Water color effects on ceramic

I always loved the dripping effect, its harder to do with glazes but IS possible.

I did it with underglazes, engobes, slips, and covered with a clear coat this is something that I would not have been able to actually paint on myself so its always interesting.

Bodacious Daphne!

CLICK! Blow up that pic! ^

OMG, I have to calm myself down to write this blog because I am so utterly in love with this sculpture that I cannot type.

I am not exaggerating, she is amazing, she was cool when being sculpted, I was afraid she would loose her earthiness when she was chalk white, and she did, but she regained it in full with the slip & glazing techniques implied on her. WOW. WOW. WOW.

Seriously I love this figure, everything about it is perfectly what I wanted to convey. Her body is slammin'! Shes got the huge hips, twice as wide as her shoulders, and her abdomen bulges, her chest is just right, there is some gravity to it, but it doesn't overpower the entire composition. She is literally a plant-daphne, she is as much human as she is tree, her limbs are angular and natural at the same time, rock-like, statuesque, all the while maintaining her feminine appeal as earth-mother. Three birds on her knee... the trinity; and her feet are still recognizable as feet, but are very rooty and actually flat with her base which is very aesthetically appealing.

Dont get me started about her color! I have always loved celedon glazes and when I had the chance to work with Bobby Silverman at the 92nd street Y, I got to see first hand how beautiful high fire celedon glazes can be on porcelain works of art. When I was in City College, I would to dozens of glaze tests with clear glaze and increments of powdered iron oxide, trying to get that perfect brown... well lets just say this figure in her washed out glory is a great shade of shining brown, not only that, but it has pooled in the crevices which were already present (not to mention the lines in the leaves), accentuating each and every fold, curve, and crack! HAHAHA, you gotta see it in person... enjoy the photos, they speak more than I ever could of her beauty.

Tree of Life

Oh man, the tree of life girl came out very nice, I really do just love her to death, too bad I dropped her on the kitchen floor and broke her arm off :( oh well! I glued it back and that just means I will not sell her without the patron knowing shes been repaired.

The underglaze pencil is so amazingly wonderful, it really does look like a pencil when you use it and the result is even darker than my black wet underglaze. I do see that making henna girls will not become easier as a brush MUST be used, but for a rustic figure like this, the pencil does wonders and the lines are so pleasing to me, I love the spread of the roots throughout her lower body.

The glaze was applied very thin, and unlike colored glazes, thin clear works very well for me in sealing and finishing the work as I do not want to loose the details of the work of art.

The Big LeBisquey is done, as well as the second glaze

So in they went gray and out they came white!

Looking like those plaster things you find in craft stores, all ready to paint up!

So I rediscovered my flame from College, underglaze! I really really enjoyed working with the underglaze pencil of which I used to make the tree of life on the figure below.

Wet underglazes, engobes, slips created this water-coloresque figure here.

All have been clear glazed, The "fairy" girl and the little "chirp" one, I simply clear glazed as I did not want to alter the color at all. All of the figures were clear glazed in a very thin layer which will not give a thick coat of glass look, it will simply be shiny and stronger, as well as impervious to water.

The two extra figures you see are from the last firing, they are obviously not glazed clear, I used blue and black glaze to get a better surface than the first firing gave me, so they are undergoing their second glaze.

Attention!

I am Pedro Ramirez, AKA Pedro Ramirez Jr, not to be confused with Pedro Ramirez Ponzanelli NOR Pedro Ramirez of the FSU/immigration debate fame.

Second Bisque firing at home - who is going in?

Its that time again!
Time to BISQUE! haha, #bisque for twitter yall' lmao
Anyhoot, Ive got all the recent girls together and have decided against color glazes this time around due to the crap work of the last firing. I do have some mid-high fire glazes but I will have to switch clay bodies first to my stoneware (which I got when I purchased my pyrometric cones) and then I will definitely be using my amazing metallic glazes to amaze you with!
But until then, these girls will be underglazed and then clear glazed, its the most fool-proof method of creating works of art in the cone 04-06 range... the only mishap that can happen is the underglaze gets darker/more vibrant after being glazed, but you can often "check" this by rinsing the bisqued work first, often how the color changes when wet will be how it looks after being glazed fired with clear.

So here are the bone dry girls:



I Love these new figures, they are so wonderfully bulky and natural-looking, even with their caryatid faces (yes, they are liberated caryatid countenances).




Note the difference in figures above, one is smooth, round, flowing, the other, almost looks carved and angular, simplified.

Below:
STILL room for more, I think I will wait until I have ten figures next time and see just how many of the ten I can fit in.

The Fairy

People have refered to them as fairies for as long as I have made them, and even I, myself, have called em' "toxic fairies" or similar. Well, this girl actually reminds me of one, she is seated with lots of hair flowing, I wonder what she would look like with real butterfly wings?