Mason Stains, Demystified - an article by Jennifer Hoolihan at Highwater Clay

This just in from Jennifer Hoolihan at Highwater Clay, in Asheville, NC. Jennifer and Les have helped me many times when I've had questions and needed advice on clay and glazes as has another great friend in the area, Paul.

Here is the article:

Ceramic Stain Act One by Jennifer Hoolihan

On your visits to Highwater Clays, you might have noticed all the brightly colored bags of powder neatly lined up in the stain aisle. Perhaps you were beguiled by the visual display but wondered, what are these? Good question! Read on, and we will provide a little clarity on the wide world of ceramic stains in part one of our tech tip stain series. Ceramic stains, like the brand Mason Color, offer a rainbow of color for the modern clay artist. What exactly are stains? Simply put, they are manufactured colorants. Stains are compounds made up of different oxides and minerals. Metal oxides such as iron, cobalt and copper are blended with elements like zirconium, zinc and tin. These auxiliary ingredients are used to stabilize and widen the color range of the metal colorants. Each stain has its own unique recipe. Once the raw materials are blended, the stains are heated to facilitate the chemical reactions needed to produce and stabilize the desired color. Some stains need to reach a high enough temperature to fuse, others just need a good cooking. When the heating process is complete, the stains are ground into a fine powder of about 200 mesh and washed to remove any remaining soluble material. The point of this extensive procedure is to make a colorant that is consistent in hue and also stable across a wide temperature range. Colors and subtle shades that are difficult to achieve using raw oxides are provided for with stains. A stain doesn't really incorporate into a glaze melt the way a raw oxide does. In a stain, the stabilizers act to protect the coloring metals from being sucked into the wild molten glass of a melting glaze. The colorant remains suspended as a tiny particle in the melted glaze. A raw oxide, on the other hand, hooks up with other elements as a glaze gets molten. These other elements, such as titanium, tin and boron and the atmosphere of the firing can have a profound affect on the color development of raw oxides. Often times the powder form of a stain is very similar to the fired color, thus taking a lot of guess work out of surface decoration and glazing. However, this is not to say a stain isn't affected by the chemistry of a base glaze. Different stains are more stable than others. This is where knowledge of specific stain colors comes in very handy. Fortunately, the Mason stain reference chart supplies all kinds of useful information. Mason, and other stain manufactures, won't tell you the exact recipe of a stain but they will tell you the components, like if it contains cobalt, nickel, etc. Those random little numbers listed under the color sample give valuable clues on how to use each stain to its fullest potential and avoid unhappy glaze results. It lists how much stain and opacifier is needed to replicate the color shown in the chart. This is really useful since some stains are stronger and more opaque than others. It gets really juicy when you start reading the reference numbers for each stain. You find out which stains don't play well with zinc (most greens) and why your pink glaze fired out splotchy gray (not enough calcium in the base recipe). And why are there 6 different black stains? It's all in the reference chart. You still want to test, test and test, but the reference chart gets you off to a good start. Now that we have covered the 'what' of ceramic stains, part two of our series will delve deeper into different ways of using stains. We'll learn various ways of incorporating them into your work with recipes and useful tips. We'll also get a bit more technical to increase our understanding of the ins and outs of the Mason reference chart. Until then, happy potting.

THE Second Annual Saxapahaw Holiday Open House Tour!!!

I've been so busy making art (for the Tour and Christmas commissions), I am late in posting this!

This weekend, on December 11 and 12, local artists and business people of Saxapahaw are hosting a Holiday Open House Tour. (Saxapahaw is a small village located about 20 minutes west of Carrboro and between Burlington and Pittsboro.) There'll be lots of holiday cheer, art, performances, even a tree lighting.

Here at Out of the Fire we'll have free mini classes where you'll get to play with clay and I can offer some instruction. Not as intense as our regular classes, since I'll have to circulate a bit, but you'll get to see if you like working with clay (I haven't met many people who don't), and make something wonderful. I will fire it and get in touch with you so you can pick it up. I'll even try to have it ready in time for the holidays.

We'll also have refreshments for you to enjoy while you look at art in the studio and the gallery. From one-of-a-kind sculptures (large and small) to ornaments to adorn your tree. I have to confess, I had to swipe a few to put on mine!

And, there is some garden art outside--mushrooms and toad houses, sun faces and Garden Spirits.

This winter we'll have classes at the studio, and if you sign up now, you'll get a 10% discount!

If you can't make it this weekend, don't fret--just give me a call at (336) 376-9091 and we'll set up a time for you to come for your own private tour. I'm here almost all of the time, but it's best to call ahead. Out of the Fire is on Church Road, just 3 doors down from Rt. 87, 10 miles south of the intersection of Rt. 87 and I-40. You can also get here from the Mill area, our "downtown," and from Old Greensboro Highway.

