Poly Chrome jars in progress

Polychrome Jars: Ramblings

      AND a review of a few upcoming shows

Let's start with the most recent show.  This Tuesday (May 22) Larson Gallery in Yakima will host the annual "Department of Visual Arts" show for YVCC.  This show has the best work by students over the past 12 months.  The reception is that afternoon 5:30-7:00pm. 

Above is my submission to the 2012 Dova show.  It is a traditional pueblo jar shape with some traditional form to lend familiarity.  The panels however are anything but traditional.  It is about 11" in diameter and 9" tall.  The contrast of the abstract painting over a traditional Puebla (Cases Grandes) form was a lot of fun.  I'm not sure if I should apologize to the ancient Mata Ortez potters or Jackson Pollock, probably BOTH.  

The next traditional jar is a large smoke fired jar that I plan to submit to the Larson Membership show in June.  I show it to give my Puebla jars some context.  I started making these large jars some time ago and  was inspired by a jar Kristin and I found in Santa Fe some years ago.  By "found" I mean, in a shop.  Flip back a few posts for my "Jar" posting  It will give you some background on these large, open mouth, earthenware water jars. 

This jar is glazed inside and is probably suitable for making beer or pickles.  The surface was covered with a white slip and burnished.  It is about 15" in diameter and was constructed from a 16" form batt and it shrunk a bit in drying and firing.  Oh yea, this was fired at cone 06, then smoke fired in an old rusty barrel.  Here is another photo of the same pot, below. 

And now to the meat of this post; the jars I will be showing at Oak Hollow Gallery the 8th of June.  You are welcome to come to the reception,  I'll share the show with Stan Reynolds, the Yakima painter.  

The first pot is about as traditional as is possible without directly copying the ancient Casas Grandes potters.  I developed the graphics on this pot, minus the lines, which are ephimeral, ubiquitous, and polymorphous, not to mention expressive.  This pot was constructed from Dakota Red clay, covered with a white slip, and was fired about 6 times before I was (somewhat) satisfied with it.  These jars are relatively thin, light, and are around 8" to 11" in diameter.   

The next jar is also based on traditional designs but is a relatively modern Mexican panel landsdcape painting.  I like the combination of the two forms.  I used some girsley borate (a calcium borate???) glazes on this piece, but girstley darkens the red iron oxide and hardens the glaze surface so I gave up my old friend (Colemanite) and went back to commercial applications.  Thanks Amaco!

After toying with landscapes (above)  I dug out some old sketch pads and borrowed some "ancient" sketches I had made in years past, combined with some of the images I hold in my head of mountains and clouds without end.  This landscape wraps around the jar so it is essentially infinite, with a repeated, but sequentially connected graphic on the four side panels.  This jar is larger than its fellow "painted jars" in this post.  These jars all have round bottoms but they all stand up without difficulty.  I'm not sure of the physics involved in this phenomonia, but they don't fall over and they sit upright naturally, with a bit of lively wobble! 

Combining the graphics of the previous jars, I then tried a four panel landscape (below)  with different views, held in context with ancient graphics.  This "little guy" is getting down around 9" in diameter.  The red is Amaco "Terra Cotta" and the black is  Amaco "Black Velvet".  I think the surface of this pot is a white, porcelain slip with some burnishing.  

Going back in the evolution, I made this pot (below) for DOVA, thinking the traditional (but simple) Pueblo designs might ring a chime for the viewers.  However, at the last minute, in consultation with Rachel, I decided to try out a new form on the students so this jar migrated to Oak Hollow, not an uncommon displacement for flakey artists.  

This pot (below) has an interesting history.  Over the past few years I have come to see "Nueva Pueblo" potters as being just to dang perfect.  I'm often suspicious that some of the jars are slip cast, or at least hand thrown.  That takes out some of the original lopsided and organic feel of the old pottery, or even typical Acama pots from only 20 or 30 years ago.  In this jar I tried to reintroduce some of the antique feel of the old pots, not to "fake" it up, but just to give it more of a sense of the excitement (derived from use and age) of the ancient Casas Grandes pots.   If anything I went just a bit over the edge on this jar and will probably be accused by some of trying to replicate the antique feel artifically (see my previous post on "antiqueing" a guitar).  However, when you consider this pot was fired 6 or 8 times, you can see it really has aged in a trial by fire.  I like this pot a lot and if it doesn't sell at Oak Hollow I will probably keep it.    

