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| Porcelain grenade cup after carving and wiping away excess underglaze. Speedball chartreuse underglaze on rim, foot and grenade. |
Spent the day carving some porcelain mugs and cups. I am trying out a new process where I put wax resist on the clay surface and once it has dried I carve through the wax into the clay. I then apply the underglaze and once that has dried I wipe away any excess that beads up on the waxed surface. Usually I just carve into the clay, apply under gaze and wipe with a sponge or scrap off the underglaze with a metal rib. Often this takes off too much of my carved design or smear clay into the black lines.
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| Row of carved cups and mugs drying. |
Applying the wax adds more time to the process and if the clay has not dried enough the lines are very "smoothy". On the upside I use less underglaze and do not have to wipe so much, which my hands appreciate! Overall I think the time involved is about the same as without using the wax but the process is easier. For now I am going to continue with the wax and will do a follow up post in about a month with the results.
Btw the wax resist I am using is Mr Mark's Wax On from The Ceramic Shop but the Forbes or the Aftosa wax are great too. I have tried the Amaco wax and I am not a fan, it is thick, gummy and difficult to brush on. Also it doesn't dry hard enough to carve through and tends to make the lines smeary!
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| Wax On!! http://www.theceramicshop.com |
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| detail of carved mugs |
