Snake Ceramic Plate

In my final year of school, I learned how to work with ceramics and made plates for the first time. It was a 3-dimensional outlet for my illustrative practice, and I learned how to apply my illustration knowledge on surface designs in the medium of ceramics. 

The plate is completely hand formed from a slab of clay I had to roll out and flatten evenly. I made a greenware mould and shaped my flattened clay onto the mould to create a series of uniform plates with the same size and shape. Once the clay became firm enough, it was removed from the mould and left to dry covered in plastic until it reached the leatherhard stage. The edges are then smoothed out to ensure a flat surface. At the leatherhard stage, surface designs could be applied using techniques such as Mishima and sgraffito where underglaze is painted on the surface and then scratched away with a sharp etching tool.

Once the ceramic is at the bone-dry phase, it is ready for the bisque firing. The kiln is fired to cone 6, with the type of clay I used and reaches temperatures of 2250 degrees F. The resulting bisqueware is now hardened and can receive its second and final firing in the kiln to become a ceramic piece. 

With a design like this on its surface, I used a clear glaze so that the underglaze design is still visible. I dunked the plate in a large bucket filled with clear glaze and left it to dry. Then I scraped off the layer of glaze at the underside of the plate, as the glaze will drip and stick to the kiln otherwise. 

Then finally, the bisque plate is fired and the silica in the glaze melts and turns the surface into a smooth and glossy glass finish. The glaze is what makes the ceramic surface food safe, which is necessary for plates.

Many accidents can happen in the kiln, bubbles in the clay or an uneven glaze coating can cause the ceramic to warp or crack. For this particular plate, it happened to crack in the kiln during its final firing. However, I still really like how it turned out and the surface design. The crack exposes the inner unglazed clay so while it’s not food safe, I’ll still keep it as a decorative plate piece.