Practical work so far- Assesment. New work out of the kiln and a lovely morning drawing hens.

These two dishes were waiting ready for me when I arrived at Uclan this week. I was very pleased with the new shiny stoneware glaze I have made.....I had left it fairly thick, as this is what I find works best with my lead bisil glazes at home. I had wondered if it would turn out milky as it was so thick - but it was perfect!

The dish above was Artemis white stoneware with a negative paper cut stencil, which applied slightly damp and then the hole left of the dog shape was coated in black slip. I like the way the edges are a bit fuzzy, reminds me of a hairy dog (possibilities?). I also used sgraffito and brush strokes of orange and blue slip.

What I was really pleased about was the glaze.

Another dog dish, this time of Jasper. I had left the white slip ( poured fairly thickly ) to dry what I thought might have been too long. Instead the effect that came out when glazed was more than I hoped for. I had actually nearly carved the sgraffito, using a metal kidney as well as a finer pointed tool. The green haze was copper oxide sponged on, fits well with the glaze and clay. I will definately do this again!

Another dish made using the black smooth professional stoneware was the one below.

While this looked very promising to start with, I feel the glaze let it down. The image (of Luka) was made using the positive from the paper cut out. I had feedback saying that the images might be better kept a simple shape/form. I am bearing this in mind!

With this dish, the Uclan stoneware clear glaze was used ( thinly on advice!) . I am tempted to reglaze the interior (with the colours and dog image) using my new stoneware shiny glaze, and see what happens!

I had a test of honey glazes: The Uclan honey earthenware glaze was used on both stoneware and earthenware dishes. The results were not very good - Rob said the glaze was at fault and should be labelled differently.

This was an earthenware glaze on a stoneware pot, so I guess I could expect not top results .

The words are #'Seat at the Table' which is a reference to the fact that no animal rights groups were given a seat at the Cop23 conference. The orangutans were drawn with a brush using three different iron oxides. The glaze caused them to come out much the same colour.

As you can see from the above, the honey glaze didn't do what I had hoped for.....

Whereas below, the glaze was great! - this was my homemade led sesq glaze, using soaked shards of earthenware clay that I would have discarded from turning on the wheel.

This was a quick finger drawing in wet white slip with a few strokes of orange slip added. I also used a fork!

The glaze is rich and was applied thickly..I find my lead glazes are better applied thick and fired at the top of the kiln. Latex resist was used over clear lead bisil glaze for Punch's star and snip.

This bowl was made using a technique I call the cobalt wash technique. The drawing is loosely painted in underglaze colours, then a wax resist layer is applied, this is scratched through to define and produce detail. Lastly a wash of cobalt oxide is brushed over. Where there is no wax and where the outlines have been scratched, the cobalt oxide is taken up.

This is the result, the bowl was decorated while I was teaching a workshop #working smarter!

You can see how the cobalt has bled into the lead bisil glaze. This is the desired effect.

This next piece was made early in my Uclan career...It is supposed to be a gothic castle with detail of gold lustre. This was my first experience of using gold lustre, and although on my unglazed pieces it didn't work very well, it worked great on this glazed castle. The gold is a nod to Victoria Eden and her work inspired by her walk on the Santiago de Compostela and produced shortly after her return.

My table laid out with all my work done this year!

Other recent work to come out recently was the 'Box of Secrets'.

These were done to a brief :

Identify a precious artefact, memory, secret, idea or thought. Build a pair of related clay slab-built boxes or containers to hold your precious object or secret.

I have built boxes to keep my precious memories of Punch and Little Black. Designed after researching Canopic Boxes and Jars used by the Ancient Egyptians.

Punch's box was made in earthenware clay (he was bright chestnut). On it was an incised design of two Arabian horses from Briery Close Arabian Stud. This was given a wash of red iron oxide, but due to the clay containing iron, this wasn't very prominent.

Little Black's box(es) - she has a box within a box , had a design picked out in white engobe including a scene of her 'deciding' at the back door. Hers is black and I'm glad the clay turned out jet black, like her.

All boxes were decorated with gold lustre, in a third firing (700 degres C). This did not work as well as expected, so I am going to apply another coat, a bit thicker this time and refire. I was pleased with these boxes though.

Other work with my sketches on was glazed in Uclan stoneware clear. This came out satin, instead of the hoped for shiny. This is what prompted me to make my own stoneware glossy glaze, from a book by Linda Bloomfield ( the recipie is in my technical book).

These are the 'satin' glazed pots:

Here you can see the difference between the satin and the shiny.

Some Recent Sketches

A beautiful pair of Lemon Sable Poot Millie Fleur.

Belgium Bantams Watermail (Mr and Mrs). From a village of the same name in Belgium.

A very attentive and obliging Yellow Golden Pheasant, who was enjoying being a model.

A couple more of Luka, one in black watercolour pencil and one in wax crayon ( which was all I had to hand).