Why would a potter fire a pot multiple times.  Well, first of all multiple firings give pottery a patina and a "used" or organic feel.  In using slips, stains, and colors on a jar I want to be sure they don't blend or smudge, so I first bisque fire the pot, then bisque the original colors and keep layering the colors with further bisque firings.  

The last of the Oak hollow jars is below.  This has 4 different landscape panels, illustrating the progressing of a mountain storm.  You can see the red clay body inside this pot. I'm going to say the slip covering is "OM4 ball clay".  

I will show several additional jars at Oak Hollow in June, but this post is stretching out.  Perhaps another post is in order.  But before closing I want to show a jar that I made to submit to "The Mighty Tieton 10X10" show in July.  I really like to revert to traditional graphics and this jar shows the understated polychrome style.  

Hope you liked this post, see you at the DOVA reception May 22 and at Oak Hollow June 8.  And, be on watch for a post on Raku, in preparation for the YVCC spring Raku firing. I plan to smoke fire some painted pueblo jars that day and see how the graphics look on contrast to the effects of smoke firing.  

    

Smoke Fired Ceramics

Smoke Fired Ceramics

Raku is a popular ceramic process whereby the red hot ceramic object is withdrawn from the hot kiln and exposed to organic materials. It blackens the clay body surface and contributes interesting surface colors to the pot, particularly if the  potter adds creative chemicals or organic materials in the process.  One other way to get a smokey surface, typical of pit fired native firing, is "smoke firing" the pot.  I would call Smoke firing a sub-process of Raku, but it is really different in a number of ways. 

Smoke firing is generally practiced on bisqued clay pieces, meaning the pot is fired to a low temperature to make it stronger and more resilient to the smoke firing process.  The low fired pot is then put in some kind of container filled with organic materials and ignited.  Often this "smoke fire kiln" is little more than a metal barrel with some sort of lid (to keep in the smoke).  The combustionable material can be leaves, shreaded paper, firewood, or whatever is on hand.  While Raku firing is generally in the range of cone 08, I am guessing the smoke fire environment is cooler than cone 010.  

The smoke fire process relies on the characteristic of the earthenware fired pot to absorb smoke from the heavily reduced kiln environment.  The areas of the kiln that have oxygen will fire cleaner than the areas where the smoke builds up, creating interesting responses to the process.  I have seen black ware from the Southwest called "Oaxian ware" or other local names.  If the smoke fire piece is refired in an electric kiln the smoke will be burned off and the effect removed.  Smoke fire pieces are almost entirely decorative and they don't make good kitchen ware pieces. 

Let's review a smoke firing

We will load two barrels, like those above, with shreaded paper,  stack some pots in the material, ignite the material, and then let it slowly die out from lack of fuel.  Then, we let the pieces cool for a while, remove and wash them, and perhaps treat the surface with some additional surface coatnig.   Here is a closer look at the loaded barrel. 

and a closer look at the shreaded paper

The pots are both filed with shreaded paper and buried in the shreaded paper.  The barrels serve as a saggar.  In fact, in some cases, potters have filled a saggar with leaves and a pot, and inserted it into a kiln to be fired normally.  When the combustionable materils is ignited by the temperature of the hot kiln, it slowly burns and creates the same smoke fired effect we will get from the smoke fired barrel.  

However, the reverse of this may also happen.  That is, the saggar is used to keep the pot clean and away from firing materials, particularly in a wood fire pit kiln where the potter wants a clean surface.  We can be relatively certain that Casas Grandes pottery was fired in a pit kiln with firewood (1200AD to 1450AD).  However, the only way the Casas Grandes pots could retain their clean surface designs would be for them to be isolated form the reduction of  the firing process.  Some CG pottery has smoke clouds, but the potters seem to have only accepted occasional occurances of smoke firing and probably isolated the pot surfaces from the firing in some manner.  I do not have evidence that the CG potters used clay saggars or even that archaeologists have found any saggars at CG.

