Building Blocks

This past week has been a busy one for the ceramics students of FUA. On Monday we started slip-casting the geometric shapes for Andrea's project... and it ended up being a lot harder than I had anticipated! We were warned that our first batch would be our worst, and I believe it. These pieces need to be perfect, so making a mistake in any of the steps from slip to kiln usually means that the piece cannot be used. I am eager to see if everything goes more smoothly in class tomorrow (now that we have tried everything once already).

Here are a bunch of pictures that Professore Raimondo took of our first attempts at slip-casting. I will do my best to use the pictures to explain the process...

These are the plaster molds we are using to create each little piece. They come in many different shapes and can most easily be filled by using a small plastic cup to pour the slip.

The slip first had to be strained through a wire mesh to prevent any dry chunks from ruining the pieces.

Simply gorgeous.

We carefully--and sometimes not so carefully--filled many of the molds with slip. The molds wrapped with black rubber bands (made from bicycle tubes) are two-piece molds.

Yeah! Slip-casting can be fun!

As the slip dries and shrinks a little bit, the center of each piece sinks in slightly. Additional slip must then be added to the concavity that forms before the first pouring dries enough to form layers. 

A little more can be added here.

Oh dear, someone forgot to keep an eye on these.

When the slip has dried (leather hard) and is no longer runny, we use razor blades to scrape the excess off. The two-piece molds can also be opened up soon after this time; since they are slightly longer they usually take slightly to dry. 

This stage in the process is also helping me quickly develop a hatred for plaster. I do not like the feel of it in my hands, and any flakes that are scraped off by the razor blades are potentially dangerous to the firing process. It is a good reason to be careful. 

We filled a lot of molds that day. 

After scraping off the excess. Some pieces come out easily, others need to be coaxed.

Another important step, putting a hole in the "bottom" of the piece, is most easily carried out while they are still in this leather hard stage. The hole is important because the pieces must all eventually be dipped into glaze, and using ones fingers to do the dipping is simply out of the question. A wire hook will be inserted into each piece's hole and used to quickly dunk it in the glaze. Little drill bits are perfect for making these holes, and each hole can be made before or after the piece is turned out of its mold.

Almost finished! Actually, not really. These pieces must dry a bit more before all their imperfections can be trimmed and sanded. Some pieces, especially those with broken tips, are a lost cause and not worth the time it takes to sand them. Others can be sanded into uselessness if the corners become too rounded. As with the previous steps, great care is needed when working with these delicate shapes.

This tall pyramid turned out quite nicely.

The Mustache Makes the Man

This semester, the ceramics classes at Florence University of the Arts (FUA) has an incredible opportunity—we actually get to work together with a famous Italian ceramicist to produce his next piece! The artist is Andrea Salvatori, a man, I’m told, who is redefining the field of contemporary ceramics. Recently he has been working on pieces that remind me of three-dimensional mosaics, such as the bulldog upon which he is resting his hand in this picture.

Yesterday, our classes took a bus to visit his workshop and receive our instructions for the collaboration process. The piece with which our classes will assist is a concept similar to the bulldog, though I am not allowed to say exactly what it will be right now (top secret!). Andrea gave us molds to use and taught us how to make the smaller pieces that he will assemble. It is more than a little bit intimidating—I really do not want to disappoint him or our professors—but at the same time it is an exciting opportunity and one that I do not anticipate ever having again. So here goes nothing! The non-art student is going to work on a great piece of art… I guess this is just part of the magic of studying abroad.

Here are some pictures of Andrea’s work, all currently stored in his fascinating workshop.

I found these kitschy pieces to be quite clever and entertaining.

Don't worry, it's a metaphor.

Artist, wood stove, drying molds.

Mixing slip in an enormous blender.

The more gruesome the arrangement, the greater the contrast.

These stars are impressive.

After our tour of Andrea's workshop, we stopped at a food stand to partake of these delectable calzones. Salsiccia e funghi always taste like heaven together. 

