Experimenting with textures and images on clay

Last week and this week I have been focusing on how I could transfer the images of the industrial revolution onto clay and also how I could add texture to the clay I used to build my vessels.

Firstly I experimented with scratching an image of one of Lowry’s paintings into a plaster block I made; I then used this as a way of creating a relief print onto the clay. I feel this technique worked very well as I really like the quality of the raised lines printing this block of plaster onto clay produced and the raised pattern it created.

I have also been testing out creating images using sgraffito. I enjoy using this technique as I like the way you can paint the coloured slip onto the clay to create colour for your image and also how you can reveal layers of colour from the layers of slip applied to the clay and the texture created by scratching into the clays surface.

To try and create texture in the clay I was using I investigated how I could add materials such as rice, mung beans, poppy seeds, sawdust and sunflower seeds to the clay. Some of these experiments were more successful than others however as inclusions such as the rice and the mung beans absorbed too much of the water from the clay too quickly and therefore the clay cracked and crumbled. This would be no use for my work as I was planning to use this clay with inclusions to build vessels so I tried to think of another way that I could get the pattern and texture of the seeds onto the clay’s surface without actually leaving the seeds in the clay.

 

I came up with the idea of gluing the seeds onto card and then rolling the card onto the clay so therefore you could peel the seeds off again. I experimented with rolling the seed covered pieces of card onto some relief prints I had created using my etched into plaster block. I feel that this technique was very effective as I liked the pattern and texture the seeds produced and the way the texture of the seeds disrupted and distorted my image. This effect reminded me of the texture of the bricks and the dereliction of the buildings of the industrial revolution so I feel this technique effectively reflects my inspiration for this project.

 

During the remainder of this week I am exploring how I can use oxides to colour some of my samples and how I can create a brick like effect by using oxides that will come out black, red and orange. I am also doing more designs in my sketch book for possible forms of vessels I can create and I am refining the designs I intend to put onto these vessels and how best I can achieve the effect I want to create. I am also going to experiment with the size I could make these vessels as I’d like to explore how big I could make these forms so that they towered above you and created an ominous atmosphere much like the chimneys of the cotton mills in the industrial revolution.