Post #673665 by swizzle on Mon, Apr 8, 2013 4:44 AM

It's been a while since i last posted and in that time i've been playing around with new glazes and finishes which you'll see below. I've also started on a new piece.

First up is a Frankoma War God which was another gift from the lovely Wendy when i stayed with her and Dan. It took me forever to decide how to glaze it before i ended up choosing this crystal glaze.

This is a group shot of the first batch of my Bob'O'Nut mugs that went out. I had an issue with the second batch where i had opened up the peep holes when the kiln was cooling down as well as cracking the lid and the mugs that were near the peep holes developed cracks in the glaze. It was both on the inside and outside on the opposite sides so i get the feeling the mug is actually cracked internally also, and although it is something that you can only really see close up, and i'm not sure if they actually leak or not, i've decided to make those mugs again.

Here's a couple of General Ra Ra's. I tried a couple of different things on one and when a friend saw it she HAD to have one also. Black one is mine, purple one is hers, both with added horns and nose piercing.

Next is my logo and the Careless Navigator logo which i pour each time i pour something as it's easy to do and clean up and also gives me something to test new glazes and/or techniques on. I also picked up a really cheap cat mold off eBay (i'm the male version of the crazy cat lady) which i've also been pouring just to play around with. (The purple logo is from an earlier post, i just went over it again with a crystal glaze.)

Here's the cats with two new finishes i finally worked out. It's awesome having my own kiln as i can now experiment a lot easier.

As you can see on the cat on the left (Zombie Kitty, who i think looks great) and on a few of the logos above, i've worked out a technique which gives me a pitted effect. When i finally worked out how to do that (i've been trying to work that out since i started making mugs two years ago now) i had to try it out on a couple of Ra Ra's. I'm extremely happy with the result but also extremely disappointed that i dropped the one on the left and broke it. The other one will be going off for a trade so i've made myself another two. They just need to be glazed and fired, although i'll be using a darker blue on the inside on those.

And last up is a new piece i've made, "Lance Corporal Stoney". I made the molds a couple of weeks ago and made the first piece on the weekend. Unfortunately i can't take credit for designing the Tiki but everything else is all mine. :D I picked up a plastic mold off eBay several years ago which i had previously only poured plaster casts of and then painted. I decided to use that to make a plater mold and then make a plaster mold of that to use for slip casting. I also made a bowl mold using a metal bowl i bought for cheap from a discount store (no pictures).

Here's the plastic mold and the plaster casting.

I still have no idea what the things on the bottom are (legs?) but for what i wanted to do the Tiki needed to stand upright so i had to cover them no matter what, so i added clay to make the Tiki look like it is sitting in a pile of rocks.

Here's a pic of the mold and the first casting to come from it and also where i'm at so far.

I plan on making several variations of this bowl and this first one is actually different to what i originally had in mind, although i'll definitely be making what i first envisioned also. There is a little more clean-up to do when it dries a bit more and i should be able to glaze it next week. I've already decided on the colours i'm going to do it, i just hope it comes out looking as good as i'd like. I'll post some pics of it when it's done.

Cheers
swizzle