Bruddah Bear - Mudpies, etc. - Tiki Gallery

BB Bruddah Bear Member Los Angeles Basin, Westside Joined: Apr 07, 2011 Posts: 629	BB Bruddah Bear Posted posted on Fri, May 27, 2011 11:54 PM On 2011-05-27 21:39, MadDogMike wrote: Several cool pieces there, is the drawbridge the spout for the teapot? Clever. The dragon mug is fun, I like that glaze on the dragon, looks metallic. Thanks a bunch Mike! Yes, the draw bridge is the spout for the teapot. That's the main thing the instructor was concerned about when I explained the concept to him, he was worried the weight and angle of the drawbridge would cause it to droop, tearing the piece apart. It was built out of a few narrow bars of clay sandwiched lengthwise between 2 thin slabs with one end sealed, a hole was cut into the underside (seen in the pics) and the assembly scratch and slip attached into the body of the pot itself. all wood grain texture applied with a needle tool. And it's functional, so the instructors were impressed that it worked. The plan was to attach some thin chain between the castle wall and drawbridge with some epoxy and wire hoops after the piece was finished, haven't gotten around to that yet. The pics really don't do many of the pieces proper justice. The dragon isn't exactly what I'd call a mug, it stands 12.5 inches at it's highest point and easily holds over 3 quarts, but it's got some cracks through the wall of the upper portion so it weeps a bit (a product of the collapse and rebuild then drying unevenly I'm guessing, hoped they would seal in the glaze fire), no good for drinking out of. The glaze isn't metallic though it may appear to be in the pics. It's a thick glaze called Oribe (Ori-bey) over another glaze called Winokur Yellow on some details with a green stain under the glaze. Oribe is one of those glazes that can be unpredictable at times depending on how it's applied. It turned out a dark blue-green with some thinner spots going yellow to reddish brown. The vessel itself was done in a glaze called Celladon over a wash of green stain. The thickness of the Oribe kind of obliterated much of the detail, so if I had to do it all over again I would just have done the green stain wash and Celladon glaze overall and not had the dragon so contrasting to the vessel. Oh well, next time. I still have several pounds of unused clay sitting around, Laguna WC-431 LBW-70 (Long Beach White), the other clay available for us was Laguna WC-379 B-Mix. Both are high fire clays. I suppose I could actually build something, but I couldn't fire it until next Fall (and only if I can get into a class, if it's even available). And I'm sure I don't need to tell you about the fragility of green ware, and the problems presented with trying to keep it in one piece over the course of several months. You'd probably love the school studio, it's big and roomy, has moist storage room, drying room, glazing room, and it has 3 gas fueled updraft kilns that are usually fired in reduction to cone 10. There are also 2 large electric kilns that are sometimes employed to get through all the firing, especially at end of term when the pieces pile up. It's a nice facility, but it's only open 2 days a week due to budget cut induced class cancellations. But it's a similar story all over campus, across all departments, not just art. Keeping my fingers crossed for the Fall. Bear

On 2011-05-27 21:39, MadDogMike wrote:
Several cool pieces there, is the drawbridge the spout for the teapot? Clever. The dragon mug is fun, I like that glaze on the dragon, looks metallic.

Thanks a bunch Mike!

Yes, the draw bridge is the spout for the teapot. That's the main thing the instructor was concerned about when I explained the concept to him, he was worried the weight and angle of the drawbridge would cause it to droop, tearing the piece apart. It was built out of a few narrow bars of clay sandwiched lengthwise between 2 thin slabs with one end sealed, a hole was cut into the underside (seen in the pics) and the assembly scratch and slip attached into the body of the pot itself. all wood grain texture applied with a needle tool. And it's functional, so the instructors were impressed that it worked. The plan was to attach some thin chain between the castle wall and drawbridge with some epoxy and wire hoops after the piece was finished, haven't gotten around to that yet.

The pics really don't do many of the pieces proper justice. The dragon isn't exactly what I'd call a mug, it stands 12.5 inches at it's highest point and easily holds over 3 quarts, but it's got some cracks through the wall of the upper portion so it weeps a bit (a product of the collapse and rebuild then drying unevenly I'm guessing, hoped they would seal in the glaze fire), no good for drinking out of.

The glaze isn't metallic though it may appear to be in the pics. It's a thick glaze called Oribe (Ori-bey) over another glaze called Winokur Yellow on some details with a green stain under the glaze. Oribe is one of those glazes that can be unpredictable at times depending on how it's applied. It turned out a dark blue-green with some thinner spots going yellow to reddish brown. The vessel itself was done in a glaze called Celladon over a wash of green stain. The thickness of the Oribe kind of obliterated much of the detail, so if I had to do it all over again I would just have done the green stain wash and Celladon glaze overall and not had the dragon so contrasting to the vessel. Oh well, next time.

I still have several pounds of unused clay sitting around, Laguna WC-431 LBW-70 (Long Beach White), the other clay available for us was Laguna WC-379 B-Mix. Both are high fire clays. I suppose I could actually build something, but I couldn't fire it until next Fall (and only if I can get into a class, if it's even available). And I'm sure I don't need to tell you about the fragility of green ware, and the problems presented with trying to keep it in one piece over the course of several months.

You'd probably love the school studio, it's big and roomy, has moist storage room, drying room, glazing room, and it has 3 gas fueled updraft kilns that are usually fired in reduction to cone 10. There are also 2 large electric kilns that are sometimes employed to get through all the firing, especially at end of term when the pieces pile up. It's a nice facility, but it's only open 2 days a week due to budget cut induced class cancellations. But it's a similar story all over campus, across all departments, not just art. Keeping my fingers crossed for the Fall.

Bear

Post #591124 by Bruddah Bear on Fri, May 27, 2011 11:54 PM