Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Mondrian Plate

Piet Mondrian's "Composition II in Red Yellow and Blue." All I can say is that painting this was not as easy as I thought it would be. It was the black lines that was the difficult part.
I actually fired this plate three times. The first time I fired it to approximately cone 06 to harden up the white base coat of majolica glaze. Then I used scotch tape to mask-out the lines for the red, blue and yellow. Once painted I fired it again to cone 06.
Then I masked-out and painted the black lines and fired it to cone 04.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Andy Warhol Plate

Andy Warhol's bannana, another plate in my series of famous art of the 20th Century.
This plate is my favorite so far, I think because of its' simplicity.
I wasn't sure how this plate would come out of the kiln. The majolica glazes before firing are very dull and I just wasn't sure how the black would come out. Came out just fine! Looks like my my brushwork skills are improving.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Matisse Plate

Matisse Plate. Commercial majolica glazes. Fired to cone 04.

M.C. Escher Plate

Finished product. Commercial majolica glazes and fired to cone 04.

Friday, April 04, 2014

Escher Plate

This plate is taking much longer than I had anticipated, and certainly been testing my patience. I'm still following my plans that I listed in my previous post.
I did paint the black fish first. That made it easier to fill in the white fish but it was a dizzying experience and sometimes very confusing. Don't know how Escher was able to do it.
I have just begun carving the details into the black fish. If you look at the black fish in the upper right of the plate you can see the white lines in the fin.
One deviation from my original plan was that after applying the base coat of white majolica, I fired the plate to approximately 1500 degrees to harden the glaze. I did this to make sure that when I was carving the details on the black fish I didn't carve through the white glaze. Seemed to work well.
Once I finish my carving I will paint the black lines on the perimeter of the plate to complete the tessellation. Should be fired this weekend along with my Matisse plate. Stay tuned for the final results.