Decal Mugs

this mug is fairly big and bright, didn't photograph as well

Last week I applied and fired some decals on some functional mugs. Some of the mugs had decals over-fired previously, but some of the decals were applied to fresh mugs.

double decal cat on a leaning mug

I made the mugs near the end of the summer quarter when I was testing out my new ball openers.

the Temmoku glaze works well on this slipped surface (no cat)

I was using some cone 6 glazes I had used last summer, as well as some new (to me) Potter's Choice glazes. I applied decals on most of the mugs, but skipped one with a lot of texture because I'm happy with the glaze on its own.

I played around with some wiggly bases

The mugs don't match each other, mostly because I was trying out a variety of different shaping and decorating techniques and was just entertaining myself.

I just like this bottom swirl, even if the photo is odd

I was especially happy with a few spiral trimmed bottoms which I highlighted with underglaze colors.

 

the cats worked better on the curved surfaces than other decals

The decals I used the second time worked very well, for the most part. The cats show up well in both gold and black on all of the glaze colors. 

this cat seems to be floating in space

I particularly like when the cats seem to be interacting with the landscape of the mug.

I like the way the cats use the line of the mug to stand on

Some of the mugs are less successful, in part because the glaze colors look a little odd in the second firing.

the cat shows up ok, but the color has become a bit metallic

I used mostly cat decals, but I had a few other science-y decals. These worked out less well, in part because they were applied on top of darker glazes and in once instance because they were incompletely applied.

the decal didn't completely adhere to the curved surface, and therefore fired off and out of round

It's tough to get the decals to stick well on curved surfaces, so after trying for a while, I decided to just try it out and see what would happen.

the mottled glaze color obscures some of the decal color

A few of the cat decals showed up with a line around the exterior of the cat. The line is where the clear part of the decal was cut. 

the edge of the decal shows up on this glaze

I cut them haphazardly because I thought the edges would be invisible--and they were on most mugs. On the darker, more metallic glazes, those edges showed up as sloppy outlines around the cats.

boo, hiss

The frustrating thing is that the fix would have been so easy, I could have simply cut the cats out closer to their edges, but I didn't and now it is too late. Maybe these are a good cups for someone with poor eyesight or a dark kitchen.

mug with a line around the cat

I plan to take a few of the mugs to Oak Hollow Gallery for the holiday show. The show opens in November and runs through December. I will bring some mugs and some bulbs, which will be sold individually. Let me know if you have requests, I deliver the mugs and bulbs at the end of this week.

"Ericano Bionica" bulbs installation from 2015

Besides the mugs I made for the holiday show (well, I made them for fun, but some are going to the gallery), I also made a few smaller mugs with some clay that was recycled by my young helpers this summer. I used decals on these mugs, too, and the helpers each got their own mug as thanks for recycling clay with me.

I like how the cats seem to be playing in the grass on these mugs.

Decals and Firing

over-fired cat decal looks faded and dull

In March, when I was at the NCECA conference, I noticed lots of people working with decals, especially gold decals. I bought a few and tried some out this summer and fall. 

gold and black cat decal sheets with some of the cats cut out and used already

I wanted to try them and see if they'd be useful for students or for my own work. Unfortunately, when I bought them they didn't have anything attached to them that indicated the name of the company. I might have had a business card or receipt, but by the time I was ready to use them, I'd lost that. 

faded dull kitty

This sounds ridiculous now, but I looked up how to apply them, but somehow misremembered or misread the firing instructions from the seller or from the internet. I assumed they could be fired to a low bisque temperature, so that's what I did.

some of the over-fired gold cats cracked and shrunk (perhaps because the glaze melted a bit)

Perhaps surprisingly, some of them worked out ok. The colored decals seemed basically fine and some of the gold decals were ok, but others faded out to varying levels on different glazes or cracked and shrank on the surface.

black cat decal before firing

Realizing I was doing something wrong, but still pleased enough with the good results to try again, I finally looked up the firing directions online. The company is Milestone Decals, by the way, and the application and firing directions are not hard to find on their website. The error here was all in the user and not the product.

black cat decal before firing

Anyway, it turns out I had fired the decals much hotter than I should have done. Last week I received a small order of mostly cat decals to replace the ones I fired poorly. I layered some of the cats over the existing cats, though a few original cats look just fine. I bought both black and gold cats to replace the gold cats I had before. 

gold cat decal, over-fired but looking basically ok

I've got a few cone 6 mugs I made this summer and will try to get the decals on and fired (to cone 017, it looks like, not cone 08) this week. If they work out well, I plan to take some of them to Oak Hollow for the holiday show starting in November. 

