Ceramic Technique

Many of my works are oils painted directly onto ceramic tablets and panels. To make them, I first roll out the clay into a slab then sculpt into it and impress designs with an assortment of stamps and punching tools around the borders. Some frames require hundreds of dots applied one at a time. In the untouched central area of the piece, I paint the oil after the tablet has been glazed and fired 2 or 3 times. The materials used for these panels are earthenware, stoneware and porcelain.

The bowl shown below uses some of the techniques described above with the absence of an oil painting in the center. The writing around the rim of this piece is a poem by a French artist. I translated his work from the French into Tapissary (see button above describing Tapissary) The clay is a dark body. The writing is a metalic oxide stain, and the dots are rutile glaze. The piece was fired at the normal temperature for stoneware which is around 2,350 degrees F. The atmosphere was reduced which means the flames during the firing are increased so high, that it eats up the oxygen in the air as well as sucking it out of the heat softened ceramic ware. This exodus of oxygen enriches the earthiness of clays and produces chemical changes in most glazes. For instance, a green glaze in a regular firing (which is called 'oxidation') may turn red in a reduction firing.

l'art est au plafond

l'art est sur les murs

l'art est dans la cheminée

l'art est derrière la porte

l'art est devant la fenêtre

l'art est à côté de moi

l'art est en toi