I just realized it's been a very long time since my last post. I'll bring you up to speed, though I unfortunately don't have any pictures of the work we did since Raimondo was unable to be there.
This past class may have seriously shortened my lifespan. Not because of the progress I made on my own personal project--the matte black glaze pattern that I had airbrushed before break was fired and looked pretty good--but because of the next stage in the Andrea Salvatore project. We are now glazing all of the pieces that we have cast, sanded, and fired. And apparently the silica dust from the glaze can be harmful if inhaled. And I definitely stirred up a lot of silica dust. Our amateur glazing skills meant that a lot of pieces were less-than perfect, and Laura (one of the other professors guiding the project) asked me to work on flattening out the rounded sides where the glaze (which was probably slightly too thick) was layered on too thickly. So, in the process of smoothing out those rounded sides and trying to avoid leaving dusty fingerprints, I most likely inhaled more than the doctor-recommended amount of silica dust.
I also took advantage of the class time to paint a geometric design on the unglazed portion of my amphora (using matte black glaze and a fine-tipped brush), cover it with latex, and then reglaze the entire piece. I used the airbrush again, this time using a glossy black glaze instead of the matte black that I used for the first coat. I went back to check on it several days later and interesting things had happened...
I'll try to take a picture of it during the next class period, but for now I'll just describe what happened in the kiln. The entire piece looked not black, but a very dark, midnight-blue color. It had droplets of hardened glaze sitting where the latex had covered the matte pattern... which actually looked pretty cool. The entire piece was also a partially speckled pattern, making me think that I needed to cover it with more glaze than I had used. Reglazing a piece is even more unpredictable than glazing it the first time, but I still plan to airbrush my piece again tomorrow in class and see what happens with the droplets and mottled sides.
I also took advantage of the class time to paint a geometric design on the unglazed portion of my amphora (using matte black glaze and a fine-tipped brush), cover it with latex, and then reglaze the entire piece. I used the airbrush again, this time using a glossy black glaze instead of the matte black that I used for the first coat. I went back to check on it several days later and interesting things had happened...
I'll try to take a picture of it during the next class period, but for now I'll just describe what happened in the kiln. The entire piece looked not black, but a very dark, midnight-blue color. It had droplets of hardened glaze sitting where the latex had covered the matte pattern... which actually looked pretty cool. The entire piece was also a partially speckled pattern, making me think that I needed to cover it with more glaze than I had used. Reglazing a piece is even more unpredictable than glazing it the first time, but I still plan to airbrush my piece again tomorrow in class and see what happens with the droplets and mottled sides.
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