Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Black Glaze Recipes

1. St johns black
85 Alberta slip
15 nepheline syenite
5 cobalt carbonate
2 bentonite

* mix bentonite in warm water first. Then add others.

2. Black

5 dolomite
6 whiting
67 soda feldspar F-4
5 Epk
17 flint silica
3 cobalt carbonate
4 red iron oxide
1 bentonite

* mix bentonite in warm water first.

3. VC black
65 Albany slip
15 nepheline syenite
10 barium carbonate
10 talc
1 chrome oxide
2 manganese dioxide
1 cobalt oxide
4 red iron oxide

Thursday, October 20, 2011

artaxis.org : Browse Artists

Check out this site. It contains a wealth of ceramic people working right now and making really good work.

artaxis.org : Browse Artists:

'via Blog this'

Monday, October 3, 2011

Open Studio Hours October

Class times
Monday : 1-4pm, 6-9pm
Tuesday : open all day
Wednesday : 3:30-4:30pm, 6-9pm
Thursday : 6-9pm
Friday : *5-6:30pm (*October 14, 21, and 28)

Also First Fridays studio closes at noon to prepare. 

Saturday, October 8th : 10am - 5pm : Workshop by Carla Potter
Sunday, October 9th : 11am-1pm : Free Lecture by Carla Potter on The History of Porcelain

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Ceramic Decals

heres some info I found. At Ceramic decal priting, you can upload images to their site and they will send you the decals.

 http://www.ceramicdecalprinting.com/

Price
1-9 Sheets $35.00 Per Sheet



 Easy Ceramic Decals is another good site.

http://www.easyceramicdecals.com/index.php

Pricing ECD specializes in small runs of ceramic decals for artists; therefore there are no minimum orders and no setup fees. Standard shipping is billed at $5 per order.
There are three levels of printing that we offer.
Budget -- $25. Appropriate when small printing flaws are acceptable. Slight risk, but good option if experimenting or if repeating the same image on one sheet and you can lose one or a few.
Standard -- $35. Sheets will be reprinted if necessary to avoid cosmetic errors. Extra time is also spent color calibrating when necessary.
Design Assisted -- $45. We will scan original artwork that is sent to us and then compose your decal sheet for you with your guidance. This is a great choice for artists with limited computer experience. If you desire more than one sheet, subsequent prints will be priced at the standard or budget rate. These and other sites offer printing papers for home printers, however they need to be printed on a laserjet printer.



 Found this site vary helpful.

http://home.comcast.net/~frankgaydos/Decal-1.html

This web page will provide you with the basis for making your own ceramic decals. Please EMAIL ME at frankgaydos at comcast dot net, for more information.(Use the @ symbol instead of 'at' and the . instead of 'dot', )
 BACKGROUND: Some brands of black and white Laser printers contain 60% iron oxide as well as other pigments in their toner cartridge. When a decal is printed using one of these printers and then applied to a ceramic surface and fired, the iron oxide survives the firing. It becomes permanently fused to the glaze surface. The resulting surface is a sepia toned image ( sepia because of the iron oxide) The other pigments, etc, burn away . Not all cartridges contain iron oxide. All Apple black and white laser printers work for this process. Hewlett Packard black and white laser printers also contain iron oxide and work very well. Dell laser printers work , but, less well. They give a less dark image. NEC and and Brothers do not work. Other brands of Laser printers must be tested.
 DETAILS: You will need to purchase the Decal paper from http:// www.beldecal.com. Click on Laser decal paper and select 'clear' paper. I use a HP black and white laser printer model 1200 that prints 8x11 inch paper. It also will be helpful to purchase a graphics program along the lines of Photoshop, This will allow you to work with the image; rotate, scale, or invert. Inexpensive photographic programs are available, IE, Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0. You will need to experiment with the glaze you use. Not all glazes will work. Some will eat the toner while others will work just fine. Experiment.
 THE PROCESS: You will be adding the decal to a glazed ceramic surface. After you acquire an image and print it on the Decal Paper, cut the image from the sheet as close as you can to the toner. The idea here is to not have a lot of decal film left over which may hinder placement on curved surfaces. Place the cut decal into warm water and wait about one minute. When the decal slides off the backing paper, place it toner side down onto a smooth already glazed ceramic surface. After placement use a soft paper towel to pat the decal dry while also pushing out any air bubbles that may become trapped. If you allow air to remain under the image, that part of the image will NOT print. Therefore, the surface MUST be SMOOTH. You can place on a curved surface within limits. You should have no problem with the average bowls, coffee mugs, etc. Caution: Make sure you print on the decal paper and not the protective onion skin that seperates the decal paper sheets. It is easy to get confused. Glaze color selection is important. Lighter colors are good. White is the best. For scanned photographs use 300 DPI. More just makes the image too dark. Fire the ware cone 04 - cone 6. Again, you may need to experiment. You may be able to fire lower or need to fire higher.
EXTENDED STEPS: After the image is fired onto your pot you can then add color by using china paint wash, enamal, overglazes or lusters. If you do not have access to a scanner you can input images from your digital cameras. Also, many DOVER Books among others, now come with a CD, the images already scanned for you.

You can purchase color decals at this site: http://www.instardecals.com/

http://www.beldecal.com/laser_paper.html This site offers paper at reasonable prices.

Link to Grand Valley State University Art Gallery

Heres a direct link to a page of the Art Gallery's online catalog.

http://gvsuartgallery.org/pawtucket/index.php/Detail/Entity/Show/entity_id/3045

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

The end of Throwing and the beginning of Open Instruction

This post marks the end of one class and the start of another. Everything previous involves throwing class summer of 2011 and now Starts the Fall 2011 Open Instruction class. For all new classes I want to encourage you to look at the posts for the other clay classes there are some good links.

Monday, August 1, 2011

New Clay ready to be purchased and turned in to beautiful POTS.


Seth mixed two new bodies, at least new in the sense that they have not been around here for a while. One is a white porcelaineous body, and the other is a fireclay stoneware (good for sculpture, wood, and possibly raku?)

Anyway, the earthenware, fireclay body (marked FC), and the stoneware cost $10 per 25 lbs for students ($15 for non). 

The porcelaineous white is $15 for students ($20 for non)

You can purchase clay during class or using the payment slips on the wall by the office door. It can also be purchased when someone is in the office.  

Charlie Cummings Gallery

http://claylink.com/zen/ here are many great ceramic artists, check out their thrown works.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Martha Grover

Hey all

You should follow this link to a ceramist that has many ties to Montana, and has been here at the Clay Studio. Martha Grover

She makes utilitarian porcelain vessels that are visually referential to nature. Vary well thrown as well as expertly glazed. The studio has several pieces of her's in their gallery, take a look and give them a feel.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Lillstreet Art Center

This is an Art Center in Chicago. It is truly a wonderful community of people in a vibrant city. I visited this place a few years back and was blown away with this community space, they offer all ranges of classes for all ages and in many mediums. Check out there ceramics blog at Lillstreet ceramics blog, and you can check out there home site too Lillstreet

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Ayumi Horie = Awesome pots

Heres a link to Ayumi's web page, her work is amazing, she also has a video where she demonstrates throwing a vessel with out water, it is quite spectacular.

Ayumi Horie web site


Heres her video

Welcome Beginning Throwing :)

Hi all.

This site is for you. I will post images, videos and links to awesome techniques, tips, pots, and anything else I think you might enjoy. Take a look then go GET DIRTY!

If you have any questions feel free to contact me via email or cell. deanrfoster@gmail.com / 616-550-9005