Pottery Making Illustrated

Pottery Making Illustrated November/December 2009

	Theme: Fun and Function In this issue we have a little fun with functional work – treating forms and surfaces with a twist. First of all, Michelle Erickson and Robert Hunter lead you on a journey of discovery about an 18th century technique called “laid agate.” The detailed step-by-step makes it possible for you to duplicate. Next, you’ll discover a complete description of the mishima technique presented by Molly Hatch (see the cover), followed by Clay Cunningham’s description of Posey Bacopoulos’ majolica technique. And we’re fortunate to once again have Keith Phillips (Pancaker, Gumball Machine) return with another how-to project – the American Butter Dish. So, whether you’re throwing a simple tumbler and dedicating a lot of time to the decoration, or throwing a complicated butter dish and using a single glaze for decoration, you’ll enjoy the hours you spend picking up some of the great techniques in this issue. To purchase this back issue, call 1-800-340-6532. Get great content like this 6 times a year: subscribe today A Pot, A Drawing by Molly Hatch Molly Hatch finds something magical in her ability to interpret what she sees through her hands. Using drawing as a visual language similar to writing, she’s often surprised by the small narratives that appear in the patterns she draws using a mishima technique. Choose your own narrative using her detailed step-by-step technique to tell your story.

Ceramic Arts Daily

October 7, 2009

2-D to 3-D: Using Image Transfer and Mishima Techniques to Make Drawings on Pottery

by Molly Hatch

	If you’re drawn to drawing on clay surfaces, but haven’t quite mastered the ability to get your two-dimensional ideas onto your three-dimensional forms, this post is for you. During her undergraduate years at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, potter Molly Hatch mostly focused on drawing. Then in her final year, she learned how to combine drawing and printmaking skills for surface decoration on pottery, and the rest, as they say, is history. Molly went on to earn her MFA in ceramics and just recently finished a residency through the prestigious Arts/Industry Program at John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. In today’s post, an excerpt from the November/December 2009 issue of Pottery Making Illustrated, Molly explains how she uses image transfer and Mishima techniques to create her drawings in clay. Plus she shares her slip and engobe recipes. - Jennifer Harnetty, editor.
Mishima is a traditional Korean slip-inlay technique. The Korean pots you see with mishima decoration typically use several colors of slip in the same piece. I basically use the same black slip recipe for all of my mishima drawing. I always reference a pattern when I am drawing on my pots and sometimes I use a template to transfer a detail of the pattern. In this case, I am using the template to transfer the bird in the pattern onto the cup surface. I make my templates by laminating my own drawing of a found pattern. This is helpful if you are trying to make multiples, but still requires a lot of drawing and interpretation because you are drawing on a three-dimensional surface.
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A laminated paper template of your drawing can help maintain consistency in a design when transferring images to a set. All of my mishima is done when the pots are a dry-leather hard. Usually they are ready to draw on just after trimming is finished. Gently wrap the laminated pattern around the cup and use a quill or dull-tipped pencil to trace the image, taking care to position the image exactly where you would like it to be on the cup. Remove the template to reveal the transferred tracing image. Use the transferred image as a guide for drawing deeper lines into the surface. After going over the tracing, finish off the rest of the drawing freehand, using the template as a visual reference. You do not need to draw very deeply into the surface for mishima to work. I often feel as though I am just scratching into the surface of the clay. Brush the surface of the pot with a soft-bristled brush to get rid of crumbs, which could mar the surface. Apply a layer of stain over the drawing using a wide brush. Once the pot has dried back to the dry leather-hard state and any sheen on the slip has gone, wipe away excess slip from the surface of the pot using a clean sponge. You need to clean the sponge often during this process to avoid streaks on the surface of the pot
Drawing Tools There are many tools you can use to incise the surface of the pot for mishima. I have gone through stages of preferring particular tools. Pencil-style X-Acto knives, commercial stylus carving tools (sold in ceramic supply stores), African porcupine quills (available at Santa Fe Clay) amongst others. My current drawing tool of choice is a calligraphy pen with exchangeable metal tips. It is the same kind of pen that you dip in ink and would use to do traditional calligraphy; I just use it on clay instead. Pictured here (from left to right): X-acto knife for drawing into the leather-hard clay; African porcupine quill (I got mine from Santa Fe Clay) for drawing and transferring images into the leather hard clay (different line quality); $1.00 Chinese brush for brushing on the slip after I have drawn into the leather hard clay; Extra soft men’s shaving brush for brushing away the crumbs of clay (I got mine at a flea market because really nice ones are really expensive!); natural sponge: for wiping away the slip after I have brushed it onto the pot. Adding Color On many of my pots, I add color accents to the mishima pattern through painting. I do all of my painting after the pot has been bisque fired and before I do any glazing. For the color, I use a cone 04 vitreous engobe that I mix myself, but commercial underglazes also work well. If you use an engobe, combine it in a 1:1 ratio with mixing-medium using a palette knife until it is well mixed. The mixing-medium helps make the engobe more brushable and thins it out so that you can build up color in layers, similar to painting on canvas. This layering makes for more solid colors with less visible brush strokes. The engobe recipe that I use tends to flux a bit at cone six but it can still be used to fill in the line drawings on the bottoms of pots. After I finish adding the color, I use a clear glaze over everything then fire the work in oxidation to a hot cone six.
Slip and Engobe Recipes Andrew Martin’s Brushing Slip (up to cone 10) Raw Material Ferro Frit 3110 30% Ball Clay 20% Mason Stain (for black use MS 6600) 50% Total 100% Add: CMC Gum 2% Vitreous Engobe (cone 04 to cone 6) Raw Material Talc 15.3% Ferro Frit 3110 18.4% Ball clay (Kentucky #4 or OM 4) 15.3% EPK Kaolin 5.1% Glomax (Calcined Kaolin) 25.5% Silica 20.4% Total 100.0% Add: CMC (dry) 1% Macaloid (dry) 1% See images of Molly Hatch’s finished work at www.mollyhatch.com. An expanded version of this article is included in the November/December 2009 issue of Pottery Making Illustrated. Subscribe today to get great articles like this delivered to your studio door!

