Saggar Firing

I've heard it said that there are two types of ceramic artist, those who love the process and those who love the fire... I think I'm definitely a fire lover! Seeing an effect developing before your eyes is amazing, throwing your work out to fate and watching the random results can be equally disappointing and satisfying. But when something works out just as you'd hoped, it makes all of the failures worthwhile!

Saggar Fired Lentil

So continuing my love of all things flammable, I've been trying out a new technique, Saggar firing. 

A Saggar is traditionally a ceramic box or container in to which your work is placed to protect it from flames and kiln debris during the firing process. But during the 20th century it has been used by potters to create a reducing atmosphere. Filling the areas around your pots with organic materials can produce some amazing effects. 

Triptych by http://www.lindadaltonpottery.com

Saggar fired owls by Christopher Stiles http://www.stilesinclay.com

After some research, I decided to have a try at creating a mini version for beads. But rather than building a box to fire. The technique I tested used plain tin foil to wrap your items, and rather than glaze, the pieces were treated with Ferric Chloride. 

First a warning!!... this technique creates toxic gases and uses corrosive chemicals. As well as my usual safety precautions of gloves, face shield and long tweezers and tongs to protect me from the hot beads, I also wore a full face respirator rated for toxic gases. The gases can be produced through all points of the firing, so it's not something you can do indoors. But don't let that put you off, common sense and protective clothing will make this a safe technique to try out!

Making the beads

I started out with some bisque fired beads and pendants. These were dipped in to ferric chloride, and when dry, given a second dip. Ferric Chloride is corrosive, so care should be taken to wear gloves and protect surfaces. 

Dipping in Ferric Chloride

They were then wrapped in tin foil with various organic items. For my experiments, I used feathers, grass and leaves.

Wrapping in foil with organic material

Once they were all wrapped, they went in to an old terracotta flower pot to keep them all together during the firing. The tin foil disintegrates as the temperature goes up and it's hard to take the pieces out in one go while they're hot.

Hot from the kiln

They were fired up to 700oC and removed from the kiln. I used raku clay to make the pieces, it is extremely tolerant to thermal shock which means I could spray them with water to cool them and bring out the colours. Be careful if you try this with other clays as there's a chance they will crack or explode! I have safely tested my own clay to check I can do this!

I love seeing the colours bloom and I was over the moon with the results, particularly the feather designs. During the firing the organic material burns away and the reaction between the carbon, the foil and the ferric chloride gave me some amazing effects leaving a ghost of the item in the clay.

Shadow of a feather

As the beads were bare clay, I sealed them using an acrylic spray which enhances the colour and protects them.

Gorgeous Effects!

I love this simple technique that gives you such varied and amazing results, this was definitely one of the more satisfying things I've tried and repeats well, but with different effects on each piece. Some turn out darker, some lighter, some just leave a halo of the item. I think that the gaps between the foil and the bead affect how the image transfers... I will definitely be trying more to see what other interesting effects can be produced!

Spring Flower bead tutorial

Finally the weather is getting warmer. Over here in the UK, we’ve been having some beautiful weather in between the showers, and I’m thinking of seasonal beads made in clay. 

Today I’d like to share how I create my Spring flower beads. They are made from ceramic clay, but I think they’d work equally well in polymer if you don’t have access to a kiln.

To start, grab yourself a lump of clay and roll a sausage. 

Cut the sausage in to equal sized pieces. This will help your beads to be roughly the same size.

Roll each piece in to a ball and flatten.

I do this by squashing the ball in the centre and then gently squeezing around the edge to level the clay. This will give you a square edge.

Next you need a chisel ended tool. This is one of my two most used tools for bead making. I never use the other end, but the chisel tip is great for smoothing, shaping and marking your clay.

Press the tool in to the clay at the edge and then roll the tip towards the centre of the bead to make an indent.

Do this at opposite sides around the edge until you have petals.