What's On Your Plate and Mug

"What's On My Plate" 2017

This summer I made and finished several pieces within a few months (as opposed to the work I started last year and finished this year). One of these is a "plate" sculpture for an upcoming invitational exhibition at Boxx Gallery in Tieton. 

Plate in Progress

The show, which opens November 4, is called "What's on Your Plate," and is a fairly broad collection of works in a variety of media all referencing eating and cooking, kitchens, dishes, and, well, plates. I took a fairly literal approach and put my sculpture on my plate.

this piece was originally intended to be attached to the plate and will now be in CWAE 2017

This piece just came together this weekend and I'm pretty pleased with the three tails of bicycle chain that are coming out the one end. The concept is similar to a piece I made a few years ago.

"Cerberus" 2014

I also made some chain mugs this summer, mostly just for my Dad, but I think I will show one of them with the plate piece. They may not be super functional (don't microwave them), but they're fun.

Chained Plate and Mug

At the last minute (sometime in September), I decided to throw a few mugs to test a new tool. It occurred to me to add an attachment for a chain handle. I'm happy with the concept, but my execution was a little sloppy. I should have left room for a pin to connect the chain to the mug, but I only left room for epoxy.

plate sculpture and the trial chain handle

"What's On Your Plate" opens Saturday, November 4, 2017 with a reception from 11-4 at Boxx Gallery on Wisconsin in Tieton, WA. A portion of the proceeds from all sales goes to Highland Food Bank. The rest goes to the artist. Boxx is open Saturdays from 11-4. The exhibition runs through November 25, so you've got just 4 Saturdays to see the show.

What's On My Plate and On My Mug

Central Washington Artists' Exhibition

Last week I found out that one of my sculptures was accepted to the 62nd annual Central Washington Artists' Exhibition at Larson Gallery this year.

my piece "untitled" for CWAE 2017

I was surprised by which piece that was selected for the exhibition this year. I entered three pieces, but I really had my mind set on one of them, the first large piece that I've finished in two years. I finished this piece just before the entries were due for CWAE this year. I like the piece, it worked out how I planned. I'm happy with the spinning blue parts on the bottom, and I'm fairly happy with the pictures of the piece. 

my sadly rejected new work

In completing the application, I decided to toss in a couple of small pieces just because they were ready. Besides the big piece, I had finished maybe 3 or 4 small sculptures and I have a few in various states of epoxying on the floor in my studio. I didn't think the small pieces were likely to get in, but one of them did. It is a pretty small sculpture, one that required no brain power whatsoever from me in the making, because I've made this kind of sculpture numerous times before.

"Petal/Pedal" was in CWAE 2016

I'm not sure what to think about which sculpture got in and which didn't. The juror could have been influenced by color, shape, size, title, or any number of factors. Maybe she doesn't like complex forms, but she does like complex color and texture. Maybe she likes yellow better than green.

this pod was in CWAE 2016

Certain types of galleries and art fairs that I've shown in over the years have preferred smaller, more affordable sculpture, especially sculpture that does something (like a fountain or a lidded box), but that seems unlikely to influence a juror's decision. On the other hand, last year I had four entries accepted and they were all small. Each year there is a different juror, so this year's juror presumably didn't have the same criteria as last year's.

this lidded set was in CWAE 2016

The possibility remains that I have overlooked a significant flaw in my newest large sculpture or a significant quality in the new small one. As the maker of the work, sometimes it is hard to see the works objectively. As I review the image in this blog post, my favorites are the top two, both finished this year.

my other (silly) new sculpture

I've avoided mentioning the other new sculpture that I entered in this show. This one's a bit silly, really. I've been working on this one for over a year as well, but the attachment angle and finished surface changed from the original plan. I had intended to attach a bicycle break handle, as I ended up doing, but I intended to attach it facing the other way. I intended to attach another piece on the end of the metal handle, but that didn't get done. I ended up changing the handle orientation because I liked how the handle echoed the angle and line of the body of the sculpture. But everything about this sculpture is a bit silly. The surface is unusual for me, the handle is just plain odd. Sometimes I want to try something, as I did here, but I'm not sure if I want to defend what I tried once it's done.

both of these sculptures were in CWAE 2014

If you'd like to see my new little sculpture, this year's Central Washington Artists' Exhibition opens at Larson Gallery on November 4 with a reception from 3-5pm. The exhibition continues through December 2, 2017. Larson Gallery is open Tuesday - Friday 10am - 5pm and Saturdays 1pm - 5pm.