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| Underglazes when layered on different colored backgrounds... |
Today, I attended an amazing class at Leslie Ceramics taught by Sarah Gregory. It was mind-bending. First, we learned a lot about color, and about the effect underglazes have when layered on a ceramic form. Then, Sarah taught us how her signature split fountain effect is created on the backgrounds of her pieces. We were each given a fanned brush, and allowed to experiment on test tiles, and on shards of Sarah's porcelain. I learn by doing, and so after much practice, I managed to create a simple range from Cancun Blue to Chartreuse after several layers. The underglaze is watered down, and glycerin is added to retard the drying process.
Then, Sarah provided us with fine metal-tipped squeeze bottles, loaded with a mixture of wax and black underglaze. She demonstrated and helped us to create illustrations on our work. The "pen" was tricky. It gave me all new appreciation for her complex imagery. My pen kept clogging, as I was pressing too heavily into the underglazed background. I had trouble finding the sweet spot of the pen. Another student mentioned that it reminded him of using a rapidograph pen. That caused me to tense up, thinking about my dark history with graphic design mechanicals! Afterwards, Sarah showed us how to fill in the black outlines with color, and then how to shade and highlight. She mentioned that she likes to add a bit of complementary color to the shadows of her flowers. And, she showed us a green fuchsia stem with a hint of red in the shading. It was an information packed day. And, then she took those of us who were interested, on a guided tour of her nearby studio...
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| Sarah begins creating a subtle split fountain color change... |
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| One way to create the split fountain... |
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| Test tile showing a range of yellow to orange... |
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| More test tiles, including a clear glazed one... |
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| Fantastic inspirational books... |
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| Sarah starts illustrating from a sample flower... |
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| She starts filling in the wax and black underglaze outlines... |
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| Adding subtle complementary colored shadows, then highlights... |
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| Amazing test tiles showing background changes... |
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| A student's split fountain tile, from pink to blue... |
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| Using fanned brushes and applicator bottles... |
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| Gail draws a lovely bird... |
Why was wax mixed WITH the black underglaze?
ReplyDeleteThe wax keeps the black underglaze from smearing. Also, you can color over the black, and it resists, so that you still see the black outline...
ReplyDelete