DRAWING COMPETITION

Some few weeks there was a drawing competition announced and I decide to participate. I have submitted two drawings. The first one is called Aurora Borealis and was made with black ink, coloured inks and black paper (for the 'rough' looking shapes of wolves):

The second drawing is based on a photograph of a cracked stone that I took on my trip to Quilty beach, West Clare. The stone was approx. 3 feet long:

It really looks like a scull of some prehistoric animal. I like it so much that I did a drawing of it and called it "Mystery of Quilty Beach'. It was drawn in black and coloured inks:

Elective Project: CERAMICS 9. - WIRE

In this project we were supposed to use a wire as an complementary material to some of the ceramic pieces. These images show how I created a 'wired basket'...

...and used it with few of my pieces:

Elective Project: CERAMICS 8. - 'WOLFIE'

This is my favorite piece, 'Wolfie'. It was made with clay slabs as I showed in previous post. The final surface was made by naked raku process which also was showed in a previous post. These images show the 'Wolfie' just after firing with the smoked glaze still on and the final cleaned piece:

Elective Project: CERAMICS 7. - NAKED RAKU - II.

This piece was also fired as a naked raku. The all process of raku firing was described in the previous post. The images show the piece before and after the cleaning.

Elective Project: CERAMICS 6. - NAKED RAKU - I.

Naked raku is a firing process, when we take a piece of bisque fired pottery and put a slip over the part of surface which we would like to have covered. This slip makes a barrier between the pot and the glaze so that they will separate from the pot after firing. Then we will cover this surface with a glaze. It is important to glaze only the surface which was previously covered with the slip.


After this we put the piece in a kiln:

After firing we remove the pice from the kiln and put it in a tin container with burning sawdust. Then we cover the container for a couple of minutes to allow the smoke to 'colour' the uncovered surface of the piece:

After the smoke process we remove the hot piece and put it in a bucket of cold water to allow the glaze crack more for an easier cleaning:

This is the piece after firing...

...and here it is after proper cleaning:

Here are some images of the pieces I made as a set. The images show each piece before and after the cleaning:

On the next images we can see the finished set after cleaning:

The naked raku is a very interesting way how to make an unusual surface on the bisque. It has matt finish and reminds me more about natural stone than a ceramic surface as I used to be more familiar with.

Elective Project: CERAMICS 5. - PAINTING

In this project we experienced decorating the ceramic pieces with under glaze paint. First I made few drawings and decided on my colour scheme:

Then I applied the paint on my thrown bowl:

Then I choose this piece...

... and painted colours over its surface. Finally I took a sponge and remove the paint of the edges of its scratches to give an impression that the paint was used only in the middle of each scratch:

On the right image you can see the final piece, I think it looks very well.

Elective Project: CERAMICS 4. - SLAB BUILDING - WOLF

For this project I decided to make something slightly different. I like wolves, so I went for my 'Wolfie'. The next images show how I made him:

First I made a mock up of a foam. The foam allowed me to play with it and finalise the shape of the wolf. Then I simply dismantled the mock up and put the shape over a clay slab. First I made a cone, cut off few pieces and put together the loose edges to create wolfs mouth. Then I put on the ears and two little teeth. After all it took only few minutes to create 'Wolfie'.

Elective Project: CERAMICS 3. - SLAB BUILDING

In this project I combined two technics for creating a piece: pitch and slab making. First I created a sphere and cut few 'moon like shapes' from prepeared clay slab. Then I attached these pieces on the sphere:

And this is the final piece before glazing and raku firing:

Elective Project: CERAMICS 2. - PITCH POT MAKING

As a second step in our ceramic elective we learned how to make pieces throgh a process called "pitch pot making". The next image shows this process. First I made few sketches-drawings:

Then I created few half spheres from a clay. Then I put the halves together and created the actual spheres. As a second step I created 'horns' and put them on the top of each sphere. After a bit of work I created the spheres with horns to appear as drops. I tried to make the pieces to appear the way with no visible transition between the sphere and the horn. It is hard to describe this in words. I hope the images show this attempt more precisely:

I also created one piece when I used the same method and the only difference was in how I made the surface of this piece. I just scratched the surface with a tool which I call a small 'rake":

Here we can see all the pieces I created by pitch pot making together. The reason why some of the pieces are in a darker shade is because at the time they were not fully dried. The lighter pieces were created earlier and were fully dried at the time when the image was taken:

Elective Project: CERAMICS 1. - PAPER CUTS

After a busy block of 2 weeks spent working on my sculpture projects suddenly there was a new start in ceramics. I was really looking forward to this part of our elective block.
As a first task we got to make cutouts in black and white paper based on some our drawings, when trying to create marks. I have chosen 4 drawings to make my cutouts.


All of my cutouts are shown in a lock of 3 images. The first one shows the actual drawing, usually made with a syringe filled with white or black acrylic paint, or using a brush.


The first drawing was made on a black background and I call it a 'wave':

Then I choose a part of the image to make the paper cut:

And this is the actual paper cut made of black and white paper:

For the second paper cut I choose a drawing which I called 'bridge':

This a chosen part of the drawing:

This is the paper cut of the 'bridge' made of black paper stripes on the white paper:

The next drawing was made with a white paint on a black paper. I call it 'mountain':

This is the chosen part of the drawing:

And this is the final paper cut:

As the last drawing I choose the one which I called 'wave':

This is part of the drawing I choose as a reference to the final paper cut:

And this is the final piece made of white paper cuts on a black paper: