Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Time for a Change: Part 2

In addition to my previous thoughts about slip casting, I'm now thinking about ways for me to draw some of the nagging ideas from "The Omnivore's Dilemma" into my work. I've been sketching a lot of corn lately (and painting it, too) and I have some drawings down of cows, corn and oil. I think it's the oil that really makes theses ideas political -- cows and corn could just be good ol' Midwest culture... but add oil into that mix and you've got a whole different ballgame.

All of this has me thinking I'd better start drawing and painting on my pots. I have spent some time looking into china paint, but from what I've found it's not food safe. So, I'm now thinking some sort of majolica decoration could do the trick. Some drawing through the slip, some bright colors on top, maybe some sprigs and stamps too....

I've got some low fire red clay and I think the next step is to start testing. I've got a slip recipe to apply leatherhard -- hopefully then I could put colored and clear glazes over the top of the slip. I think I'll go mix up some slip right now and start making those tests!

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