Narrative Project (Part 4)

White glazed dagger being removed from kiln

My first dagger, glazed, waiting to be fired

My two spare crosses had already been bisque fired so I decided that rather then leave them unfinished I would get them Raku fired. There was a choice of three glazes. They were white, dark blue and turquoise. I went with turquoise for the first dagger, which I had made by hand. There was copper in that glaze which gave bursts of red. I was very interested to see the result. I decided on white for the second cross.

White glazed cross after firing

I dipped both crosses into the glaze twice, holding them at a different spot to allow them to be completely covered. They were held in the glaze for about six seconds each time. I only half dipped the white dagger the second time as the finger prints were clearly only on one area. This became evident after firing.
The white dagger went into an earlier firing. I was very happy with it despite the visible line from the dipping. The effect with more glaze was more lines and bubble marks than on the part which was dipped only once.

Turquoise dagger after firing

The turquoise dagger managed to burst in the kiln and as part of it was being taken out it fell a broke as well. It ended up in four bits. A bubble in the piece was blamed. The air couldn't escape with the glaze and the pressure caused the split. All the bit went into the same reduction chamber but the copper oxidized to different extents and with the pieces placed back together the effects don't match.

Turquoise dagger

I haven't yet managed to get my hands on the right glue but I do intend to repair the cross. It needs to be a gel super glue as other super glues absorb into the ceramics and are relatively useless.

Firings

Bisque Firing

This firing changes clay to ceramic. It removes both physical water, in the form of steam, and chemical water. It begins by rising by 25°C an hour until it reaches 400°C. After 400°C the temperature rises by 150°C an hour.

Hardening-on Firing 

The piece has to be soaked before the under glaze paints can be used. The reason for the firing is to burn off the gum Arabic in the paints as well as to stabilize the colour.

Glaze Firing
 The glaze turns to liquid glass in the kiln and with stick to anything it touches during this process. For this reason the kiln must be packed very carefully. The kiln fires to 1160°C by rising 100°C an hour. At 1160°C it is soaked, the temperature is kept level, for about 10 minutes. This is to give the bubbles that have formed time to heal while the glaze is molten. The kiln should not be open until it is under 150°C to avoid work cracking.

Narritive Project (Part 3)

First painting of final piece

Prototype painted with under glaze

Final piece painted

Both the crosses that I kept, the prototype and final piece were bisque fired at different times. I was unsure of what to do with the to spare crosses so I left them to the side as I worked on the other pieces. Using under glaze colours I painted both the crucifix daggers. It took some time before I got a skin colour I was happy with on the complete piece. The first attempt was too yellow and had to be washed off before I could start again. On reflection I felt perhaps I left the skin too pink. It seemed much easier to get the right colour on the prototype.
I decided that the colouring on the prototype was problematic. I had made both the figure of Jesus' hair and the dagger hilt brown. The shades were far too similar and the hair was blending in. In the complete piece the crown of thorns would also be brown. Eventually I went with black for the hair and left the hilt and crown brown. At first I tried to just darken the brown but the contrast needed was great, especially as I was using small amounts of black for the hilt. This was in an attempt to give the effect of wood. I had the idea of the hilt being wood and the blade being metal.
On both the prototype and the complete piece I added red around the holes in the Jesus' hands, His feet
and the gash in His side. On the complete piece I also put red around the crown of thorns although I was unsure how well it would stand out against the black of the hair.
Another change was the colour of the loin cloth. One of the reasons I had it grey was to use up the paint. I also felt that realistically it was unlikely to be a clean white at this point. I thought about it and came to the conclusion that as the rest of the piece was unconcerned was reality there was little point starting now. Besides which the grey was to close to the colour of the blade.

Close up of final piece

Both pieces went through a hardening on firing. At this point I was unhappy with the colour of the red I had used for blood. It was the only red I could find but seemed to me very brown looking. After some thought I felt I would like if both works were glazed. Luckily there was room and time for this. I would have preferred if the prototype could have completed the process before I had to decide on the complete piece but there wasn't time.
I dipped each piece in the bucket of transparent glaze, submerging them completely for about three seconds . Where my fingers had been I used a brush to paint over.

