Flasks bisqued

The 14 porcelain flasks went into a bisque firing on Thursday. The ink seems stable, I will put them into a final firing to vitrify them. I started on the parian flasks, I'll try to make at least 15. Porcelain flasks out of the kiln after bisque firing  

Transferring the greenware to the studio

I moved the slip casting to the kitchen over the bank holiday to maximise time to make the flasks. Then I had to move the greenware to the studio today... The lugs in particular are very delicate so it was stressful to move them to the studio. I managed to re-attach all the ones that …

Slip casting with the new mould

I've spent the last few days slip casting with porcelain into the new mould. I had lots of problems, which turned out to be the mould hadn't dried out properly. I left it overnight, put it in the oven at a very low temperature and it dried out.

Exhibition thoughts

Text: Janice’s travel flasks are a material response to William Holburne’s paper passport document, his travelling Yixing teapot and his experience of the Grand Tour. The travel flasks take the flattened globular form of the Yixing teapot and the texture, patination and delicacy of the incised and print decorated porcelain relates to the 200 year-old …

Direct printing onto clay

I decided to try a batch of flasks where I screen print directly onto the slab that has had the folded paper pressed onto it and is ready to be press moulded. The recipe for this print medium for direct printing onto a plastic slab is the simplest - heavy glaze medium plus under glaze …

Decal firing for the flasks

The flasks were our in a 780 degree firing. This is a normal decal firing however I should've checked the PDF instructions as they came out of the kiln burned off. The ink turned to dust instead of fusing with the glaze and can be wiped off. I'll need to check the instructions. Pretty disastrous …

Flasks decalled

The decals arrived. I would say the print defines the building sketch more than the text. I wanted the text more defined. Part of the R&D process. The shape of the flask is tricky to decal. I know the decal printers can work with you to shape the decal according to the curved body of …

Words for Holburne Project

We are submitting 5 sentences to describe our project for exhibition and media purposes to Fiona. I emailed mine this evening. Here are mine Janice’s travel flasks are a material response to William Holburne’s paper passport document, his travelling Yixing teapot and his experience of the Grand Tour. At first glance two unrelated objects, however, …

More decoration for the flasks

Still having lots of discussion regarding methods for printing on clay. When I'm down in  a month I'm going to test some methods, eg laser etching. In the meantime I am halfway through trying screen printing, and ready to cut out and stick on some decals. Still working out the best glaze medium, Conor suggested …

Assemblage thought

A quick note from something Conor said in today's tutorial that's interesting. I hadn't imagined assembling the different 'boxes' or elements, whatever they end up being, until after firing but Conor thought I meant before firing. This is really exciting, I'd like to begin as Conor suggested at a small scale, and I could test …