This Weeks Ceramics

Well since having both moulds made this weeks session was spent casting. I am loving the fact that I can now just keep churning out more and more ceramics from my moulds, it feels such a relief after the struggle of making the moulds in the first place.
I seem to have overcome my initial problem with my second mould. The one I cast from it last week was a bit of a flop... literally; the sides got warped by me trying to get the damn thing off the hump of the mould. To rectify this I have decided to use talc as a release agent, therefore before I cast from my second mould I lightly brush on some talc to the inner part. However I found this wasn't quite enough. 
The best way I have now found to get it off, along with the talc, is to use a slight bit of compressed air, very gently, once I have removed the other mould sections. This process needs two people, one to ease the piece upwards while one uses the air to help it release. Although not an ideal way to remove it (as me holding it could distort the shape), this methods seems to be working, although I need to be very careful in the release not to totally squash the piece.


Anyway enough of that, on Thursday I had quite a productive little day, I managed to get a successful piece out of mould 2 (after figuring the above out) and get quite a few bits and bobs done, including a tutorial with Jane about glazing. As you can see below, this is the shape of the second piece of my interlocking form brief. 

This has a hollow inside that the fist shape perfectly fits into. I'm really happy with how this has turned out and the fluid like quality of the casts and shapes I have created. I am starting to get some ideas of glazing possibilities (and will put up some sketchbook pages soon). 

On Thursday I also managed to make some test tiles for testing various glazes on. To ensure the test tiles show me how the glaze will look on these slip cast pieces, I used casting slip and poured little amounts onto a flat plaster bat. This means both the material (semi-porcelain casting slip) and the surface quality (smooth) are the same as my casts.

I love this swirled effect on the surface due to drizzling the slip on, however this unfortunately is lost in firing as the whole thing turns white. This has though given me a couple of ideas. One is to use two different coloured slips and drizzle the independently to give a marbled effect. The other is to do this with glazes, however this could be quite hard to accomplish due to the rapid drying time of glazes. I think I am going to do some tests with dyed slips to see if I can get some nice effects onto a plaster bat. 

I managed to get into the casting studio today too (Friday) and get two more of my base unit done. I also managed to get another three of the inner piece made. I decided to shorten the casting times today. This meant that the base unit it would cast thinner and the two walls wouldn't meet at various points, pulling them together and distorting the sides.

Because of making the clay walls thinner, this meant that the hollow was now bigger than the wall thickness. This meant I needed to put a little pin hole in the bottom of each piece to ensure it doesn't explode in the kiln. I also decreased the casting time on the inner pieces, making them look thinner and more refined. This did mean that I had to be extra careful taking them out to make sure they didn't distort. 

Overall another productive day. meaning I now have about 12 inner pieces and 4 base pieces.

Next week I am going to have a go at making some porcelain slip and casting some thin porcelain versions. I think this will look good as the light will be able to penetrate the thin walls of the ceramic, adding a different element to the work.

Even more Slip Casting

Happy New Year everyone =]
I'm sorry that I've not posted for about a month but here we go, quite a big post today to make up for it...
I just managed to finish my second mould at the end of last term. After a session on glazes and how to make/apply them on our first ceramics session of this year, I went into the slip casting workshop and started to produce some casts from both of my moulds. 

This is my second mould. As you can see this is a three part mould that has a spare. The spare is the bottom of the object however the entire thing is cast upside down. This was the hardest mould to make and I feel the fact that it has a part that will be inside what I'm casting means it could be a little tricky to get the mould off. 

This picture is of my first mould filled with slip. The slip we use is a semi-porcelain earthenware slip which has an agent called 'deflocculant' in it. This helps to keep the clay particles in the slip mixture suspended so they don't separate and settle (basically keeping the mixture runny). 

This is a drop out mould and therefore has no spare/plug. All I need to do is simply fill up the mould with slip, leave it for 25 minutes and pour the excess away. The idea is that the plaster (being very porous) draws the water out of the slip, drying the clay in contact with the plaster mould wall. 

This is how it looks when the top part of the drop out mould is removed and the excess clay cut off. To give a good edge at the top you cut the excess off carefully in one direction then sponge back carefully in the other direction. To then get this still slightly plastic piece of clay out of the mould I turn the mould upside down on a wooden board and let gravity pull it out. This means that I do not touch the clay itself, therefore not distorting the shape...

These above are two fired pieces from the first model. To get to this stage I let the clay out of the moulds dry until it is bone dry and then use a process called fettling (basically scraping and sponging) to remove any imperfections. It's easier to smooth the piece off at the bone dry stage as you can hold it without distorting the shape and leaving big finger marks all over it. 

I love this process because once the mould is made you can reproduce the finished piece as many times as you want. Now all I need to do is start thinking about how I want to glaze these pieces. I'm thinking of contrasts so that the two interlocking parts play off each other. 