The studio is spruced up and ready for the holidays.

Here is the rundown of all of the people participating. For updates, more information and a map see our very fun interactive web site, designed by Steve Durland: www.saxapahaw.com.

See you there!

Benjamin Vineyards & Winery – Wine tastings, including our seasonal Spice Wine, and light fare. Twelve Days of Christmas Art Show featuring more than 35 pieces, representing the work of over 20 local artists. Dec. 11 and 12 from 12 noon to 5 p.m. 6516 Whitney Rd. 336-376-1080; www.benjaminvineyards.com/

The Bridge at Rivermill, Center for Fitness, Movement and Healing Arts – Open house, 15 min massage/acupressure sessions by donation Dec. 11 and 12 from 1 to 4 p.m., art showing and movement demonstrations Dec. 11 and 12 from 12 noon to 6 p.m. 1647 Saxapahaw-Bethlehem Church Rd Judith Brooks: 919-260-1430, Leigh Johnson: 919-619-6405; http://www.thebridgeatrivermill.com,

The Hawbridge School, a tuition-free public charter school, grades 6-12, will host an Open House for prospective students and their families as well as a Hawbridge Designs sale of student-designed silk scarves colored with locally grown natural dyes. Proceeds from the sale support the school's art department and its programs. Sunday, Dec. 12, 1-6pm, 1735 Saxapahaw-Bethlehem Church Road. 336.376.1122 or www.hawbridgeschool.org.

Out of the Fire Sculpture Studio – Kiln opening and open studio with free mini-classes and discounts for early enrollment in winter classes. Refreshments and light fare. Dec. 11 and 12 from 12 noon to 6 p.m. 6035 Church Road. 336-376-9091. Email: cbiles@triad.rr.com. Face book: Out of the Fire Clay Sculpture by Cindy Biles.

Paperhand Puppet Intervention is offering shows of Love and Robots Dec.10, 11 and 12 at 2 p.m. and 7:30p.m. at the Community Center. Tickets and more info are available @ www.paperhand.org.

Roxy Farm Antiques – Antiques and art show by Louis St. Louis. Join us for some Yuletide cheer with locally grown wines from Benjamin Vineyards & Winery, along with homemade holiday hors d' oeuvres. Dec. 11 and 12 from 12 noon to 6 p.m. 5768 Church Rd., (336) 264-7731.

Saxapahaw Artists Co-op is having an art show with sales of works by local artists at the Co-op Gallery, located next to the Saxapahaw Post Office. Justin Johnson, award-winning local jazz and blues guitarist, will be performing on Saturday. He will be playing originals from his recently released album "Stream of Blues," as well as Christmas arrangements from his brand new Christmas album, "Justin Time for Christmas." You can check out his music at www.JustinJohnsonLive.com. 1610 Jordan Drive, Saxapahaw NC 27340. The gallery will be open on Saturday Dec 11 from 12- 8 PM and on Sunday from 12- 7PM. Contact Suzanne Connors (336) 693-4606 for more information.

Saxapahaw Rivermill will feature a Showroom Open House of the new Rivermill Lofts and Marketplace (next to Rivermill Salon) and mill tours, on Dec. 11 from 2-6 p.m.

Saxapahaw United Methodist Church Open House Sunday Dec 12 from 2:00-5:00 with Music, hot cider, and cookies, followed by the Annual Christmas Family Night Program from 5:00-7:00 pm with children's skits, music, soups and sandwich dinner. Non-perishable food and toy donations for the local "Food Pantries" and "Toys for Tots” are welcome. 5624 Church Road. (336) 376-3630.

Victory Calls Stables will have an Open House. Location: 3316 Sax Beth Church Road. For more information and times, call 336-376-8505; or see www.victorycallsriding.com.

Getting to Saxapahaw:

From Chapel Hill/Carrboro take HWY 54 West, approximately 13 miles. Turn left on Saxapahaw-Bethlehem Church Road. From Hillsborough, take Orange Grove Road to HWY 54 W to Sax-Beth Church Road. From Mebane, take Mebane-Oaks Road to HWY 54, travel across to Sax-Beth Church Road. From Burlington, take I-40 to exit 147 toward Pittsboro approximately 10 miles. Turn Left onto Church Road.

Facebook Fan Page Revisited

I am slowly joining getting a handle on social networking.

As I said in an earlier post, I love Facebook Fan Page--I get swept away navigating all over the place in Facebook, and Twitter is too brief for me (but give me time on that one). Have Linked-in page, but haven't done much with that yet. Gotta spend time in the studio!

If you check out the Facebook Fan Page, you can see photos of my work in one place, rather than having to scroll around, as you do in this blog.

Anyway, since I am still not sure how to list the Fan Page address (the url seems to be different every time I check it), if you go to

http://www.facebook.com/

and search

Out of the Fire Clay Sculpture

you will find me.

