven like little mug shot glasses. I had to use almost triple the amount of clay when I went back to remake them. Although annoying at the time, I love looking back at my mistakes and learning from them. I was much more aware of the size of all of my pieces after this.
I have had a lot of troubles with handles on mugs in the past. On the shot glass version of these mugs, I made the handles too thin and a couple of them broke. But I learned from this, the handles on the final mugs that I make have never broken, I made them much thicker than the originals. The design of the handles is very simple, but very intentional. They do not connect to the bottom of the mug because it drives me crazy when I cannot stack my mugs.
Bowls
Bowls are my favorite shape to make. Whether it’s blown glass, on the pottery wheel or even the few I’ve made in wood on the lathe, I loved it. There is just something about this shape that I really enjoy. But it is not an easy shape to make in any material. When you make a glass bowl it is very difficult to make the walls perfectly round, and because of the wide opening, a lot of heat hits the back of your bowl, making it hard to control. When you make a bowl on the wheel you have to be careful with the width and moisture in the clay or your bowl could collapse. Making a bowl with the pinching method comes with challenges as well. I had a lot of trouble making the bottoms too thin, and controlling the shape, so it doesn’t become too wide. Once your shape is too wide, it's hard to get it back to a smaller width. I think making the bowl shape taught me the most about control when it came to this method of working in clay.
Serving Spoons and Forks
Making spoons and forks is really different from making vessels. Both the spoon and fork are made in exactly the same way, but the fork has an extra step, cutting the prongs. The most challenging part about making these pieces is the firing and the clean up after. First, the spoons need to be completely glazed and propped up off of the kiln shelf with something that will make as little contact with the spoon as possible. This poses a second issue, the spoon handles are quite long. If they are not propped up correctly, they will slump and make an awkward curved handle. But, the real challenge occurs when I open the kiln. Even though the pieces propping up the spoons are barely touching them, they can still stick to the glaze. So I need to use a hand held dremel tool to grind away anything that might have stuck to the bottom of the spoons.
Wood Fired Ceramics
Making a wood firing is one of my favorite experiences in ceramics. Maybe, it’s because I am surrounded by amazing people, or maybe, because the process allows you to get the sense of a more primal way of glazing and firing your ceramic pieces. Either way it is an experience that every potter should have at some point or another. This particular wood firing is a salt firing, this technique has been used since the 14th century. The firing takes place over several days; one day to set up the kiln, one long day (sometimes through the night) to fire, two days for the kiln to cool and a day to unload the kiln. But how does this firing benefit your pieces? This type of wood firing is for high fire ceramics, with its highest temperature reaching around 1200ºC (2200ºF). Once the kiln reaches top temperature, you add salt. The air current inside the kiln blows the salt over all of your pieces and the temperature is so high, that the salt melts over the ceramic, creating a very unique glaze. The way it falls and melts to your pieces is never the same and you have no idea what your pieces will look like, until you open the kiln.
This firing was made in a small town in Portugal called Montemor-o-Novo. This place is actually a brick factory, making hand made bricks from the clay rich soils in the area. They are a big supporter of the arts and even host workshops and art residencies for artists around the world. This was the second time I have participated in a wood firing here. The first time our group took on 3 separate firings at once, which was very overwhelming. But this last time we just did the single firing which made it easier to fully understand the process.
Loading the Kiln
The first thing that you need to do to prepare for a salt firing, is glaze your pieces. This step is optional.Your pieces will already be glazed from the salt, however, there are other glazes that you can paint on your pieces before the firing that can change the color and texture of your work. These are not normal glazes; they need to be made specifically for the salt firing and the temperature you are trying to reach. Once your glaze is applied, or you decide not to pre-glaze your pieces, you need to make ‘wadding’. Wadding is a ball of refractory material put under each of the ceramic pieces to stop them from sticking to the kiln floor. As I mentioned before, when you put the salt into the oven to glaze your pieces, the current in the kiln throws the salt. The salt doesn’t just land on your pieces it completely coats the kiln walls and floors with the glaze. The wadding keeps your pieces from being glazed to the floor of the kiln.
Building the Kiln Door
Once the kiln is full you need to build a wall to close it. The wall is made up of two layers of bricks. The first layer is a refractory brick, this brick is safe from cracking at high temperatures. Normal bricks will most likely crack when exposed directly to the high temperatures of the kiln. The second layer is a normal red brick. Having a two layer wall is important for keeping the heat in the kiln. Creating these walls is like a puzzle, each one has to fit as perfect as possible to make sure the kiln is sealed shut. If there are any small holes between the bricks you can fill them in with wadding. When all the bricks are in place and the wall is built you spread a clay rich mud over the outside as an extra measure to keep in the heat.
