Sculpture/Pottery General
Anyone working in clay, metal, stone, or sculpey? Let's see it!
>>2306582
I don't do this stuff, but I think it's cool that you do.
How hard is it to get into? Don't you need a lot of materials (special overs, clays, glazes etc)? How much does it cost you to produce each one, and how long does it take?
Do you do anything other than jugs?
>>2306594
>overs
ovens*
Also so this isn't an empty post correcting my spelling, have some of Picasso's pottery, I really really like it even though I don't like most of his other work: http://poulwebb.blogspot.ca/2010/05/picasso-pots.html
>>2306594
>Don't you need a lot of materials
You'll need clay, a wheel to throw pottery on, and relatively inexpensive tools to make the work. Plus glazes, which can get expensive (though you can mix your own from raw materials). You'll need a kiln to fire the work, low end can run you a couple hundred bucks and takes about as much power as a washing machine.
>How much does it cost you to produce each one
Material costs are maybe 5 bucks tops. Couple of bucks for the clay and a dollar or two worth of glaze for each. Plus whatever you're paying on the electric bill to fire a kiln.
>and how long does it take?
10-20 minutes to throw a mug or jug on the wheel (not my department though), I do the sculpting, in the range of 40 min-2 hr.
>Do you do anything other than jugs?
My girlfriend is the potter, she makes a range of functional items. Plates, cups, berry bowls, yarn bowls, oil burners, ornaments, etc.
I'm primarily a painter.
>>2306604
Thanks for the response. I'm very surprised at how little it costs for the clay and glazes. Though the kiln seems to be a factor that would stop me at the present time.
Is a wheel necessary?
>>2306608
>I'm very surprised at how little it costs for the clay and glazes
keep in mind that's just per piece. to get started you'll want a range of glazes at $10-15 a bottle (unless you're mixing from raw materials), and clay runs us about .50 per pound, so a couple of boxes of clay run 50 bucks. It can cost you a bit at the register but still relatively low material costs.
>Is a wheel necessary?
Depends on what you want to do. For a potter, absolutely. Unless you want to just make coil-built work. If you just want to sculpt, you don't need a wheel, just clay and a kiln.
First attempt since August
Also a charcoal grill I have been working on
I have a completely functional ceramics studio in my home but I haven't done any pottery or sculpture in years. I don't know why I lost interest in those aspects of ceramics.
>>2306582
Pottery guy from the other thread here. I'm throwing in the next couple days. I'll post shit too if I get anything worthwhile. Don't really like taking photos until after bisque though.
Are you using bone china shards for teeth?
>>2306683
shards of a broken porcelain plate
>>2306588
wow i really fuck with both of the red ones the blue one and the dark green one. nice work! i want one.
>>2306610
if i wanted to do a portrait is there any advice you could give me? not on the portrait itself ive just never used clay before but i wanna try
epoxy and brass clock
copper relief
and a clay sculpture
>>2306870
>>2306868
>>2306864
so these are all mine
>>2306851
and i made like a dozen or a little more portraits in clay so far. you have to know if you want to cook them or not. i have only made sculptures in clay and than in plaster, so i don't know anything about ceramics. to make a good portrait you have to get the measurements right.
first make it out of straight pads like a robot or a skull. skip the details for now. and then, little by little when you've already positioned the main bones and main dots on the face, then you can do the details specific for that portraits like what kind of mouth he has or the bumps on the forhead etc.
>>2306588
OP i really like your pottery.
the ones with closed eyes are especially awesome to me. how much are you charging for your work typically? i'm just wondering
>>2306851
here's a pic of in progress work that will show you the setting up of a portrait. this was the first head i ever began to make, and the whole thing was just my proffesors way of teaching me the basic thing, not to get caught up in a detail. also in the begining, only use a big wooden plank for the set up. when the proportions are ok, you can move one, and use hands and finer tool.
also you have to have a supporting structure inside. like a metal rod wich you wrap around with wire that hold little x's made of wood around, that will hold the clay at key points. two x's inside the face, one at each side of the neck and one at the back. everything i'm telling you has no significance in ceramics and baking clay. we make it like that so we can cast it in plaster.
ask op for baking information. i think it has to be dry for baking, if it's big it's good to make it hollow so it drys faster. it has to be wet for casting. the three plaster heads above are my first three ones, it's not that hard! good luck!
>>2306894
not op but yea it has to be hollow for baking cause if its too thick it will crack (as far as I know, im still a beginner) and also the clay has to be wedged until there are no air bubbles, and I think, but im not sure, you have to use the cross-hatching and slip method when you want to add clay. let me know if im wrong though
>>2307405
nothing here is acctualy done. the clay ones are disposed of beacuse they don't have actual value. the plaster ones aren't going to be "polished", they are going to be patinated if that's eaven a word in english. they're going to have color.
>>2306582
Das sum gud shit mang
>>2306851
I've done a ton of life sized figurative work that have survived the firing process and have some advice.
Like a lot of people said, build solid originally but on an armature. I use steel gas pipe because it's cheep, has lots of joiners with various angles, can be dismantled in segments as you cut the piece apart for hollowing, and has a joiner that can be screw mounted.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Mueller-Global-1-2-in-x-12-in-Black-Steel-Nipple-583-120HN/100204171
You're want a heavily grogged clay which will make a smooth exterior texture difficult. If having a smooth surface matters to you get a thowing clay with sand instead of grog.
