Finally finished all my work, and these three are my fav ones, thought they look better separately, then  I took photo for each. Tried to take the photos in the style of my previous pots,so they look like a series. I was quite enjoy the process of making ceramics, I might do more in next year. Wish the end year show goes well :)

mushroom， fungus

I was quite happy with the shape, but I should not have used the crank clay, it effected the colour of the glaze,and made them look awful. As a result I had to make more of them using white clay, for the new ones I applied four different glazes which are GM, CT, KS and SHISNO.

 

 

 

 

Pots,cups

Finished pots and cups,

the brown glaze FE worked really well,smooth and shiny (Earthenware Red clay)

the other two I used a mixture glaze Chun+coper it was a bit thin and it is different consistency to FE so it did not cover very well.(White Stone ware)

Photo by Robyn

Ceramic 3

After I got my other two pieces finished, I made 3 more on the last day before easter break.

The first I made  got the inspiration from  fields after ploughing, so it is still about farming and growth.

I made two testing pieces, and applied the same glaze as my corals.

But I did not like the colour thought it was too bright and glossy, so I would use GM next time, which is a matt glaze. And also they came out too sharp, I do not think will make more of them.

In order to make it softer looking, I tried a different technic to make the ploughed land, which I used a wire and made it into a zig zag shape and then pull it throught the clay.

 

 

the out come was much better than the previous one, I am pleased with the shape and also the glaze

so I decided to make more of them. But the new ones I added some Copper Carb and Rutil under GM.

 

 

Throwing

Since ceramics always time-consuming, while I wait for them to be put in the kiln, or out of the kiln I decided to learn throwing to keep my self productive. This doesn't really relate to my theme but I think it is good to learn something new rather than sit and wait. 

After my first throwing, I felt exhausting and my hands were hurting because of the spinning and clay bits rubbing on my skin. I found the hardest part was to keep the clay centre, I had to hold really tight to find the centre  even it was really hurting. But the outcome was not too bad for the first time, so I will need more practice.

I felt much better with my second trowing, therefore I tried to make some small pots or cups.

and found them actually much easier than making a bowl. 

The rough bits in the white clay still hurt my hands,

so I tried the finest clay that  I can find, which is the Red clay(earthen ware)

It is much softer and smoother than Stone ware, but I did not really like the colour it is a bit too dark and it might effect the colour of  the glazes.

So in the end, I only made one pot with Red clay, and made more using the White clay. Hope I will see them all been fired after easter break.

Ceramic2

I got the inspiration from corals and starfish  for these two pieces,

Thought they are sort of sea flowers, how incredible is that their colours are naturally formed.

I decided to go with the greenish colours again, but did not find the exact colour that I want, so I used two glazes to blend together(F/11 and F/16), interestingly the colour is slightly different depends on I  put the green first or the yellow first. Therefore, I tried both way, and they looked totally different in colours before firing. Also I tried something new

that I wiped out the glaze in the centre and put some brown glass in  so when it's fired it melts to form a glassy coat.

They all turned into a beautiful green colour when they are finished. And the glass worked really well , and they got a blue edge around the glass that happened unexpectedly but it made them even more pretty and interesting.

Trees

By doing ceramics, I gradually get more ideas, I thought beside making something from clay, I can also try some casting.  Because when I was thinking about organic things, other than fields I also thought about woods, and trees are all got naturally formed shapes. And casing is a easier way to get a shape more accurately rather than making it. Therefore I picked some nice shaped branches from a tree, and coated them with clay slip, thought once  the branch been fired the actual branch will burn into ashes in the kiln then I can get a hollow ceramic sculpture of a branch. 

But unfortunately,  when the slip coat dried it cracked, this happened is due to the wet slip dried and shrinked on a hard surface. Although it did not fall apart at that stage, but the technician told me that they won't be able to stay once it's been fired. After one week of waiting, it proofed what technician told me, it fail to small pieces 

Things I am looking at

As I am looking for something natural and organic, 

therefore I collected some branches from trees and also I went to the beach to collect some pebble stones as an exploring of ideas, I thought it is amazing that these are naturally formed with beautiful colours and textures. When it comes to me to make something like them, it takes me ages to make the shape,textures and have to experiment with different glazes to get the right colours.

ceramic

When I got the idea of making ceramic I was thinking of making something with simple and organic looking , so the first things came to my mind were earth, fields.

For this simple shape, I got the inspiration from the terrace fields, it was actually quite easy to make, just roll a slab of Stoneware clay and cut it into smaller pieces then lay them together. In this picture it was been fired for the first time before I applied the glazes. I did not want the colour to be bright so I chose to use green and brown oxides.

I did not want it to be covered thick, so I mixed some water. I intent to get a greenish colour with brown around the edges, and these are the three colours I chose( Copper Carb, Rutil, Red Iorn)

But I have to say, it looked really weird when I just put the oxides on I did not like it at all.

