Cave Art Bottle - Start to Finish

Elaine showed me how to make a bottle form (a technique from Amy's class) which I hope will provide a nice new canvas for parietal art.  Let's see how it all works out...

Step #1...construct the bottle. The clay body is one of my favourites - Loafers Glory (50% porcelain/50% phoenix). The clay is responsive though it tends to crack at times. For cave art, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

The shouder and base of the piece were thick.  But I planned to hack away at the form so it didn't worry me.  And because this was my first try at this, I cut myself some slack. To be honest I also cut through a portion of the wall.  I patched it with porcelain. Might work.  Might not. I view most of what I do as experimental so "que sera sera."

Step #2...characterize the bottle.

That thick base is smaller already, thanks to a Pampered Chef kitchen tool I never use in the kitchen. I really enjoy this part of the process...Go CRAZY with with slips and oxides.  For this bottle I used red iron oxide, ochre slip, gobs and gobs of porcelain slip and accents of hunter green underglaze.

Step #3 is my favourite part of the process - choosing the parietal design I'll paint on the "cave wall." When I found this group of bicolour steenbok, I knew I'd found a match.

The original painting was done after the Ice Age, about 11,000 years ago, in Amis Gorge, Namibia. The artist(s) used red for their steenbok. I chose to go black...with one red doe. I also added red accents to the middle animal. A closer look...

To the side, one more steenbok...

I use black and red under glazes for the "paintings." Black slip might be a nice alternative but I haven't made any yet. I'll try that soon.

Step #4... is the bisque firing.

I love the way the pieces look once they're bisqued. It's almost a shame to cover their bare purity. But I do for...

Step #5 - Glazing.
This time, I compromised, leaving a few areas unglazed but lightly sprayed with an atomizer. Glazes used are Spotted Shino and Tom's Clear. Small glass shards dipped in red underglaze were later positioned around the top of the neck.

There are patches of soda ash on the shino and sprinkings of granulated rutile on the Tom's Clear.

The last step is the least predictable of all. For me, it's heady anticipation laced with a hearty dose of anxiety.

Step #6 - High firing in the gas kiln.
We unloaded the gas kiln yesterday afternoon. Personal taste, of course, varies from person to person. But I got most of the results I was hoping for on the Steenbok Bottle. (Yes, it now has a name.) It's the first time I've left the "paintings" untouched, except for a fine misting of clear glaze. It won't be the last.

So there you have it. A Cave Art bottle start to finish. Three more are sitting on the kitchen counter, ready for Step 3. (Wonder what I'll be doing tonight?)