I like to paint

Marbling with slip

My attempt to marble slip with blue underglaze.

Feldspar in my backyard

Yeppie! I found feldspar gush out in my finished work after glaze firing. I didn't notice it until it was pointed out to me.

Wow!!!! This is unbelievable.  Of course we use feldspar in glaze formula and I know it can be found in clay from the land of Shigaraki.  I wouldn't think in a million years that mud from Hong Kong would contain feldspar just like those in Shigaraki. Awesome!!!

This piece was made upon my Mom's request.  She wants to have it for her water plants.  It is made of mud I dug up from the mountain behind my apartment.  Showing you the location below on Google map. Thought you may want to know. 

View Larger Map

And I blogged about the journey walking up the mountain and digging up mud in an early post.

I did a test piece as well but didn't notice the Feldspar then.

Unfortunately the mud contains too much sand and pretty big ones. The clay contracted during firing but the sand wouldn't.  As such, gaps / cracks were born.  It leaks.  We will think of something. I still love it.

Can you see the feldspar sticking out in the below pictures?  That little white spots.

And here is the whole piece.

Dry Glaze

This is a very dry glaze. Will see how it turns out.  All I did today was glazing and actually enjoying it for pretty much the first time.  Strange things are happening to me.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

And this is what I see from the studio.

Slipware?!

I didn't realize what I am doing is actually called slipware. Seriously?! Really?! The only reason I put porcelain slip on stoneware is because I like to see white on everything and I can paint on it if I want to.  The contrast is appealing to me and the texture is fun.

The word of slipware has a load of history on its' shoulder.  And those history really has nothing to do with me.  Pottery to me, yes to me personally has no tradition, no history and no rule.  If it has any of the above, I'm gone.

Here I am mixing by free hand blue underglaze (no dry weight measurement for me) with very thick porcelain slip. Can you see the hint of blue? I want to do a bunch of latte cups with variation.

Home as Studio - Nerikomi - my version

Seriously I'm a hard-core ceramics enthusiast.  That's a different story that I'll talk in great details at another time. 

I watched this video post by Musing About Mud the other day and I have been dying to try it out. I knew whatever I do, it would not be as sophisticated. It takes a lot of planning, getting everything right and practice. 

Time flies when I'm at the studio. I only got maybe 20% done when it was time to leave.  So I decided to take everything home with me, otherwise the clay would be way too dry and it would ruin the whole thing. 

Working at home with raw clay is such a messy process. The challenge is that I don't have a work space. Working on the sofa with coffee table into the middle of the night really was not the best situation. 

But the best part is I get to check on my work this morning and hopefully is successful at repairing a few cracks. 

It looks messy now. But the pattern and colour can be cleared up with some sanding. 

Sharp-edge Plate

This plate is destined to draw blood. Red on white. How appropriate! Of course, this is my attempt at a bad joke.  The edge is wonderfully sharp. I purposely left it like that. Retrained myself from smoothing it out. I love the little pointy bits. They formed naturally as the slip dried and gave shape to a curve.

This one in fact was real easy to make. I think I talked about it in a previous post. It is slip casting. All I need to do is to pour the slip and let it sit.

I wonder what my friends at Mud Colony are up to this week. Let's' go check it out   

Studio Shot 2.0

For those curious minds, this is what my second studio looks like. To be absolutely correct, this is not my studio but a friend's place that I go to every Sunday to get covered in clay.

Leather-hard Slab Building

I love his hands more

This came out from the kiln this week. A crack = heartache. But I'm hanging in there. I knew there would be a crack because I cracked it while trying to dust off some glaze, a bit too hard.

How I love his hands holding it up high for me.

Studio Shots

I did some studio shots for Mud Colony today by laying low......ssssssshu. They didn't know

Shit happens

Thrown 2 latte cups today. One is standing tall while the other decided to sleep on its side. A slip of hand when sliding the cup to the board. I can always make a better one. It's shape looks quite interesting. So it may not be a total lost cause yet.

I'm ecstatic about this vase. I put dry porcelain power on to the surface and push a little outward from inside to get that rustic, peeling look.

Do go over to my potter friends at Mud Colony 

Pictures for now

Not in the best of mood

Loving the light

The sun lights up my work

A good painting day

Skin on my finger tips is thinning down with the past 3 days work.

I did a bunch of painting today but still have one plate left (blank mind). Let's wait for ideas to come to me. Who said I need to finish everything today.

Here are my painted works.