Back in February, we posted about our visit to the workshop of a ceramic artist in the nearby town of Nyírbátor. I really loved the unique method involved in creating the ceramic artwork and I decided to take some lessons to learn the process myself. This morning I attended my third lesson so I thought it would be fun to post some pictures of my work-in-progress.
Basically, my first artwork using the ceramic technique is a name sign for the kennel of my sister's new puppy, Jasmine. I thought this would be a relatively simple project to begin with, but it's turned out to be more difficult than I imagined.
Anyway, the first part of the project was easy. Basically I just had to come up with a design, trace it on to some paper and Zsuzsa (the teacher) cut out a suitable piece of copper. 
Next, I had to furiously sand and file the copper piece. I'm not sure exactly why this was necessary. Perhaps copper gets dirty over time and this might cause problems for the ceramic paint? I just don't know. Anyway, after sanding the copper, I also washed and scrubbed it some more in the sink.
Finally my copper was deemed ready to paint. The first layer of ceramic paint was applied to the back side of the copper. Zsuzsa applied big globs of paint onto the surface and I tried to smoothe them out with a pointy needle-like tool. Occasionally I also got to slap the copper against the table to encourage the paint to settle. That was fun.
Once the surface was completely covered with paint, the copper piece was placed onto a heater to dry for a few minutes. When the paint is first applied, it has a wet, glossy appearance, but once it dries, it looks very dull and chalky. 
After carefully removing the copper from the heater, I painted the other side in the same way only this time I used a teal colour which would form the background of my artwork. Once both sides had been painted, the copper piece was ready for the kiln. It was placed inside for about five minutes at 800 degrees. 
Zsuzsa removed my masterpiece from the oven and let it cool. This is what I saw once it was ready. Ugh, so blotchy and ugly! It seems that my smoothing technique needs A LOT of work! Zsuzsa assured me that it wasn't a problem though as I would be able to add another layer of teal paint later. Awesome, I love that about this process. You can always go back and easily fix mistakes.
Next, I transferred my design onto the copper piece using a felt-tip pen. 
And then it was time to paint again. Hooray! Zsuzsa provides the ceramic paints ready-mixed with water in little jars, but apparently she orders them off the internet in powder form. The paint is quite easy to use but it's important to apply quite a thick layer. I didn't understand this at first, and so while these yellow letters look okay in the photo, they didn't look as good after being through the kiln. After finishing with each colour of paint, the copper piece is returned to the heater so the paint can dry. Once the paint is dry, it's possible to scratch away at it with the needle tool so any painting mistakes can be corrected.
This next photo shows how my artwork was looking earlier today. I wasn't very happy with it for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I disliked the cracks in the red paint (a result of putting the piece into the kiln before the temperature reached 800 degrees) and secondly, I thought that the yellow and orange colours were too similar (even though they looked really different on the sample I was shown!).
I think I can fix the cracks by applying another layer of red paint, but the only way to fix the second problem was to go over the yellow paint with a different colour. I chose a very light mint green. It looked awesome when I was painting it and after it had dried, but unfortunately once it came out of the kiln the green colour was completely different to this photo. In fact, the green colour is actually now very similar to the teal background so it looks like I will have to change it again. This is turning into a very time-consuming and frustrating endeavour!
Anyway, that's where things are at now. I hope to post some more pictures once the project is finally finished.
- Amanda
it had better look awesome! my dog demands perfection! :)
ReplyDeleteYes, yes, I know. It will look awesome, don't worry!
ReplyDeleteCopper reacts with the air and develops a patina very rapidly. If you're using it for anything that needs to bond to the metal (metalsmithing, painting etc) you need to remove the microscopic patina layer beforehand, because it'll prevent the bond, and whatever you've added will flake off.
ReplyDeleteAlso, paints that are kiln-fired often look very different pre/post firing, and (especially if they're slightly translucent, which many are) will look different depending on what colour they're on top of. Though I actually like the teal one at the end - it makes the yellow and red 'pop' more, because you don't have too many colours fighting.
Thanks for the info, Sofie! I'm glad to hear that there was a valid reason for all that scrubbing!
ReplyDeleteMy next ceramic class is next week so I still have some time to think about my colour scheme before then. I'll keep your feedback in mind :)