Smoke firing can be enhanced with the aid of creative saggars also.  Some modern potters use aluminum foil to wrap the pots or portions of the pot to isolate smoke firing from  the surface.  And, in some cases, potters will wrap organic materials or chemicals next to the pot surface and hold it there with aluminum foil.  The relatively low smoke firing temperatures will not consume the aluminum foil.  I will conduct some experiments with Aluminum foil saggaring at the YVCC smoke firing, May 26. You are welcome to stop by and see the process.  Here is smoke firing in progress.

The barrels have just be ignited and covered.  I stop up holes in the lid with wet clay.  You can see small vent holes at the bottoms of the barrels.  Without the breathing holes there would not be enough oxygen for combustion and the paper would be extinguished. 

Regular iron barrels will last a number of firings.  YVCC always calls both Clean air Yakima to make sure it is an approved "Burn day" and also the city fire department so they know where the smoke is coming from.  Actually, if the firing goes correctly, little smoke escapes the ceramics yard. 

Here (above) the firing has been burning 3 hours and is almost completed.  Because the firing barrel is messy, I let it burn out and cool for a day or two before popping it open.  Then I remove the posts, wash them, and let them dry where they won't freeze.  Once they are completely dry, they will withstand freezing temperatures.  Here is another smoke fired jar.  You can see that the black pattern is not uniform. Subtle colors are and hues often result from smoke firing, 

and here is a more successful example (below)  that is now at Oak Hollow Gallery.  Personally I like the blacker jars.  Contrast can be enhanced by smoke firing burnished jars with white slip covering.  I often wax the jars at the end of the process to bring out the colors.  Sometimes I put a protective earthenware glaze (cone 06) inside the pot before smoke firing.  Technically one could make pickles or beer in one of these jars with the interior glaze but I never have?  Flip back in this blog to "Ceramic Jars" for more on this particular (unique, native) clay form.  

I hope to smoke fire a couple of my (fake) Casas Grandes copy jars.  They are smaller than the jars in this post.  I also hope to experiment with aluminum foil saggars on May 26.  I will have a set of Nuevo Casas Grandes" jars at the Oak Hollow show after June 7.  Stop by the show opening and chat.  

  

Building a Fire Lookout "Lightening Stool"

Lightening stools, a Fire Lookout necessity

One of the hazards of working a fire lookout is Lightening storms.  Situated atop view points, along ridge tops and at high elevations, the lookout station is in the "line of fire" of Lightening storms.   When a lightening "bust" hits a lookout building the  structure generally survives.  However, for the safety of the station occupants, it's generally accepted that an insulated stool is "de'rigor" for a lightening storm.  Pictured above are two lookouts stools at Red Top Lookout.  You can see that traditionally, lightening stools are simply made bases with glass insulating legs.  These insulators, and the threaded posts were once common on light poles, but have since gone out of use and are now collectors items (antiques??).  Here is a photo of Red Top Lookout to illustrate the exposed nature of lookouts.  

Lookout insulator stools generally had to be large enough to stand on for the duration of the storm, small enough to set out of the way, and sturdy enough to support the shivering lookout.  I used my stool at Jumpoff as an outside stool (on the cat walk) a work bench, and a place for visitors to sit.  One year I constructed a guitar on Jumpoff and the lightening stool served well as a work bench.  

Knowing I wanted to replace the Lightening stool for Jumpoff Lookout, I've been on the lookout (???) for some time for the original (style) glass insulators.  I finally located an "un-junk shop" in Lostine, Oregon that had a few in the window.  Run by 

Dave Cherry (Box 56, Lostine, OR 97857/ 

Phone: 541-569-2278) 

This is truly one of the best shops I've ever been in for used tools of high quality.  The number of old axe heads that Dave has on display (with prices) is almost infinite.  Other old tools of all sorts extend back into a large ware house.  Dave's wares are clean, organized, and with fair prices.  I think I paid $6 apeace for the insulator and threaded post.  Thanks Dave!!