When building the bust make sure the pipe stops at about the center of the forehead. This will allow your first cut to be clean as you're wire tool won't get stuck on the pipe. Yoou won't want to start hollowing until the piece is leather hard (the point where they clay is not easily deform-able) but not so hard where it's difficult to cut or so hard that it's prone to cracking through handling. Hollow out the top of the head. It's rather important for the thickness to be uniform and the same thickness throughout the entire piece. This is the most common reason for cracking when firing, seriously. Continue to hollow down on the piece until you've exposed enough of the pipe to get a wrench in there and loosen the the next piece.
Continue hollowing down until it becomes difficult to tell what you're doing. Use your wire tool to cut another vertical slice off the next segment, above where your next piece of pipe is. Finish hollowing out that slice. When done use a fork to score the corresponding edges, apply slip to both sides of the hallowed pieces and join them and cover them in plastic.
Continue doing this for the rest of the piece.
When you get to the very bottom you might think it's a good idea to add a slab to the bottom and close it off. that's a bad idea. Leave the bottom open and I'm out of space
>>2306851
slip and score, that's the main thing to remember. scoring is "cross-hatching" etched lines into the surface (like plowing a field), slipping is the use of slip (water+clay) to act as glue between the two pieces you're joining.
Depending on how wet the clay is, slip might not be entirely necessary. I usually just use a bit of water instead of slip, but proper slip and score method is probably good for larger works.
Gonna dump a few images of newer work, not yet fired. These are two zombie mugs.
>>2307541
Thanks
These are two faces from imagination. The teeth are shards from a broken porcelain plate.
>>2307405
If you're near a decent sized city you can probably find a pottery co-op, or someone teaching classes that can fire work for you.
These two mugs are based on precolumbian sculpture. The one on the right is modeled after an Olmec head.
>>2307094
This is all correct. Trapped air can cause explosions in the kiln, destroying both the work with the air bubbles and anything around it. This can also happen if the work isn't fully dry before firing. Which is why work needs to be hollow, a large lump of clay won't fully dry in the center.
These two are based on a Greco-Buddhist statue
>>2306894
>how much are you charging for your work typically?
These mugs are priced between $35-$45 dollars and have been selling like hot cakes as Christmas gifts. I might go a bit higher for the next batch, I could definitely price them higher in a different market but folks around here are pretty cheap, so I have to keep things relatively inexpensive if I want to sell.
Nice work btw.
The mug on the left here is based on Honey Boo Boo's sassy expression, and the right mug is just a mutant from imagination.
These mugs rock, dude!! Where could I buy one? I'm serious.
>>2308757
Oh God... you bet your ass they'll sell fast at that price. You're makin me feel bad, bud. How many hours go into those after throwing, trimming, handles, sculpting/fussing, glazing, loading, finishing, packing?
Can I make a suggestion here? Why don't you separate the one-offs into a higher priced line with jugs and vases you can sell for $100+, then get into slip casting for mugs? Casting's a fucker to get sorted out, but you guys will be able to drop the price point to $30-ish and make a killing. There's a guy on etsy who does these slip-cast dragon head rhyta and he cleans up. Another possibility is to make some concave face-blank press molds and smoosh the fresh thrown mugs into it. Might have to precharge the extremities with extra clay, but you'd get the basic form faster and can still add individual details. Those fuckers probably don't realize they're getting this shit for half what they're worth, but you should.
I'd also like to critique, but I'm going to ask if you're open to it or not.
>>2308876
>I'd also like to critique, but I'm going to ask if you're open to it or not.
Go right ahead.
>>2308797
Right now I'm selling them from my studio/gallery space, but whichever mugs we have after Christmas I'll put on the gf's Etsy page.
I ALWAYS wanted to sculpt. But I would like to make warriors, rpgs characters, comic book characters, etc... I don't even know where to start with it. I admire everyone who works with this stuff.
I really wish there was a beginner book of sculpture or something.
I bought a house today which means I"m going to be out of a ceramics studio for a few months minimum. I have to upgrade the service box to 200 amps, have the city run a new line to the house and run a 100 amp line to the garage for the kilns. It's going to cost 5 grand minimum.
It's going to be a real bummer.
>>2310123
Getting the kiln set up is the biggest pain in the ass. Not to mention moving the kiln, they're way heavier than a washer or dryer.
5 grand though, damn.
>>2308882
Yeah same. There is the smellybug tutorial form years ago that as far as I know is one of the best ever for that type of stuff. But it still is a bit intimidating to begin, especially since you need to make an armature and stuff.
>>2308881
>whichever mugs we have after Christmas I'll put on the gf's Etsy page.
link?
>>2311767
>racist mugs
haha holy fuck white people have hit a new low
>>2311803
how are those racist in the slightest?
>>2311803
>Depicting accurate face features from indigenous people is now waycis
Tumblr pls go
>>2311767
At least the roundish ones come appart. I have a front loader also which can't be taken apart. I have a hand truck which does the job.I'm just bummed that I have to upgrade the entire electrical service. You need to get the city involved and contractors. It could potentially be a nightmare.
