experiments

Glazes; a new world of colors and surprises.


When I started with pottery, I have immediately fallen in love with making glazes.

I love to look for recipes, to read the comments and to decide on which glaze to test.

I love to mix the ingredients, I feel like a chemist, but since I am not, I sometimes make mistakes. Till today, my mistakes are not as bad as could be in real chemistry, only changes in colors, or texture.

To the Goodrich Honey Green glaze, I add 10 times cobalt oxide… it became a very nice dark blue, somewhat "inkish".

The original Goodrich Honey Green is a real honey green.

To the Ron Roy's Nutmeg glaze, I added 10 times Rio, it came out silky matte, dark brown, not so bad either…

The original glaze is different than it should be, because I fire up to 1180 Celsius. It is dry, sandy, and beautiful.

Some experiments with black gold slip, under Alisa's Silky White glaze:

and under VC "71" glaze

I think I am lazy photographer, (not to say lousy), every day I want to take photos of my new works, and every same day I postponed it for another day... so I am way behind with photos.

As a potter, I am not so bad. There are many new pots, and bowls, with new glaze experiments, and some different new clay I have been trying.

The summer is fading away here, and although it is still relatively hot and humid (around 24-29 Celsius), I can smell the autumn's winds coming from the west.

Last Saturday, I took the dogs, and the camera, for a walk. There are so many signs of the late summer outside.

  

I also did some drawing afterwards...

Actually these bowls were done during the summer, but I put them here next to the photos and drawings of the late summer.

They meant to be one thing, but after firing them, became another thing. I still have to figure out how to keep the slip's line clear and steady even after glazing, and firing.

Jars etc

Lately I have begun doing some jars with lids. The surface was cut and then colored with different oxides.

Very qiuckly I realized which oxides are a mess, and which of them came out beautifuly.

ochre and red iron oxide under Eggshell Glaze.

rutile green under val Cushing Silky White

copper and cobalt oxide under Rutile Green Glaze, and Cream of Mushroom glaze of Clayart.

Into a new path

After so many years of painting; piles of works in the draowers, lines of canvases leanning against the walls, and doing nothing about selling... I have decided to change my route.

I always loved pottery, and always thought about the possibility to adopt my painting techniques into a clay work, so becoming a potter looked as a natural shift.

I took some technical lessons, but being so independent and autodidact, very soon I've found myself experimenting alone, by trail and error. I am only at the beggining of a long new way, I know, therefore I have made some initial rules and decissions; in my age I'll probably won't become a master in the technical aspects, but I hope that my paintings and decorations will cover the imperfections.

There is still the same problem I have encountered with my paintings: I have no idea how, or any ability to sell my works. maybe i should go and learn marketing...

I started with sgrafito. it is fascinating technique but a time consuming work, so very quickly I felt the need of other methods to experiment;

other methods like painting with slips, and underglazes under Tony Hensen Clear glaze.

experiments were not enough for me, as an artist who deals so many years with colors, mediums, and all sorts of paintings' techniques i need the excitement of finding new ways, and my own uniqueness. I started to learn about glazes from the internet, from books, and from Jacob, my local materials' supplier http://www.ceramiccon.co.il/

My adventure had just begun, I am in heaven of testing glazes, mixing my own colors, trying new shapes, and using different kinds of clay...

Rutile Green glaze and Variegtad Blue glaze

with Black Gold slip painting under.

Val  Cushing "71" glaze

Ron Roy's Nutmeg and Weiser' Honey glaze with Black Gold slip under

In the last couple of months, I bought a kiln, a potter's wheel, and a few tens of raw materials for the glazes, and engobs. Although it is so different from painting, I am very happy.

Painting is something that demands a lot of spirtual concentration, pottery requires another kind of concentration, especially when mixing and fixing new glazes...

I have already made some wonderful mistakes... that sometimes lead to beautiful new surprises, but sometimes lead to disasters...

well, this is what a new path means, isn't it?

I must go all the way to beyond the fear of loosing

When to stop the stream of shapes and colors; when a painting is ready to be finished and untouched?
Did I go too far, and destroy the initial freshness of it?

Back into work

Painting regularly is like playing the piano. Each day I start with "etudes" which are little paintings. I move my fingers; I move my arms, until I feel the flexibility, the smooth lines, and the confidence.
Listening to music helps me to put a border-line between the life outside, and the life inside the studio. I start with classical music, and very soon get into the mood of electronic/dance/trance music. The repetitive beat gives me a perfect surrounding.