Slip Casting - Take 3

Well... I've been in all day today in ceramics doing more slip casting. Kind of forgot to take photos as I was stressing about the moulds. However I've made one for the inner part of my two piece interlocking design. 
So, first I soaped up the model, then put it on an oval profile bat and built up clay to the top, making sure it was flush with the model. Next I poured plaster in to make the outside fitting spare. After having made this I carved it down to make it more manageable. This would be a lot easier to explain with pictures!
Part two consisted of turning the outside fitting spare up side down and placing the model on top. I then built up clay to the bottom of the outside fitting spare and poured in plaster to cover the model, thus making the mould for the model. 
Because of how the top of the model is shaped, I needed to make a reservoir ring to keep in the slip in the slip casting process. to do this I glued the outside fitting spare onto the top of the model in the mould and poured plaster over this again. After much ado with the air gun, cottling the mould up and then realising I hadn't soft soaped it or put natches in and having to take the cottle off, and finally getting the damn thing apart I ended up with a drop out mould for the inner part of my design... WINNER!
And here's a diagram to show you what the hell I'm on about:

Geoffrey Mann : Cross-fire series

 I'm loving this post I just found and wanted to share it. Its a series of tableware that uses sound mapping - how awesome! Thanks to the blog 'musing about mud' =]

"Mann's 'cross-fire' series utilizes the possibilities digital technology offers to examine the intangible characteristic of the spoken word. The work investigates the unseen effect of the sound of speech, focusing on an audio excerpt of a domestic argument, sampled from the film 'American Beauty' (1999)."

"The inensity of the argument's sound waves are digitally mapped and materialized using rapid prototyping and then the forms are cast in a range of materials. Each object encapsulates a momentary emotion of the argument. The once-static tabletop forms are deformed into objects of unseen familiarity. "
'Cross-fire series' were exhibited as part of lab craft at during london design festival 2010.

via Designboom

More Slip Casting - Model 2

Right so I've had another long long day in ceramics. I've been working on the second model in my slip casting project. This is the outer "shell" of the two part interlocking form idea. I started off by using the model I made last week, putting it on a profile bat, and casting another block of plater over the entire thing.

Next I took the two apart and started carving so that the outside vaguely matched the inside...

After I had the vague shape I then marked on the two models where the cut offs would be and used the band saw to cut them at angles. This worked really well!

So yeah... that what I was going for. I then sat carving the bottom model for a while longer so it had thinner walls and better curves. I also smoothed off the walls and the tops of each model where the band saw marks were.

These are the two models made from plaster that sit flush inside each other. Now I have made these I can spend next week making a drop out mould for the inside model. Yet another really productive day =]

Frozen Sound Art Exhibition

I've stumbled across an art exhibition that was on in 2008. Its all about art pieces capturing sound. I love the works in this exhibition and want to use this idea of capturing the sound waves (as I've mentioned before) in my art.

I think these sculptures are amazing and capture sound in the moment. Take a look at the page I found them on =]

Visual Sound Waves

Have found a video showing someone visually showing sound waves by throwing baking powder onto a metal sheet that is vibrating at various frequencies, literally showing the patterns that sound makes.




By the way... if you're going to watch this and you have your sound turned up... turn it down! It'll hurt your ears!

Tim Wakefield

So I've been trying to find artists who use sound waves in their work. Stumbled over this guy online. The images are created from digital images formed in the recording process. Each artwork is hand signed by the musicians. The collection features some of the most famous songs and artists of all times.

I really like these, capturing sound in art, (although quite literal in these) is what I am aiming for. 

Slip Casting

So far I've only put my print making stuff on here. Now it's time for a bit of my ceramics.


The first project this year is to do with slip casting and mould making. Our brief for this produce 2 interlocking forms, one larger than the other, based on one of four themes. I chose plant life. Using leaf and bud forms and abstracting them I came up with this idea...

So yeah, I love this idea, however figuring out the logistics of the moulds has been a little complicated (which way to cast what and how many mould parts etc...).

I started off with the inner form without the sloping top. To do this I set a big chunk of plaster on a profile bat, made templates for the top and bottom, marking it on in indelible pencil, and sat there all of today carving away at it... took a while but I've got a nice smooth model now!

All soft soaped up ready to cast over next week! What a productive day =]

More Sound Wave Ideas =]

Well I've been scribbling away at more ideas for insects made up of sound waves. Thought I'd show you all what I've been thinking...

Dragonfly 2

This one I quite like, have already made an etching plate of it, can't wait to get it inked up and printed =]

Dragonfly Turning

I'm liking this idea of over laying the dragonfly, I'm not quite sure as of yet what I'm aiming for in this, however I like how it could represent movement. Maybe even a trail of sound. I'm also liking how it creates complex pockets of pattern and leaves some areas feeling emptier. 

Wasp

There we go, I've moved on slightly from my fixation with Dragonflies (although I'm sure I'll carry on with them also as they're pretty amazing). This ones a wasp. I like how in this one I've used heavy layering of sound waves to create darker patches and used a finer pen in the sketch to give finer details.

Give me a comment and tell me what you think... anyone!?

Soundwaves

Right guys, this is my first ever blog post so here goes....


I'm a student at Bath Spa University studying Creative Arts (specifically Art and Ceramics).


Basically this year I'm looking into sound. Humans have made sound such an artificial thing with music, radio, recording etc... We've represented sound with sound waves, quite an unnatural and graphed way of looking at sound. I want to use this to represent nature, kind of a juxtaposition. 


Here's some of my ideas so far...

Dragonfly

Overlaid Dragonflies




Hope you like it :]