text weaving ^2

Current project extended by another two sessions. Think I am wandering off-piste a bit but then thats is where I seem to have most fun... Still working with the same text, I have started to experiment with braille and creating mini concertina books in aluminium.

twisted silk threads merge with handwritten text

squares of writing spiked

moving text into texture

combining (very loose) calligraphic marks with braille

text weaving

A college project based loosely on two main inspirations; Chris Marker's film La Jetee - taking forward ideas of memory and recording; and a sycamore wood bowl by Peter Archer in Hove Museum linking Text - Textile - Texture.   

Text; Date of Origin 14^th c. from 
Latin texere, meaning ‘weave’. Its past participle textus was used as a noun meaning ‘woven material’, and hence metaphorically ‘literary composition’. English acquired it via Old French texte. Other English words from the same source include context, pretext, subtle, textile, texture and tissue. (source; word-origins.com)

lightbox image of first weave - handwritten text woven between silk threads

layers of text painted with acrylic on tissue paper

tissue paper twisted into ropes and woven on a warp of fishing wire

long exposure shot of finished weave

textile glazing results

The weave plate with a clear glaze. A bit ugly but intact!

Hessian dipped in Poole Harbour slip much more interesting. I really did not think it would survive the firing and glazing but it has. Amazingly light, delicate and fragile. Exciting to learn that it is possible and I will definitely return to this technique again soon.

fabric update

The hessian soaked in slip is now (finally) dry. I shaped it as it dried but now think its probably far too thin to fire successfully...

It does allow for making interesting shapes and contortions. I will try and fire it next time the kilns going but may have to try and make thicker versions if I want them to survive.

frozen weave

It must have got too cold in shed last night - the drying weave plate has frozen and is covered in ice crystals. The slip that I wanted to decorate the plate with was frozen solid too.

20 minutes on the heater and the slips were liquid again and got splashed randomly over the plate...

I have brought plate into a (hopefully) frost free spot and now I have to hope it defrosts without cracking too badly. 

fabric soaked in slip

Fabric can be soaked in clay slip, the resultant mess shaped and dried can then be fired. During the firing the fabric burns away to leave a skeleton of very delicate clay.

An earlier attempt which I made using earthenware slip and hessian;

This worked in that it fired and showed me some of the potential of the technique. Earthenware clay is however not very strong and so the clay skeleton is very fragile. I originally made three but the other two - which were wound much more loosely and looked more interesting - dissolved and fell apart when I tried to dip them in glaze.

Now I am trying again using smaller pieces of hessian and some clay I dug from Poole Harbour. This is a ball clay which is extremely fine and extremely strong so I am hoping to be able to contort the hessian into more exciting shapes and for the finished result to look more refined.

weave

I have long wanted to try weaving clay and now I have an excuse - this blog is proving worthwhile!

Simple red earthenware hand rolled coils woven over a plaster mould. I made this very quickly and squashed the coils together so its not very neat or even but the shed was too cold to hang around. Started to clean it up with a sponge, hopefully will be able to neaten more as it dries.

Currently looks more like a lattice pie than a woven bowl...

Maybe brush with slip to make more even and help the coils stick together? Planning to clear glaze and then gold lustre the cut ends. Could take a while to dry in this climate but that might help prevent it from cracking...

textiles

A brief, hectic week back in Dorset where I managed to do nothing with clay at all. However, the past two weeks of textile lessons have given me plenty of ideas for when I have a bit more time again;

. Felting was a real discovery and I can imagine integrating it into ceramics in many ways. First off will be a felt jumper for a pot with some stitched or dry felted landscape lines.

. Weave reminded me of a long-on-hold ceramic project to weave with clay

. sewing onto paper, without the use of thread, to create loads of tiny holes in a set pattern. These could then be used like a stencil with ceramic pigment dusted through the holes (I think its called spolvero)

. using fabric printing blocks to impress details into damp clay. This is something I have tried in the past. On my one attempt, I let the clay get too hard before trying to print and assemble so not very successful but the idea a good one and I will try again when I can give it a bit more time.