Creating Coloured Porcelain

I have been experimenting with adding colour into porcelain slip. I've decided to colour the clay body, rather than adding a glaze or coloured slip on the surface, as I have been creating 3D textured pieces which I feel would lose their definition if I covered them. To get bright colours, quite a lot of underglaze needed to be added to the porcelain, because the porcelain is white, so all of the resulting colours would be tints.

I decided to test the colours at different temperatures as well as different concentrations of colour. Starting at 1g of underglaze to 100ml of porcelain slip, I also tested 2g, 3g and 5g. I poured out the slip onto plaster bats to dry, then cut each into 6 sections to fire at 1000, 1060, 1140, 1200, 1230, and 1260 degrees Celcius. I felt like this would give me a good overview of how the firing temperature and concentration alter the colour.

I used Picasso blue, black, turquoise, and lime green underglaze powders, and I plan to start mixing my own colours now I have a better idea of how they behave at different temperatures and concentrations. I remembered to label them before I fired them because I've made the mistake before of getting a beautiful result and forgetting how I got there!

I will make some texture tests with the coloured clay to see how the surface works with the colour, and I will also try putting underglaze powders into plastic clay rather than slip, to see if a uniform texture can be obtained by wedging it into the clay.

Ceramics: Textures and Slab Building

 I tore bits of clay, and folded and crumpled them to try to create a texture. I wanted there to be an element of chance in the making, to give it that imperfect feel, the idea that nature always has very slight difference and imperfections.

 I then used a small pine cone to make a texture in slabs of clay. I like the repeated pattern that this creates and the small repeating shapes.

For a 3D piece, I used slabs of clay and built them up in layers to create a form with leaves in a regular pattern. I think this works well to create larger pieces, and I could maybe put textures onto the slabs before building the form.

Textile and mixed media: repeated diamonds.

 I have been looking at Polly Binns and Ealish Wilson, who both use a technique similar to smocking, but on a very large scale. Wilson uses various methods of securing her fabric, including cable ties and different threads.

 I tried out the same method, using embroidery thread to secure my calico. I knotted each piece of thread and left the tails long for added decoration.

 I then thought about possibly adding pieces to the textile backing, in the holes, so that there are smaller pieces of pattern, inside the textile.

 I have decided I would like to try to make quite a large wall hanging, so I wanted quite a few diamonds, to put in various places in the textile piece. I made diamonds from both clay and metal, using punches, enamel, pewter casting and reticulation to make the brass crumple and make a texture. I also used stamps to decorate some of the clay ones. I then used seed beads to weave one.