Professional Development Award: The Progression

My second three day session concentrated on integrating the screen printed, leather hard plaques into the hybrid cast and thrown vessels for which I’m known. The bottom of my vessels pieces are cast in a mould, so now I began working with Vicky to incorporate my screen printed plaques of clay within the slip-cast form. These were sprayed with water to soften them and tacked onto the inside of the plaster mould securing them with extra clay. Only then did we add the slip. The hope was that the marks already in the mould along with the plaques would blend together to form the decoration as the slip thickened. After draining the mould of excess slip, the top of the vessel would be thrown and attached to the decorated and moulded bottom. The results after much experimentation resulted in more precise mark making, but with a softer more flowing feel to it.