Slip Decorating with trails & stencils by judi munn
RECIPES Crystal White Glaze Cone 10-12 used with the blue or brown slip Custer Feldspar Kaolin Whiting Silica Dolomite Rutile
Complex decoration is easily achieved with the use of stencils cut from overhead transparencies, and outlines from a homemade slip trailer.
I
first started using slip in 1992, during my apprenticeship at the Ozark Folk Center with David and Becki Dahlstedt. I spent 11 years working with “simple” brush and slip trailing designs. Eventually I began to work with more complicated combinations using layers of slip, slip trailing, brushwork, and sgraffito to create depth to the surface. In an effort to make a repeatable product, I experimented with handmade stencils. I tried newspaper first. That worked very well, but the stencils were short-lived. After trying several other materials, I settled on flexible overhead transparencies. These worked great and have proven to be quite durable. They work especially well on flat surfaces, such as plates and platters. Cylindrical pieces, such as mugs or vases, must be straight-sided, or must be flattened.
Making A Stencil The first step is to draw the idea that you want to work with on a piece of paper. Then either enlarge or reduce it if you need to. The drawings for the stencils can be simple or complex. Geometric shapes or silhouettes of animals or plants are a good place to start (see Fig. 1, next page). The more detail you put on the interior
Woo’s Blue Glaze Cone 10-11 Custer Feldspar Silica Ball Clay Whiting
TOTAL
add Rutile Red Iron Oxide Bentonite
42.0% 27.0 13.0 18.0 100.0% 4.0 4.0 2.0
Robin Hopper Slip Cone 6-13 Ball Clay Kaolin Silica Custer Feldspar
TOTAL
For blue, add Cobalt Carbonate For brown, add Red Iron Oxide
75.0% 10.0 10.0 5.0 100.0% 2.0% 10.0%
CLAYTIMES·COM n May/June 2009
The following is a process that I have found to be useful in my work. These instructions are for use with overhead transparencies, but can be adapted to other materials (newspaper, latex, screen, or flat sheet of latex.). You can choose to just leave the decoration as a simple stencil, or add further embellishments with slip trailing, brushing, or sgraffito.
TOTAL
31.0% 5.0 10.0 27.0 17.0 10.0 100.0%
25