Commissions Progress Report

Im getting used to the plaques now, it seems as though Ive done a lot lately. They are a headache though, getting the damn things to stay straight whilst drying then into the kiln and who knows what shape they will go in there, Ive had a few go bendy which is so disappointing!
Ceramics should come with warning signs which go something like "Not for control freaks" or "expect the unexpected!" because thats all it really is. I don't feel like I have much control after loading it all into the kiln, its just going to do what its going to do, happy accidents and not so happy ones.
Well this is one that didn't come out looking tortilla shaped!

I am super pleased with this one, nice and flat and the leaves are just lovely.
I hope they like it!!

This is the plaque just after scratching the initial lettering.

More house signs, this one is for someones gate

and a larger one for their house.

I thought I had divorced myself from this kind of work,
 but clearly not yet.
A few years ago I made the fish at the top along
 with two others for a lady
who wanted one for each of her children.
Then she had another one and wanted another plaque for Lailey.
Fortunatly I still had the tool to make it and a bit of the clay
used and the same glazes.

House Name Plaques update and finished project

Its a good feeling when a project like this is completed and the customer likes what they have got. I always feel under more pressure when making to specific requirements as things may go wrong in the kiln or the customer may not like what I have made and I generally feel daunted by commissions but feel compelled to take them on. After all if the customer has faith in what I produce then why shouldnt I?
Here are some of the processes that the two name plaques have been through, and the finished item.

At this stage the lettering has been drawn onto the clay and the plaque is left to go to leather hard stage ready to work  on again.

As above but this plaque I scratched a drawing of the hens and the pigs and left to go to leather hard stage.

At this stage the clay is leather hard which means it is still soft enough to work on but not wet  as the initial stage and not dry enough to not do anything with.
 I have dug out all the lettering with a clay tool and smoothed with a soft brush ready to paint glaze into the letters. After this I have to weight down all the corners to allow the work to dry really flat. This takes weeks sometimes. I am going to single fire these pieces (which means fire once with the glaze painted straight onto dry unfired clay)

Here I am putting the shelves in my kiln together to load up my work and do a firing.

These are the final fired plaques before I delivered them to Pairpoint's Farm.

The lady who bought them really liked them. So phew!!
Until another commission comes along.

House Names plaques and Fox Hooks... Works in progress

These are my current project. Two commissions for a local lady for her farm and house. The brief was fairly open these house names just must be seen form the road as the farm houses hens and pigs and the eggs are sold by the road side, and the current plaques are hard to see.
The plaques have just had the lettering outlined so that I can scrape out the clay between the letters to give an engraved appearance of the letters,( rather like the slate plaques you can buy.) I will post some more pictures when I have done this and the plaques have dried a bit.

I have drawn the hens and pig into the clay with a scratchy tool and built up with relief around the bodies. I will fill the lines with oxide so they stand out more and spray with clear glaze to stop the surface becoming weathered.

These foxes are a new project I am working on and I am quite excited about them as they  are functional and will be used as hooks and can be mounted on the wall or backs of doors. I have also made use of my print blocks to decorate the backs.

I will post more pictures when these have a coat of glaze on them.