My interest in architecture and time, has led me to read about weathering. This natural process leaves its marks, by taking away corners, surfaces or colour, or by adding sedimentation from dirt or soluble salts. Sometimes, as with stone, nature takes away older surfaces and reveals newer surfaces of the same material beneath.
I have tried a number of methods to add textures to my pieces recently, and have used water etching to soften the edges to give an impression of the passing of time. On individual strips of clay this could be the ageing of the texture from a crisp new base to a weathered top, or in reverse suggesting an older building eroded by time being restored or renewed by a later addition or replacement.
The tests above show the latest results of oxides applied to slip, painted over with shellac, and then rubbed back. The five oxides, from left to right on each tile, are yellow ochre oxide, chromium, red iron oxide, manganese and black iron oxide.
The tile on the left was dipped in slip and the oxides were added to wet slip, part of the tile was sprayed with water to produce the effects on the manganese and black iron oxide.
The tile on the right was painted with slip and then allowed to dry, oxides were applied then rubbed back with a sponge.
In both cases, shellac was added to protect interesting effects or to create patterns. Water was then used to etch the slipped surfaces. The tiles were fired to bisque, which did not fully fuse the oxides. Finally, half of each tile was finally dipped in a clear transparent glaze and half in titanium white.
The yellow ochre has shown disappointing results and is barely visible, the chromium has unfortunately turned pink under the titanium white, but is clearly green under the transparent glaze. The other three oxides have retained their colour under both glazes. I like the colour of the manganese on both tiles, and the effect of spraying water on the wet slip.
I have chosen pots three and four to try to reproduce this effect, with some changes to the process. I have used the water etching effect on the surface to create texture first. I decided not to add the oxides at this stage to avoid the risk of smudging. Hopefully pot four is being bisque fired today. On Thursday I am going to add oxides to the water etched areas, spraying with water or sponging as needed and will finally spray the pot with titanium white glaze. Fingers crossed for a successful firing towards the end of the week.
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