Using Oils on Bisque

My ceramics didn't explode :-) But we (Neith & I) did create lots of support systems:

• I dried them overnight at 40C in our small drying oven
• I then soaked them at 100C in the Kiln
• I fired them slowly (at 1) till 300C and then took the kiln slowly up to 1045
• I then let it cool for a whole day and night!

Also I was worried that one would explode and damage the others

so I built walls with kiln stands around each figure so that they didn't damage the others it they did shatter :-)

And this is what I found when I unpacked the kiln this morning:

My Rough ostrich heads and bodies & my sample paper plans

I don't have time to glaze and fire before my crit, so Neith suggested I work into them with oils and vaseline/ turps...I can always burn it out if I don't like it.

 

Here are some parcel tags I have been experimenting with for a ceramic panel painting...They have to be 5x10 as I will hang them on fencing...

 

I think this is the image I may use...

A rough sketch exploring the tones on the bag:

My first Masters Crit Feedback: Focus on the stories and creating artists books and then come back to finishing my own work and possibly creating a book on Gender Issues as part of the Grade 11 & 12 Syllabus...

Proposed Masters Practical Projects [under construction]: Birds of a Feather Flock together

I am currently working on a series of sculptures about working women. I have chosen to compare each of the four sculptures to male birds that behave in a way that relates to human women, for example the peacock is more beautiful than the peahen.

 

Summary of Issues: Career women, Fertility, body image, courtship, sexuality & education

Link to post on my inspiration for Fertility Birds:

 http://shelannakhethiwe.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-venus-of-willendorf-in-todays.html

And the ostrich father cares for the young:

 

Summary of issues: Career choice, female breadwinners, child care

Link to Post on Head in the Sand: 

http://shelannakhethiwe.blogspot.com/2014/07/head-in-sand-parenting.html

And the Australian Bowerbird has a unique way of using homemaking and song to entice a mate:

Summary of Issues: Career choice, dating/ attracting a mate, homemakers, food-preparation

Link to Post on Avian Engineers:

http://shelannakhethiwe.blogspot.com/2014/07/avian-engineers.html

And the Weaver Bird is a real homemaker:
 DESIGN SKETCH AND BLOGPOST TO BE ADDED SOON"

An interesting article on our South African Context as most of the facts that I researched were based on studies of American and English societies.
Link to Article on Gender and Development

This series is now being used as part of my preparation for teaching Gender Issues as a practical and theoretical theme.  Thus my work is clearly an artographic study.
Link to PPT on Gender Issues which the Grade 11s are exploring as their Gr 11 theme