Texture Tips

These ceramic tiles were made yesterday as a quick demo, just before class ended.  I brought them home to finish smoothing surfaces because we were out of class time.
This textural design made in the red Amador clay was made using a wire taken from an old spiral paper notebook that had been gently stretched so the coils were much looser.  
First You gently pull the wire towards you through the clay block while simultaneously pulling the wire first to the left, then to the right; repeating the sideways pulling as well as the forward pulling until you have pulled the wire completely through the clay block.
Next you carefully lift the top tile piece, place it on a thin piece of newspaper or an old telephone book page and then put on a piece of support board.  Then you take the smooth straight wire tool and cut the second tile piece.  One tile design is the mirror image of the other tile.
I gently sponged the sharp peaks on each tile, so when fired there would be no razor sharp ceramic edges on which to be cut.  I also smoothed the outer edges and compressed the tiles into more uniform squares.  These tiles will become trivets for hot food containers.

people: Barb, Mary, Eleanor, Lita, Carole, Karen, Anna, Sunny, Marsha, Kay
places: College Avenue Older Adult Education Center, College, City Heights
particulars: continued work on Formal Garden Layout H20color piece