After the second firing, the green bits turned out much darker, but did not make much difference to it. And because the oxides were so thin and was not able to cover the whole pice, so I decided to give it a second layer but using glaze. Thought it was just a experimental piece so I just grabbed a green glaze dipped it in then waiting for its last firing.

Again another week of waiting, the last day before our easter break I finally got a finished piece, and it turned out like wow, it really surprised me!

can believe that the glaze worked really well with the oxide. the green oxide turned into a brownish colour after been fired twice, and it also faded a bit but it looked amazing.

So I decided that I will make more of these tiles,when I go back to college because I really like it,and thought it will look good in a series. 

ceramic project

In order to start with, I began to make some simple things or shapes to get use to the clay.  Found that white clay might be easier to work with, since the red clay is a bit rough and hard to pinch.

But by pinching the clay into a bowl or cup shape is hard to get even, so I think I will not make more of these but will use them as experimental pieces to test glazes.

Exhibition

As I decided to do ceramic for my second project, I went to a Contemporary China exhibition called Ahead of the Curve. The initial inspiration for this exhibition came from a museums networking visit to China in 2009, organised by the British Council's  Connections Through Culture programme, so they had a chance to visit  the ceramic city of Jingdezhen. In this exhibition, they collected quite few works from a group of Chinese Contemporary artists, I thought the works were really impressive, many of they used the traditional China glazes and patterns but in a very contemporary way which gives a strong contrast. Especially Shao Changzong's work,  he made weird statues of some little men with porcelain, but applied with traditional blue and white glaze on the bodies. To be honest I found it creepy, but it is also quite interesting, and the Curves are my favourite, I love the simplicity of them, but also the strength, the artist definitely made a lot of efford  to get this  beautiful  thin curves,they are so different from what China was use to be, they are not vases or pots.  I thought this can be a breakthrough of the old fashion Chinese ceramic arts.

But for the whole exhibition, I thought it was a bit crowded as there were actually quite a lot works in the room, and the works were all fraigile china so most of them were kept in a glass box which made them look all squashed in. There were not much space for visitors  to walk through. There was a big screen on the wall to show the workers and artists' life in Jingdezheng, and how all the vases, pots been made. The video was combined  from quite a few short footages, I thought it was interesting to watch but it would be better if it had an english subtitle even though there were not much conversations in it.

In overview, personally I found the works quid impressive, but it would be better if they were in a bigger room, and pay more attention to the site layout.

Portrait photos

photos taken for portraits study

While I was doing my oil painting, I also did some sketches using ink, and thought it worked quite good. With ink or water colour I felt much easier to get that kind of free hand, loose drawing.

The 3rd portrait

Project 1 evaluation

Thankfully I finished three portraits in less than fours weeks, since I can not paint oil at home. I thought it was not difficult to paint but to prepare what to paint. I spent most of my time thinking about the expressions, emotions, style and colours, I found myself quite struggling when making decisions.  I was used to paint with water colour, oil is much thicker so it does not really flow.  Also this is my first time using oil to paint portraits, I was quite careful when I was painting, so I thought  it came out a bit too controlled.

I did not like my first portrait, I thought the colours was too bright, and I want it to be thin and airy therefore I did not paint it over and over again to correct the colours. Also the proportions were not very correct, especially the neck looked weird. It is quite hard to get everything right, without a reference as I am working from my imagination, so I took some photos of my classmates and intended a life drawing class as a study of proportions. I found the life drawing class was very helpful, it was much accurate than observe  correct proportions from photos or books.

I thought my second portrait was much better than the first one, it looked much softer and blend in. To get that kind of soft, airy looking rather than paint the colours on I actually swept them on, so it does not get thick and does not leave strong brush strokes. And I use a lot of white to make the background colour down, so it was not very contrast to the portrait itself. But one thing I did not like my second portrait is that it looked a bit flat as it was smooth and soft, and it looked like I was being overly timid or careful. As a result, I deliberately left some brush strokes on my third portrait, and it is got the most satisfactory colours than the other two which was dull , low key and can be a bit creepy.

In conclusion, I found it was not easy to mix that kind of dull colours, but in an over view I like my third portrait the best. But I did  not like that I seemed over careful while I was working on the painting, so separate from what I do for my project, I am also thinking to do some loose drawings just to practice to draw freely.

2nd portrait

I intend to show an innocent looking in her eyes,  with soft light tones.  But I thought it looked better when it was not finished. 

1st oil paint portrait

As this is my first oil paint portrait I found it quite struggle to get the proportions right, even thought I referred to some photos of side face it still looked a bit weird. To get my paintings right I will need more studies about human bodies. Also because I was not familiar with oil paint I found it quite difficult to mix the right colours, I was trying to get that kind of dull, low key colour but it just came out too bright.  Since I wanted to give it a neat, airy looking so it turned a bit too flat, therefore I ended it up by adding some brush strokes to it.