I also have a personal Facebook page--lots of posts from friends about art and animals.

Incubating--Creating without Getting Your Hands Dirty. Sculpting--Getting Your Hands Dirty

The studio was idle for several days as we prepared for the holidays (way too last minute!) and took time to reflect on 2009.

The last year has been a bittersweet journey--mostly sweet, but some doors have closed. I won't go down memory lane here, except to say the healing process has been a journey. However, I do see daily reminders that things that seem to be gone are not really so, just in a different realm. There are some life experiences for which you cannot prepare, and they change you forever. Already, I have seen the influence in my art.

I haven't forgotten that many very big windows opened in 2009, not the least of which was getting the studio operational and the gallery set up!

These days I am plotting out some exciting activities for 2010, doing research for new projects, and sculpting like a fiend (can you say "long days in the studio and lots of hand cream at night?"). That's part of the reason I have not been blogging as often as I'd like.

So thank you for checking in! I promise, a lot is going on behind the scenes, including a couple of new works--the sculpture is almost done on one. It fits in beautifully with my People and Their Companion Animals body of work, but may be a surprise to those who know me. All I will say for now is, it's been in my head, and I am thrilled it's now out in the 3-D tangible clay version.

As soon as I can get my camera to communicate better with my computer, the photos will come faster and furiouser. ;-)

I the meantime, here are some angels for inspiration created by, Yes--2nd graders that I worked with just before the holidays.

Can't you just hear them singing?

New Body of Work

Nothing like a commitment or deadline to get ideas out of your head and into the kiln!

For a while, I've had in mind a new body of work that combines human and animal figurative sculpture.  So, way back in May, I signed up to create a Masterwork for the Carolina Designer Craftsmen show.  It's held every year in Raleigh, NC, over Thanksgiving weekend.  This is the guild's 40th anniversary.

Several ideas ran through my head, but I felt most passionate about creating a series of pieces on people and their companion animals.  Here is a brief overview of how the Masterwork piece came to be.  

People often bring their dogs to outdoor art shows and,  in recent years, I noticed a lot of pugs, French bulldogs and Boston terriers.  I hadn't seen a Boston terrier since childhood, a long time ago!  So I became interested in why these breeds are enjoying a resurgence.  Consensus is they are great family dogs, and do well with couples who live in apartments and can't let dogs run loose.

We have a lot of dogs, but all have pointy noses, so I challenged myself to sculpt the aforementioned breeds as part of my "Big Dog" series.  (By the way, if you read my previous post, 5 dogs, including pointy nosed Opal and a fictitious daschund I named Madge are currently at the show at the Center for Creative Leadership, in Greensboro, NC. ) 

The piece, entitled, "Bodyguard," is inspired by a photo I found searching the Internet (I think I keyed in "people holding dogs").  Up came an image of a girl holding a Boston terrier.  It made me gasp aloud, "That's it!"  OK, being somewhat compulsive, I continued my search, but this photo was clearly the keystone for the series.  

The photo was taken several years ago.  The girl, Phoebe Thompson, is the daughter of  Julie Zickefoose and Bill Thompson III.  The dog (or is he a person in a dog suit?) is Chet Baker, named after a famous jazz musician.  To me, Phoebe has a mysterious Mona Lisa smile, with a touch of attitude, and Chet has a "Just try and mess with my person" look.  Of course, I'm not sure what Phoebe and Chet were actually  thinking, but my initial interpretation was that these two would fiercely protect each other.

Phoebe and Chet--the photo that inspired the Masterwork.  (Photo from Julie's blog, included here with her permission)

Since the image is 2-dimensional and the sculpture is 3-D, I needed to be able to represent Phoebe and Chet from different angles.  After this initial discovery, I've been following Julie's blog (check it out at http://juliezickefoose.blogspot.com/), where she posts many photos of Chet ("Chet fixes"), along with many other wonderful photos.  [Quick digression--Julie is a Renaissance woman!  Bill is editor of Bird Watcher's Digest--his blog is  http://billofthebirds.blogspot.com/ . (Check out the end of the telescope.)  They know everything here is to know about birds and Nature!] 

That has been most helpful.  However, it was obvious I needed a live model.  I didn't know anyone who had a similar look, but our friend Sheri did....

Savannah came to the studio and was very patient as I took some photos and measurements--if you stand like Phoebe, what do you look like from the side and back; how long are arms relative to hands, relative to face, etc.   Since our dogs are either too big or too wiggly, Savannah held a beach towel part of the time.

Savannah--a most patient model!

I incorporated a lot of realism, but also took some artistic license (see post on Harried Possum).  And, although my initial vision was a red-haired, blue-eyed girl that may change, too.  Hope you don't mind, Phoebe and Savannah!

