Thanks for visiting my site. I have recently decided to rebuild the websites I created and maintained for quite some time. The first rebuild was Claystation.com. That site has been updated with a more modern look and the latest tech which makes it run more smoothly. There is still much work to do on it to get all the content back up on it.
Next is this site. My andyclift.com site used to run on Tumblr, now, I moved it to WordPress like the rest of my websites. The old site was more or less a blog with some of my portfolio on it. Now, this site will be updated with an extensive creative portfolio of all the important creative projects, that I have worked on during my adult life. It will be challenging and in many ways, it might be like writing an autobiography.
In some areas of this site, you will see that it is a work in progress. This update will take some time so please be patient. I am mainly focused on getting my Ceramics portfolio on here, and will try to get much of that up before the end of 2022.
Form: The form is thrown and altered, two different hollow cone forms were create on the wheel and attached, creating a football like shape. The form was covered overnight but given the opportunity to firm up a bit. The next day, I paddled the shape to make the bottom flat and the top flat and then used a carving tool to make incised line down the middle. The form had air trapped in it giving it a bit of a ballon-like quality. The handle of the form is supposed to be branch-like and was created by making coils and then pulling twisting and carving them with a broken end of a piece of wood. These parts were scored and slipped onto the form.
Glaze: Glazes used are a cone 6, Steven Hill’s Sea Foam Green, and just a basic glossy white glaze, which is underneath the laser printer decal image.
Surface Decoration: The surface treatment process is what I am most eager to share. It was my plan all along to place an decal image of a leaf on the white glazed surface of the form. After nearly a year, a particular leaf in my garden caught my eye as a similar shape to this form. I photographed it and turned it into a black and white image on the computer.
Much of my finished works incorporate my own photographs through the use of full color digital printed ceramic decals, a fairly expensive process, and regular laser printed decals, a low cost option. You are limited to an image that comes out a sepia tone once fired onto the piece and the process is very much experimental and results can vary big time depending a number of factors.
