What's going on?

I made several of these hand-pinched rice mixed with paperclay bowls sometime ago. The inside was coated with Southern Ice porcelain paperclay since I wanted to use the Celadon glaze.

After Cone 10 reduction, I found all my bowls had cracks in them. On the bottom of some of them, it looked like the Celadon glaze had pooled and formed a thick layer.

I was puzzled as to what happened as I had successfully used this method before. I decided to break some of them open to see what was going on inside. The bottom picture shows the culprit and the cause for the cracks.

I concluded that the Southern Ice porcelain paperclay was applied too thickly and in the high fire it contracted more than my regular paperclay and separated from the "shell."

This time around, instead of layering the Southern Ice porcelain paperclay layer by layer using the brush (this is the way I normally do it; it is a slow process but you have control over the thickness of the porcelain application), I decided to do something similar to slip casting, ie pouring my Southern Ice paperclay slip into my bone dry rice-and-paperclay bowls, wait for a while and then emptying the excess out. This resulted in too thick of an application of the Southern Ice porcelain paperclay. My experience with this porcelain paperclay is that it shrinks more than the regular paperclay and when this inner layer is too thick, it is has enough cohesion to pull/shrink away from the bottom of the bowl.

There are several ways to get around this:

1. Go back to layering the inner porcelain layer by hand with the brush method.

2. Use a thinner porcelain paperclay slip.

3. Wet down the bone dry bowl a bit so that it is not so "thirsty" and won't "suck up" the porcelain slip too quickly.

4. Do not wait too long to pour out the excess, if you are using the slip cast method.

I'm back using the #1 method as I can control how many layers of the porcelain slip I apply. I have not experimented with the other methods.

Made In America, 2009

Oversized set of Chinese fast-food take out boxes, fortune cookies and chopsticks. 18"W x 21"H x 18"D

A fast-food take out scene commonly seen here in America is totally unheard of in Asia. These items were intentionally made extra large and out of proportion to comment on how food is viewed in the US. The entire arrangement is colored white to drive home the point that this happens only in America. In addition, sticking a pair of chopsticks in rice is a big no-no in Asian culture. It is regarded as extremely rude and vulgar.

High fire sculpture clay, natural bamboo chopsticks, acrylic paint.

Couple's Bowls, 2009.

This set of hand pinched bowls were made from one ball of the Southern Ice Porcelain Paperclay, divided into two and the bowls made from them, hence the name. Presented as a wedding gift.

Southern Ice Porcelain Paperclay, mixed with rice. The rice burns out during the bisque fire and leaves the texture. Celadon glaze on inside, no glaze on outside. 

Approx. 4"D x 4"H

Add What to Paperclay?

This tea set was completely hand built, including the Japanese style tea pot. Although not a potter, I find these pinch forms a pleasure to make. It would have been definitely faster doing it on the wheel, however I find the wheel imparts a very mechanical, sterile feel to a piece.

The texture on the cups and teapot was obtained by mixing in left over cooked brown rice in the clay and then forming the pinch forms. The rice burns away during the bisque firing leaving the voids.

To make it "functional" (it's usable, but I regard it as a sculptural piece), the inside of the vessels were coated with regular paperclay and then a thin layer of Southern Ice porcelain paperclay was applied over the paperclay. The porcelain paperclay was added to provide a white background for the celadon glaze to "pop". An iron oxide wash was applied to the outside of the set. The piece is high fired to Cone 10.

The presentation tray is actually a scrap piece of iron railroad tie plate that I found near the railroad tracks in my area. I thought it would make a most unusual complement to the piece. Heavy as heck, though!