2nd ceramics rotation

part 1

At the start of the ceramics rotation we were tasked with making a thrown version of our mug designs that we had made in past. We had do make the designs 15% larger than we wanted them so that they would be the correct size after they came out of the kiln. I found that during this attempt at throwing i somewhat got the hang of it for the finished product was not as much of a mess as all of my other attempts. I was pretty proud of my thrown mug and felt that I had thought ahead with the design while also taking a risk by adding small undercuts to the mug design which I had measured to shrink enough for them to slip out the moulds.

part 2

This rotation was similar to the glass rotation so i did not have as steep of a learning curve as i did when i tried to make plaster moulds the first time. Most of the process was the same as the glass rotation exempt for this one we used walls to keep our moulds to a practical shape for they would need to be reused. Seeing as I had issues with my 3D printed handle I ended up having to remake my handle out of the wood i had laying around which happened to be bamboo which I felt that once I had cast my handles could be used as a handle itself. I found this method of making moulds much easier than the glass for the controlled nature of the moulds gave a much nicer end product. I understand that the glass mould was to be destroyed rather than reused but my OCD just couldn't take how messy the glass moulds were and the ceramics moulds were a nice change of pace to that

part 3

After leaving our finished moulds to dry in the drying cupboard we then got the slip and poured it into the cast. I found that leaving the slip in the mould for 35 minutes was best for my mugs and 40-50 minutes for my handles. This meant that the details in my mug came out well and i did not have issue when taking out my handle. I enjoyed the slip process for It was really nice to be able to just leave it and go to metals and work on my broach then come back half an hour later and finish up the mugs. It made it a lot easier to juggle my rotations. When i came to fitting my handles there was one occasion were the mug was still to damp and it sunk leaving one mug shorter than the others. I found fitting the handles tricky for i struggle with grip and ended up misshaping a couple mugs as I fitted the handles. I had also made one mug with two holes to allow an area to screw my wooden handle into.

part 4

after the mugs had dried and been bisc fired I began to glaze them. I dipped my mugs in the dark blue glaze and mixed one with dark and light blue. I am a little bit worried that the glaze will cover up the details for I had accidentally applied it too thick but hopefully this wont make too much of an impact on the end product. I had decided to glaze my mug with the wooden handle transparent for i felt that it would contrast best with the handles colour. I struggled with glazing and had issue with applying too thick and i still have no idea how i managed to do it.. I would like to gain a better understanding of glazing for I actually really enjoyed this rotation and would like to make some more of these later on.

Evaluation

I really enjoyed this rotation but felt that my lack of knowledge on the subject made my finished products have issues such as the handles shrinking into my mug so my design idea was ruined and it made the mugs uncomfortable to hold this is something I will account for later on if I ever attempt to make more mugs. I also found that once my glazes had came out of the kiln they did not look how I expected them too once again this was due to lack of knowledge and most of the negatives in my designs were things that I would have accounted for if I understood the material more. All in all I am very happy with the end result of my mugs and feel it was a good leaning experience and I intend to make some more of these in the future to possibly assist in revenue for they are fairly easy to mass produce and I saw a few people asking to purchase the mugs so there is definatly a market out there for my mug designs.

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