Peeves couldn't help herself...
What's this she asked?
It's a different color, smells different (is that aging?), and is in my space...
So it hit me today...
I've been working with Porcelain for so long...
But have always had boxes and boxes of different clay waiting to be tried...
Umm...
Let's just try one...
This is my Cone 6 Chocolate Clay Body.
And this is what I worked on today...
Chocolate Shards, River Rock Buttons & Pendants, and some textured pendants...
I think one of the things holding me back from trying this clay was something internal.
Something in my head (from my early days of working with clay in a communal studio) kept telling me: Don't mix colored clay bodies in the same work space...
If you use a dark clay in the porcelain area of the studio, your porcelain won't be as clean.
And as true as that is...
Porcelain is a very white clay body - it's supposed to be super clean...
(to allow the glazes to come through not so muddled)...
I decided to pull out some old tools, not to be used on porcelain texture plates, and rubber stamps to fiddle with this Chocolate Clay Body.
Can you tell that I liked the Chocolate Clay?
It is SO plastic and easy to use...
It is so different than Porcelain...
Porcelain is so temperamental at times...
On a side note, somewhat related to this post and the previous one,
Because it is using the shard pieces...
Here are some images of some small pieces that I made a while back with some of the shards when I first started to work with them at this scale.
I say this scale because when I was going through my Masters degree in Ceramics,
I threw a lot of coils like this on the potters wheel that were around 8" up to 3' tall.
I did an installation with the pieces and if I can find the images in my backup files, I'll post some of them here.
These new small scale pieces are still trying to discover their potential.
They started out as tops for small scale pagodas for your indoor house plants and terrariums.
But I haven't worked on the bodies yet.
I think these will be fired then glazed and will sit on my windowsill or in some plants around here just as my starting point for a new body of work.
Oh, and by the way, I just stared an official Marsha Neal Studio Facebook Page (see side bar).
Also, In September I plan on having a challenge for anyone using my "shards" in their work to post pictures of. I've got to work on that detail and will post info here on this blog soon!
Thanks for stopping by!
I love that dark brown clay, Marsha. It is so interesting to read your blog about how you are trying out different approaches to clay. And what you are thinking about as you do it. I look forward to the next steps and how these dark clay pieces are going to look with glaze.
ReplyDeleteLiking the dark clay, anticipating it peeking through glazes that break more on texture... Yum.
ReplyDeleteThe little shard towers...if the base were larger and a wee but cupped they would be beautiful sculptural ring holders...Not that they HAVE to have a function... it just occurred to me.
I think the bottom pics/coils would make terrific ring holders! Add a top horizontal wire and could also make interesting earring displays. Retail jewelry stores are always looking for unusual displays and ring holders make great gifts! Just a thought!
ReplyDeleteMelinda
These are very cool!
ReplyDeleteI love dark clay, too. You're right in the character of it is soooooo plastic. It is very fun to sprig with.
Also, you can roll it very thin if you put it between plastic and then you can cut it (with plastic kid scissors) into shapes and sprig it onto beads or pendants.
It's just so versatile.
Thanks everyone! I have a test glaze firing going overnight tonight, and with any luck, may have some pics tomorrow. Once I find some glazes that I like, onto glazing the shards! I can't hardly wait!
ReplyDelete