Double Skinned Porcelain Tea Light Holders

I have recently loaded, programmed and unloaded my first kiln at college which had some of my porcelain pieces in. Below are some photos of them in the kiln and after coming out. I love the double skinned ones with blue on the outside and white on the inside. I have chosen to tear the rims to highlight the fragility of the material.

Smoke Fired Oak Leaf Pot

For the External Design Museum project at college I was inspired by the Martin Brothers who are hugely influenced by nature. So I had a bare pot and didn't want to do a plain glaze on it so I glazed the inside clear and then took it home to be smoke fired in a baking tray. I gathered some oak leaves on my way home and stuck them to the pot using double sided sticky tape, then I used a sponge dipped it in some slip resist liquid used for rakuing and dabbed around the edges of the leaves. Then I took the leaves and the tape off and placed it in the baking tray with sawdust and newspaper piled around it and lit it. Once I was happy that the smoke had done its job I waited for it to cool off before cleaning it with a cloth and water. I am very pleased with the results as the Martin Brotheres were influenced by nature and their surrounding where I have actually used nature to create the markings on the pot.

Burning away

Cleaned

Detail

Slipcast Porcelain Tea Light Holders

Here's the almost finished porcelain tea light holders. I may sandblast into them with different patterns. They are curently displayed at Plymouth College of Art and they will be for sale at the Christmas Fair on the 26th November at the college from 12pm-3pm.

left to right: 2%, 7% and 10% Cobalt oxide. (no glaze)

Stacked into each other.

PCA Christmas Fair

Plymouth College of Art is holding a Christmas Fair in the canteen Saturday 26th November 12pm-3pm raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support with a raffle and craft stalls. Some of the artists lined up are: Jane Mooney- Ceramics, Dave Roberts- Glass, James Reynolds - Hand Carved Crafts, Susie Joan Accessories -Jewellery, Lesley Rowland - Semi Precious Gem Jewellery and Myself selling some my ceramic work. So come on down and support your local artists/students, buy some unique Christmas presents and raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support.

The Two Part Vase

For the External Design project at college I decided to create a 2 part vase with surface texture on inspired by the Martin Brothers (the final piece had to be inspired by a collection in the Plymouth Museum). I threw the two pieces on the wheel then joined them the next day and creating a surface on the pot using a serrated metal kidney to scratch on to it. Once it was bisque fired I glazed the inside clear using a stoneware glaze and then I painted the outside with cobalt oxide and then using a sponge and water wiping off the excess. Then getting fired to 1260 degrees celcius.

Top of the pot

Bottom of the pot

Using a serrated metal kidney to create a surface texture

It has been bisque fired and has cobalt oxide on to pick up the detail of the texture.

Finished piece with clear glaze on the inside and the cobalt oxide on the outside.

Detail.

PCA Clothes Swap

The wonderful Jane Mooney holds Clothes Swaps at Plymouth College of Art  for students to donate and trade clothes. She also has stalls for other students willing to sell their work, 2nd year students earning money to go to New Designers in London and other companies such as Funky Jewellery.

Myself, Jane and Charlotte Wood (all ceramicists) each had a table selling our ceramic works; Jane does thrown pots and Charlotte (the left table in the photo) has created earthenware bowls by dribbling slip into a plaster bowl then glazing them clear to a 1100 degrees celcius otherwise they will warp in the kiln on the higher firing. Also they are very fragile. At the Clothes Swap I sold 6 pieces which I was very pleased with.

Porcelain Slipcasting

I apologise in advance for the poor quality of photos as they were taken on my phone.

I've tried slipcasting with porcelain last year for my personal project but it kept on ripping. So I thought I'd try it again and it worked. I made some plaster moulds of some thrown pots I made, turned and put my stamp on. I seperated the plain slip into 4 pots and added different amounts of cobalt oxide to them so they should come out blue. They are going to be fired straight to 1260 degrees celcius (I'm not going to put a glaze on them) then once they are fired I'm going to sandblast different patterns on them for tea light holders.

ready to be fired (the back 3 are darker because I used a higher percentage of cobalt oxide)

a porcelain jar again going up to 1260 degrees and then sandblasted

in the kiln

External Design- AoC Gold Awards 2012

(I will probably go with this design as my final piece as I like the angle of the award) 

For External Design at college we have to design and make a prototype for the Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery to either go on the wall in the Atrium or in the glass cabinet. Then we had to chose which award we wanted to design- the AoC Gold Award (6 awards) or the Media Innovation Awards (16 awards) I chose the Gold Award because if I won I would only have to make 6. It was a bit off putting at first as for the past 7 years it has always been a glass awards and because I work in ceramics I felt a bit like whats the point of even trying almost. But once I got some ideas flowing I started to enjoy it and thought that if you can made a piece in glass you can make it in ceramics. I started to research into stone sculptures, organic and abstract forms as there isn't any ceramic awards out there. I did look briefly at glass awards and did get some ideas through that. But I settled for a design which was a double bowl with 6 different pierced patterns on the outside bowl but with the same shape and font. The bowls would sit inside each other with a slab to cover up the gap. On the slab would include the text ' AoC Gold Awards 2012' (using metal letter stamps) as instructed on the brief. Also on the brief was to include an element of gold which I am going to use on the letters and possibly on the rim of the patterns. I have also experimented with different angles of the award and I like the idea of having it tilted at an angle to view the writing and the inside bowl.

Small Vertical Loopy Vase

Here's a small vertical loopy vase with Kev's 14 glaze on it. 

Loopy Tea Light Holder

There was a new glaze at college called Wegners Plum (purple). The test piece looked really nice so thought I'd give it a go without testing it on a little loopy piece. I love the colour, there are some areas where the glaze didn't quite reach but overall it looks good. 

Glaze Test Pieces

I've made some little loopy pieces and going to test some new glazes that I made on them. Also some of the colleges glazes that I haven't yet tried on them. 

Chris 33 glaze (colleges)

Kev's 14 glaze (colleges)

David Rogers glaze (colleges)

Thrown Agateware Pots

Thrown agateware pots clay unknown (it was being thrown out so I got it) with a clear leadless glaze.

Thrown and Glazed 1.5kg Pots

Thrown 1.5kg pots with Kev's 14 Glaze sprayed on for an even coverage.

Video of 2 Part Agateware Vessel

Here's a video of the two part agateware vessel I thought I'd put one on here so you can see the continous spiral from base to rim.

2 Part Agateware Vase

Top of 2 part agateware pot before being turned

Bottom of 2 part agateware pot before being turned

2 part agateware pot after being joined together and turned.



2 Part Thrown Vase

I have wanted to try and throw a 2 part pot for some time now so I thought I'd give it a shot and see what happens and I am quite pleased with the results and will definately keep doing it in the future.

Top of 2 part vase

Base of 2 part vase

Placed together to see if they fit and how they look.

Agateware Pots

Here's some agateware pots where I had some control over the pattern. I wedged 2kg ball of clay then got a loop tool and cut out a coil of clay then replaced it with a terracotta coil of the same size. Then I threw it on the wheel to make a vessel and it created a spiral of terracotta clay. I experimented with different amount of coils, shown here are 1, 2 and 3 coils.

1 coil before being turned

2 coils before being turned

3 coils before being turned

3 coils after being turned

2 coils after being turned

Commissions Welcome

Just a reminder I do take commissions and prices of my loopy pieces start at £20 please email me at rharrison1991@hotmail.co.uk if interested in any of my pieces.