I've been thinking that I'm getting a bit bored with some of the work I'm making lately. I still like it, but I've been doing the same designs for a couple of years now. I need something new. I've always found that the best way for me to get going on new designs is to revisit some old work. I had done some sgraffito work in the past that I had always been happy with, but for whatever reason had stopped doing some years ago. So I decided to try it again, but incorporate some of the techniques I've been using recently.

I made a couple of teapots first, with some simple sgraffito lines, glazed thinly with a blue Albany Slip glaze:



I wasn't totally happy with the contrast I was getting, so I made some porcelain platters and covered them with slip. The first one I covered with a porcelain slip containing 10% iron, and glazed it with an iron yellow/gold version of the Albany Slip glaze:



This made me happy. Good contrast, nice color. However, I wasn't happy with the quality of the lines. Because I make the lines very quickly, it was hard to get through the slip consistently. Those places where I didn't go deep enough to expose the white clay had to be carved again. To solve this problem, I covered the next piece with wax before carving. All I had to do was get through the wax, which was no problem, then sponge away any slip that was still there. This made for nice clean lines with smooth edges, and I didn't have to go over any of the lines twice. This also made for much shallower lines, which will make the platter much more functional. Here's the result:



The slip on this piece is a porcelain slip with 15% iron and 2% cobalt. It make a nice black under most glazes. This glaze, however, picked up the cobalt and made for some blue areas. I like it, though, because it adds another color to the piece. I'll just have to watch how thick the glaze goes on to keep it from wiping out the sgraffito lines, like on the left side of this platter.

So, I've got something exciting to work on now. After the holidays I'll make some more of these pieces, and figure out how to do this decoration on other forms. Should keep me busy for a couple more years!

Happy Holidays!