Where do I start!
Over the next few weeks the plan is to upscale my work trying various making methods to see which one suits me and my work. I will explore solid work, carving techniques, slab building, layering, coiling and texturing in the next few weeks.
My initial observations with going bigger is that you obviously need to handle more clay. This means the pieces weigh more and are more difficult to handle. To combat this I added in sawdust as an inclusion to make the pieces lighter but also brick clay to see how inclusions effected the build.
First up is solid work. We mixed about 2 bags of clay in total, a mixture of stoneware toasted, reclaim, sawdust and fired brick shale. Straight away there is no way I am going to be able to wedge all that material together. Need to do some research into the benefits of pug mills. The pros of working with a solid block of clay is it was easy to get the form I was after, basically through brut force with a rolling pin and planks of wood. Great for getting rid of frustration. Also through stretching the clay by hitting it against the work surface. It also meant that the piece was thick enough to carve into. When I ripped into the clay it produced a pleasing texture. The cons of working in this method are that it generates a lot of waste when you hollow out. Currently I do not generate much waste in my home studio so this was an additional issue for me, however if and I do say if I purchase a pugmill the waste issue will be easily addressed. I also had trouble putting the piece back together again after it was hollow as the clay was cracking and splitting. Although I liked the end result of the form, there were difficulties in getting there. I am also not a big fan of working with leather hard clay at the construction phase.
To help keep the shape in the former I used a velcro strip as the clay was heavy and this worked very well. I used tools to get the shape I was after, hacksaw, broken saw etc. I also stabbed broken bits of wood into the piece to help generate texture but mainly refining the shape.
The texture was mainly generated using wood or broken saw. I also layered elements of torn clay onto the form as additions which created the layered look I was after. Later on the texture was enhanced by a steel brush but at that stage the piece was bone dry and created alot of unwanted dust. The scrapings of clay have been fired as I wanted to see how I could create further texture. At this stage I felt that the inclusions in the clay were not providing any texture and therefore their main purpose was to reduce the weight of the form.
The most challenging element was the hollowing out and putting together again however although the piece cracked making the process more difficult I have to admit that it created character to the piece, turning a negative to a positive.
Very pleased with this form at the end, sadly whilst working on my second piece the table vibrated and sent the piece falling, cracking into two pieces! As it was bone dry it didnt stand a chance.
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