The Sig-uation or Terra Sigilatta Application

This was the first design for cake plate (apologies for poor quality photo...my phone camera is the most expedient) and was a gift for the Mamma. She requested a small cake plate on a pedestal. So I thought it would be nice to make it look like stiff cloth and somewhat light in weight. I think it's pretty successful.

I put 15? layers of white terra sig and buffed every 3rd or 4th layer until near the end, I buffed in between each layer with a plastic bag. The underside of the plate is a light turquoise color. Because the pedestal is so narrow, it and the plate were fired separately to help prevent warping. I will say that due to the sig cracking, this isn't really perfect for plopping a tiny cake directly on it but parchment paper or something similar in between the edible and the plate would be acceptable.

Lessons learned from terra sig application:

1. Put it on bone dry ware- takes waaaaaaaaayyyyy less time. Everything I read said to start on leather hard clay but it was taking forever and a teacher suggested I do it when it's totally dry. Much better...
2. Don't apply 15 layers unless you want an aged look or are ok with chunks of sig peeling up and off the piece. That many layers wasn't really needed and as a result, the sig cracked on the top. BUT it does look cool and is sort of antique-y looking
3. Apply very thin layers even though you're tempted not to
4. If you want a uniform surface, take care of drips immediately. Even if you let them slightly dry before fixing the drips stand out
5. Supposedly buffing only gets you a wee shine with this temp range (cone 6)and I found that the buffed pieces came out with a really nice satin finish, not glossy but not matte either.
6. if you want the shine, buff between every layer or every couple layers, don't just buff at the end

Good Luck!

cake or death?

The Mega-Plate.

I've made 10? cake plates now and am still trying to sort out some of the structural issues. MOST of the time I throw quite thin and my things are feather weights. However I attempted to throw slightly thicker so the flat surface wouldn't warp and the result is this chunk.

3 Things we've learned (yes, the Royal we)
1. If you fire the ware in it's proper formation (plate on top of pedestal) the plate warps a bit.
1a. if you're pedestal is narrow, the plate warps dramatically, if it is the same diameter as the cake plate warping is minimal
2. while building the stands in 2 pieces is easier than one piece, glazing tops to bottoms can be tricky especially in a community studio (think off-center)
3. Wide pedestals cracking in the bisque firing have also been a problem for me... I'm not sure if it's because I'm not compressing properly or if the walls are uneven and stresses out the form. I've gotten 3 cracks in the same location... I'm thinking it's uneven walls (thick on bottom, thinner on top) and may try to throw these a different way.

On the stand pictured above I've since put 4 coats of white terra sigilata (buffed in between each layer)along with some "coral" and "sunshine" slip on parts of the decorations and fired it. And the pedestal cracked. So that blows but I'm going to finish it off with glaze so I can get the practice. Takes me forever to decide about glazes...

A few people have asked me why I started decorating with a piping bag. There are a couple reasons. Decorating with a piping bag sort of came about through the logical thought of cake plate? I like cake. I like cake frosting. Pretty cake frosting... hmmm pretty cake plate?
And I hate slip bulbs...
So there it is.

In March I have to have surgery so I may be out of commission for a few weeks. Perfect excuse for me to take more pictures and write some posts. Let's see if it happens :P

Rule #1 is remembered

new blog for pottery specific stuff
Yeah... that's it

A thing you should all know about DreadPirateOlson (DPO)- me, is that I tend to drift off on tangents. Well sometimes I drift and sometimes I just violently veer.
And I am dead clumsy. (I blame genetics)

Oldsin's cardinal rule of clay:
1. Never get attached to a piece. EVER.
I was carving this bowl(pictured above) and had been off and on for months. I wanted it to be awesome and perfect and I already had the gift box ribbon planned. Then I dropped a tri-pod on it and the bowl exploded*. Le Sigh... Now we begin anew by saying: It's nothing that can't be made again.

Some other rules:
2. Keep a sense of humour. What else can you do when you give an extrusion demo or show someone how to pull a handle? Yes. It looks like a hand job and once admitted and laughed about, peeps can focus on what you're trying to tell them. We all still have that 12 yr old on the inside. Tee hee!

3. Step away when nothing is working out right. Go drink tea, wash your hands, (maybe reverse the order of that) sit in a normal chair or whatevs. Some days are just bad, end of story.

4. Experiment and practice How are you going to know if you can make a giant robot of doom out of clay and plywood if you don't try it? And the whole practice thing is just exactly what it is for anything else - you want to be good, throw 12 mugs that look like they were made in a factory mould? Well, throw 200 and trash every singe one of them** and THEN throw your 12 mugs. But remember, if you want 12 perfect mugs, you can always go buy them at the store... so don't be BO-ring!

Thanks for taking a look

*What was I doing with a tripod near my bowl? Excellent question, my dear Watson, I was setting up to take a picture.

**I dare you.