At work in my studio...

My friend Becky Zweibel was kind enough to take this picture of me working on the tile last Friday.

Last Stages of the Tile

Everything is in its place ... The additions, textures are finalized and most of the cleanup done. This is the point I decided to stop. Major changes would require remaking too much of the piece and are better saved for another work, minor changes could go on forever in this type of composition. In the end I felt that there was cohesion and flow across the tile (and that the Law of Diminishing Returns was setting in.) I'm also starting to move on mentally to the next project and feeling the need to wrap up.

A good photo is really helpful as I head into the final stage. Several incomplete areas are obvious in the picture, but were missed in the cleanup session. It will only take a few minutes to fix them and then the tile will sit in its plastic wrapping for a few days to even out the moisture in the clay. Then it gets unwrapped and cut into segments before being allowed to dry in preparation for the bisque firing. In the meantime I'm keeping my eyes peeled for cone 6 electric firings so I can test glazes to use on it in the final firing.

Added elements and Ladi Kwali

I made some changes to the tile, adding a raised element on the left side and changing the raised bars on the top right. Much better. I went back to my color sketch to pick up ideas. The vague nature of the drawing really pays off now. Since a lot of it is amorphous, I can let my imagination run and see selective images that are effectively already there and working right. I plan to tap the same source when I start retexturing the raised parts.

I put three pots in the mid-range soda firing with a commercial celadon on them. I'm not very practiced at spraying so we'll see how they turn out. The glaze is one I'm considering for this tile and another one I made earlier. Glazing is a little hair-raising since I have a lot of time and effort invested in the tile. I made a series of mugs with a similar design so I can test, test, test. I seriously doubt I'll take a chance on firing them in an atmospheric kiln... Too much risk of warping and the kilns are notorious for dropping crud into the glaze. The results in soda will be interesting but I think it'll be electric in the end.

On to other things! I have a couple of place settings to make for a Habit for Humanity fund raiser. The theme is "Africa." I've been googling African pottery and thought I might like to do a sort of Egyptian motif, but I stumbled across Nigerian pottery, Ladi Kwali. She is very famous in Nigeria and is even depicted on their currency! The technique is one I have used before... I don't really want to take time right now to figure out something totally new. I think I'll make coil and slab constructions, coat them in underglaze and use scrafitto, maybe some water etching too. The challenge will be to return to my drawings or make new ones to glean content from. I might do some drawings from things in my yard... Lizards, ants, tropical plants, maybe palmetto bugs and then pull some motifs to repeat as bands.

Removing the Texture

After the texture was removed

After comparing the original sketches to the tile as it exists right now, I decided to smooth out all the texture that was created when I sculpted the raised parts. It was just too hard to see what was going on with that much busy-ness on the surface. That took pretty much all afternoon, but now I can really see the contours and decide whether or not I want to change some of the elements, including the outer contour. Right away I'm bothered by the vertical bars at the top, the wider bar especially. One the one hand I don't want to get into a kind of boring regimentation, but one the other hand I feel like it looks awkward like it is. The upper left corner looks better than it did but I'm not happy with the shape overall. Also I want to bring up some of the repeating shapes that step into the distance in the pattern sketch. There's plenty of work to do before it gets cut and dried.