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Monday, March 8, 2010

Rub-A-Dub-Dub, I've Scrubbed and I've Rubbed...

...and I'd rather be kissing a poisonous grub.
In a tub,
In a pub,
With an acid filled glass.
While a very large goat shoves it's horns up my....


In case you didn't realise I've finished tidying up the workshop. I really should work harder at keeping on top of the clearing up at the end of each day.
By the time I had finished I found I had a bucket full of clay to recycle. I knew I had loads of slops and one thrown away pot, but I forgot how much turning I'd been doing. There was clay everywhere. You can see what I mean about tidying up!
All the ball pots are now turned and awaiting decoration etc.


I also took a little time out and applied terra sig. to a couple of pots:

I've placed them next to the little test goblet you have seen before to illustrate the difference in their surface finish. Both the bowl and the mini udu drum were burnished prior to the application of the sig.

You can see how shiny the udu is. This was brushed with the t.sig. first and had at least 4 layers applied. It was buffed with a soft cloth and then rubbed with a piece of thin plastic bag. 
I have tried using a plastic bag before, without success, but this time I used a thinner bag and it worked much better. Although buffing with the cloth brought up a good shine on it's own.

The bowl was the second attempt and has a better finish. You can see the difference in shine between it and the original test piece. You can just make out the reflection of the goblet in the surface of the bowl, as well as the white shelf it is stood upon.
I applied 2 coats of sig. before I buffed with the cloth and rubbed with the bag. I then applied one more coat and repeated the buffing and rubbing.
I'm very happy with the results. It will be interesting to see how they fire.
If all go's according to plan I'll be spraying the other pots tomorrow and modelling some frogs etc.
Thanks for visiting.

1 comment:

  1. Your Terra Sig pots are nice and shiney. Is it difficult to treat the pots while they are in a fragile unfired state? It would seem the handling and buffing might crack or dent the pot. I'm looking forward to seeing how they come out of the kiln.

    ReplyDelete

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