college journal - May 2021
please hover over images to see description & discussion of the contents.
week commencing 3rd May
Progress journal entry for Thurs 6th May.
I dispensed with these bisqued pieces (made in Feb-March) after deciding that they weren’t worth keeping as glaze tests - partly due to being made of cheap buff clay, but also because the forms weren’t pleasing enough to be useful reference pieces.
Mindmap for brief (~10min) presentation to the year-group on my progress so far this semester. This recap seminar was really a really helpful reorienting exercise & hearing about other students’ ideas & progress was both interesting and motivating. Also really liked the tutors’ suggestion that I try mixing some shino glazes as they are both relatively straightforward, and would fit well with the aesthetic qualities I am pursuing.
week commencing 10th May
Progress journal entry for Thurs 13th May.
Practising throwing Ido-type teabowls in Scarva KGM Body + MJ Originale with added granular feldspar.
Applying readymixed glazes - Scarva Matt Charcoal stoneware glaze over coarse Vulcan body.
Testing readymixed glazes - Botz Ice Crystal brushed over MJ Originale body (left), & coarse Vulcan body w/granular feldspar (right). I’m unsure whether this was applied thickly enough here to be effective, but will see.
Work put in for bisque stoneware firing (Thurs 13th May). The large jar was made outside of course time (to practice coiling more large forms + use up grey clay).
week commencing 17th May
Progress journal entries for Tues 18th and Thurs 20th - one notable thing this week was a discussion with Rob where I asked about how much ware was still needed for the gas kiln. He estimated at least another dozen pieces, and suggested I throw some miniature bowls to go in as glaze testers.
small thrown bowls (turning tool for scale) to use for glaze testing. Majority are Scarva’s KGM body; bottom right it MJ Originale with integrated granular feldspar.
100g samples of three basic shino glazes to test, made Thurs 20th May ‘21.
Notes on building technique for when coiling Shiragaki-inspired teabowls - taken after a conversation with Rob where I discussed how I was thinking of using this building technique rather than the pinching, paddling & scraping method I’d used so far, both to get forms which are thinner and more delicate, and also to introduce a greater quality of irregularity arising from a tactile making process over time.
week commencing 24th May
Thursday 27th May
Numerous ido-type practices from two weeks ago - I’m considering discarding these because they are signficantly too large & heavy to be pleasant forms.
Following on from previous image (right) - trying out starting out with 500g and using pinching instead of coiling, to see which method I prefer. Whilst pinching & then paddling/scraping into shape yielded a similar end result much faster than coiling, I actually didn’t enjoy it as much. I have started to really like the slower and more precise quality of coiling as a making method for these forms.
Bisqued pieces where I incorporated granular feldspar in different ways (left, pressed into the surface of the built vessel; right, wedged into MJ Originale body before building it). At this point I much prefer the look of it wedged into the body. Again, these pieces are much too heavy - but worth testing glaze on to compare how the bodies behave in reduction.
As per Rob’s suggestion, handbuilding multiple chawan at once. The two on the left have been coiled and still require trimming/scraping to thin them out further. The one at top right is the next chawan in progress (also coiled), with its remaining apportioned clay beneath.
Friday 28th May
Mixing exemplars of different proportions of arctic white stoneware and terracotta - 90+10% 80+20%, and 70+30%.
Firing the gas kiln to approx. 1280, with quite a heavy reduction. Cath, our technician, & Rob were both really helpful in demonstrating how to assess the temperature within the kiln & monitor its increase, & how to induce reduction. As might be expected, it is clearly something that requires a lot of practice to get the hang of - another reason to get as much experience as possible during my remaining studies.
Small tester bowls made in a mix of arctic white & terracotta (roughly 80:20), thrown off the hump. These look like they might make more properly delicate bowls than my oversized earlier attempts. Covered them over the weekend so I can come back to work on the feet, as have noticed that this makes a big difference in giving the fired bowls a lightness that makes them pleasant to hold.
Journal entry 28th May.