Textures, Textures, Textures

Slab built Grogzilla® sculpture clay and paper clay.

Grogzilla® clay is a highly grogged sculpture clay with feldspar crystals. At Cone 10, the feldspar crystals "pop" and you get random white crystals.

Flashing slip on greenware. Carbon trap shino glaze on bisque. Fired to Cone 10 reduction.

They are totally functional pieces, yet very sculptural. I really like the textures and warm earth colors.

Each approx. 12"H.

Structural Support Considerations

Whenever I build my pod shaped vessels, I have to think about how to fire them in the kiln for bisque fire and at higher cones, for example at cone 5 or cone 10.

In this piece, I wanted to use the Van Gilden’s flashing slip which cracks really nicely at Cone 10 so I had to design a structural support system that will be strong enough to survive a Cone 10 fire.

The donut ring and supporting tubes were all assembled from bone dry paper clay pieces using dry to dry techniques (top picture).  

As my pod is rather heavy and tall (36” high), my support has to be well constructed to withstand any movement in the kiln during firing. The legs were thick slabs rolled into tubes.

Lateral struts at the bottom were added to give sideways rigidity.

This is structural support for my pod which can be seen in the background. The Van Gilden's flashing slip has been applied to it. It's bone dry and it's ready for bisque firing.

 In a way, the structural support is like a piece of sculpture in itself. I plan to reuse this support for future works.

Paperclay Sandwich

© 2009 Anthony Foo

The thing with commercially prepared paperclay is that you do not get the variety of clay bodies available as you do in traditional clays. My local distributor, Aardvark Clay Company carries the sculpture and throwing paperclay made by IMCO in Sacramento. Laguna Clay Company in Los Angeles recently started carrying their own version of Bmix + sand paperclay. Laguna Clay Company in Florida has a wider selection of paperclay (from low to high fire) but they do not ship to California.

As paperclay artists, unless you get into making your own paperclay, you are limited to what is commercially available.

In the past couple of years, I've started using the color and texture of the available clay as my color palette. That way, I don't have to deal with the issues of high fire glazes.

So .... how do I get these ordinary clay into my paperclay sculpture. My "Earthship" series employs a technique which I call "sandwiching." I don't know what is the proper name for it, but it's something I came up with because that is exactly what you do.

With the help of paperclay slip/slurry, I attach regular/ordinary clay onto my bone dry paperclay foundation. In this example, it is the "hull" of my "Earthship" series.

"Earthship 2"  and  "Earthship 3" has Grogzilla clay lumps stuck onto the ENTIRE outside of the piece. This Grogzilla clay has a high grog content with feldspar crystals in it. On high fire, the feldspar crystals "pop" and you get random pearl-like droplets (for lack of a better description). Sometimes they look like little white teeth. Maybe hence the name "Grogzilla." I really like this clay for its texture. The "Grogzilla" clay is available from Clay Planet, Santa Clara, CA.

The paperclay slip did not have any trouble holding on to the Grogzilla clay at all, although there was some surface cracking along the edges. I used more paperclay slip to cover up/seal the cracks as best I can. On both pieces, I used a Red Iron Oxide wash as a colorant. No glazes were used, with the exception of some flashing slip. Both pieces were fired to Cone 10 reduction and the sandwich technique performed and held up beautifully.

I have used this technique on either side of my pieces. In "Last Boat Out", I used Black Mountain sculpture clay on the inside of the hull. The outside rough texture was done with wet paperclay to dry technique.  I kept adding the wet paperclay to the dry foundation until I was satisfied with the thickness and shape/profile of the piece. Again, this was fired to Cone 10 reduction.

This "sandwich" technique will allow you to introduce readily available clay onto your paperclay structure.

Hopefully, you will find this discussion an inspiration to your own projects.

Ikebana, Ceramics & Swordsmanship

I recently completed a short 5 session class in the Sogetsu style of Ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement) at the Irvine Fine Arts Center conducted by Takeichi Haruko Sensei. This picture was taken in class (2nd week) after we completed the arrangement, but before the Sensei came around (with her clippers in hand!).

I enjoyed the class tremendously. The 5 weeks went by so quickly. The ceramic vase I made fitted the style of the arrangement so I used it. It's a high fire Kazegama style firing (ash firing), invented by Steve Davis of Aardvark. The vase is about 12" high, made out of paperclay, flashing slip was applied to the surface of the piece in the greenware stage. The texture you see is actually left over dried paperclay that is "glued" to the vase with paperclay slip. The texture and colors came out beautifully in this piece.

One thing that struck me were the quotes Takeichi Sensei shared with us. Even though it came from the Ikebana perspective, with my training in Japanese swordsmanship I now better understand  what my sword Sensei (Katsuse Sensei) was trying to tell me. My two favorite quotes from Takeichi Sensei:

1. When a man cuts the pine tree, it is no longer a pine tree. It has become the man.

2. Even if you are a beginner in Ikebana, and you have a small vase, make your arrangement big. Do not let the size of the vase limit you.

Hearing those words for the first time I smiled inside and I thank Katsuse Sensei, "Now, I'm beginning to understand a little bit."

It is incredible the feeling you get when you view these flowers and arrangement in your home. The spirit from these humble flowers that so many of us take for granted fills one's heart and definitely fills the room.