Everything about this man is fantastic. Maybe someday I'll have a mustache, hair, and jacket as cool as Andrea's.

This coming week we start production of the pieces for the project. I have never done slip-casting before, so wish me luck!

Progress Report...

Work on my amphora has progressed smoothly in the past week. I am now finished with the "wet clay" stage and my piece is currently drying. This coming week I will finish smoothing the sides, maybe even try out a black glaze if Professor Raimondo says I can start experimenting with glazes. The clay will be easier to smooth when it is dry--using tools like a flat, thin, flexible piece of sheet metal can be used to scrape the sides, or a damp sponge can gently smooth the delicate and irregularly-shaped parts.

Here is a picture of my piece when I started working on it during open studio hours last week.

I continued to add rings of clay formed from "spaghetti" out of the extruder machine. Each ring was scored with a sharp tool and joined together with a slurry made from the same clay, just as before.

Making slurry is not a "neat and tidy" process.

The work I did during open studio hours put me in a good position to finish sculpting my piece during class. I narrowed the neck as much as I thought wise, and then pulled the edges of the top ring out to form a wider rim. 

The greatest challenge was making sure the entire piece was centered. When one stands directly above the piece and looks down, the amphora simply looks like a series of concentric circles: the widest ring of the body, the outside of the rim, and the open hole. The piece will look odd if any of these rings if off-centered, and it is also crucial to center the bottommost ring (forming the base). If that base ring is off-centered, spinning the piece about its center axis will not be useful at all for centering the other parts. Accordingly, I spent a good deal of time trying to make sure the center hole, rim, widest point, and especially the base were all centered as much as possible. 

The artist, hard at work.

When I had arrived at the shape I wanted, I then started smoothing my amphora as much as the wet clay would allow. Most of the time I gently spun the entire piece and used the flat or slightly curved sides of a wooden tool to even out any bumps or uneven spaces. The pointed end of that wooden tool was also helpful for reshaping the center hole. 

Gently spinning.

Almost smooth.

When I had smoothed it as much as possible with the tools, I used my fingers to feel out and smooth any remaining bumps (sometimes closing my eyes for greater sensitivity). That was as smooth as I could get it while the clay was still wet, so when I had finished, I partially wrapped my piece in plastic (so it would dry slowly and without cracking) and set it on the shelf to dry. As a bit of a perfectionist, I cannot wait to see how smooth I can make it when it is dry!

First Project

Ciao a tutti, and welcome to my blog!

This past Monday I began the first project in my Beginning Ceramics class. The previous week I had visited il Museo Archeologico here in Florence to sketch interesting pieces that could be used as inspiration. Here is my sketch of the amphora--"amfora" in Italian--I selected to recreate (approximately) as my first real work in clay:

For our first project, the entire class is making coil pots using red clay extruded in long pieces by this machine. Coils can also be made by hand, but the process is much more difficult and time-consuming, so the thin snakes of clay formed by this machine are ideal for our class of beginners. It was actually much harder to turn the clay-extruding crank than I had anticipated...

Progress on my mini-amphora went very slowly this first lesson. First, a flat piece of clay trimmed into a circle became my base. Then, instead of making one continuous coil, I opted to make one ring at a time from the extruded clay and stack it on top of the previous loop. 

I then joined the two rings together with slurry (a mix of water and clay used as glue), making sure to score each piece of clay with the sharp end of a tool, and then smoothing the edges together. I tried to be very thorough as I joined my coils together, careful to prevent air bubbles from forming in any of the joints--expanding air bubbles can explode in the kiln and destroy a pot as it is fired. Initially, the slurry I created to join my coils together was too wet and could have weakened my base. A word of advice and the use of a sponge to absorb some of the excess moisture quickly got me back on track. Work continued without event for the rest of the period...

Tools of the trade.

Later this week I will have the opportunity to go back to the studio during open hours and continue to build the walls of the amphora. At a later point in time, I will use separate pieces of clay to form and attach a base, two handles, and the faces at the base of each handle. Until then, wish me good luck and great patience!