Next in the plate series.

"The Scream." This is what I'm working on now. I think it is going to be my biggest challenge in the famous artwork plate series.
I have already thrown the plate and carved the basic lines into the plate. Yesterday I bisque fired the plate and today I plan to start painting.
I'm using majolica glazes like I have for all the other plates but I think it would be a lot easier using underglaze pencils. This is going to be a test of my brush stroke abilities.

Horse Hair Raku

This is my latest raku fired pot. I came across a bottle of ferric chloride in my studio and thought I'd give it a try.
First I threw and trimmed the pot and once it was leather hard I hand burnished the vase with the back of a metal spoon. I bisque fired it to cone 08, about 1700 degrees F.
Next step was the raku kiln. When fired to temp I pulled the glowing orange pot from the kiln with a set of tongs and set it on a soft kiln brick. I let it cool for about a minute or two and then applied strands of horse hair which burned on the pot and left the black marks. Next I put on a safety respirator and sprayed the ferric chloride onto the pot from an ordinary plastic spray bottle, which gave it the nice brownish color. To enhance the sheen I applied a light coat of paste wax and buffed it to make it more glossy.

Bad Day

Monday morning did not start off well. Two of my vases blew up in the bisque fire.  The force of the blasting shards cracked my latest famous artists plate. Have no idea how I brought the temperature up so quickly.
The plate is Franz Marc's "Blue Horse." I carved the image after I had trimmed the plate and it is surely one of the best I have done, so I was pretty pissed off when I hear the popping pot.
Good thing I didn't put my Edvard Munch plate in the same load. I Carved the image of "The Scream" into the plate the same way as this broken plate. I have a good feeling about it.
Anyway, it is time to throw another plate and carve the "Blue Horse" again.