My memory of the Jumpoff lightening stool is that it was a bit more sturdy than the ones remaining on Red Top. I sketched it from memory and then set to cutting out the parts.  To Stay with historic materials, I limited myself to 2x4s and fir or pine decking lumber.  Here is the first cut: 

I side-glued two pieces of for the stool top, one piece of Pine and one piece of fir to commemorate the Douglas Fir and Ponderosa pine that surrounds the Jumpoff Lookout Those four little (oak) blocks are to overlap the joints and offer more support for the legs. 

Here is an insulator and a threaded post.  The post will be a leg and the glass insulator will screw on for insulation  You can adjust the level of the stool by adjusting the threaded insulator a bit. 

and the parts laid out for glueing 

Once glued up I set to finding a drill press to make sure the legs holes were drilled nice and straight.  I located one in the shop of Berry Gallant, former lookout at Miner's Ridge, just west of Bumping Lake.  Betty started out the 1943 fire season at Raven Roost Lookout (not gone), but  she did such a good job that they transferred her (with a pack string) to Miners ridge for the remainder of the summer. Betty grew up at Goose Prairie, where she attended the one room school.   

and here, a bottom view, all glued together with the insulators screwed on. One important feature that I remember from Jumpoff was the little handle/slot in the stool top.  The stool is a bit clumsy, but this handle allows you to grab it,  position it, or move it.  No paint on the bottom, as per the historical model. 

a close up of the legs

and the finished stool

Naturally, insulated stools were made at the supporting Ranger Station wood shop so no two were probably alike, but this is about as good of a copy of the old Jumpoff Stool as is possible.  Even the left over paint ("go to the paint shed and bring back some brown paint").  I will donate this stool to the Naches Ranger Station as soon as we get a program underway to return the lookout to some sort of use.     If you are interested in Jumpoff Lookout, read back in this blog a ways and there is a "write up" on it as well as instructions for "getting there".   

I hope this helps you build a new stool for YOUR lookout. If you have any pictures of other lookout stools, send them to me and I'll edit them into this post.  

Rebuilding a $4.99 guitar

Reciently, wandering through a Goodwill store, I spotted a very direlect guitar, if it could be called that.  It was more like a toy guitar with broken strings, dirty, and generally not worth the $4.99 asking price.  However, on closer look the neck appeared to be straight, bolt on, frets flat, and other parts also had potential on one of my ceramic guitars.  AND the strap is a nice strong one, worth about $4.98 at any music store.

Because I didn't see any potential in this piece of junk I didn't take any pictures of it.  However, once the parts started coming off I realized this was the perfect "Strat type" guitar for the hollow body experiment I'd always wanted to perform on a strat, ie, strip it off, cut it open, hollow it out and put it back together.  The photo above is at the state where I was simply figuring out how to hollow out a strat.  You can see my "cut here" lines, and some stylistic "f holes" drawn on with a silver sharpie.  Also, at this stage, having a rattle-can of silver paint in hand, I hit the headstock to remove the (now forgotten) brand,,, probably a mistake, but let's move on here. 

Here are some parts, once they were removed and cleaned up.  That's a signed inspection sticker on the (4 hole) neck plate

and this is a close up of the body without the guts.  That round hole to the left lower is the "SPEAKER hole" (that's right, it had it's own amp).  Not sure what the funny white powder is that was all over the inside?? Anyway, minus the two single coil pick-ups, wiring and switches (note that one of the jack holes  has failed): 

and the back.  That yellow hole is the battery compartment after I'd beefed it up with a veneer sheet.  The big trap door to the left was the guts.  The little round hole on the right was a sound hole for the back of the speaker. You can see that I intended to modify the shape of this strat to an Ibanez TM "abreviated" 

Once everything was stripped out and I'd drawn a pick guard on the face i realized that cutting on this beast was not necessary, It's already hollow.  Counting the bat hole, the speaker hole, the electronics hole, and the two pick-up holes, it's about as hollow as a solid guitar can get.  You can see that I traced out the bat hole on the front of the face to get an idea of it's "hollowness".  At this stage I'm still thinking about cutting it somehow.  Anyone have a skill saw? 

