Project by Gerald Haessig from New Orleans, La. After working for years in the graphics department of the local news station, Gerald was inspired to take some art classes. He is now an accomplished ceramics and glass artist. In this project, Gerald makes a ceramic box embellished with precious metal clay. Materials: raku clay
rolling pin
wood stripping guides
board with canvas
rubber rib
plaster board
plastic doily
clay tools
sponge
raku glazes
precious metal clay
blackening agent
polishing materials Steps: 1. Roll two pounds of raku clay into a 3/16-inch-thick slab. Use a rolling pin, wood stripping guides and a board with canvas on it. 2. Using a rubber rib, smooth the surface of the clay and place it on a plaster board. Smooth the other side. 3. Place a plastic doily on top of clay and press into the clay with the rubber rib. Remove doily and set clay aside to dry out. 4. After clay has dried to the desired state, cut into pieces to construct the box. 5. Miter cut the edges of the clay. Start to assemble the sides to the bottom by scoring the clay and adding slip. Press one side into place. Pinch off a little clay from the bag of clay and roll out into a small "snake." Push snake into seam. 6. Repeat these steps until all four sides are attached to the bottom. Check joints and general construction of the piece. Use a wet sponge to smooth over areas that need it. 7. Sign the bottom of the piece. Pinch off clay and roll into four small balls to make the feet. Slip and score the feet to attach them where they go on the bottom of the piece. After attaching feet, turn over and gently push down to flatten feet and level the piece. Set aside. 8. Using the piece that was cut for the lid, trim away clay to form a lip. This allows the lid to sit down inside the box with the lip resting on the top edge. 9. Let finished piece dry out. Sand off any rough areas. Check overall appearance of piece. Place the piece in a kiln and bisque fire to cone 06. Allow to cool and remove from kiln. 10. Glaze the piece using Spectrum electric fire raku glazes. Either brush on glaze or dip the piece in it. If dipping, use a wax resist to prevent glaze from going on areas where the silver will go. Allow to dry. 11. Apply PMC slip where it needs to go by brushing it on. Gerald applies at least four layers. Allow to dry between layers. 12. Let piece dry for one day. Then the piece is put in the kiln and fired again. The PMC and the glaze set at the same temperature--1650 F degrees. The piece can be taken out hot and placed in a combustion chamber filled with newspaper or sawdust for a traditional raku method. Or, you can leave it to cool down slowly in the kiln. 13. Take the pieces out of the kiln. The areas where the PMC is appear white. Those areas need to be polished. 14. Brush a blackening agent where the silver is. Rinse. Buff off black on raised areas, leaving it in the recessed areas. This pulls out the detail of the design of the doily. Polish again.
Website: www.earthandfirestudio.com
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