Monday, May 26, 2014

Majolica Monday

I see Mugshot Monday and other Monday pots on Facebook.  Since I do majolica I've decide to try to post something about majolica.

This is a cookie jar I made for a show I did last year.  I love nursery and nonsense rhymes, so of course the Egg came to mind.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

All the King's horses,

And all the King's men

Could not put Humpty together again.
As with so many early nursery rhymes this one has political over/under tones.

This is bisqued and glaze fired to ^04.  The interior is glazed with Spectrum clear with a little Mason Iron stirred in which I brushed onto the unfired clay.  (Spectrum glazes in particular once fire very well.)  I find that just a bit of iron gets rid of the milkiness that can happen with clear over terra cotta.

 It's glazed In either Linda Arbuckle's Majolica or Spectrum's Majolica White.  I do add a little rutile to my whites to take away the over-whiteness and get a slightly creamy quality to the glaze.

I paint mostly with Mason Stains mixed 50/50with Frit 3124.  This gives me a watercolor look which I can blend with my fingers when dry.  Before I do my outlining I spray the whole thing with super hold hair spray.  The colors are just a little bit more stable and make outlining much easier.  I always use a black underglaze for my outlining.  If I want my color to be more opaque I mix my stains with a gerstley borate and frit mix.  This gives them a flatness comparable to gouache.  This mix also works well as an underglaze.

I've begun planting some of the big planters.  I potted up eight small dahlias yesterday and a bunch of moonflower seedlings.  I saw them in the greenhouse and decided to go with seedling this year.  I ended up buying large moonflower plants last year because rain kept washing out and rotting seeds.  I feel a bit ahead of the game.

It's cloudy now.  I would like to be out planting, but unfortunately we have to go out for a bit!  It's supposed to get sunny and warm later on......toes crossed.

Have a fine Memorial Day.....drink to The Lost.

As always, thanks for stopping by..............*s*

10 comments:

  1. Humpty Dumpty, I love it... such detail.

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  2. Your cookie jar is wonderful, I love nursery rhymes, good tip about stirring a bit of iron into the clear, approximately how much do you stir in to what amount of glaze?

    interesting how you mix the stains 50/50 with frit or gerstley borate; I mix my stains with slip and then brush them on the greenware plate, then glaze with a clear satin or clear shiny glaze. I like Amaco Satin Matt glaze. I may try your stain mixing techniques to see how it fares on some test plates. Thanks for all the tips, have a good one. I got five more fruit trees to plant today.

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    1. Hi Linda....Thanks. I mix entirely by eye. The last time I did it I used about a cup of glaze and mixed colorant so it looked like weak tea. It will give a slight ting to any colors you glaze over, but looks great on clay.

      I've found that for all the information around, I do best by testing. What temp do you fire to? I think the gerstley borate/frit combo becomes glaze like at higher temps, but I may be thinking of another slip. I used Spectrum's low-fire uncolored slip and mixed in my own colors when I was teaching my class of developmentally delayed adults.

      Five fruit tree! You must be having fun with your new house.

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  3. Dearest Suzi,
    You worked out that nursery rhyme in a very fun way!
    Happy Memorial Day too and let's pray we keep our hard earned FREEDOM!
    Hugs,
    Mariette

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    1. Hi Mariette....Thanks; I like an element of play in my work.
      Happy Memorial Day to you. There are so many to remember.

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  4. Replies
    1. Hi Gary....Thanks. The cars are pretty cute too!

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  5. What a fun piece. It looks like many, many hours of painting.

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  6. Suzi, these are great! Fun stuff!

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