Amy Orsatti Ceramics

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Is there a market for things homemade or is it just for a niche group?

I have had a mug which I have had for a while and it has a slight imperfection. The others don't. The one with the imperfection is my favourite. It has character. I look for it in the cupboard, and it is always at the front. I find the churned out ceramics now in stores boring. Although they are pretty. There is nothing that holds them in my memory.
Maybe contemporary ceramic practice is legit, maybe it is just a cup or plate that can be discarded when it doesn't fit in anymore. But I like to think objects I collect are part of my home, my family eats from them, things are discussed over them, they are always there in the background and after a while they become part of our identity.
Many have memories of mum or grandmas 'good china' which was used for 40+ years! I don't think many people keep dinner sets for this long anymore. I have some of my nans dinner set, its only a cheap one from Kmart but it still has a past and I like it for that.
As life changes so does the decor, its like a cleansing. Theres something missing from this attitude instead of building up a collective memory we are trying to just replace them with a better version. The development of technology moves so quickly this is understandable, Music moved from vynal to tape to cd to mp3, all in about 20 years! Of course you want to keep up with the times, but aren't some things necessary to keep just to help our memories? Maybe thats just materialistic.

Stuff for bisque firing in my new kiln

Slip cast mugs/cups. Relief pattern made by slip casting truncated cone wrapped in textured paper. I had lots of trouble making the plaster casts because my moulds kept breaking. Have now overcome that with a silicon mould in the shap of a large cup which I then cast into. Mould making is hard work, so much time is necessary to make your mould right. Otherwise you end up with a useless mould which replicates the errors that you made. Grrrr....

These mugs are not prefectly symitrical which I like. I don't often find work that looks like it came out of China appealing. Theres no emotion in the form, its souless. Unfortunately we have come accustom to these mass produced reproductions. I recommend taking the time to hold something in your hand that was made by hand by someone. Its a nice sensation. I recommend it. Even better if the object they have made is also nice or appealing.

These are some little coasters I am making for my sister. They are also doubling up as test tiles at the moment until I figure out the shape I am trying to get...

I am hoping to put blue green glases applied glaze on glaze.

Glaze trials and tribulations

Recently have been messing around with new glazes. I am looking for oxidation recipes for my new kiln.

This is a random glaze. Different materials were picked out of a hat and different quanities were picked out out a hat. Most of the time they don't work, and the exercise is to make it work. These ones did work in Oxidation at Cone 10. The reduction tests are still to come and they probably won't work because it has lots of zinc and zinc doesn't do reduction. This recipe has barium in it so no good for functional wear. Will look to replace this material with something else to make it safer.

This is the glaze analysis for my random glaze

Green Apple glaze found in book in a line blend. I thought this glaze would be more matt. I was fired at Cone 10 oxidation. Reduction results are still to come but they should work too.