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.
