Mulberry Paper Layers

finished repaired form with mulberry paper additions

The other day I had some free time at home and decided to do some repair and refinishing of a few pieces I've had around the studio for a while. I had one large sprigged pod type piece that got dropped or knocked on the end a while back and the tip broke off. I epoxied the tip back on when I was putting together my last bike part pieces.

the black ball was added as a replacement, the originals were all matte brown

The piece also had a missing ball on one of the inner branches. I had misplaced the correct ball, the one that was originally attached, so I found a different piece that was the right size and epoxied it on instead. The replacement piece was fired differently, in a raku firing years ago instead of an electric kiln.

detail view of three yellow and three blue balls

After I did the physical repair, I added a mulberry paper layer to the exterior of the bulbs. I always liked the sprigged exterior and the sprayed underglaze coloring with a matte finish, but I was never happy with the original brownish red color of the bulbs that are bursting out of the pod form. The blue and yellowish orange mulberry paper is similar to the underglaze decoration on the exterior of the pod, but I like the contrasting texture that seems to soften the round forms.

view of the interior of the paper layered box

I also finished applying purple mulberry paper to the exterior of a rough little raku fired box. I finished the interior over the summer. I like the various tones and textures of the interior paper, but the exterior is pretty simple and difficult to photograph.

the closed box looks a bit like a cartoon easter egg--maybe a dinosaur easter egg