"Please Save Australia"

"Please Save Australia"

$500.00
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This 6" x 6" x 6" carved, inlayed, pierced, sanded, and hand painted art-piece features an endangered green marine sea turtle, mangrove trees, eucalyptus leaves, and ocean waves. It is made of very thinly wheel-thrown porcelain clay that was then carved, pierced, and inlayed using a Mishima technique before being fired in the kiln to just over 1800F. Additional colors were added as highlights and the piece was fired again before a clear glaze was applied and the final firing to 2232F.

6"x6"x6", very thin

art piece/decorative display, candle, potpourri, floral arrangement piece: porcelain clay, slips, underglazes, glaze

This item is one-of-a-kind. My one-of-a-kind work is called 'Heirloom' because somewhere deep inside me it is my hope that you will pass this along through the generations for others to enjoy its unique nature. I also call items 'Heirloom' when I've spent more hours creating and decorating a piece than I could ever truly recover by charging a premium for it. It's part of the process I love. It's part of what makes the medium ever-changing for me. It's part of the challenge of what new creativity might be drawn out and onto my work.

My handmade pottery items are made individually when I "throw" clay on the potter's wheel to shape the basic form. Sometimes I literally throw it onto the wheel head to get it to stick well, but the process in-general is called "throwing". They are turned over, re-centered, and trimmed when the clay has been allowed to dry slightly. Sometimes I also start with slabs of clay that are then hand-built into their shapes vs. on the wheel. Handles and other clay additions are then added and the piece is allowed to dry very slowly to prevent warping or cracking. When the piece is completely bone dry it is fired in a kiln (think big clay oven) to a temperature of just over 1800 degrees F. After this first firing, the piece is then decorated with glazes that a much like a slurry of powdered glass in water and often do not look anything like their finished colors. When the glaze is dry, each piece is carefully loaded back into the kiln to be fired again to a temperature just over 2200 degrees F. This work is considered "mid-range" temperature pottery fired to Cone 6-7 upon completion.  

This particular piece started on the potter's wheel as a ball of clay which was thrown into a very thin spherical form. It was allowed to dry slowly before it was carved and pierced before fully dry. Fine lines are carved, slip or underglaze applied, and then carefully wiped away leaving the color in the fine lines of the waves and eucalyptus leaves (Mishima technique), and the piece was fired to a little above 1800F. The hand painting of the marine sea turtle came next along with addition of some color to the mangrove leaves and the piece was fired a second time. Care with each color step is taken to ensure that color does not taint the white luminescence of the porcelain before firing which may include wet-sanding the piece prior to firing. At its final stage a clear glaze is applied very thinly to prevent clouding and the piece is fired to 2232F.

This item is one-of-a-kind. Standard household cleaning products acceptable for cleaning. Please note additional insurance is recommended to be purchased for shipping this item.

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