Did I mention that this guitar turned out to have a "truss rod" in the neck and a scale of 24 inches (part of the toy guitar thing I guess).  The frets are solid and flat, the keys are generally working (minus one plastic bushing), and it seemed to me it needed a "roller" T on the headstock. 

Here you can see a mock up pick guard (maple ply), the shined up bridge, and the front of the speaker hole.  

The guts plate, the one piece keys, and some other parts laying about, looking to get lost on the floor.  Oh, those two strap locks on the left are destined for something soon.  Also, I found some nice new shiny matching strap buttons at Steward McDonalds and a set of "antique" bushings for the keys. 

I happened to have some thin hobby store plywood that I  had used when I was making wooden strat pick guards and it mocked up fine.  You can see I've fixed the jack hole, no need for two jacks anyway?  

Well, time to paint it.  However, I've alway liked those fake vintage fender models and have actually tried some of the techniques for "fake ceramic cups" which mock the old "well used" look.  In this case, for contrast with black, I first painted the guitar (or the edges at least) orange to have color come out in a "wear pattern" once it's black.... read on. 

Then, an application of black satin, some rubbing on the edges, and a 'screw on" of the neck, and "Whollia" (or however you spell it"? 

and a close up.  I painted this side a bit rough so the guitar will cling to the player.  Notice the antique look of the speaker breather hole, If they had speaker holes 50 years ago.  Here you can see that I've prepared the battery hole to install some "Through the body" string bushings.  More on that in a later shot. 

and  a "far out" of the front.  It's resting on my clay slab roller.  As I have a foam cover on the rollers, this makes a perfect guitar stand.  See pick guiard and speaker plugs on the left and the string "throught holes" shining up a bit at the bottom.   This replaces the old, cheap, whammy bridge and spring. 

and now with bridge, plugs, and unpickuped guard.  

new shims and newly greased keys.  See the new roller-T for high E/B

Here are the string holes and the polished bridge base

and now the pick up hole is cut and one of the original pickups is in place.  I plan a single/single coil PU and I'd like to switch between two capicators, but who knows? Oh yea, I installed some old, used strings that were once on an accoustic

Looking Good!.  Don't you just love that smooth paint job (below) and the misplaced pick guard hole?  Oh well, it's got more problems than that. 

and a bigger shot. looking up, pick at the ready. 

and, at about $15.00 you have an instant fake vintage, fake adult, fake beautiful guitar.  Once the rebolted neck settled down it holds tune about as well as can be expected from the keys, the neck is almost mystically "on" (in the lower frest),  and as it's so light and short, it's a wonder to play with my short arms (compared to Robert Johnson). Yea, it's a bit hollow, but perhaps a hot single coil will bring out the empty spaces.  

Oh yea, don't click on the arrow in the picture above thinking it's the link to a Utube video, it's a fender guitar pick.   HOWEVER, no guts, literally, there is no wiring in the guitar right now as I'll have to completely rewire it.  It now needs new keys, a wring kit, and a jack plug.  Think I'll try one of the pickups that it came with.  So instead of having a great $4.99 guitar I'll have a "so-so" $95.00 used guitar of uncertain abilities.  Oh well, it's the journey isn't it.  So stay tuned to the "Wiring edition" of the "5 buck chuck" 

Well, the experiment was a lot of fun.  Now where the heck did I put that credit card?  

Reflection on a Waning Moon, Part II

Three Hundred poems

     in a thousand years.

The gentle winds

     Remain the same

As if no time expires

     Through their sequence

As if no memory 

     Alters their course

The process of Poly Chrome

I reciently posted an extensive piece in "clayforms" that I want to try and read into this blog.  I deals superficially with the technique and process required by SW natives to create master artistry almost 800 years ago.  Knows as "Casas Grandes" or "Mata Ortez" Polychromes, these jars were incredable designs separate from the pots, but when fired onto the pot surfaces, they are technological marvels.  Let's dive in to this subject and see what we can find out?

