it’s near impossible to clean away the excess without staining. I do my best. some of the the tile gaps I’ve filled with newman clay and barnard clay instead of tile grout. they all crack as they dry
I try to repair the cracks by pouring a layer of clay slip over the entire surface. something you are taught never to do in ceramics:
if a large crack appears, you should always wedge the entire form back into plastic clay and start again from scratch
if you smooth it over, it will likely reappear again once water escapes from the body
these clay bodies, taken from the earth, contain large amounts of minerals that can give them potent staining strength.
one of the most common naturally occurring mineral in clays – iron oxide – can give bodies a rich red, black or yellow colour
in ceramic handbooks, this quality is often written about like an inconvenience: “newman clay is useful for imparting a bright orange red tone but can be difficult to work with as it stains whatever surface it comes into contact with”
I find that I am drawn to this. I like that these bodies resist the desire to keep things clean and contained. wherever they touch, they leave an echo of the earth. as long as they contain moisture
wedged with my knees and hands, as I soon tired
somewhere between wedging, coiling and joining, I practice movements that can never become a vessel
application of 洛神花 & 熟地 medicine pigment onto dried clay slip (on one tray slip dries on wood, on the other slip dries on stretched cotton), one stroke from left to right even when the brush becomes dry
in chinese painting, 留白 (leaving empty / leaving space) is an essential philosophy and visual element
the pigment fades as it dries. moisture evaporates and is absorbed by the dried clay slip
I poured another layer of slip over the dried medicine pigments
both trays dried in less than two hours in the afternoon sun
I tried to pour the slip as even as I could, but clay’s viscosity can change quickly. the slip thickened as I poured
I want to study these cracks, I’m so mesmerized by them, so I trace them over with pigment made from 熟地
I started practicing calligraphy again, so I do my best to remember 起笔, 行笔, 顿笔, 收笔 as I study the lines
patterns emerge as the clay slip dries even though I try to coat the surface as evenly as I can
dried slip is surprisingly pliable, wavering like ribbons even I mist the entire surface with water again
but as pliable as it seems, it cannot be picked up or kept
I decide to flatten it instead
when it’s dry, the formations can be easily scrapped off with a spatula and returned to it’s dry state. this one is called B3
if I add water to this, mix well, pour it out onto a tray again, it dries over time and creates another formation
all store bought clays and dried clay ingredients have been created through process of erosion and compression over hundreds of thousands of years. clay particles are very fine and light, so they often travel long distances in the wind or carried by rivers, and only settle when the air or water is still.
over these long distances and stretches of time, their mineral structure slowly changes and they acquire material properties like their plasticity, which enable clay to be formed very thin and curved without breaking
landscape dried within two hours in the bright afternoon sun
ghosts of the previous layer floating on a new layer of clay
porcelain, recycled clay pinch pots in plastic, leather-hard & bone dry states filled repeatedly with traditional chinese medicine until the vessels fragment
