The Experiment

The Experiment

     Right away, at the beginning of the book, I became fascinated with Mary Louise McLaughlin, 1847 – 1939, and the history of china painting. I’ve always been intrigued by the depth of color, luminosity, and patina I’ve seen in some ceramic pieces with over-glaze china paints. Of course, I didn’t know anything about over-glaze china paints but was tempted to find out more in reading about McLaughlin and china painting in our book, “MAKERS”.   I was totally taken in by this fierce woman and her brazen determination to delve into the experimentations of ceramics to whatever level it took for her to reach satisfaction at a time when very few women were allowed, or allowed themselves, that sort of fulfillment.

     Along with my interest being piqued about china painting, one of my classes this semester was to experiment with different clay bodies and glazes and to see how far I could push myself into unexplored areas. One thing I wanted to try was to combine something I love to do in 2D with my 3D Love – Ceramics. Well, I love to draw patterns. And I love to use color marker or pen- the more colors, the better.  It would certainly be interesting to try and represent my love of pattern and color through a ceramic piece.

The first thing I discovered was we don’t have any China Paints at Tech and I had to use materials we currently have safety information on.
 No Problem!!
 I’ll channel Mary Louise McLaughlin’s experimental nature.

 Since I was looking for the warm glow and depth that I am attracted to in china paint I wanted to see how close I could come to this with what I had available.

     China paints are made of ground mineral compounds and flux.
 I used mason stains (made up of ground minerals) and 3124 ferro frit (a low temp, 1600-1750, glass flux that will allow enough of a melt to occur which will bind the mason stains to the clay). 
     
     My first step was test tiles using cone 4 stoneware. I tested the mason stain / ferro frit mixtures using a constant weight of mason stain at 50 grams, 10 oz water with varied ferro frit amounts of 2, 5, 8, 10, 20 grams. I ran this test with three different mason stain colors. The results were all but the tiles with 20 grams frit allowed for some rubbing off of color which meant I was going with the 20 grams frit because it fluxed enough to hold the color to the clay body.

The first test tiles were pretty messy!

 The next step was to make test tiles for each mason stain color available with the formula of 50 grams mason stain / 20 grams 3124 ferro frit / 10 oz water.

This stuff separates super fast & requires a lot of shaking!

    Everything kept leaking on me! 1st try - recycled glaze jars. 2nd try - those $1 squirt bottles from the $ Store. 3rd try - a $20.00 pkg of plastic coffee cups with nifty snap-on lids. I patiently duc-taped every sip hole on every lid - did ya know there is another tiny little hole on those suckers? I also found out those cups were good for about 4 times of removing and replacing the lid before the lip would crumple. Oh, it was wonderful. 4th try - Finally had to resort to donated glass jars - and I ate a lot of spaghetti.

     While doing all this experimenting I’m trying to imagine my doodles on clay and I did a lot of perusing on the internet. I was so inspired by ceramicists Richard Zane Smith, Meagan Chaney, Michael Sherrill, and especially Vicky Grant. In studying Vicky Grant’s work I began to get an idea of how to add my doodling to my ceramics in a meaningful way.  Vicky Grant did a series of work called “Windows to the Earth” in which she would incorporate a variety of natural found objects. I don’t know what came first, the patterns or the object, but I was struck by the idea of framing some of the many found object treasures I have collected with clay incised with my doodles that would bring attention to and honor the treasure.

      Sometimes it takes quite a while for information and gathered knowledge to swim around in my brain before all the bits and pieces connect and I get the big “OHH”. While thinking about what treasure of mine would get the honor of being the first framed piece I thought of my Junction Holey Rock. All of a sudden all that swimming around settled down and it was obvious I was thinking about the importance of place. 

     For me, it all tied into our desires we have shared in this class about wanting to be part of an Artist’s community after reading about Elbert Hubbard’s Roycroft Community, Gustav Stickley’s dreams of Craftsman’s Farms, all the artistic cavorting at Black Mountain College, Penland, Ralf and Jane Whitehead’s Byrdcliffe…. And, of course, our Junction.

That is how my “Treasures of Place” three piece series came to be.

South Padre Island, Texas   

 North Carolina  

     Junction, Texas

Each added piece, each pattern, and many times, each color in these multi-media pieces are part of my honoring these special places. In seeing them finished I felt a release in me as if proper homage had been paid.

More photos:

Taa Daa!