Per the rules of the Carolina Designer Craftsmen Masterworks Program, Bodyguard may not be shown in any exhibition before the guild show in November.  However, I am allowed to show photos.  So here is a preview--

Bodyguard

Bodyguard, close up

As I write this, the piece is drying slowly in my studio.  Please send good karma that it gets through its firings safely (and that I can get it into the kiln!  It's heavy!). 

Currently, I'm working on two other pieces (a middle aged woman cuddling a small dog and an elderly man with an old dog) for this body of work.  More on those later.

Just opened the kiln and so far, so good.  This was a first firing for the ware---the bisque firing, to prepare the work to receive glaze and be fired again.

In general, the bisque firing is slower than the glaze firing, and is intended to burn out materials in the clay that could cause problems for the glaze.  There is  a lot of chemistry in pottery making!

I usually work in earthenware--kiln temperatures are set for around 1900 degrees F for both the bisque and glaze firings.  In this case, I'm firing stoneware, and the second firing will be around 2200.  Those few hundred degrees make a huge difference--clay bodies and glazes are formulated to withstand the extra heat.  Some colorants would burn out at these temperatures.  

As a sculptor, it takes me a while to make enough work to fill the kiln, so every firing represents weeks or months of work.  Knock on wood, I've been pretty lucky--not too many unpleasant surprises.  A very experienced potter acquaintance one said, "When you open the kiln, it can be Christmas...or Halloween!"

Take us to your leader, or at least feed us and throw the ball! (what we want to see when we open the kiln)

Friends Suzanne & Tom are coming over this afternoon to glaze some pieces they made a while back.  This couple, along with Jackie and Mike, were the first people, other than myself, to create work in the new studio (more on that in another post).

The four of them made wonderful pieces for their gardens.  So many, and big enough, that I couldn't fit all of the work in one load!  That gave me the opportunity (read motivation!) to make some work to fill a second kiln load.  Those pieces, if they come out well, will go to a show in Greensboro later this month, called "Potters in the Garden."

I'll plan to take some pictures, but have to unload the kiln and clean up the studio so we'll have room to work.  I have a lot of projects in progress, and people who know me can tell you I'm pretty messy.

In the meantime, if you want to see the type of work I create, please check out the websites for Carolina Designer Craftsmen (http://www.carolinadesignercraftsmen.com/member_page.php?member_id=240) and Alamance Artisans Guild (http://www.alamanceartisans.com/1_hand.php?id=3). 

 [One of these days, I'll figure out how to create links that work!]

A single step....

Wow--my first post--a toe-dip into the social networking pool.  I've been thinking about doing this for a while, but couldn't seem to get started.  Then, surfing the Net (do people still say that?) for images for my next body of work, I ran into Julie Zickefoose's blog.  I've never met her, but can tell you she is a Renaissance woman--most knowledgeable naturalist, wonderful artist, eloquent writer, amazing photographer, musician (haven't heard her perform, but it's bound to be good...the members of her group, The Swinging Orangutans, sure look like they're having fun), devoted mother to two human and a non-human (but almost!) children.  Check out her blog and you'll see what I mean.  You can get there from here (Julie, hope you don't mind my sharing!):   www.juliezickefoose.com/ 

Anyway, Julie's blog has been so much fun to read, I was inspired to get started on my own.  No doubt there will be a lot of refinement and changes as I learn the mechanics.  Whereas my husband is the technology expert, I sometimes think I was meant to live in an earlier era....before electricity, and flush toilets (for example, I don't know if the above link will work)...but I digress.

If I may provide a little background--not to brag or yap forever, but in hope that some of this will resonate with many of you.

Formally trained as a zoologist, with a strong background in anthropology, I am enjoying a second life as a clay artist.  (This seems to be a common occurrence--I've run into so many scientists-turned-artists!)   As a teen, I used to dabble--draw, doodle, even painted a little in oils and acrylics.   I adored my middle school art teacher.  One day, upon seeing my clay sculpture, she said, "You know, you really aren't very good."  That shut me down for many, many years.

Lessons learned:

1.  It's amazing the impact a thoughtless remark can have on a child or young person--I think my brother and I were very sensitive children, but I see this a lot, even today.  I am grateful to that art teacher for helping me to become an encouragement (I hope and at least try to be) to my students.  The little ones are pretty fearless, but I've seen the hesitation and self-doubt in kids as young as 8.  As for adults, fearful of mistakes, we can spend a lot of time staring at the clay before making that first mark in that wonderful, squishy, and most of all, forgiving material.

2.  Don't believe everything someone tells you.

3.  Trust your own inner wisdom. (Still have trouble with that one!)

I'm having the time of my life, getting my hands dirty doing the very thing a well-meaning "expert" told me I was not good at, and sharing my passion.  It doesn't get any better than that.