The Firing
Now it is finally time to start firing! Once the fire is started from underneath the kiln, you start throwing in wood fairly often to raise the heat of the kiln. You don’t want to raise the heat too fast though, so you start slower, and then as the kiln rises in temperature, you throw wood in more and more often. Wood firings vary in time, I think our firing lasted between 12 and 15 hours, but some could last multiple days. Once the kiln is nearly to top temp, throw in the salt and then continue to fuel the kiln until it reaches the temperature you desire. Before you leave the kiln to cool you want to make sure that all of the openings are sealed to keep the kiln from cooling too quickly.
Unloading the Kiln
It can take several days for the kiln to cool but once it does you need to start taking down the door you built prior to the firing. Depending on how much time has passed you may need to use gloves as the bricks could still be hot. It takes some time to scrape all of the, now dried, mud off of the wall. Once this is done you proceed to take off one layer of bricks at a time. Most likely the inside of your kiln is still hot so you want to take down the wall slowly so the kiln cools gradually. This is the best part! As you take down the last layer of your wall your pieces are finally revealed and you get to see the results of multiple days of hard, tiring work. Once the wall is completely gone, you can start unloading the pieces. As you unload you can carefully remove the wadding from your pieces, if it doesn’t come off you may need to use a rotary tool. You then remove the wadding from the shelves and bricks as well. Don’t be surprised if some pieces have stuck to the kiln or each other, sadly this is just something that happens. It is quite common for pieces to explode in the kiln and end up on other pieces or for something to fall during the firing and fuse with the floor or other work. But, the pieces that do survive have a color and texture that you can not get from firing any other way.
Walking Planters: Small
These planters were very fun to make. I started with these small ones. I originally wanted to make and pour candles into them. I did make one candle, but I decided candle making really wasn’t for me. As planters you can use them multiple times, whereas with candles you can only burn them for 12 hours before you can’t use them anymore. Making the legs of these is definitely the hardest part, and I need to create my own small tools and sponges to get to the areas in between the legs. On the large planters I have made little water catching pouches, which were extremely difficult to make. I had a lot of trouble with cracking and getting the legs to stand still while I was working. The legs cannot fully dry before adding these pouches, because wet clay does not stick to dry clay or even leather hard clay. I was able to make a couple that didn’t break before going mad and will definitely make more in the future, once I have more room to store ceramic pieces.
Interlocking Tea Set
This was the first time I had filmed and edited my process on my own. It took a while to understand the shots I needed to take, and came with many other challenges I didn’t expect. But in the end I really enjoyed the process. I don’t film all of the art I make, but it has become pretty routine for me to film most of what I am creating. As much as I like setting up shots and filming, it is really hard to make work in front of a camera; you have to work at weird angles and be completely aware of what the camera can see, so that your hands do not get in the way of the shot, you stay in frame and, even harder, stay in focus.
This tea set was part of a small collection that I am still hoping to add to in the future. It started with a project I had been working on previously. When living in Portugal, I stayed in very small spaces. I was working on a series of functional pieces on the throwing wheel that fit into each other to conserve space. However, when the second lockdown arrived in 2021 I was left without a wheel. I love when equipment limitations force your ideas to grow! I was still trying to make pieces that fit into each other, but without a wheel, the pieces no longer had to be round. This allowed me to experiment with different shapes and ceramic methods. I went through pages and pages of sketch books creating these interlocking shapes. Trying to understand which ones made the most sense, and how I could make large enough sets to be of use in the most compact way possible.
To start these interlocking tea sets, I cut out stencils of every piece for the entire project. I can assemble these stencil pieces temporarily to see how everything will fit together. Then I place each stencil on a slab of clay and cut them out. All of these clay cut outs are left to dry slightly, so they are stiff enough to keep their shape, but soft enough to assemble. I definitely did not get the assembly right the first time on all of these pieces, but I had the stencils so it was really easy to create the exact same piece again.
Sadly these interlocking tea sets did not make it to the end of their firing. I have never owned my own kiln, so I always need to travel with these very fragile unfired pieces, which tend to break and crack during travel. I was able to fix most everything enough to get them to a glaze firing, but during the final firing the pieces warped, and unfortunately, do not fit together anymore.