Monday, July 11, 2011

More Art Show Preparation - Porcelain Cars

Ben Belknap - Ceramic SculptureI just got these pieces out of the kiln. They are just black underglaze on porcelain. I am about to start a couple larger pieces which will take forever and I only have a couple of weeks. You do the math. These were pretty simple, here is the process:
Ben Belknap - Ceramic SculptureHere is the unglazed porcelain car.
Ben Belknap - Ceramic SculptureFirst I brush black underglaze into all of the cracks. I like to use Leslie Ceramic Supply's U-24 Basic Black. They also make U-9 Black which is a cool blueish black. The U-24 is a warm brownish black and it tends to flux (get shiny) less than the U-9 which is also a bonus in this case.
Ben Belknap - Ceramic SculptureAll the cracks, crevices etc filled with black underglaze.
Ben Belknap - Ceramic SculptureNext I take a sponge and wipe off the excess underglaze leaving nice crisp lines.
Ben Belknap - Ceramic SculptureNow for the laborious part, the background. I have collected lots of images to use which I organize and paste in a scrapbook. This page is all from an old french encyclopedia that had some great images. Landscapes tend to be pretty forgiving since people can't really tell whether you copied the image faithfully so I don't really worry that much about it. It still takes a bit of time even on so small an area. I also shaded the car somewhat at this stage.
Ben Belknap - Ceramic SculptureAnd here is the result after firing.

I will post more pictures in the coming weeks. Check out the website for the gallery here: http://roscoeceramicgallery.com/

See my last post for the time and other particulars.

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