Ceramic Arts Daily

My father’s taxidermist and slaughterhouse business was an overwhelming environment for me as a child. Scenes of hanging carcasses of deer, piles of sawed-off animal feet and freezers full of animal hides left me with powerful images, ones that presented a lack of empathy for life.

After completing the body and tail structure, use a wooden skewer to pierce the head and bore out a hole for hanging, then clean up any loose bits of clay that might block this opening. Next, cover the clay sculpture with plastic and let it set up for up to three days so that the carving won’t be distorted when you work on the other side. Slowly unwrap the piece and gently flip it over to carve out the back side, following the same steps as above.

This article appeared in the July/August 2009 issue of Pottery Making Illustrated.

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When finished, allow the piece to dry for about a week under plastic, then unwrap it and let it dry out completely. Allow it to dry slowly for up to two weeks because the uneven thickness created by the carving and handbuilding processes may make it prone to cracking. Taking this extra time helps ensure a safe passage through the bisque firing. Bisque fire to only cone 05, this leaves the pores of the clay body more “open”, which will later allow the raku firing post-reduction to impregnate carbon into the clay.

After the bisque, you can apply glazes by brushing, dipping, pouring, etc., to suit your own aesthetic. Whatever your method of glazing, remember that applying the glaze is just as important as the glaze itself, and where and how the glaze is placed on the piece can enhance, emphasize or obscure particular areas. I like to apply glazes with several acrylic brushes, a pointer to retain a high degree of accuracy and several soft towels for applying and wiping away large areas of glaze. I’ve found that wiping off the surface of a freshly applied glaze with a towel allows the carbon from the post-reduction process to partially enter the clay body, creating a mottled effect. As a result of diverse glazing techniques, the ceramic piece might have three coats of glaze applied next to an area that only has one coat of glaze, or even an area that hasn’t been glazed at all.

Tip: As I apply glazes to my pieces, I take lots of notes and draw diagrams in a sketchbook. By recording good notes, it’s possible to develop a quasi-controlled outcome in the unpredictable firing process. For the past several years I’e used five glazes. Three are from Amaco’s Old World Crackle Series (Fog Gray, Amber and Satin White), while the remaining two are recipes I mix in my studio (White Crackle and Copper Matt.) All five glazes mature between cones 06-05.

I’ve been very selective about my glazes because I want a wide variation of color, hue and texture in my palette. I knew that the more glazes I introduced, the less control I would have on the surface effects and I wanted the glazes and alternative firing process to enhance my sculptural forms. Through countless firings and a limited number of glazes, I’ve been able to achieve a wide range of surface color and texture using the variables of the glaze selection and application, firing temperature and atmosphere of the kiln and the post-reduction chamber.

Barbecue
After glazing, make a bed of combustibles in a metal can for post-firing reduction. When making the bed, think how a bird would make a nest and use sawdust, newspaper, straw, etc., to make the perfect nest for your piece. I prefer using a combination of combustibles to prolong the smoldering period, which is usually 15-20 minutes. I use pine wood chips, sawdust, shredded newspaper and a little bit of straw or leaves. You can buy pine wood chips in pet supply stores as pet bedding in several different sizes. I like to use more pine wood chips rather than sawdust for two reasons: pine burns hotter than other woods and the wood chips are larger than sawdust, which allows for more air flow in the chamber. Using sawdust in the bed makes the can smolder for a longer period of time, and a small amount of shredded newspaper ignites the wood chips, while straw and leaves actually imprint their organic textures on the ceramic pieces as they burn. The smoldering of combustibles helps make the glazes appear to have depth versus using more newspaper which burns fast and creates only a carbon-filled surface.

Lisa Merida-Paytes has an M.F.A. in ceramics from the University of Cincinnati and is currently the Gallery Director at FUNKe Fired Arts in Cincinnati, Ohio.