Laniakea: Show Building

This week was for our final show building. Even my ceramic works were all fired, there were lots of things to be done. 

I painted the plinth Dulux Quick Dry paint for wood and metal. It needs a final finish on the next Monday.

I bought fly trap plants for the following ceramic. With the curious appearance, these plants suit the theme of my work well which is about fantasy.

Before we moved our work to the show space, Tao arranged a photo shooting. These photos will be used in making booklets, postcards and posters for promotion. It was a shame that I didn't take enough pictures because the flashlights were overheating and went out. I will take more on Monday after I finish installing.

After I repainted the wall in the show space, I need to solve the problem of fixing two middle-sized ceramic on the wall. The following image shows the process.

Then I need to find a way to hang the ceramic balls. 

This was how my work looked at the end of the day. I will do some adjustment to the balls, as Maiko mentioned that I should let one ball's line go over another. In which case, people can see the lines that will reduce the feeling of floating.

Before I left the college, I filled the ceramic tank with water. There was no leaking before I go. If there is no leaking over the weekend, I will move it to the showroom and start to build the setting in the tank on Monday. Since the water needs to be matured before I can put fish in, there will be no fish or other animals during the assessment. Hopefully, I can get them in before the show starts.

Also, I need to sort out what kind of light should I use. I bought some waterproof lights, but I can only decide with the water inside the tank. Perhaps the other two middle-sized works need extra lights as well. It is not easy for people to see the nice details inside.

Laniakea: Water Test

To glue the glass and ceramic together, I covered most part of the glass will newspaper, leaving the edges, then I sealed the edges with silicone sealer for aquariums. After the first layer dried, I did a water leaking test. There was a small leak, so I put another layer of silicone all the way alone.

Leaving two days for it to dry, I did another test on Friday.

The aquarium can hold roughly about five and half buckets of water. So far, there was no leaking. I left it over the weekend. If the water is still in the same level next Monday, I can start to build the setting inside.

I notice that because of the distortion caused by the water, the glazes in the tank look much nicer. 

Laniakea: Final Glazing 2

I got all my final pieces for the aquascape bisque fired and glazed.

1. Forest

To give a sense of night sky to the inner area of this piece, I used the same glazes as this one which shown in the image.

I built small dots in certain height with BOS11; applied other glazes and sanded them off.

The glazes outside are ASO1+6.

2. Cave

For the inner background, I used the same glazes as the following tests, with the rest part of the work glazed with ASO1+6.

Glazes in the left part, with small geographic patterns,  are from the first image. The glazes around are from the second image. The bottom of the work is going to be covered by sand, so I used some less crucial glazes.

These 'universe bubbles' are all covered by ASO1+6. The forest piece, the cave piece, and even the bit aquarium are the 'universe bubbles' as well. So I give them the same glazes to unify their looking.

I was planning to fire all of them before the final week firing to leave some space for unexpected troubles. Then the unexpected trouble happened.

The kiln broke during firing, stopping at 900+ ℃. After it had cooled down, I took out the works and found that the glazes were peeled off like the paint coming down from the wall. I carefully removed the loss parts of glazes and re-painted the glazes. I was worried that the new glazes are not going to do well with the old glazes. Not to mention there were a lot of cracks on the old remaining glazes. I was so panic when I sent them back to fire again. I have neve done something like this before. I didn't remove all the glazes because I had no time and no sufficient glazes.

I have been thinking about why the glazes cracked like that. I cleaned the clay body well before glazing, so it shouldn't be the problem of dust. Tas said perhaps they soaked at that temperature too long. Then I was aware that the temperature for the outside glaze melting is lower than the inside glaze. Maybe, when the outer glaze starts to change from powder to a more intensive form, the inner glaze is still staying in power, which cause the cracks appear. But during a normal fire, this process happens in a quicker speed, there will be no chance for the glazes to a tragedy like this time.

Well, surprisedly, the outcome are beyond my expectation. Surely, things could be improved, like the control of the thickness of the glaze. I found the glazes on the top part of the middle-sized pieces were quite messy, mainly because I applied one more layer of ASO6 before the firing. But they are actually like the universe! I am so excited that I make sure I have works that I feel happy about to show in the final show. 

Since I fired them on the props, I need to sand down the top of the props that got stuck to the work, and retouch the work with Milliput, acrylic paints and nail varnish. But I won't do this to the works that are going to be in the aquarium. I don't think acrylic paints and nail varnish are safe to the living beings in the tank.

Here are some pictures I took.

The dog like pattern in the middle reminds me constellation, which was caused by the crack of the glazes. It is more like a happy accident to me.

Laniakea: Refining final big aquarium

Because this work is hollow, thin and big, I can only fire it with the front side facing down, which means I cannot have any glazes on this side. 

I planned cover the front side with acrylic after glaze firing. But before that, I painted some iron oxide so that I don't need to start from light colour. At the beginning, I applied a relatively thick layer. Then Tas and Yuta thought the oxide may get sticked to the board if it is too thick. So I wiped most of it off. It turned out to be the colour in the following image.

One thing that I am not satisfied is that the shape of the front ring changed to a less visually pleasing direction. The other thing is that at the back of the work, a part of the glaze shrinked so that it didn't cover all the body.

Since there is a little crack on the front ring, it was not recommended to reglaze and fire again. The crack will get worse. So the only thing I can do at the moment is retouching the work with acrylics.

Before retouching and the plinth I made.

Firstly, I used black with blue, red, and ochre to give it a dark base. It turned out that acrylics can cover the light surface without any problem.

Then I used light colours to add details to the surface. For example, the extension of the glaze and the yellow sparkles on the glaze.

I think I did the retouching quite successfully. The work definitely looks much better than before. You can barely see the difference if you step back. The only thing that can be improved is the glossiness. Acrylics are matt and the glaze is glossy. I would try some acrylic gloss varnish on something else and see if it will help unify the colour.

Front

Back

Laniakea: Final Glazing 1

The following work is one of my final pieces, the biggest one, which will be an actual tank. 

Inside:

Outer ring: 

ASO1 (Ivory Coast 629) + ASO4 (Dama de Noce FE5713)

Inside sphere: 

Base: BSO 11 (BOTZ 9898 Ice Crystal)

Patterns: 

BSO 10 (Mayco Night Sky EL209)

BSO 12 (BOTZ Bright Blue 9879)

BSO 13 (BOTZ Indigo 9889)

Outside:

ASO1+ASO5/6 ( Black Iris CG 798/ Obsidian CG 786)

Front Ring: Iron Oxide

For the glaze firing, I am planning to fire the work in the direction I showed in the first image. Which means the actual front side will be facing the bottom during firing. Because the work is big and thin, with no supports inside. If I fire it like the first test piece (following image), it may collapse. Not to mention, this is a hair thin crack on the front ring which may crack badly. 

By putting the front side facing down, the ring can keep flat that the glass can fit the work better in the later process. However, to do this, I cannot glaze the front ring. I was suggested that I can paint the front with oxides or underglazes. Then when I retouch it with acrylic after firing, I don't need to start with white. It is not ideal, but it is the only solution I can come up with at the moment. I will do my best to make it look better.