Creating Negative Space In Glaze Design, Carving Stamps, Wax Resist

[WildCelticRose]

Hi folks.

I've been using a Silhouette Cameo cutter to create vinyl decals I put on my bisque before dipping in glaze to create a negative space design. (it's ain't easy creating a signature look and standing out in an art town)

It's challenging (sometimes flat crazy making) because if you pull the decals too soon, glaze runs into the area you want to keep clean and too late, it flakes and chunks come off with the decal and I end up doing a lot of clean up or touch up. Add to that my unnatural love of gooey, reactive, unpredictable and persnickety glazes and it can be a real PITA, especially when doing runs of 200+ pieces.

My cutter just broke and I won't be able to afford a new one any time soon.

Once I was done stressing out and having a mini meltdown, I decided to try to create something new, different and cooler.

I was thinking about carving stamps of my more popular designs and then using crayons as wax resist (I have no love for liquid wax resist and a very complicated history with it) Crayons are crazy cheap at the dollar store and easy to control. Bonus, I can leave some small bits unwaxed to add shadow/more texture...

I've only made one stamp, I carved into some craft plaster of paris advertised as “carvableâ€, then pushed wet clay into the carving and bisque fired to create a stamp.

So here are my questions….

Has anyone ever used crayons as wax resist? And did they work well for you?

What is your favorite carving material for making stamps?

I've added a couple of photos of what I've been doing to provide a visual…

Thanks in advance

[oldlady]

like the dancers!  have thought about using crayons but not tried it.  

[Babs]

I think that croayons would not make a solid resist as the wax when I use wax as a resist on bisque has to be quite hot to penetrate into the spaces in the clay.

Would resist but not uniformly I would imagine, then again you could heat your pots.....

[MatthewV]

Has anyone ever used crayons as wax resist? And did they work well for you?
-- the some darker colors use iron, chrome, or cobalt for pigment and will leave a mark.

-- I wasn't impressed with the result. I feel there is more crispness to latex or frog tape.

 

What is your favorite carving material for making stamps?
-- clay :-)

[PeterH]

In case it is of any interest:

Pièce de Résistance, the world beyond wax resist

http://users.skynet.be/russel.fouts/Files/Piece_de_Resistance_Published_Article.pdf

 

 

 

Added: I've also seen acrylic medium recommended as an alternative to shellac resist for water-erosion.

It might be worth trying if wax emulsion doesn't work for you.

http://www.potters.org/subject51734.htm

I use acrylic medium which avoids using the smelly resists and alcohal.
just liquitex medium.
works the same. My mug at the clayart exchange was done this way.
Marcia Selsor in Montana

 

 

 

[Marcia Selsor]

Yes, I use liquid latex. I also sometimes do shellac carving. I use liquid latex resist.

and after 10 years in Texas, I am moving back to Montana!

 

Here is a negative space using liquid latex on Raku. It is a recent favorite.

[Marcia Selsor]

 

 

This isn't negative space but the concept is similar.

Shellac carved porcelain. First applying colored slip, shellac, wash away. Apply another color, shellac and wash away.

[Denice]

Babs mention that crayons may not work because they aren't melted, I wonder if you could give them a hit from a heat gun or propane torch.   Denice

[neilestrick]

Like babs said, I think it would be difficult to get the crayon to cover uniformly since it won't flow like liquid wax. Also, crayons are not just wax. There are other ingredients that may or may not leave a residue of some sort on the pot.

[Callie Beller Diesel]

There's a potter couple on the east coast of Canada (Ramsay Pottery) that does a lot of stencil work. They use paper stencils that they cut out of a stacked pile of newsprint with a coping saw. The paper will absorb some of the glaze as it's more porous than vinyl, and makes for a nice clean line. They have a page showing their processes on their website.

http://www.ramsayceramics.ca/process/

[Magnolia Mud Research]

I have used the cheap $-store school kid crayons and professional artist oil pastel crayons as resist. The work just fine, after you learn how to make good marks.  The smoothness of the bisque surface is a major element controlling the ease of application.

 

There are some drawbacks;  for school-kid crayons most of the bright colors are organic dyes and burn off clean.  The earth-colors are basically iron oxides and will leave a stain.  Testing the brand you will use is a must. 

 

The oil pastels use a mix of pigments, most of which leave a metal oxide stain of some sort.  However one can obtain a 'clear' oil pastel that is just the wax and it will burn off clean.  The downside is that it does not dry rapidly so handling the a piece with lots of wax marks could be lead to smearing and unwanted handling marks.

 

Candles without colorants work just like crayons, but are harder to make marks with them.  So are lumber crayons; just test for burn off residues. The yellow ones I tested burned clean.

I have also used clear/matte acrylic  artist medium.  It works well, burns clean, handles fine, but sometimes does not cause the glaze to 'bead up' and therefore requires a cleaning pass.

 

The regular school-kid white glue also works well, but also needs a wipe cleanup. 

I have also used olive oil as a resist for Raku glazing.  It works, but because the oil does not 'plug the pores' of the surface of the bisque, enough glaze particles were trapped in the pores to show streaks of glazing in areas that were expected to be glaze free.  I have considered adding powdered graphite to the oil to see if that would plug the holes, but the experiment has not been done. 

LT

[Guest]

What about Johnson's Paste Wax? Would that make a good resist?

[Magnolia Mud Research]

I don't know, never tried it.  I have use car wax in a water emulsion, it sort'a works but does not address keeping particles from staying in the 'pores'.   Just try it.  keep good records so you will know what works and don't. 

 

I have used shoe polish as a finishing treatment for bisqued work (no glaze or glaze firing) and it does seal the surface and becomes smooth that might work also. 

 

 LT

[WildCelticRose]

OOooh!

So many great ideas and links.

I actually like the idea of some of the crayons leaving some pigment, I can use that for some shading inside.

On some of the larger designs on the white clay, it's too much white.

When I'm doing runs of 200+ pieces, liquid anything is just too much to deal with, especially if it's waxy gets where it shouldn't.

Please keep the ideas coming.

As far as stamping, for the larger bits, I'm thinking about creating tiles and rolling the outside of the cup for bowl on the tile to create the impression.