Narritive Project (Part 2)

Head of figure of Jesus

Figure of Jesus before it was added to the cross

While I was trying to make a cross I was happy with I was also working on the figure of Jesus. I started on the torso and worked out from there. I found the hands and feet most difficult and it took a number of attempts before I was happy. Unfortunately when you were happy with one you then had to make the other look as similar as possible.
I decided to change some of the features of the piece from the prototype to the finished piece. I had forgotten the crown of thorns and, as I felt it was an important feature, was sure to remember it the second time. I made the decision to have the eyes closed rather than opened. I found the opened eyes ended up looking as if He was staring. It was also much easier to do .
 The cross I went with wasn't absolutely perfect. The hilt wasn't symmetrical but it was the fourth dagger I had made and I decided that it was as good as it was likely to get. 

Figure attached to cross

For the hair and beard I used clay I had mixed with water until it became sludgy. In small amounts, I added this to where I wanted His hair to go. After letting it dry for a few minutes I used a sharp, pointed tool to carve small lines (pictured beside the figure of Jesus), creating the effect. I decided to have the beard and hair covering his neck to avoid any weaknesses that might allow the head to break off. With the same tool I rearranged the still damp clay into the two twisted strands. I decided that trying to make tiny thorns would be very fiddly and they probably wouldn't be seen from any distance.
I scored and slipped small areas of the dagger which the figure would touch and fixed them together. To insure they were as secure as possible I packed in all the slip I could fit between them. I made sure that this wasn't visible from the front.

Narrative Project (Part 1)

Wire Prototype

Wire Prototype Detail

To begin we were each asked to chose a line for a poem or speech, a title of a book or song, or some other quote we felt would work well visually. I chose 'The Gods and Their Machines'. It was later decided that it would be easier to have everyone chose a word from a list made up be the tutors. We didn't have to change if we had something suitable already so I stayed with my first choice.
We each had to brainstorm our idea. There was a group session where together everyone in the class brainstormed each persons idea. All ideas were to be illustrated on two large sheets. The first of everything you thought of and the second of the direction you were going in. They were to be made up of a mixture of found images and sketches. For me the first page was much easier to complete.
The idea I eventually decided to go with was a crucifix with a dagger instead of a cross. I do feel this is perhaps a bit off topic. I wouldn't really give this piece the title of 'The Gods and Their Machines'. To begin with I made a wire prototype of my idea. It was quite rough but I felt was a good point to work from. I used twisted wire as it was stronger and allowed me to work to a larger scale.

Prototype

I decided to also make a very small clay prototype of my piece to see that it worked visually. It was too small to go into any great detail, which was a good thing as I would have spent too much time on it otherwise. Jesus left hand should be lower and His feet could be more centered. The problem is the longer I look at it the more mistakes I see.
I intended that the prototype would go through each process a step before the complete work. This plan fell down quite quickly when I realized the pressure to get everything done on time. There was a second bisque firing to go in before the first was finished so in it went.

Hand build cross and two discarded crosses.

Starting the complete piece I made a few daggers trying to get one I was happy with. I made one by hand and wasn't really happy with it. I decided to keep it but try to make a better one to use.
One of the tutors suggested that I should try to make the dagger, without touching it, by cutting it from a slab and beating it into shape with small wooden planks. This was to give it more of a forged look. I wasn't used to working like this and it was surprisingly hard to keep myself from smoothing areas with my fingers.
It took a number of tries to make a cross I was happy with. The tutor had made an example which I decided to discard as well as my first attempt using this method. (The cross on the left in the photo is the tutor's example.)

Head

Front view during construction

Back view during construction

Side view during construction

I was a bit nervous about making something as big as this but I am happy with the result so far. I had some photos to use as references but I ended up ignoring them completely and doing what the clay would let me do.
To begin everyone got two large clay slabs to make the basic shape. The slabs I got were quite stiff and began to crack as soon as I tried to bend them into shape. I cut both slabs into rectangles, then scored, slipped and jointed the edges together to form a cylinder shape. I patched up the cracks that had appeared. As one of the slabs of clay was taller than the other I decided it would be the front.

 

Front view with one ear

View from above with one ear

It was quite clear that I would have to keep the cylinder shape exacting as it was. Any movement was causing cracks to appear. I gradually build up the face adding clay to make the nose, chin, eyebrows and other features. I began to work on the eyes and decided that I would punch right through for the pupils. I did the same for the mouth.

 I continued to work on the face, building it up and trying to keep the nose centred. It was suggested that I should add ears to make it more like a head than a face coming out of a tree trunk. The ears were quite tricky to get right. It took a few attempts before I was happy with the results. I tried to get them to match as much as possible.
When I was finished I carried it down to the kiln room. I forgot to photograph it before I brought it down. It hasn't yet gone into the kiln as far as I know.