Wednesday, November 18, 2009

The Amoebas (or Amoebae if you want to get technical) are Among Us!It was two days away from the Culver City Art Group Holiday Art Show, I was about to do my second firing of a few tiles that needed tweaking. But running my little electric kiln is very expensive so I prefer to have a full kiln as much as possible. As it takes about a week to paint one of my detailed tiles (from concept in Photoshop to drawing on the tile to painting, outlining, and final glazing before firing) I decided to have some fun. Not that creating all my tiles isn't fun—just intense and time-consuming.

I have nine "weird" glazes that I have never really used for anything so I decided it was time for them to see the light of day. So I did some doodles with my Wacom tablet in Photoshop and traced the outline on two tiles so they would be identical. Then I painted both the tiles with the same nine glazes but in different sequences, then outlined the shapes with black paint (as I do for most of my tiles).

The next morning I expected to retrieve nothing but a mess from the kiln. But I was pleasantly surprised and during the day as I was framing and grouting my other tiles for the show, the "Amoeba" tiles started to grow on me. When framed they looked even better. Now I love them and want to experiment more with these particular glazes.

(Photos and design copyright roslyn m wilkins)

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