Potters & Sculptors - Making Rock from Mud
The motif is the mandala. As an ancient, pre-historic symbol, it represents the point of creation. At it’s most basic, the mandala is a circle around a point. A zero. The point of no-thing from which everything begins whether it be the "Big Bang", geometry, platonic solids, the atom, thought, being or the point of this exercise.
The format is the unending line that originates from a point and comes back to its origin thus creating a circle. The circle here is a bowl of uniform size and shape. It is the parameter within which I've limited myself to explore the unlimited. Anything based on the circle is grist for the mill.
The urns are designed to emulate another ancient artifact…the plummet. They began as commissioned funerary urns, which evolved into a second template but in 3 dimensions instead of the mandala’s two. The axis is the point. While still functional, they’ve become much more.
The Grails are designed to be ceremonial as well as a continuation of the theme used in both the mandalas and urns. Most have been purchased to memorialize weddings. They are functional.
The two basic shapes of the urns and bowls are self-imposed boundaries within which I’m free to imagine the Mystery. As new information comes in, the content changes.
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All work in this album was fired in cone 6 electric oxidation. Each is first glazed with a gun metal black glaze then fired to cone 6. Then overglazes are applied over the gun metal glaze and multi-fired to cone 05 electric oxidation. The gun metal is sprayed on and the overglazes are applied with an Airpen.
Low cost flat lapping disc can be used on you potters wheel if you, drill bat pin holes in it, and provide a trickle of water to cool it. At amazon.com, 120 grit for aggressive material removal. Click the image to purchase
Members have had great things to say about John Britt's new book, Mid-Range Glazes. Click the image to buy from Amazon.com
Purchase Glazes Cone 6 by Michael Bailey, The Potters Book of Glaze Recipes by Emmanuel Cooper, or Making Marks by Robin Hopper, all available at amazon.com. Mastering Cone 6 Glazes by John Hesselberth & Ron Roy is now out of print.
Harbor Freight is a great place to find unbeatable prices for better HVLP spray guns with stainless steel parts and serviceable economy models, as well as detail guns, all tested by our members for spraying glazes, as well as compressors to power the guns. As yet no one has tested and commented on the remarkably inexpensive air brushes at harbor freight.
The critter siphon gun is a spray alternative that is well liked by some of our members, and is available at amazon.
Amazon is also a competitive source for photo light tents for shooting professional quality pictures of your work. They also have the EZ Cube brand favored by several of our members. You might also want to purchase the book Photographing Arts, Crafts and Collectibles . . .
If you are up to creating videos of your work or techniques you might want to invest in a flip video camera
Following are a few scales useful for potters. Ohaus Triple Pro Mechanical Triple Beam Balance, 2610g x 0.1g, with Tare $169.00
And finally a low cost clone of the OHaus. The Adam Equipment TBB2610T Triple Beam Mechanical Balance With Tare Beam $99.62
ebay is a great alternative for many tools and the equipment used in the ceramics studio - kilns, wheels, extruders, slab rollers are often listed there both new and used.
If you just want to spout off, it is best accomplished as a blog posting. If you want to get more guidance and ideas from other members, ask a question as a new discussion topic. In the upper right corner of the lists for both types of posting, you will find an "+Add " button. Clicking it will open an editor where you create your posting. 4/16/2014
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