Paper Clay Book Firing

My studio is awash with in process artwork.  The encaustic/ lutradur page posted last week is in it's final stages and hopefully tomorrow will see that finished.  That page will be added to my Forest Book containing the 2 feet by 4 feet pages.  The opposite side of the encaustic/lutradur page is being finished at the same time.  Several small encaustic pieces using paper clay as a base are also in the works. Those encaustics will appear in my next post.

When you fire books covered in clay slip, you are rewarded with some amazing textures. The first pieces are from a paperback that I cut in half before coating and firing.  The bottom clay piece is a composition notebook that I worked slip through and then fired with a base that ended up cracking in the kiln.  At this point these clay pieces are destined to be used with encaustics.  Still working with small studies to get a feel for where I want this to go.  For now you can see the way I am carefully pulling the fired books apart to get to all the textures hidden in the inside.  They are vey fragile and would never be able to be shipped anywhere in their present state, so combining them with encaustics will give the pieces stability. Now it remains to be seen how long it will take me to find my way through this part of the process.  Once I create some finished pieces I will post them here.

paperback book piece and detail

Fired composition notebook-base cracked in firing

Composition book pulled apart and turned over to check out the textures

Details of inside textures