Flip the bead and putting your tool in the groove from the first side, roll around to the centre again to create petals on the second side.

Take a skewer or your favourite hole making implement. Pierce centrally in between two petals through to the other side so that the point just pokes through the clay. (I find it’s easier to look at the bead edge on while doing this to make sure the skewer goes through level. 

Take out the skewer and pierce from the opposite side to join the first hole and push all the way through. Working like this gives you a neater hole, and also gives you the chance to correct any lining up mistakes from the first poke.

With the bead still on the skewer, take a ball stylus tool and poke a ring of dots in the centre of the flower. Poke another ring inside that, and continue until the centre is filled.

Leave the clay to harden a little and then if there are any cracks around the hole, you can clean these up with a damp paintbrush before leaving to dry completely.

When they are dry, these go in to the kiln for a bisque firing. Next they are glazed, the glaze is wiped from the front surfaces to create a nice contrast and highlight the centres, and they are fired again to full temperature. 

The dotted centres are quite a simple design, but there are lots of different effects you can go for in the middle, add lines, wiggles, more petals, whatever you like to make them your own!

If you’re trying this in polymer, I think you could get some great effects with inks and pastes, and I’d love to see what you create if you try!

Caroline

http://www.blueberribeads.co.uk

The life of a bead

When I first started making ceramic beads, I didn't have a clue where to start. I searched around on the internet looking for information on how you baked the clay and created all the wonderful textures, colours and effects... I wanted to do everything, (I still do), but all I really knew was that you had to get it very hot for it to work, so you needed a kiln.

From those naïve beginnings, a few years down the line, I do take for granted the process of turning a lump of mud into a ceramic bead or pendant. For even the simplest design, it's a long process. You have to understand your materials, possess skill to create your imaginings, have patience, and a dose of luck to finish up with something worthy of passing on to others.

So today, I'd like to share the process and show you from start to finish the process of making a bead.

It all begins with a bag of mud. I like to use all types of clay, low fire, mid fire, high fire and Raku. Each has it's own properties and produces different results, but today, I'm using low fire earthenware.

Here's a piece of clay ready from the bag.

First, it's rolled in to a shape. I'm just keeping it simple and making a round. This only takes a few seconds, more complicated designs can take as long as you wish to spend on them, minutes to an hour or more.

Then it's poked with a skewer to create the hole.

For a simple bead, that's the end of the creation process, but for something a bit fancier, you have various stages of decoration, adding clay to create more dimension, stamping for texture, carving, shaping and smoothing to create a miniature work of art. The bead is then set aside to dry. Depending on the size of the work and the humidity, which in the rainy UK is usually pretty high, it can take from a day to a week to dry completely.

Once bone dry the clay can go through the first firing. The clay is gradually heated up to it's bisque temperature over a period of around 9 hours, then allowed to cool. If I start my kiln off in the morning, it's usually ready to open by the following morning.

The result is a bisque bead. The clay has transformed and become solid, but is still porous so that you can glaze it.

Next is the glazing. Glaze is made up from chemicals and stains and can be painted, dipped and sprayed. I use commercial glazes which come ready to paint on to your design. Each bead needs up to three coats, carefully applied to ensure a nice finish. When fired to the correct temperature, the glaze turns into a vitreous coating making the bead strong and waterproof. 

After cleaning up the holes to ensure they don't stick to the rods and don't have sharp glaze edges, in they go for another firing. This time, you can go a bit faster as the clay has gone through all the delicate stages of transformation during the bisque firing. My normal earthenware glaze firing takes about 6 hours to reach top temperature and is again left to cool.

Then comes the real fun... opening the lid!

I'm sure any one who creates with clay does the same as me and holds their breath while they take a first peek inside. There are lots of things that can go wrong during a firing, many of which I've experienced, but that just makes it all the more worthwhile when you see a great result from your days of work.

Caroline.

http://www.blueberribeads.co.uk