Technique for remaking the "Easter Egg No.2, ca.2019" by Miraku Kamei XV

[ponuliukas]

Last year I accidentally visited the Pucker's Gallery in Boston and among many fascinating things, I saw the "Easter Egg " by Miraku Kamei XV (LINK). I loved the piece and had I been rich - would've bought it in a heartbeat. The egg itself is not "glued"to the platform, and can be taken off. 

I have recently joined a ceramics club at my local university and am dreaming of remaking this egg. Unfortunately, as I am inexperienced with the different techniques, I wanted to kindly ask people what their approach would be when creating such a piece. 

Thank you for your help in advance

Jonas 

[Rae Reich]

1. Consistent wall thickness, carve when leather hard, keep moist or covered until carving is done

2. Very narrow cutting blade , best ones are less than 1/8”, needle tool to fish out trimming scraps

3. Plan holes so that there is enough structure to hold itself up when high heat softens the clay at the peak of firing, geometric designs are most reliable 

4. Dry slowly, covered loosely 

5. Gently smooth rough edges with a green scrubber when clay is no longer damp

6. Some experimenting will be necessary to determine glaze thickness and application 

7. Clean excess glaze from holes with a needle tool

Here’s a video from a Korean master: 

 

 

[PeterH]

Making a "nice" egg shape might be a little tricky.

If you don't have throwing skills you might try something like this...

You might find refining the shape of the two cups on a "found" egg-shaped object before you join them gives more realistic results. Although I doubt that a chocolate Easter-egg would be strong enough. Maybe an Easter-egg shaped gift box?

If you do have throwing skills there are several egg-throwing videos on YouTube, such as ...

https://youtu.be/uXO8wlCVxLA

https://youtu.be/iymjWjUVskI

https://youtu.be/D8OyAgu-cjI

[PeterH]

This effect of variation near texture is know as glaze breaking.

A not very helpful link to start you off

 

[shawnhar]

Dangit.... now I want to make one of these!

[Denice]

About 15 years ago I made a wall lantern and hanging light shade with this technique.   My first lantern didn't allow enough light out so I thinned the clay around the cut outs and then used white glaze inside the second one.  When I was carving the  hanging shade I decided to using thinner clay and larger cut outs.  It had a bell shade just as I got  to the middle I realized I didn't have any support.  I left about two inches uncarved in the middle and carved  a pattern around the bottom edge.  I found several minor stress crack inside that didn't show up on the surface,  they told me it had twisted a little  when was firing.   If you are doing some testing you could try putting separator  around the edge or take a damp Q-tip around the edge  to clean the glaze.   To get the deeper pull back on the glaze.      Denice

[Rae Reich]

Note: Throwing vs Casting - In my experience, to carve holes through thrown porcelain, stoneware and earthenware is different than on clay cast in a mold. The clay of a poured form has less integrity when cut and carved, compared to the aligned clay molecules that have been wheel thrown. Thinly cast forms are more fragile both before and after firing. 

[Chilly]

19 hours ago, Rae Reich said:

Note: Throwing vs Casting - In my experience, to carve holes through thrown porcelain, stoneware and earthenware is different than on clay cast in a mold. The clay of a poured form has less integrity when cut and carved, compared to the aligned clay molecules that have been wheel thrown. Thinly cast forms are more fragile both before and after firing. 

Ooh, that's interesting.  I've only carved into cast or hand-built as I can't throw.

[Rae Reich]

On 10/9/2023 at 2:49 PM, Chilly said:

Ooh, that's interesting.  I've only carved into cast or hand-built as I can't throw.

Do you notice a difference between the compressed hand-built surfaces and the poured slip-cast when carving? Do you carve all the way through the walls?

[Callie Beller Diesel]

@Rae Reich do you figure it’s the compression or the deflocculant in the casting slip that makes the cast items less sound for carving? How do they go wrong if they’re going to, in your experience?

[Rae Reich]

@Callie Beller Diesel, this is my speculation, based on observation :

I think that cast molecules are basically ’stacked’ as they’re poured. Is there compression there? Gravity during pour? Does deflocculant settle the molecules differently?

I think hand-building does some alignment of molecules during formation and some of it is compression.

And I think that throwing clay, and to an lesser extent, jiggering, aligns and compresses the clay the most.

How that affects carving:

Cast pieces at leather-hard are less flexible, break more readily and the cut edges are often more ragged.

A double-edged carving knife that looks like a x-acto with a curved tip makes a cleaner cut on porcelain - cast OR thrown, but it doesn’t do straight lines as well as it does curved lines.

Breaks of dry and fired walls are less linear and fracture into crumbs. 
 

Edited October 11, 2023 by Rae Reich

[PeterH]

2 hours ago, Rae Reich said:

this is my speculation, based on observation :

I imagine that the relatively small amount of plastic materials in many casting slip doesn't help.

https://digitalfire.com/article/understanding+the+deflocculation+process+in+slip+casting
First consider how casting body dry ingredient recipes differ from plastic bodies. Casting bodies do not need to be nearly as plastic as jiggering, throwing or pressing bodies since they do not require shaping. Plasticity is only needed to impart shrinkage so the piece can pull away from the mold and to give it adequate dry strength. Too much plasticity is actually bad because plastic materials are less permeable to the passage of water through them, the casting process is slower (casting speed is an important factor in the process) and ware can split in molds with undercuts.

[Denice]

The lights I created were made out of C6 stoneware clay ran through a slab roller, ribbed and then draped on some plaster forms.  Denice