Studio Pottery Invitational and Ferrin Gallery

There has been lots happening in my studio recently! I am now showing with Ferrin Gallery in Pittsfield MA. There is an upcoming show with a preview this weekend! I would be excited to see any and all of you there at the gallery on Saturday the 10th of Oct. for the preview of the show. Click here for more info about the show and Ferrin Gallery.

Studio Pottery Invitational

Group Show of Functional Ceramics by American Studio Potters

October 17-November 18

Opening October 17, 4-6pm

Ferrin Gallery's Studio Pottery Invitational introduces a group of studio potters who have not shown previously at the gallery. Each year ten artists are invited to show a series of 10-25 functional pots that are related by forms and surface. This year's artists include:

Mary Anne Davis
Sanam Emami
Steve Godfrey
Molly Hatch
Kristen Kieffer
Seth Rainville
Kevin Snipes
Gwendolyn Yoppolo

Dates: October 17^th - December 31^st, 2009

Artist Reception: October 17th, 4 to 6:00 pm

Preview: October 10^th, 4 to 6:00 in conjunction with Locally Thrown/Locally Grown: a series of events on Columbus Day Weekend in partnership with IS183 Art School focused on ceramics.

Photo Caption: Chris Gustin, "Vessel", Ceramic, 2009, 29 x 17 x 17"

2009 Featured Artist: Chris Gustin

Chris Gustin grew up in Los Angeles, California where his family were part owners of several commercial whiteware ceramic manufacturing companies. Immersed in the beauty and function of ceramic tile manufacture from a very young age, Chris Gustin has held a lifelong love of the art of ceramics. Gustin started Gustin Ceramics Tile Production in 1996, and now devotes his full time and energies to his studio work and tile production company in South Dartmouth, MA.

Click here to link for more information on Locally Thrown/Locally Grown