CLAYFORMS

THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 2012

The Clay form as a canvas for images

This post deals with the question about describing a technique or process I have worked with this quarter.  I want to talk about the Mata Ortiz/Casas Grandes pottery and the unique way the ancient SW natives (and their North central Mexican relatives).  Here is an example:

This is an earthenware pot around 10" X 10" which is covered with a white slip and the design is painted over the top.  I'm guessing it is low fired with natural slips and stains.  This pot is typical of the surface designs in this area around 1000 AD.  Now let's look at what developed from this form a few hundred years later: 

what was one color over the white slip surface has become a true "Polychrome" with black and red slips over the surface in very interesting designs.  Looks easy enough, but it proves to be more of a practical problem in application. 

I reviewed the Mata Ortiz shards of a local artist and discovered that they are is truly very thin, and the white slip covering is relatively uniform. The lips of the pots were a bit thicker, indicating that they actually used these paintings some for (possible) practical uses.  They could also have been used for burials or other ceremonials?  Basically, todays archaeologists have no real idea what the utilitarian nature of this stuff is? 

In trying first to create suitable jars for slip covering/design application, I discovered that slips are much harder to apply when the slip surface is burnished.  For this reason I have tried sanding it to achieve a smooth surface.  It seems it is best to bisque the pot and then sand it with water to avoid dust.  Of course, the natives, working outside, would not have been particularly concerned with dust. Also, doubtful if they had high quality sand paper? 

After making a few of these jars (between 10" and 12" diameter) it is my guess that there was some specialization going on.  It seems that creating these stone canvasas in 1100 AD would have requaired pot builders specializing in the high quality displayed here AND specialized surface decorators.  I suppose in a primitive studio an artist could construct and fire a couple of jars.  I once visited Choco Canyon, NM and judging by the sheer volume of shards, that the natives either broke a lot of pots, or were unconcerned with having to replace these pots frequently.  Some areas are literally paved with shards. 

Back to process.  First of all, lead pencil marks completely disappear when fired to cone 06.  Also a wood fired kiln would have required a very tight fitting sager for firing this clean.  The application of a consistent red slip would also have required much cultural continuity in the pottery trade. I have no idea what the design painters were thinking when they did these surface embellishments.  They seem almost humorous and current, more like something from cubism.  

Also, the artistic talent required to get this detail with hand made slips and hand made brushes is truly amazing.  The consistency of line and form on these surfaces is incredably difficult to achieve, particularly on a three deminsional surface.  I don't see any crowding or compromise with the form so planning must have been parimount.  

Here we are back at a black slip on white body, with a bit of red color on the pot lip.  The reds, from pot to pot, vary from almost yellow to almost orange, and always a bit redder than is possible with just red iron oxide.  I am guessing specialists mined and processed these slips for the artists. 

Bowls were more common at the earlier phases of this ceramic era. With bowls the primary designs were inside the bowl.  I'm guessing this was one step in the evolution of the "surface for design" tradition.  Cooking in these utinsels would have resulted in smoke blacking, which is uncommon with the pieces I have seen photographed. 

Another bowl interior

and a fanciful figure jar.  Aside from the primitive characterization, these figurines are surprisingly lifelike and expressive, suggesting individual representations.

Naturally, like myself, other modern potters have been impressed with the ancient tradition of SW polychrome and tried to replicate it on pottery. I show these successful, modern approaches, both to illustrate their success and to illustrate their lack of success.  They have replicated the technical intensity of the pieces, but are too perfect to capture the aliveness of the originals.  The edges are too perfect, the use of stencils is evident, and the colors are too uniform.  

check out the next piece for the contrast of new and old: 

and finally, here is a modern photo illustrating the setting in which the original pieces were made.  This is a thunderstorm taking place over a site near Casas Grandes.  

Are there other technique and process answers to gleen from the old pottery.  I'm guessing it will be very hard to  replicate their process and remain true to the present.  The modern potter has electric kilns and can thus avoid reduction firing.  They have a modern tradition of ceramic color supply houses to solve the problems of mineral stains.  And, practically anything can be painted on the 3D surface as long as the artist considers that all scenes fold back on themselves side to side and top to bottom.  I  hope to have a few pots to show in a future post around the middle of April.  Stay tuned.