Mulberry Paper layers

A few weeks ago I spent some time working on mulberry paper layers on some older fired work. I have quite a few pieces I want to work on, but the process isn't very exciting, so I've been slow about getting it done.

lots of orange mulberry paper

I used the mulberry paper on a few functional boxes and some sculpture. In most cases I used the mulberry paper because I thought the large plain sections of the form were too boring and I wanted a contrast of textures, soft and hard, shiny and matte. In other cases, the underglaze was worn or damaged and I wanted to protect and recover the worn areas.

lidded box with movable yellow section

One lidded box that I created a year or two ago has a section contained in the lid that is movable. Unfortunately, the movement has worn the underglaze color and the blue color has worn off onto the yellow. I can't glaze this section without risking fusing the movable piece to the lid, so I decided to try covering both surfaces with mulberry paper.

opened box with yellow movable section

I am not finished with all the work I want to cover, but I wanted desperately to get into the studio, so I took a break from working on these pieces. 

partially applied decorative paper

I also finally tried something I had started thinking about last year. I put flocking on the end of a small green mulberry paper covered piece. The flocking went on just fine, though I accidentally bumped it after it was applied, leaving a dent in the surface. The flocking seems thin; I painted on Mod Podge and then just dusted the flocking over the top. I like the contrasting texture and may experiment with the method some more in the future. I think this material is probably best for small somewhat protected sections of forms that may not be bumped or scraped during shipping or transport to and from shows.

the texture of the blue glaze is visible through the think black flocking