oldlady

the red rib is one kim used and i figured i would get the right kind. anyone interested in this technique should look at her facebook page. last year she showed the things she was getting ready for the sale called "Tour de Clay" that happens every year in early december. i try to arrive in time to go on the tour of studios. always educational and fun. be sure to notice the amazing purple vine.

a second attempt. on this one, while still on just paper, i tried to remove some excess red where i ran over the black lines. i used a Q-tip and got the color off but it did not all come off so you can see some paler color outside the lines.

it worked!!! well, of course, i am learning a skill, not making a product so this first attempt has a lot of things i hope to improve on the next ones. i still cannot paint but this looks so simple, maybe i can do something that is ok.

the painting is applied to damp greenware and the back of the paper is wet with a sponge. the image is rubbed firmly onto the clay. it is given a little time and then the next step is to pull off the paper being sure all the color has transferred. if some is not quite heavy enough, put the paper back down and rub it again. as long as the paper still is attached, it will go back into the correct place and the color can be tried again.

the first thing down will come up on the top of the painting. the black lines were done with a tiny tip on a plastic bottle. hard to control but it does work very well. the colors are all amaco velvet underglazes. kim mixes them with mayco stroke and coat to get the perfect color. she keeps them in a wide palette and allows them to dry. when she is ready to use them, she sprays them with water to make them workable. great idea! the paper is a newsprint pad i got from the dollar tree. it is very strong and did not tear. this has finally dried so i can start the transfer.

this is a photo of a trumpet vine. i have always liked them. they attract butterflies and hummingbirds but they can get a little wild looking if allowed to go crazy. so this is what i wanted to do because of the colors. i cannot paint and envy people who can paint directly on a pot and get it right and usually beautiful. there was a demonstration at the florida Highwater clay location by a local professor, kim kirchman, whose work is soda fired. i saw a little of it last year but only arrived as it was ending so this year, i got there early, brought blankets and sweaters and sat right in front. took photos of everything. came back the second day and saw it again. wonderfulll...............

new birds will have longer branches to stand on. this design was for a much smaller tray. well, the bad news is that i smashed this by dropping one end of a shelf as i was putting it away. the good news is that i don't have to figure out a way of getting it back to wv.

i think the birds are a little too deeply rolled. will cut some new ones from thinner craft foam sheet so they do not appear so far down into the clay. i like the combination and size, let's hope it all works through final firing in may.

people seem to like the "outside the lines" cutting as shown here.