The Shelfords on thu 27 feb 97
Hi Peggy -
Thanks for your kind words, and also for the reminder about putting the
clays together then storing them awhile. It's a point that needed making
for the "how-to" to be helpful.
I knew that this is a good thing to do, and I even did it from time to time,
but wanting to get on with the current bright idea (a different way or
pattern of mixing) I often side-stepped it (and suffered the consequences.)
I presume that you found that this prevented any cracking along the joints
of different clays. But did you find that it mitigated any of the stress
cracking during repeated trimmings?
Or maybe you didn't go in for a super-smooth surface. The stuff I did was
virtually burnished by the trimming tool by the time I was done, with no
smudging because by then it was so dry - the tool would "sing" when it got
to that perfect state of almost dryness, and a burnished sheen would come
up, and the piece would fire like satin, all the lines and colours clean and
clear. Hell of a lot of dust, of course. If I go back to it, I'll wear a
mask or have a state-of-the art dust collection system - or better still, both.
What kind of agate did you do? What sort of patterns did you get? I have
concentrated on thinking through the natural processes that would produce
patterns in nature, and then try to let the wheel reproduce them without
losing it in a barber pole. Fascinating the different techniques to "let"
something happen by preventing anything else from happening!
Hard to explain. Ever-present danger of words over-taking reality.
Probably better and more noble to just shut up and do it, but then where
would clayart be?????????????
Veronica on Thetis dreaming of a studio by spring-time....
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