I've seen polymer clay books and wondered if I can use regular clay to get the same effects. I want to keep my work everyday usable.
Yes, you can color your clay and design patterns in much the same way as you do with polymer clay. The best results are obtained when using white clays that fire to about Cone 5 - 6. You need to use slip between the colors to 'glue' them together. This slip should be as thick as yogurt but use it very sparingly. Patterns made with real clay can be enlarged easily, but you wont be able to make them smaller the way you can polymer patterns.
How do you decide which stains to use? Can we only use body stains?
I use Mason stains primarily, but use Cerdec/Degussa inclusion stains for reds and bright orange. Mason has a great website with a number coded guide to help you choose the right stains for your firing and glazing needs. Under you need 30 pounds of any color, you cannot order directly. You have to go through a clay materials supplier.
Mason has a list of colors guaranteed to work as body stains but many other colors will work well. I recommend getting a small sample and trying it with your clay. Some clays contain trace elements that will affect color outcome so try a little first before you buy a lot. Your clear glaze will also change the colors and stability of some stains so be sure to glaze half your sample too.
Do you always have to mix colors thoroughly?
No. You can mix them in many ways and get great results.
Mixing them in wet or dry you can stop at any point to achieve swirls of color or small specks of color through the clay. You can thoroughly mix the colors then gently knead it into white, stopping when you like the pattern.
SLAB ROLLER EXPERIMENTS
While presenting at the Potters Council Handbuilding workshop at the Spruill Center in Atlanta, my students and I began discussing the effects we believed a slab roller had on the clay it was compressing and extending. We were wondering just what was happening to both sides of the clay and what effect being stretched in one direction had the clay.
I kept wondering about this after I got home and decided to try a couple of simple experiments. In order to see how the clay was moving through the rollers I decided to place some colored clay on both sides of a plain slice of clay like this.
Then. I ran it through my Bailey slab roller.
After compressing and stretching the clay, I found each surface was different. The pattern on the top of the clay had stretched 7" while the pattern on the bottom of the clay had only stretched 4 1/2".
Notice ... not much size difference side to side.. I decided to flip the piece and roll it again without changing anything else.
Now the design is 8" on the original top and 6.25 on the original bottom. Obviously, the piece was compressed more on its length than its width. So, I wondered what this meant to the shrinkage of a piece of work.
I cut it into a 6" by 6" tile and let it rest. After 30 minutes it had shrunk 1/16th inch on all sides. Next day , it had shrunk 1/8th inch on all sides.
Even shrinkage and FLAT ... absolutely no warping.
SO ... why did something that appeared to stretch unevenly shrink so evenly? Is the conventional wisdom of rolling again across the grain really a necessary step if this tile stayed perfectly flat without any help?
My husband, the engineer, speculates the slab roller is all about compression, not stretching so this is why it stays even.
LOVE THE BRIGHT COLORS!
Many times people ask me why I pay a higher price for Southern Ice Porcelain. Here is the reason ... same % of stain added to both clay bodies ... Southern Ice is on the right in both images.
I've just colored 500 pounds of clay !!
A QUICK PROJECT TO TRY
STEP ONEMake two doorstop shaped wedges of the different colors and line them up thickest end to thinnest end as shown in this image.
You can slice this now squared loaf into as many slices as you want. Fewer slices will result in bolder color changes. If you want softer and more gradual color changes, cut more slices.
When you remove the slices you must number each one so you will remember which order they were in. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP.
Knead each slice until the colors are blended to your satisfaction, then set them aside AFTER NUMBERING EACH ONE AGAIN. At this point I would make a small test disc of each color and fire it to be sure I liked the results. You do not want to put all the work into a patterned loaf only to find out the colors are wrong.
STEP TWO
Roll out each ball of colored clay and cut them to the same width and thickness using a simple cardboard template. You will be using half of the pieces to create a simple striped loaf and saving the other pieces for later.
Place the pieces on your worktable in the order you wish to stack them. For this project, I have brushed a thick black slip between each layer to make a thin line between colors.
This is my multi-hued striped loaf.
STEP THREE
Now we will be combining layers of this striped loaf with your reserved colored slices to make an attractive patterned loaf. The first thing to do is to cut the striped loaf into even slices using two identical boards or rulers as guidelines for your cutting wire.
Place the reserved colored slices on your table in the order you want to use them. The order is strictly up to you.
Add the striped slices by measuring and trimming until they match the size of the plain colored slices. You should note that I have had to cut some in thirds to get the correct match.
You should consider which side of the loaf you want the stripes show up on. The other side will be a solid color.
Alternate the striped slices whimsically with the plain pieces checking to make sure you like the emerging pattern. Use the black slip between these layers..
Tap the finished loaf gently on all sides to ease the slices together. Do not worry about air pockets as you will be able to smooth them out as you use the individual slices.
This is my finished stacked loaf.
I would recommend letting the loaf rest for a day or two before using it to build forms or for decorating.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
Artist's Statements somehow propel otherwise sane artists into the realms of ancient Latin and verbose prose. They mean well but often end up describing their work in terms both off-putting and incomprehensible. Really, should you have to pull out a dictionary to understand what an artist is trying to do?
I work with colored porcelain because there is nothing else that fascinates and challenges me as much. I've been creating with color for over twenty years and still have not come close to trying everything I want to do. There always seems to be another question, another idea and another goal.
